Sitcoms have been a popular form of entertainment for years on television. With shows like “The Office,” “Community” and “Parks and Recreation” becoming incredibly popular with their audiences in the past two decades, it seems fitting that soon producers would try to create another popular sitcom.

“How I Met Your Father” is the newest spin-off that is acting as a direct sequel to the wildly popular and successful sitcom “How I Met Your Mother” that ran for nine seasons.

Running on Hulu, the show stars Hilary Duff as Sophie, a young and hopelessly romantic photographer who lives in New York City. The show begins almost exactly how “How I Met Your Mother” began, with the older version of Sophie, played by Kim Cattrall, explicitly stating that one of the men in the pilot is her children’s father.

While many are probably wondering why a spin-off took so long to be made from such a popular show, “How I Met Your Father” actually had quite a few hiccups on the road to production. Soon after the original show ended, a pilot was created called “How I Met Your Dad,” which starred Greta Gerwig. However, the pilot never made it, and the show was shelved until 2016.

This may explain why the show feels a little dated even though it is supposed to take place in the modern-day.

The show’s story is largely the same as “How I Met Your Mother” and did not update any of the character types originally used on the show. Many of the characters fit into the Lily, Barney and Marshall subtypes and it seems that the character of Jesse, who is played by Christopher Lowell and has been given the Barney Stinson type character, seems to be the main love interest being set up.

Though the show has seemingly tried to modernize the inclusion of aspects such as laugh tracks and jokes that just don’t land as well as they would have a few years ago, it almost feels as though the show is a few years too late. 

When looking at “How I Met Your Father” as a whole, the show doesn’t seem to have a whole lot going for it besides the popularity of the original.

“How I Met Your Father” lacks most of the charm and wit of the first sitcom and doesn’t offer a new perspective on the story that it is trying to portray. After taking such a long break from the sitcom format, it seems as though trying to revive it now may not have been the best step to take.