For a show that's been on the air for a number of years and has received a modest amount of attention from those who are obsessed with the minutiae of pop culture, 'How I Met Your Mother' hasn't suffered from a lot of backlash.

But budding signs of one are starting to appear. All season, John Swansburg of Slate has been recapping the show under a column called "The 'How I Met Your Mother' Shame Index," chronicling what was good about an episode and what has made him ashamed to admit he was a fan. Lately, he's been giving more examples under the heading of "Shameful" than "Awesome."

And now there's an article by Tom Jicha, critic from the South Florida Sun Senitnel, bemoaning how the episodes this season have been moving away from Ted's search for the Mother and focusing more and more on Barney's tomcatting antics.

But are they right? Is the show sliding towards a creative abyss? In some respects, yes. But there seems to be a method behind this shift.

Between the interviews with Carter Bays and Craig Thomas that I've read, and the talks I've had with them myself, I could sense a weariness with how silly the "mythology" of the Mother had become. Even at the beginning of season four, when the episodes started getting less serialistic and more stand-alone, Bays was providing reasons why they didn't want every episode to be serial-heavy.

"We've been looking forward to having a little brief period on the show where we can take a breather and actually do the fun little stand alone episodes that we've been wanting to do for a while," he told me in 2008. He went on to assure me that the serialized stories were still going to be told. "I certainly don't want people to think this is like a weather change of the show and that we're going a totally new direction with it. It's just kind of where our heads are at but we still love all that (serialized) stuff."

But at that time, the series was going into its fourth season, and was close to getting its cable syndication rights sold to Lifetime. Because of the show's rising ratings at the time, a fifth season -- and the bonanza of broadcast syndication -- was not out of the realm of possibility.

While Bays and Thomas never said the desire to do standalone stories came from any network pressure, perhaps they applied internal pressure, figuring the standalones will play better in syndication. One of the bigger reasons they decided to start doing standalones, according to Bays, was how he noticed people experiencing the show on airplanes, where he realized "that some of our best shows have been the ones where you can come into it not knowing anything about the characters and enjoy them," he said.

Since that interview, the show has gone even further away from the search for the Mother, veering more towards silly plots like the "monkey mugging" plot of last week's show, or Barney-centric episodes like 'The Perfect Week.' And there's likely another internal reason for that: the writing staff is sick of being hemmed in by the show's title and initial conceit. It was cute in 2005, but with a sixth and maybe seventh season ahead of it, that constraint was bound to make the writers chafe.

But even though this season has been silly, there have been more funny, strong episodes this season than there were last year, with 'Hooked,' 'Girls Vs. Suits,' 'The Sexless Innkeeper' and 'Robin 101' being especially good. It just hasn't been as consistent as it was in its first three seasons. But there aren't many shows that are as good in season five as they are in season two ('The Office,' anyone?). I'm just happy that things haven't slipped to the point that I'm just watching the show out of habit.

In his piece, Jicha speculates that CBS might move the show to Wednesdays because its ratings have taken a hit. Maybe, but, even with its ratings off, 'HIMYM' still makes a good anchor for Monday nights. After all, the network is going to have its hands full if Charlie Sheen really decides that he's not coming back to 'Two and a Half Men.'

So, folks... is this the start of 'HIMYM's' slide to mediocrity? Or does it have a lot of life left?

[via Pop Candy]