How I Met Your Father

The show intentionally builds a highly diverse, checklist-style friend group to serve as a modern version of the original's straight, all-white cast. This includes an Indian-American, a Latina, and an Asian lesbian main character named Ellen. Since Ellen is a primary character and her dating life with women is a central focus of the show, the strong presence of queer representation significantly increases this score.

The characters use a lot of modern millennial and Gen Z relationship terms and progressive slang. The dialogue is very carefully written to be sex-positive and feminist. Characters often correct themselves mid-sentence to ensure they do not say anything that could be seen as offensive or politically incorrect, which makes the conversations feel highly sanitized.

The series places a strong emphasis on modern identity politics and dating ethics. A major recurring storyline follows Ellen's journey as a lesbian finding her place in the New York queer community. The show also prioritizes themes of female independence and challenges traditional ideas about marriage, romance, and heterosexual family dynamics.

Traditional gender roles, conventional marriage, and classic male "bro culture" are regularly criticized and mocked. The show portrays modern, progressive dating ethics as superior to traditional relationship models. The male characters are often written to be weak, bumbling, or overly apologetic to fit modern feminist views of masculinity.

The show makes a very literal, ideologically driven change to Barney Stinson when he returns for a cameo. To "redeem" his womanizing character from the original series for modern sensibilities, he is portrayed as a "recovering womanizer" who wears a physical shock therapy device that electrocutes him whenever he says or thinks something politically incorrect or crass.

Fans of the original series heavily criticized this spin-off for prioritizing "forced diversity" and progressive agendas over genuine humor. Viewers complained on forums like Reddit that the show felt corporate, sterile, and too afraid of getting canceled. This negative feedback was widely cited by audiences as a main reason for the show's cancellation.

Original creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas have expressed regret over older, non-PC jokes in their work. Some episodic directors, like Gloria Calderón Kellett, are active progressive campaigners for LGBTQ+ representation. While the showrunners have a neutral profile, the overall creative team has a noticeable history of alignment with progressive Hollywood causes.