I agree with this. It’s turned into ‘find the horcruxes, sorry, betamax tapes’ and it’s lost all the charm of previous seasons. Every now and then they will insert a ‘Walter is funny’ moment and it just isn’t funny or touching, in the way that it was. The pacing is all weird and episodes feel like they grind to a halt in the middle. I’m wavering between continuing to watch, to see it through to completion, or stopping and pretending the last season was the final.
The Office jumped after Michael Scott left. And the Simpsons of course. HIMYM may be jumping soon. I couldn’t care less anymore who the mother is and can’t deal with the Ted/Robyn/Barney love story.
The wife says that Americas Top Model has jumped this season.
I’m not sure what you’re calling a post mortem analysis. The term was definitely popularized years after the show was over, but I don’t think of it as an analysis of the show as much as describing a single phenomenon. In addition you feel that jumping the shark has jumped the shark, but I don’t see that at all. In fact the original concept that it marked the start of the decline of quality in the show is pretty subjective. The term is now used as I mentioned before, to mark the point of disillusionment, and is applied to things besides TV shows. You can call that jumping the shark on the definition if you like, but it actually reinforces the definition people understand.
Well played…
In the third season, Puck tries to seduce his geography teacher so she won’t flunk him.
I think Hell’s Kitchen jumped when they fired all their producers and hired the producers from Jerry Springer a couple season’s back. (Not really, it just seemed that way - suddenly one season was all about the psycho-drama of the contestants and far less about the cooking.)
Bones. A thousand times, Bones.
I can forgive them for Zach. The actor was ill, and they needed to write him out. It might have been nice if they hadn’t written him out quite so–traumatically, but you have to admit it was kind of cool. Okay, you don’t have to admit it, that’s all right. 
(I left a D & D game and the next session the DM had my young paladin commit ritual suicide for something she perceived–incorrectly–as her fault. Rather than being pissed, which I could have been, I thought it was a nice send-off. Farewell, Prudence. We barely knew ye.)
The baby, though. The baby. I CANNOT HANDLE THE BABY. I do not care for babies. I know I am a female, and I’m supposed to, but I don’t. The pooping and the barfing and the–it’s all yuck for me.
(A kitten, now… Then I care. Something is wrong with my brain!)
It is very rare that when you add a baby to a show, the quality actually goes up. ARGH. THE BABY.
Yeah, that may be the shark-jumping incident for Bones as far as I’m concerned. :rolleyes:
I disagree. I think the moment when Deb discovered Dexter was a serial killer will go down as the moment Dexter jumped the shark. After that, Dexter getting it on with a person he strongly suspects to be a killer is just gravy.
Maybe I’m wrong.
Eh, we’ve had one mediocre and one terrible season before that. Even if you don’t think the current season is a big improvement (though I agree with goldmund that it is), it seems silly to put the “shark jumping moment” a full two seasons after it started sucking.
The Office “drove into lake”.
Michael: “Oh hey, the GPS is telling me to turn here.”
Other guy: “No, that’s not right. That is a ramp that goes into a lake.”
Michael drives car into lake.
That’s good to know; thanks. I do have it on DVR. Will have to take a look.
I guess I’m in the minority when I say that I think the show improved when they got rid of Zach. God, I hated his character. Oh wait I’m posting on the SDMB I meant to say "Og, I hated his character! :rolleyes:
I don’t mind the baby so much as it’s not too much of the show. I still find joy in watching Dr. Hodgins act like a kid with the technology. I liked last weeks ep where the interns had to work together. Less Angela is good too; especially since i used to think she was crazy hot; now, not so much. Go figure.
I disagree on the baby being where Bones jmped the shark. I think it was the episode where they had all gone thier seperate ways, but had to come back because Cam was too incompentent to holod anything together without “The Team”. She was the Chief Medical Examiner for NYC for Og’s sake! I think she can run a forensics lab out of an instituion, who if they could not have Bones, would still attract the #2 person in the field.
Agree with this 100%. This was the moment Michael went from being a likable buffoon whose main problem (and source of comedy) was a complete lack of social skills, to becoming a cartoonish, completely unrealistic moron. I found it difficult to watch the show after this.
I have to state that in order to say “The show jumped the shark” you have to have been a regular fan (at least a mild one) and the show must have had a long life. (I hate idiotis who say “Episode one season one”.)
And, it could happen (but I can’t think of where & when) a show made the jump but came back to life and popularity. True, Happy Days stayed on after The Jump, and there were still good epis. But It never again achieved it’s “must see TV” greatness. It sorta dwindled off.
But yes, Bones (a baby?!?), Fringe. Burn Notice.
Rapist clown, IIRC.
I disagree about Howard. He was always a nice sweet guy. He just didn’t know how to interact with women as regular people. Once Penny told him he was never going to get another woman because all women had a meating and decided it so he straightens up his act and he and Bernie fall in love. Character growth.
Also he was only able to get the hot blonde because she worked with and was friends with Penny. Having him get her from a friend of a friend is very common IRL and that’s what made it believable to me.
As for Howard going to space I think it was really cool for Howard. He gets picked on by Sheldon all the time for only having a Masters Degree and thinks of him as the dumb one of the group. Yet out of these smart guys it’s the “dumb one” who gets the honor and awesomeness of being the guy to go into space. He finally gets to be the most awesome of the group and he deserved it.
I was worried that Supernatural jumped last season. After the awesomeness of Season 5 they went back to monster of the week and then onto the Laviathon and I just didn’t really care and I skipped a bunch of episodes.
But this season is awesome again. We got a new prophet, Kevin, who is pretty bad-ass, along with his mom, and we got new “Words of the Lord” or whatever, the tablet. I’ve been really excited for new episodes this season.
Heck it is not binding. A show can jump the shark, grow a beard* and then jump the shark again.
- show starts out bad and gets better at a noticable point, ST:TNG when Riker grew a beard.
Well there goes my right to nominate Downton Abbey, I found season 1 episode 3 (the death of the Turkish diplomat) had to swallow, but kept watching for the scenery and costumes. Season 2 descended into dreck though (‘burned mysterious possible claimant’, ‘miraculous recovery from paralysis’, ‘maudlin death scene’) and I gave up entirely.
A little clarity please:
So are you saying that the Office jumped under the shark? or that the shark jumped the show?