Warning: Contains spoilers for How I Met Your Father episode 3.
The How I Met Your Mother spinoff series has arrived, but How I Met Your Father season 1 will only have 10 episodes, which might be a problem for the show. How I Met Your Mother originally ran for nine seasons that spanned 2005 through 2014. Almost a decade later, the long-awaited sequel series, How I Met Your Father, is here, but its first season could be setting up for failure as it tries to fill its predecessor’s shoes.
The first episode of How I Met Your Father works to present its new take on the franchise’s formula. Sophie (Hilary Duff) meets up with her returning roommate, Valentina (Francia Raisa), and is introduced to her new boyfriend, Charlie (Tim Ainsley). She then gets an Uber and meets Jesse (Christopher Lowell) and Sid (Suraj Sharma) before later being introduced to Jesse’s sister Ellen (Tien Tran) and Sid’s fiancée, Hannah (Ashley Reyes). With a date with Ian (Daniel Augustin) in the middle, Sophie meets seven new characters in the first episode that promise to play a prominent role in the season, as well as meeting Drew (Josh Peck) in How I Met You Father episode 3.
HIMYM had more than 20 episodes in every season and had a central cast of just five people, fleshed out with some recurring characters. This gave the show plenty of time in each season to explore the different narratives that were affecting the ensemble cast. In comparison, How I Met Your Father’s 10-episode season feels restrictive. Additionally, when combined with the larger main cast, it has so far led to plots being rushed to fit multiple narratives that account for all the characters into each episode. How I Met Your Father will need to provide some form of a satisfying conclusion to at least the first leg of Sophie’s journey. With so many characters still to explore and learn about, 10 episodes for shows might not be enough to develop those characters properly.
With the larger move towards streaming services, there is a trend in television to shorter series lengths. Many of the new Disney+ series have less than 10-episodes, and while these tend to be longer episodes that reach towards the full hour mark, Netflix shows like Cobra Kai or Emily In Paris have succeeded with fewer episodes even when they’re shorter. However, How I Met Your Father has a different challenge than these shows as it is a sitcom. While dramas and thrillers can focus on one central plot with some secondary plots stretched across the full season, sitcoms require some more episodic narratives that play around the larger drama, as with Sid and Hannah’s struggles with the long-distance relationship and Ellen and Charlie’s hunt for an apartment in episode 3. But as the audience is still trying to get to know the characters in How I Met Your Father, these narratives are fighting an uphill battle.
Ultimately, the short 10-episode structure for How I Met Your Father might effectively be an overcorrection. The 24-episode seasons of How I Met Your Mother did drag at times, leaving small details forgotten or requiring filler episodes to meet the episode quota. Yet, the problem remains that How I Met Your Father might have gone too far in the other direction and hampered its hopes for an extensive future in the process as by the time viewers get to the end of season 1, they might still barely know HIMYF's central characters.
How I Met Your Father releases new episodes Tuesdays on Hulu.