How I Met Your Mother

Something I’ve been thinking about ever since our class discussion on the hook-up culture prevalent in our age group is the premise of the sitcom “How I Met your Mother” which my younger sister got me into. The title through me off at first, it seemed like it'd be met with an older audience. The show’s demographic is primarily 18-49 year adults, but I know my younger sister and her friends who are 16/17 are also dedicated viewers and they aren't the only ones in that age group.  The show’s protagonist, Ted, is a single male who wants nothing more to fall in love, get married, and have kids. The entire show is being told in a series of flashbacks to his two kids as a form of punishment from the moment he started searching for their mom. His two best friends are a couple, Lily and Marshall, with the perfect relationship who get married during the series and have only ever been with each other. He’s also friends with a womanizing single male, Barney, who’s the champion of the hook-up culture who has keep a list of the 200+ women he’s slept with.  

As I’ve progressed along in the series I can’t help but think of it as a very strong reaction to the hook-up culture. From the marriage of Marshall and Lily who meet in college and have been together ever since, and the two characters who seem most opposed to having kids and settling down, Robin and Barney, changing as the series progresses. Where I am at currently, Barney wants to be back in the first serious relationship he’s ever had and Robin is in one where it’s serious enough that she moved in with the guy. 

My sister’s favorite characters interestingly enough are both Barney and Ted, who represent the opposing sides of hook-up verse marriage. I’d be interested in knowing what kind of effect it has on teenagers and the twenty somethings, because it has certainly caught the audience’s attention, but my sister want talk about it aside from “it’s perfect” and it’s relatively new so I haven’t found anything written on it.