‘How I Met Your Mother’ debate: Where do Marshall and Lily go from here?

In this offseason for “How I Met Your Mother,” there are really two subjects that just about everyone is talking about:

1. How Ted goes from running off with Victoria to finding the eventual mother.

2. How Barney goes from proposing to Quinn to marrying Robin.

At some point, we know that we are going to get these answers — so really, a question that is equally interesting to us at the moment is what happens now with Marshall and Lily. The characters are happy now — they’ve tied the knot and welcomed their first child into the world. Does the story end now that they’ve had their happy ever after? The history of television is not a great one for couples that have a child together and continue on with the show in an interesting and challenging way. “Mad About You” is obviously the one that is stuck in everyone’s minds, but you could also look at “The Office” with Jim and Pam or Murphy Brown as characters who did not really have much else to do after the kids entered the world. It’s almost as if some showrunners seem to believe that children make you sterile and incapable of having any fun, which is certainly not the case. “Sex and the City” probably did a better job than anyone of showing how kids can work as an obstacle and not just a happy ending as shown by Miranda Hobbes.

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When Marshall and Lily decided to move out to the suburbs, the fear was that they were quickly going to become one of these aforementioned “boring TV couples,” and could have at that point been spun off into another show featuring them and their “crazy cast of neighbors.” Thankfully, they moved back to New York — and now the key is going to be for them reminding us constantly that the kid is there, but ensuring that there is still enough going on that everyone can relate to. Not all viewers are parents, after all, and for younger people not interested in being parents hearing about kids all of the time can be a massive turn-off. It’s a delicate tightrope that produces are going to have to walk between something old and something new, and it could end up being the greatest challenge of the show moving forward — especially when this child could end up having a fundamental impact on how Ted thinks, and it could serve as a reminder to Robin that she can not have kids at all.

We will once again see young Marvin Wait-For-It Ericksen in the season 8 premiere, which is going to take place mere minutes after the finale. Hopefully, producers continue to come up with a way to give this perpetually-loved couple some exciting stories to work with.

How do you think “How I Met Your Mother” should handle Marshall and Lily being parents? Be sure to share your thoughts below and stay tuned for more!

Photo: CBS