Series 3 is definitely a beard growing year for Downton. A lot of the charm comes back and some of those earlier storylines are cleaned up. Much better writing.
Your choice of Downton is interesting in that many people proclaim the british Series system is much better at keeping the sharks out of the plotlines by encouraging shorter runs rather than beating a dying horse.
I remember that episode and the car was half-in and half-out of the water. So the shark could have jumped it and then swam under it.
Which supports DrDeth’s point; you can’t really do this until a show is finished/has had a really long run.
I can’t pinpoint the moment, but I feel HIMYM’s problem isn’t the baby…but the plot devices. The show used to have a wild and crazy scene, and then a series of (mostly) logical but unexpected explanations on how it got to that point. Very clever, in my opinion.
Now, they just have over-exaggerated characters doing unrealistic stuff. Not the same show anymore.
-D/a
Supernatural is a show that will always have my viewership as long as it continues to pander to the audience with all of its pandering little heart. But it definitly has gone downhill since the start of season 6, which, when you think about it, was really expected. Seasons 4 and 5 went above and beyond most ‘popcorn’ shows achieve, and they were among the most entertaining seasons of television I’ve ever watched. After that, the significant drop in quality of the writing was inevitable.
Not that I’m complaining. What’s that, Dean’s taking his shirt off? Sam’s entangled with a sexy lady? Dean’s crying a single, manly tear and having homoerotic tension with Castiel, who’s tilting his head and looking into the camera with those deep, blue eyes as if to say, 'yes, audience, all three of us would love nothing more than to strip naked and climb into your bed in the dark of the night where you’re waiting for us…
…I’m sorry, what were we talking about?
Really? I’d say its one of the few shows where the characters have gotten less cartoonish and unrealistic over time. Barney especially, has become a lot more of a real person, and a lot less fun, in the last season or two of the show.
Hawaii 5-0. Here’s the plot generator:
Opens with a murder.
5-0 gets involved, while McGarrett and Danno snark at each other along the way.
The coroner is socially awkward and drops a Star Trek reference somewhere along the line.
The Microsoft PixelSense computer spits out clues and does most of the investigative work. The team gaze lovingly at their Windows 8 phones and surface tablets. Occasionally they “Bing it” (I’m not joking!) as they chase the wrong leads.
5-0 jumps to the wrong conclusion, arrests and interrogates someone who is innocent.
There is a big chase, hard takedown and you don’t often hear “Book 'em, Danno” because 5-0 likes to shoot suspects dead and never has to answer for it.
Party at the Hilton!
Lather, rinse, repeat. It’s the same plot every episode, just with different suspects and contrivances disguised as shocking twists (the wife was having an affair with the business partner but he murdered her to cover up the affair he was having with someone else kinda thing). And we might throw in a visit to Kamekona’s shrimp truck, a scene of Danno’s ex bitching at him or Chin and Kono looking good but doing nothing. The show has tried introducing a conspiracy plot that has dragged out through season 2 and into season 3 now but it’s not at all compelling.
Having said all that, the Nov 12th episode was excellent. But it also broke away from much of this formula. Easy to jump a shark in Hawaii I guess.
I don’t know; that’s quite the picture you’re painting. 
I agree that “Supernatural” has inherent shark-jumping resistance - it is so self-aware, and so good at self-referencing and self-mockery that they never take themselves seriously enough to be accused of shark-jumping.
If the problem with HIMYM isn’t the baby, I’m not sure what it is, but I’m growing weary of that show, too. Just meet the damned mother, already!
No need to worry about HIMYM. It’s pretty much been said that this is the last season and they are wrapping the show up. I think everyone knows this is it, they are just filling the time until Ted meets the mother. Now that we know they met at the train station, and when last seen she was standing less than 20 feet from him, it’s pretty much a done deal.
