Kim Cattrall Presents "How I Met Your Father" on Hulu 1:09
(CNN) --
"How I Met Your Father" is billed as a sequel, not a reboot, as it incorporates some elements of "How I Met Your Mother," the CBS original series that ended in 2014, rather than just do a gender change.
Whatever one chooses to call it (and it's a distinction without much difference), this Hulu series feels particularly stale, with modest innovations that don't offer enough to make you want to start a new relationship.
Christopher Lowell, Hilary Duff, Tien Tran and Tom Ainsley on Hulu's 'How I Met Your Father'.
The main twist is to show the mom this time, in 2050, played by Kim Cattrall.
He's telling the story of how he met his father to his unseen son, which raises some additional possibilities as to who the father might be.
Beyond that, the show is diligently trying to gather a new cast of friends around the younger version of Cattrall, Sophie, played by Hilary Duff.
Desperate to find her soulmate, Sophie has been leaning on dating apps when she meets Jesse (Christopher Lowell of "Private Practice") and his gang, through one of those phone mix-up scenarios that only happen on sitcoms. of situation.
Greater diversity on 'How I Met Your Father'
It's a more diverse group, which is welcome, but also gives the inevitable sense of filling in the gaps given the whiteness of the original show.
The extended gang includes Valentina (Francia Raisa), Sophie's sexually adventurous friend, and Jesse's (Tien Tran) adoptive sister, who has just moved to New York from a small town.
Shot in a traditional sitcom format, the laughter from the audience frequently sounds more appreciative than the jokes deserve, only reinforcing the sense that Hulu is a strange place for this exercise.
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Duff is a likeable leading lady, and she lands here after Disney+ backpedaled on its plan to relaunch the "Lizzie McGuire" series.
For his part, Cattrall skipped the "Sex and the City" reunion, "And Just Like That," which provides an odd kind of symmetry.
The show possesses a certain universal quality in the ongoing search for love and romance.
However, while the mystery surrounding Ted's dating journey became only part of the appeal of "How I Met Your Mother," having experienced that scenario once, there is a strong inclination to wish him well this time around. good luck to Sophie with her search and ask her to wake me up when she's almost done.
"How I Met Your Father" premieres January 18 on Hulu.
How I met your father
