Just so you know, this is ...
Question: Just so you know, this is going to be part question, part rant. I'm getting really tired of people talking about so-called "jump the shark" moments on television series. Every time I turn around, I hear/read somebody decrying that this show or that show has jumped the shark when they apparently don't know what the term actually means. I thought the real meaning was the point at which a show has lost its creativity and resorts to cheap stunts to boost ratings. That is the definition, correct? Instead of trying to understand the term, I hear many people use the term every time a show disappoints them in any way. Some say that
Alias jumped the shark in Season 2. Are they high? The show remained creative long past that point, dipping only a bit in Season 3 with the whole Mrs. Vaughn thing. But I digress. I just wish some people would shut up about things they don't fully understand. Well, thanks for listening to my little rant!
Answer: And thanks for giving me something to close this column on besides the blasted strike. I've made it pretty clear whenever this subject comes up that I have little patience for knee-jerk "jump the shark" sentiments, so I couldn't agree with you more. In the broadest terms, a show is said to "jump the shark" (a reference to an especially cartoonish stunt involving
Happy Days'
Fonzie) when it goes so over-the-top and beyond the pale that even fans begin to accept the fact that the show has lost its magic once and for all. I agree that, especially in this Internet age, "fans" are too quick to condemn a show for a wrong move or an unfortunate storyline (
Friday Night Lights' Landry-Tyra murder plot comes to mind) without considering the larger picture that no show is perfect, no show hits a home run every week, and the nature of series TV is not unlike a roller-coaster, with even our favorite shows likely to hit as many woeful lows as dizzying highs along the way. Writing weekly episodic TV isn't as easy as it may look from the vantage point of our couches and keyboards, which somehow brings me back to the strike again. These days, how can you avoid it?
