Hillary Duff Stars in Hulu’s New Reboot, How I Met Your Father
Image Courtesy of Hulu
By Angela Hickey
It came as quite a surprise when it was announced that Hulu would be producing a spinoff of the early 2000s sitcom How I Met Your Mother (2005-2014). In the past few years, reboots have been all the rage these days, from Netflix’s Fuller House (2016-2020) to the Disney+ reboot of The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder (2022). But, in comparison with those prior examples, which both originally ended either in the late 90s or the early 2000s, How I Met Your Mother ended much later, causing many to wonder just why producers thought this show needed to be rebooted so soon after its completion.
How I Met Your Father (2022) follows the story of Sophie (Hilary Duff) and her close-knit group of friends—Jesse (Chris Lowell), Valentina (Francia Raisa), Charlie (Tom Ainsley), Ellen (Tien Tran), and Sid (Suraj Sharma)—who are in the midst of figuring out who they are, what they want out of life, and how to fall in love in the age of dating apps and limitless options. Originally, fans were skeptical of the show’s premise, which follows a similar plot to the original series and is set in the same universe (albeit many years later). The show has been formally described as a “stand-alone sequel” by showrunners Elizabeth Berger and Isaac Aptaker.
Now, over halfway through the first season, the show has received rather mixed reviews. Despite earning a 5.1 out of 10 on IMDB and a 63% average audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, the show has already been renewed by Hulu for a second season, upping their 10 episode season to 20 episodes.
This conglomeration of mixed reviews is fairly accurate for how the show is portrayed. Overall, while a good stand-alone from the original series from which it takes inspiration, it is fairly average in its storytelling. The plot of each episode, while very similar to How I Met Your Mother, does well in playing into the modernized twist, giving a realistic and fresh perspective on being a young adult in the modern age.
In the pilot episode, an older version of Sophie (Kim Catrall) calls her son in the year 2050, deciding to tell him the lengthy story of how she met his father. After setting up her story, similarly to how the episodes of How I Met Your Mother began, we cut back to a younger Sophie, this time played by Hilary Duff, who is catching an Uber on her way to a Tinder date.
This is where she meets two more of our main ensemble—Jesse, who just recently got out of a long-term relationship after a public proposal gone horribly wrong, and his friend Sid, the owner of a bar who is on his way to propose to his long-term girlfriend. Soon after, we are introduced to Sophie’s best friend and roommate, Valentina, her boyfriend Charlie, who has just recently been cut off from his family’s trust fund, and Jesse’s adopted sister, the recently divorced Ellen. After a series of sitcom shenanigans and a moral lesson learned, a voiceover of an older Sophie plays, cementing the fact that that night was the night she met her son’s father.
Overall, if you are looking for a show that is exactly like the original, you will be greatly disappointed. That being said, How I Met Your Father is a witty, charming homage to the original, giving a new twist on an old classic for a new generation of audiences to enjoy.
New episodes of How I Met Your Father drop on Tuesdays. The Season 1 finale is set for March 15.
