13 February 2014

[How I Met Your Dad] New Mother Accused of Selling Out

Yesterday, CBS announced that Indie film actress Greta Gerwig will headline How I Met Your Dad (HIMYD), the spin-off to How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM). The show is slated to run next season (Fall 2014), since HIMYM is bowing out this March. HIMYM co-creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas will still run the show. But they will also work with a third showrunner on board, Emily Spivey, who did Up All Night.


Greta Gerwig

plays Sally

on How I Met Your Dad

Not a lot of people are thrilled to learn Greta Gerwig is doing TV, much less a spinoff of a show that, some people note,  should have ended four seasons ago.

Via the LA Times:
The news has prompted some fans to call Gerwig, who began her career in micro-budget mumblecore movies such as "LOL" and "Hannah Takes the Stairs" and earned a Golden Globe nomination for her recent turn in Noah Baumbach's "Frances Ha," which she also co-wrote, a "sellout." While an HBO series would be one thing, so the thinking goes, this is a network sitcom derived from another show that has, according to some, already overstayed its welcome.

How I Met Your Dad will be told from the point of view of Greta Gerwig's character, Sally, who is described as "a female Peter Pan, who has never grown up and has no idea of where she's going in life." The show will open with her contemplating a breakup from her husband of one year, while a group of merry odd friends will serve as her advise and support group.

Twitterverse isn't also happy with the premise of the show, but Gerwig is on board not just as its star. She will also write and produce some of the episodes.

Admittedly, I don't recall ever seeing Greta Gerwig's movies, despite having a familiar face. (I checked her IMDB, I still don't know where I've seen her!) But to have someone of this pedigree doing TV has made me look forward to HIMYD.

I was quite lukewarm about this spinoff because, like everyone else, I agree that its parent show has gotten pointless at some point. (I've been watching the final episodes for the sake of getting closure from this series. Thankfully, the last few ones have been to my satisfaction!)

Enter Greta Gerwig… and my interest for HIMYD has taken a turn. I do want to see this series getting a pick-up now, and largely because I have to see what she can do with it. For all the hesitation people are having about this spinoff, maybe it will be a better show than HIMYM. Maybe they did something right by getting her, and maybe this is also a good career move for her.

For now, I'm gonna have to find that Frances Ha movie and get acquainted with a possible future obsession.

So, what about you? How interested are you about How I Met Your Dad?