Kids, in the winter of 2022, Hulu expanded on the How I Met Your Mother universe with a spin-off following a woman (Hilary Duff) searching for love, as well as her friends and their own romantic misadventures, in New York, called How I Met Your Father. Surprisingly, its 10-episode first run proved to be fun, enjoyable, and relatable enough to earn a second season, which was officially announced in February.
I, a self-proclaimed HIMYM obsessive, am one of the many looking forward to How I Met Your Father Season 2, especially after the memorable moments and intriguing (let alone heartbreaking) revelations that occurred in the Season 1 finale. That game-changing episode actually helped inspire a few of my own ideas for what show runners Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger might want to consider incorporating into the sitcom when it returns, if they up to accept the challenge.
More Head-Scratching Clues And Clever Misdirects Regarding The Father’s Identity
In the pilot, narration from Future Sophie (former Sex and the City cast member Kim Cattrall) confirms that she met her eventual husband on the night the episode takes place - meaning that it could be any one of the male characters from the How I Met Your Father cast. It was already an intriguing set-up that led to some interesting plot twists in later episodes, such as the discovery that Drew (Josh Peck) was also at Sid (Suraj Sharma) and Hannah’s (Ashley Reyes) engagement party that night and the surprise return of Ian (Daniel Augustin) at the end of the finale.
It was these brainteasing details regarding who could be the titular father that kept me most engaged in the story, much like how its predecessor kept its fans eager to learn the identity of Ted Mosby’s (Josh Radnor) future bride. However, if I am being honest, I think How I Met Your Mother did a much better job at keeping its more mysterious elements strong and more prevalent, which is something I hope to see in Season 2.
More Jason Momoa Look-Alikes
Allow me to make up for voicing one of my less favorable opinions of How I Met Your Father so quickly by talking about one of my favorite things from Season 1: the humor… Well, not all of it, to be perfectly honest. However, one gag that really had me chuckling in the second episode was how Sophie and Ian, whom she had only been on one date with before he had to move to Australia, would send each other pictures of people they spotted that bear a resemblances to Jason Momoa.
Well, now that Ian is back in New York and, apparently, ready to revive their romance, maybe this could also mean a revival of that funny bit, but with the couple spotting the faux Momoas together in person instead of sharing them through photos. This could be How I Met Your Father’s equivalent of Ted and Robin’s (Cobie Smulders) running gag of saluting anytime another would unintentionally use a military rank in a sentence (i.e. “General Knowledge” or “Major Buzzkill”).
Keep Charlie And Val’s Split Permanent
To point out another way that How I Met Your Father “borrows” from its predecessor, it ends its first season with two romantically linked main characters breaking up. British model Charlie (Tom Ainsley), who followed Sophie’s fashion designer friend, Valentina (Francia Raisa of The Secret Life of the American Teenager fame) to the States after falling in love with her, revealed that he was not interested in having children, leading to their decision to end things. While it might have been upsetting, I also think it was necessary.
I think we all saw that split coming, given how their relationship - which was pretty spur of the moment already - was constantly put to the test by (mostly) easily avoidable obstacles. On top of that, I think the naive, fish-out-of-water Charlie and the otherwise charming Val are the two HIMYF characters most in need of some room to grow. That being said, I hope Season 2 does not pull a “Marshall and Lily” and make their split temporary, because I am more interested to see how they will struggle to remain friends than struggle to make their romance work.
More HIMYM Cast Member Cameos
However, I would like to see HIMYF borrow more from the original How I Met Your Mother cast for Season 2. We have already seen how fun this can be in Season 1 with the return of Kyle MacLachlan as George “The Captain” Van Smoot and Becky “Boats Boats Boats” Van Smoot (Laura Bell Bundy) in the final two episodes. Most notably, however, was the sight of bartender Carl (Joe Nieves) and Robin Scherbatsky at MacLaren’s, where Sophie visits just in time to receive some sound advice.
At the risk of really letting my HIMYM fandom show here, seeing Cobie Smulders reprise her best known role was truly my favorite moment of How I Met Your Father’s first season and it made me hope we see more of the original gang. For instance, how about an update on how Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) and his daughter, Ellie (who would be a toddler by now based on the show’s timeline), are doing, or one last glimpse of Tracy (Cristin Milioti) before she passes in 2024. Or, maybe we can keep things simpler with the gang renting a limo chauffeured by Marshall Minesh as Ranjit.
A Reunion Between Hilary Duff And The Lizzie McGuire Cast
I also think that it would be really fun to see HIMYF play host to a cast reunion for a show that exists outside of the HIMYM universe. As some may recall, star Hilary Duff was, at one time, set to lead a Disney+ original reboot of her career-making Disney Channel series, Lizzie McGuire, before it was scrapped. They even shot two episodes with much of the original cast involved that still have not see the light of day.
Well, if that is to remain the fate of the Lizzie McGuire reboot, I say that Hulu should help make up for it by inviting the cast to make cameo appearance on HIMYM. How funny and wonderfully meta would it be if Duff’s former onscreen father, Robert Carradine, appeared as Sophie’s absentee dad, along with Hallie Todd as his new wife and Jake Thomas as their son? Bring on “Gordo” actor Adam Lambert and Lalaine, who played Miranda, as some childhood friends and we are in business.
And that, kids, is how you make a great second season of How I Met Your Father, if you ask me. Whether Aptaker and Berger agree is up to them.
