It’s probably safe to say that the finale for How I Met Your Mother was kinda rough for a lot of fans of the show. It’s easy to get invested in media properties to the point that any deviation from the fan consensus can be a shock to the system, like with True Detective.
Even though Carter Bays and Craig Thomas had the ending we saw in the finale in mind since the pilot episode, they might have shot an alternate, “happy” ending and will include it on the DVD release of the final season. From Deadline:
I hear the alternate ending does not involve additional footage but rather a different editing of the episode. HIMYM producers and studio 20th Century Fox TV would not comment on any specifics of the alternate closing, but a source described it as a “happy ending.”
Seems like Deadline got this info from some Bothan spies and needed to relay it in a seedy garage below the Hollywood Bowl. It hits on plenty of interesting points, including the idea that the recent fan edited ending was the best ending we could’ve asked for (before it was taken down by 20th Century Fox).
But I have to ask this, do we actually deserve another ending to the show? Should fans be able to dictate the weaves of a story that isn’t their creation in order to reach the kind of satisfying ending they want?
Seeing the HIMYM reaction on Monday, you have to wonder if media will one day dive head first into a sort of “story on demand” format. CBS has “fan made episodes” of Hawaii 5-0 at the moment, but could that idea be taken to its limit in the creation of an entire show or film based on fan input?
The “alternate ending” is probably more of a ploy to sell DVDs than anything, but I think I’d rather have the definite awful ending than some choose your own adventure type of junk. It isn’t like we can’t continue to complain wherever anyone will listen. What do you think?
(Via Deadline)
