Sitcoms get worse. With very few exceptions, all of our shows live to disappoint us, but it's most disappointing when you can see it coming—the telltale signs that your favorite show isn't playing the long game, that the writers have decided to sell a character short for the sake of a few laughs. How I Met Your Mother fell into this pattern a long time ago. Very early on in the show the writers realized something. Maybe the focus groups told them, or maybe they figured it out by themselves, but what became undeniable was that their main character was not anyone's favorite. And they leaned into it.
Ted Mosby is nobody's favorite character on How I Met Your Mother because he isn't supposed to be anymore. Take a look back at the early seasons. There is a definite shift in Ted's characterization. His annoying affectations become the most important part of his character. I liked it when Ted said Encyclo-paydia because it was funny, but what the writers eventually found themselves in was a very deep hole. What the fans are left with is an annoying and self involved main character. But hey, there were some good jokes in there right? Red cowboy boots! As Miriam Krule of Slate recently pointed out, "How much can you really care about a character who drones on and on about relationships that you already know are doomed to fail?" Ted has to have some degree of likeability or the payoff of waiting for the mother doesn't seem worth it.
In a normal sitcom situation the answer is to Krule's question is simple: people like this character so he is forgiven for his affectations. The problem with Ted is that people don't like him enough. There have been chances for him to grow, but it never seems to happen. There was a great potential moment that I like to point to as the moment Mother went off the rails. In the episode "False Positive" in season six, every character is having a defining moment in their lives. They are realizing something important about themselves. Marshall and Lily are panicking about being parents, Robin makes an important career move, and Barney grows as a person through charity. They all change somehow. Except for Ted that is. As every other major character has their epiphany Ted thinks, "I should get a Christmas themed movie snack." Really?
I laughed at the "Christmas themed movie snack" joke, but at what cost? I don't understand how a show can so consistently justify marginalizing its ostensible main character. What we have come to in Season 9 is a final season that isn't really about Ted. Let's be honest, the show hasn't been about Ted in a lonnng time, but the final season of a show that is theoretically about how he met his wife is really more about Barney & Robin getting married (a ridiculously unsatisfying and unbelievable couple which is a whole different conversation) and Lily and Marshall making a big decision.
Krule attributes Mother's failure to the high concept, and how limiting it is, but I have to disagree. While it is true that the idea behind the show limits it, the writers dug the hole deeper than it had to be. If they hadn't sacrificed so much of Ted's character, and so wholeheartedly thrown the show in such a Barney-centric direction, I think we'd be a little more willing to listen to Ted's long-winded story.
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