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Sunday, June 4, 2023 | 
Television Entertainment

‘How I Met Your Father’: What to expect from the premiere

The first two episodes of the show ‘How I Met Your Father’ are out, and here’s what the critics are saying

By Gitanjali Poonia Gitanjali Pooniagpoonia@deseretnews.com
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Actress/singer Hilary Duff arrives in Los Angeles.

Actress/singer Hilary Duff arrives at the MusiCares 2014 Person of the Year Tribute on Friday, Jan. 24, 2014 in Los Angeles. Duff will star in “How I Met Your Father.”

Paul A. Hebert, Invision via Associated Press

“How I Met Your Father,” Hulu’s 10-episode sequel of the show “How I Met Your Mother,” premiered on Monday, giving fans and critics plenty to talk about.

For starters, the original series’ hopelessly romantic Ted Mosby is played by Hilary Duff as Sophie and Kim Cattrall plays an older version of the same character. She and her group of friends are figuring out life in the age of dating apps and limitless options, per IMDb.

This character is solely focused on finding the man of her dreams but it seems like she is out of luck after 87 disastrous Tinder dates. And so, she finds comfort in her roommate Valentina, played by Francia Raisa, and Valentina’s brand-new boyfriend straight out of England Charlie, played by Tom Ainsley, as well as other characters who minic the original show’s feel.

Some argue that the script takes an overdone comedic route.

Even with all the references to the present time, the show is “a mechanical, stale simulacrum of friend hangs and dating in 2022, a relic of a bygone era that enters the sitcom uncanny valley. There’s not much reason to continue through unless the beats recalled some past time of curling up with the TV,” writes Adrian Horton wrote for The Guardian.

But are we past the need to watch friend groups living it up in impossible-to-afford New York City apartments? The pandemic took away the chance for many 20-somethings to enjoy the simple adventures. Mix the need to vicariously live through television with a target audience that thrived off of “Lizzie McGuire” and “How I met Your Mother” and viola! The perfect show! Or so thinks Petrana Raduovic from Polygon.

But reviews on IMDb weren’t as kind towards the first two episodes, calling it “another woke reboot” with an “overly diverse cast” which simply just doesn’t click “neither as a spin-off nor as a standalone show.”

Will “How I Met Your Father” be able to sweep viewers off their feet or will it feel more like a reheated but juicy leftover? Only time will tell. But here’s what the world of Twitter thought of the premiere.