"How did You Meet Your Mom" is a pretty shameless riff on Juggernaut's 90s sitcom "Friends.""Both are set in New York City and navigate the relationship in a variety of humorous situations, and the tight similarities that are outdated (not necessarily growing) are obvious. 

"Friends" celebrates the 20th anniversary of this year's final episode and remains a favorite to watch binge even decades later. But there are many times when we can see Rachel and Ross almost together, Chandler makes an ironic joke, or Joey quotes virtually every episode from his heart and declares that he "doesn't share food" before he craves something else. 

So, if you need a slight change in pace, "How I Met Your Mom" is a great alternative, and it's just back in 2017 with a full season

made up of 208 episodes now available, and it's a clear inspiration. This is why this show is worth watching, even if it's not at the level of the show.

"How I Met Your Mother" follows an amiable singleton named Ted Mosby (Josh Radner) when he is trying to find a soulmate in a hectic New York dating scene. Along to ride his best friend Marshall (Jason Siegel), and his fiancée Lily (Alison Hannigan), and his other close pal, Barney (Neil Patrick Harris),

This series follows Robin, who is a charming news reporter who Ted has just moved to the United States from Canada. It starts on the day when you meet a man (Coby Smulders). Ted quickly becomes obsessed with Robin and believes she may be alone, but his journey to find the mother of his children is quite long and there are a lot of bumps on this long road.  

What makes "How I Met Your Mother" stand out compared to its sitcom contemporaries is that the whole show is framed as a series of flashbacks, as old Ted tells his two teenage children the story of how he met his mother. The more senior Ted did not appear on screen, voiced by Bob Saget, and his narration was used to the influence of great comedy and storytelling.  

I was a huge "How I Met Your Mother" fan at the time when it first aired on CBS between 2005 and 2014. 

I'm definitely not as big a fan as I am now, but the show still holds a special place in my heart. Its biggest strength is the adorable characters whose entire cast is doing a great job of letting you care about their plight. But Bernie's character is questionable during the original run and has aged pretty poorly. 

My favorite thing about "How I Met Your Mother" is how creatively the writer uses the framing of an old Ted story to tell his life story to his children, whose narration is used to drip feed clues about the identity of the mother (I'm here to mess with). A charming Jane

The show's humor can be a bit dorky, and the quality drops considerably in the last couple of seasons (and it doesn't make sense to me), and a few epics "How I Met Your Mom" set it apart from its very obvious inspiration and packs a pleasant core mystery. The finale is "Game of Thrones"- level bad), but "How I Met Your Mom" is still a fascinating little sitcom that makes for great viewing when you're doing housework or sneaky office tasks. And with nine seasons to binge, it will keep you entertained for weeks.