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It is finally time. The Legen – wait for it – dary sitcom How I Met Your Mother has made its way to Netflix and we’re all ready for a rewatch ten years after it first went off the air. There are over 200 episodes in the series, which ran for nine seasons on CBS, so keeping everything straight can be a bit of an undertaking. And that isn’t even taking into account the short-lived spin-off series, How I Met Your Father.

If you’re dying for a rewatch of How I Met Your Mother, now is as good a time as any. The show was innovative in many ways, from its long-form storytelling and characters that evolved and changed over time to the unusual framing device it employed, it is worth catching up with Ted and the gang one more time.

How I Met Your Mother in release date order

Although there were nine seasons of How I Met Your Mother and two of How I Met Your Father, keeping them separate is surprisingly easy thanks to the several years that passed before the spin-off aired. Watching both series in release order will give you the best experience.

The release order for How I Met Your Mother and How I Met Your Father is:

• How I Met Your Mother (2005-2014) 9 seasons
• How I Met Your Father (2022-2023) 2 seasons

How I Met Your Mother in chronological order

This is significantly more difficult, we’re afraid. Even though both stories are told largely in order, the two shows employ a framing device of a parent in the future telling a story about their past to their child. For How I Met Your Mother, this included Ted Mosbey telling his son and daughter how he met their mother (and taking eight years to get to the point), while How I Met Your Father followed the equally romantic Sophie Tompkins as she tells her son about her life between meeting his father and his birth.

Entire websites have been dedicated to unpicking the chronological order of these two shows due to their heavy use of flashbacks – some of which go back to the 1700s. However, because How I Met Your Father takes place several years after the original series, you’re still fine to follow the adventures of these two separate groups of friends as they navigate romantic shenanigans in New York City in the order they were released.

The chronological order for How I Met Your Mother and How I Met Your Father is:

• How I Met Your Mother (2005-2014) 9 seasons
• How I Met Your Father (2022-2023) 2 seasons

Is How I Met Your Father connected to How I Met Your Mother?

If you’re wondering if you have to watch all nine seasons of How I Met Your Mother to dive into How I Met Your Father, you don’t have to worry. Though the two take place in the same fictional version of New York City where anyone other than a multi-millionaire could afford Ted and Marshall’s apartment, their stories don’t actually crossover much. How I Met Your Father is not the story of How I Met Your Mother from the mother’s point of view.

Some characters appear in both series, such as The Captain and Neil Patrick Harris’ Barney, but rest assured you don’t need to watch one to understand the other.

Where to watch How I Met Your Mother and How I Met Your Father?

All nine seasons of How I Met Your Mother are currently available on Netflix in the US, but the same can’t be said for How I Met Your Father. Instead, the spin-off is available through Hulu. Fans in the UK have a slightly easier time watching both shows since they’re both part of the standard Disney+ subscription.

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