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JUMPED The SHARK or NOT!

bionicbob

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JUMPING THE SHARK -- I think we all know the term. Originating from the tv show HAPPY DAYS, it is a phrase that is now meant to signify when a tv show goes off the rails, when the storyline or plot becomes so unbelievable or poorly executed, that it is the beginning of the end for the show. Though oddly, the Happy Days episode where Fonzie water ski jumps over a shark happened in its 5th season, and Happy Days continued on as a top 20 show right up to its final 11th season.

Anyway, I thought it might be fun to list shows that you think JUMPED THE SHARK.

Or even better, shows you believe NEVER jumped the shark.

For example,

MAGNUM PI -- Never jumped the shark. This show was well written, produced, and acted right til the final episode. Even the season 7 cliffhanger, season 8 opener, with Magnum laying near death in a hospital bed and his own ghost wandering around trying to solve his own murder, was brilliantly executed. For me, this show was perfect from its first episode to its last.

ALIAS -- I loved this series. It was brilliant, riveting action drama. But in the season 4 opener, when the network ordered the magic reset button be pushed, with Sidney working for a black ops unit run by Sloane, I threw my hands up in the air is disgust and did not watch the show again until the 2 hour series finale at the end of season 5.

So share your love or frustrations with some of your favorite tv shows....

jumped the shark or not?!?!!
 

TMBTM

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I thought "Nuke the fridge" was the new "Jump the shark"? ;)


Anyway:

The original "V" TV series had pretty great pilot episodes, and a cool first season.

Then they jumped the shark by becoming basicaly "Dallas" in spaceships. The bad guys endlessly talked about evil plans and betrayals, walking in corridors while eating mouses and the good guys all had there family backstory problems instead of fighting the Visitors.
It was not completely shitty, but it became boring enough to cancel the show after the end of the second season on a cliffhanger, without never having a proper ending. As far as I know.
 

TV's Frink

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Isn't there an entire website devoted to this?
 

bionicbob

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TV's Frink said:
Isn't there an entire website devoted to this?

Yep.

I always steal the best ideas!;-)
 

wabid

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Arrested Development jumped it in season 2.

 

bionicbob

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QUOTE TMBTM
The original "V" TV series had pretty great pilot episodes, and a cool first season.

Then they jumped the shark by becoming basicaly "Dallas" in spaceships. The bad guys endlessly talked about evil plans and betrayals, walking in corridors while eating mouses and the good guys all had there family backstory problems instead of fighting the Visitors.
It was not completely shitty, but it became boring enough to cancel the show after the end of the second season on a cliffhanger, without never having a proper ending. As far as I know.

V... another great childhood favorite!

Here in Canada (and the US), the show was actually 2 mini-series and then a one season tv series.

V -- a four hour mini-series written and produced by Kenneth Johnson (Six Millon Dollar, Hulk, Alien Nation) treated the material very seriously, a direct allegory for World War II and the resistance movement.

V THE FINAL BATTLE -- Johnson was fired and his script drastically rewritten, the Starchild gaining mystical powers and stuff. While not as serious, still pretty good popcorn fare.

The two mini-series did such huge ratings, NBC ordered it to series even though all the main plot lines were resolved.

V The Series, as TMBTM rightly pointed out devolved into a weak and silly soap opera. While the first 3 or 4 episodes are some what interesting, the show had definitely Jumped the Shark by this point. The show had absolutely no budget, basically reusing the same effect shots over and over again from the 2 mini-series and had no writers with any real science fiction background. The series was not renewed and ended on a cliff hanger.

J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5) was hired a couple years later and wrote a treatment script for a 4 hour sequel mini series (it is available on the net) but the project was never pushed forward due to budget concerns.
 

Frantic Canadian

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Law & Order: SVU - Loved this show, and been watching since day 1, but they jumped the shark starting with season 13. Christopher Meloni, who had been there since the first episode as Det. Elliot Stabler, left the show after the 12th season and he was replaced by two new detectives. I tried giving them a chance, but it just wasn't working, so I gave up on the show. I think the last episode I watched was the 8th episode of this last season.

Bones - I was a fan of the books the show is based on so I was really happy to find out that they were turning it into a series. Despite the show baring extremely little similarities to the source novels the show turned out to be really good. Then, however, they decided to play up the sexual tension between Bones and Booth and had them become a couple. I started to lose interest a little at that point but I kept watching. Apparently them being a couple wasn't good enough so they had her become pregnant, which is when I lost complete interest in the show.
 

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SCRUBS- A nice comedy with colorful characters, with Dr. Cox and The Janitor being two of the best comedy characters to come from TV. However, once it got to the sixth season where J.D. got someone pregnant, the episodes were noticeably weaker and not as enjoyable (My Musical being one of the exceptions).

However, the eighth season was when it grew back it's beard (growing the beard is the exact opposite of jumping the shark, where I'm from), where the comedy was in full bloom and it finally achieved a nice mixture with serious drama. However, then season nine came, and it promptly jumped the shark again.
 

