" The show had more or less been throwing up billboards for a while now"

"Ted was going to move to Chicago and we understood why, because being around Robin and Barney was going to hurt too much."

BB was a show with a pretty natural- and, in broad strokes, obvious- end point, though. Shows like HIMYM, Lost, and BSG put these central mysteries with no obvious answer at their core, add in a bunch of complications, and eventually, plan or no, it's going to be pretty messy.

And even if they hadn't- so what? People weren't so enamored with them that they really needed anything more than their usual reaction shot.

There were too many stylistic things in the flashforwards, too (Wrestlers vs. Robots in this very episode!); and anyway, that's never really established…

I think it's also an open question if Frank is really any good at the public politics that the Presidency requires.

It's not definitively stated one way or the other, but her issues with the group (as spoken to Lilly) certainly don't change, and there's no indication her career does. That line from the kids is something, but in conflicts with what most of the rest of the episode showed us.

This presumes that Tracy's death was outside of the creators' control. It wasn't. It was a deliberate choice on their part. And sure, Ted's reaction to it is natural…ish (it's pretty weird that he's still pining for a woman that, by all accounts, has barely been a factor in his life for 15 years), but ultimately, it…

"Being a professional critic does not mean the same thing as taking the content of a show/movie/album as seriously as possible"

Perhaps, but Realism has never been HIMYM's thing.

It was pretty unrealistic, too- Eli was Peter's campaign manager twice, and is now his CoS. He simply MUST have a banal introduction that he can do by rote.

Clients probably wouldn't be SO quick to worry, but they'd get concerned eventually (at least, if they were Will-specific clients), and it would feel too soon regardless of when it happened.

Definitely- so much of the show (before it kinda lost the plot in the 3-4 season range) was about Nate (and everyone else, but him especially) grappling with mortality.

There's a lot of wisdom in this, especially the third full graf. Will really had a key role in the show- not only did he touch every single other character, but he was thematically essential- he represented Alicia's desires*, as opposed to Peter, who represents her obligations.

He's a weird situation. He was often my favorite part of Sports Night, and most of the rest of that cast at least found steady work after that show died. But he basically didn't do anything until TGW, and appears to have nothing lined up now that it's done.

Was that really Krause wanting off the show, though? There was only 3-4 more episodes of the series after that, and I think he was still in all of them (as a ghost/dream, but still).

"None of the examples you give work IMO."

Let's limit this to just hour long dramas: Stringer Bell, Joyce Summers, Roger O'Neill/Peter Russo, Leo McGarry, Terry Crowley. Bear in mind I haven't seen a lot of the modern TV canon like The Sporanos, Deadwood, Oz, etc. There's also some that may not "count", like Angel or Starbuck.

At the same time, things like 5's celery stalk and 6's…disaster definitely veered into Trying Too Hard.

In fact, I daresay I see no reason why the fact that murder is a crime should absolve a creator of said work of fiction for his or her failure to do these things.