A show that could have jumped the shark, and managed to improve, appears to be “Castle”. I admit I was leary of the whole “Caskett” thing, but the two lead actors (Stana Katic and Nathan Fillion) have such chemistry that it’s become fun to watch again. And since it’s been hinted that this romance will NOT run smoothly, I’m looking forward to the breakup/cooling off/inevitable second thoughts that are sure to happen.
This might be controversial, but I think The Colbert Report has jumped the shark. It’s hard to describe, but I feel like Colbert has lost his comedic timing and a lot of the wittiness that went into his best material.
I haven’t kept up with Supernatural from episode-to-episode, but I have seen a bunch of them…I agree with conventional wisdom that it lost itself for a bit after season 5 but now is coming back. Even at the end of season 5, I hated that they made Chuck God (really? God gets his ideas for how to make things happen via migraines…as we saw in the episode “The Monster at the End of This Book?” I get it for a prophet, but God? Really?), that was the most shameless pandering to fans in a good series I’d seen in a long time.
Just caught last night’s Burn Notice ep., and yeah. Looks like they decided to up the ante by having Mike shoot a guy in cold blood (yeah, he had it coming, but still), thus making the show “darker and edgier”. Whatever-my interest in the show went down a few notches last night-and Fi and Jesse (rather their actors) seemed to be going through the motions. Meh.
That’s highly debatable and last week’s episode again referred to Chuck as merely a prophet. In fact, I don’t even see it as all that debatable. Just folks trying to see something that isn’t there.
I can’t believe the Office hasn’t been mentioned. I’ve stayed with the show the entire run and have almost always felt it never reached the heights of the British Office, but it was consistently better than most things on the air.
It has been pretty terrible since Carell left. I can’t pin an episode where it jumped the shark, so I’ll just say the last Carell episode.
As for not being allowed to say that shows have jumped the shark before the show has ended its run is ridiculous. I’m allowed to apply the term as I wish. There’s no rules for the term ‘jump the shark’. To claim different is ridiculous.
Whoa. Missed the whole ‘second page’ thing. I guess I agree with the Office people.
Never mind, turns out my point was made, and made much better, by others earlier in the thread!
The actor has confirmed Kripke said Chuck’s God.
CSI (the original Vegas one) jumped the shark after Grissom left and they resorted to the “Red John” playbook for Laurence Fishburn’s character. Unconvincing, dull, and gimmicky.
The show has grown a (Riker) beard recently with Ted Dansen and Elizabeth Shue. I’ve enjoyed this new run greatly.
I’ll second Mythbusters. They exhausted their premise years ago, and have basically been making up myths for years.
On a similar note, Dancing with the Stars. They’ve been scraping the bottom of the barrel with Z-list “celebrities” for several years now. I’m wondering if this season, with the “All Stars” cast, is finally going to be the last.
I think shows like The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live deserve a special designation: Zombie Shows. They shamble along, year after year, even everyone can see that they died a long time ago…
I think that only applies to Barney. Lily and Marshall are absurd this season - sure, I’d be willing to agree that first time parents go through hell and comedy gold, but ever since Lily’s dad moved in it’s been “I Love Lucy” at the Eriksen’s. Ted isn’t as bad, but still suffers from sitcomitis - and his character has been even worse than it has been in the past (the Victoria plotline was a writing dead end, and it showed). Robin’s character doesn’t have a lot to complain about - her storyline hasn’t been bad, but nothing truly interesting there, either.
What is it that has kept this show going for as long as it has been on? I couldn’t even get through the first season, I got bored with it.
God bless you always!!! 
Holly
Each there own, the Victoria plotline, with her German ex and Ted giving her tips on how to leave someone at the alter, was the only part of the current season I liked.
But your right Marshall and Lily have gotten more cartoonish as Barney has become less. But I don’t think that’s really the problem with the show (it was pretty cartoonish from the beginning). Its more that its just gotten tired. The writers had funny ideas for Barney’s wacky antics, they seemed to be out of good ideas for giving Marshall and Lily the same.