<p>After talking with my daughter, who was a big fan of the show for the first years:</p>
<ol>
<li>She didn’t like the Barney thing because that’s the only normal relationship he’s capable of having with a woman. I say that’s exactly the truth about Barney and they were true to his character.</li>
<li>All the kids’ scenes were shot in 2005. They had this planned from the start and were true to it.</li>
<li>We were both disappointed they did nothing much with Marshall and Lilly. </li>
<li>We agreed the point about the end is that it’s been 6 years and it’s time for Ted to move on, that the kids have seen him with Robin over the years and they want their dad to be happy. We both took that as a positive.</li>
<li>She thought it was awkward to have the actors not age. I thought it made the story work better. Ted at the end has to be near 50 but he looks 35. You don’t see the aging, the ravages of illness, etc., which fits with the show’s surrealist tendencies and that keeps the show at an emotional distance. I compared that to Friends, where people cared so deeply about Rachel and Ross and Monica and Chandler. </li>
</ol>