I have watched an incredible amount of TV in the last decade, ranging from the Wire to Friends, from the Sopranos to The Office. I've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. After I was finished with Friends a couple of months ago, I decided to pick up the first few seasons of this show because of Jason Segal. I was hooked pretty instantly, the characters were intriguing, the plot looked promising, and the comedy was fresh.
As the first season carried on, I became interested in Ted's story. Rather than your average sitcom, it became a matter of wanting each new episode as well as enjoying the one that you were watching now. Before I knew it, I had hit the Season 1 finale: "Come On". As most sitcoms go, I expected to be unfulfilled with a needless cliffhanger, but instead I got something completely foreign to comedy TV (with the exception of "Casino Night" from The Office). HIMYM has brought the joys that I hoped it would, but it has never quite returned to the peak of the Season One finale.