Sunday, May 03, 2009
jump the shark
TV series nowadays are my staple diet for boredom....they are like my spaghetti when I am hungry, the comfy bed when I am tired and the toilet bowl when I need to relieve myself........As much as I confess that I am a reality junkie, I really do watch other TV series and honestly most TV series nowadays cannot get past their prime first season and they jumped the shark.
What exactly is "jump the shark?"
Definition :
the point at which a popular television show has gone past its peak and has resorted to stunt programming, after which it is eventually is canceled
Potential list of examples:
1. Ugly Betty
2. Desperate Housewives
3. Heroes
4. Grey's Anatomy
5. Prison Break
The list is not exhaustive but the above are the top 5 I can think of at the moment.......They all had great first seasons but went horribly draggy and unfunny or uninteresting after that.
Firstly, who the hell is Betty's orthodontist? What's wrong with her malocclusion that requires her to be on the fixed appliance for so darn long? And the show is going nowhere and it simply entails on Betty's lovelife which I also find ludicrous. For an "ugly" girl, she sure can get some balls.....Comedies should always be 30 minutes long. e.g. Friends, 30 Rock, The Office, How I Met Your Mother.
Secondly, can Michael Scofield die from a brain aneurysm already.......Oh wait he almost did but he got cured by the company. Yes yes yes he is some mensa genius who goes around breaking prisons as easy as breaking a wind for us normal people. And you would think that he is somewhat a semi-god. PB is the ultimate example of jumping the shark. With so much potential from season 1, the show derailed into a complete mess....and why am I watching it still? Cos I am too invested to stop watching....yes I know I am a hypocrite.
Thirdly don't even get me started with Heroes.....I couldn't even understand the hype of the entire show since the beginning. And Grey's will never be like ER or half of it. All the romance between Meredith/Derek and Izzie/dying patient screams "jump the shark".
I decided to not comment on DH cos I have realised that it was actually quite decent after season 1 but it feels like CSI: Wisteria Lane every season. Seriously, if so many people were to die in my neighbourhood, I would consider moving out.
So which TV series is still riding strong?
yeah yeah...all you naysayers will say the typical stuff like "They are still on the island", "I get lost watching lost". That's cos you are not watching as religiously as you should. Lost is the kind of show where if you were to miss one episode, the following one might not make any sense to you. Its a continuum. The battle between faith and fate, black and white are explored in TV series. What started out as a plane crash is now a theory of time travel. Truth to be told, they did have a rough season 2 but it picked up after that and it is getting better and better and now its season 5. Sadly it will be ending in another 16 episodes. But I rather a show with directions than the main character being a slut till season 3 (ok..I am getting overboard with the Ugly Betty inferences).
This post is completely impartial......if i am any partial, it will not be Lost I am talking about. It will be about