ZefiK

I completely agree with the assessment that HIMYM Is a better show than Friends. Apart from the fact that the humour and directorial set-up with the live audience feel a bit dated in Friends (which is unavoidable with most pieces of entertainment, especially comedy), the very structure of it is indeed quite static. We do not really see progress over the many years we follow these characters, apart from specific cases e.g. Rachael.

The humour itself I believe is much more witty and quirky in HIMYM, but that is maybe personal preference.

Finally, and that is definitely an issue of taste and not a criterion to like or not to like a show, the HIMYM characters are much more likeable, even with their flaws. Yes of course, we do not need to like characters the same way we like people in real life, but come on, the way the Friends characters treated each other sometimes amazed me: screaming and freaking out over the smallest stuff going not the way Monica liked in her apartment, the horrible emotional abuse in the Rachel and Ross romance, and most prominently for me, the endless bullying of Ross because he was scientist?! Like, here is a guy that is smart, a palaeontologist, who has studied prehistoric creatures, who literally spends his time studying damn dinosaurs - how is that in any way uncool, unless you are a weirdly insecure person that can't handle your friend having special interests, and won't hesitate to treat them bad for them?

In fact here is a nice article connecting the way Ross is treated in the show with the trend towards anti-intellectualism in the US, and in the West in general - maybe an exaggerated idea, but I do agree that it shows some of the conservative features of Friends https://gen.medium.com/how-a-tv-sitcom-triggered-the-downfall-of-western-civilization-336e8ccf7dd0

I actually like Friends, but in no way do I like it more than HIMYM. :)