
Shows that feel likeHow I Met Your Mother (2005–2014)
If you loved How I Met Your Mother, the closest series we have are Friends (1994), New Girl (2011) and That '70s Show (1998). All three share How I Met Your Mother's witty and playful feel, which is what we rank on before quality.
Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is What's Wrong with Secretary Kim (2018).
If How I Met Your Mother hit the spot, these will too

A regular booth, a chosen family and a decade of romantic near-misses
The difference: No narrator and no puzzle to solve — just the group, week to week

A loft full of idiots you love, and jokes built on years of history
The difference: Sillier and looser — no long mystery pulling the whole show forward

A fixed group, a fixed hangout, and years of low-stakes history
The difference: Teenagers in the seventies, with parents nearby

A friend group whose romantic entanglements are the whole plot
The difference: British, raw and genuinely damaging

Witty where it counts, playful underneath
The difference: Sits closer to drama than How I Met Your Mother does

Deeply silly people treated with real affection over many years
The difference: A workplace mockumentary about civic life — no bar, no romance quest


New York friends comparing notes on dating in exhaustive detail
The difference: Adult and candid, with four women rather than five friends

Comedy with a pulse of wit, in both cases

Both lean on play more than on comedy

The shared currency is romance

In the mood for more witty?
all witty shows →The best-reviewed series that share How I Met Your Mother’s defining feeling.