Gaith

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Bob may curse me for this, but he did ask... :p


Smallville: For me, the point of no complete return came in 3.2, when Lana KILLED a guy and it was never mentioned again. Clark accidentally killing is one thing; he has a different perspective on life, but it should have had an effect on Lana.

Some good eps followed, including Memoria (the series' single best, as far as I know), but they for me at least had an elegiac quality to them; it was clear to me that the show was no longer interested in reconciling its comic book mythos with any kind of recognizably human reality (we only saw one classroom in the first three years. One!) - and without that crucial balancing act, I wasn't interested.

Legacy should have been great, but barely made sense. The S3 finale was decent enough, but by then, I wasn't invested enough to continue. For moi, the emotionally rich and, yes, barely-yet-tantalizingly realistic show I'd identified with (I was a high school sophomore during S1, and, like Clark, had an impossible crush) died in 3.2.
 

bionicbob

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X-FILES -- Season Seven this show pretty much turned me from an avid dare not risk missing a single episode to an occasional watcher. The two biggest strikes for me were the unbelievable role reversal of Mulder becoming the skeptic and Scully the believer, and the large number of "comedy" episodes. When a show starts doing self parodies of itself, I think it is time to call it quits.

There were some nice character moments still, as Mulder and Scully's relationship evolved, but the classic horror elements and alien mythology subplot was getting pretty bland and tired. Mulder leaving the series in season 8 hurt the show even further, as Doggit was a poor replacement. I thought the series finale was interesting, though it felt more like a clip show than a true story wrap up.
 

TV's Frink

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I still kind of enjoy S7, but that was the last set I bought.
 

Q2

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Season 5 of X-Files for me.
 

bionicbob

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TV's Frink said:
I still kind of enjoy S7, but that was the last set I bought.

I bought the MYTHOLOGY COLLECTION, which I really enjoyed. When you watch all the Myth Episodes in sequence, it really hits you how well it is constructed. Over the course of 9 seasons, often these 2 or 4 per season episodes felt disjointed or contradictory. But when you watch them all back to back, you find yourself saying, "Hey, maybe Chris Carter actually knew what he was doing!". LOL!:lol:
 

bionicbob

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Gaith said:
Bob may curse me for this, but he did ask... :p


Smallville: For me, the point of no complete return came in 3.2, when Lana KILLED a guy and it was never mentioned again. Clark accidentally killing is one thing; he has a different perspective on life, but it should have had an effect on Lana.

Some good eps followed, including Memoria (the series' single best, as far as I know), but they for me at least had an elegiac quality to them; it was clear to me that the show was no longer interested in reconciling its comic book mythos with any kind of recognizably human reality (we only saw one classroom in the first three years. One!) - and without that crucial balancing act, I wasn't interested.

Legacy should have been great, but barely made sense. The S3 finale was decent enough, but by then, I wasn't invested enough to continue. For moi, the emotionally rich and, yes, barely-yet-tantalizingly realistic show I'd identified with (I was a high school sophomore during S1, and, like Clark, had an impossible crush) died in 3.2.


Smallville is a hard show to like sometimes. While for me it never really jumped the shark in the classic sense, it was always plagued with inconsistent quality of writing throughout its run. Season Four nearly killed me, I was ready to walk away and never watch again but then it had one of the best season finales ever -- the intro of the FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE!!
From season five on, while the quality of writing remained very up and down, I still was entertained as the series embraced more and more of the DC Comics mythos.
 

Kal-El

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bionicbob said:
Smallville is a hard show to like sometimes. While for me it never really jumped the shark in the classic sense, it was always plagued with inconsistent quality of writing throughout its run. Season Four nearly killed me, I was ready to walk away and never watch again but then it had one of the best season finales ever -- the intro of the FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE!!
From season five on, while the quality of writing remained very up and down, I still was entertained as the series embraced more and more of the DC Comics mythos.

I have to agree with Gaith on this. Seasons three and four were the worst. Bob nails it too. If it wasn't for the Fortress of Solitude, I would have backed out right then and there. They jumped the shark, but saved their own hide too. It's almost as if they knew... :)
 

Dwight Fry

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The Big Bang Theory jumped the shark big time when it decided it desperately wanted to be Friends. Seasons 1, 2, and 3 were great. Season 4 sucked balls, plain and simple. Season 5 was a bit better but far from the glories of the past.
 

Frantic Canadian

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Dwight Fry said:
The Big Bang Theory jumped the shark big time when it decided it desperately wanted to be Friends. Seasons 1, 2, and 3 were great. Season 4 sucked balls, plain and simple. Season 5 was a bit better but far from the glories of the past.

I completely disagree. The show is still consistently funny. The only problem I had with the show was when they brought in Priya. I really didn't care for her or the whole Leonard/Priya relationship, so I was really happy when they got rid of her. The last episode, season 5 season finale, was disappointing, but I'm sure they'll be ready to bring the funny when the show comes back in September.
 
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