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Times when films/TV shows "Jumped the Shark"


JohnnyChimpo

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Jumping the shark is a widely used idiom, first employed to describe a moment in the evolution of a television show, characterized by absurdity, when a particular show abandons its core premises and begins a decline in quality that is beyond recovery.

 

The one that I always think of was in Oceans 12. I really like Ocean's 11. Its a smooth Saturday night popcorn flick. The sequels though are pretty crappy. However, at the time I was really looking forward to 12, after my enjoyment of 11, naturally. While I was already getting bored during 12, the moment the shark was jumped, and the film was never going to recover IMO, was the part where they get Julia Roberts' character to pretend to be Julia Roberts in order for them to get into a swanky hotel room for something. Several times during the film up until this point, Matt Damon had referred to her character saying "anyone else thinks she looks a bit like....." before getting cut off/stopped by someone. It was just so dumb and stupid. I mean, if that was the case, why didnt anyone else think that Danny Ocean looked a lot like George Clooney or Rusty looked a lot like Brad Pitt etc. I actually cant even remember anything that happens in this film after this point. I think I completely switched off.

 

Another would be introducing time travel in Lost.

 

Anyone got any good examples of this sort of thing in movies and TV shows?

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The show doesn't get less clever or anything after Niles and Daphne, but one of the best parts and stories of the show isn't there anymore.

 

For me, it would be last night when Michael Scott left The Office.

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For me, it would be last night when Michael Scott left The Office.

 

Brilliant. So you're not even going to see how that pans out before deciding the show is ruined?

 

Will Ferrell (his replacement) has been on the last 3 or 4 episodes and as much as I like Will Ferrell, he's only raised maybe a single laugh out of me. Not to mention this series has only had a couple of good episodes, it's really obvious the show is on decline, with or without Ferrell.

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Will Ferrell's not his full time replacement, though.

 

He's only doing a 4 episode arc, or so I heard.

 

*EDIT* In fact, i've just looked, and it seems Ray Romano, Matt Le Blanc and Jim Carrey are the favourites. When its been covered in the British press, they've been pretending Catherine Tate is the favourite. I think i'm more likely to get the gig then she is.

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Will Ferrell's not his full time replacement, though.

 

He's only doing a 4 episode arc, or so I heard.

 

Aye, I just looked and he's leaving the next episode. I guess I can retract my shark jumping comment for now. I'm curious to see what happens like.

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For me, The American Office jumped the shark in Series 4 when Pam and Jim stay at Dwight's country hotel thing. I get that the storylines have always been more outlandish than the U.K. version but that was just ridiculous, was very hard for me to suspend my disbelief that it was an actual office documentary following that. I think the show has declined ever since then, an example being the silly Michael-Jan/Jim-Pam double date at Michael's house later on in the same series.

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Spin City when Charlie Sheen replaced Michael J. Fox. Heather Locklear was a minor annoyance but she had some great parts and good episodes. Sheen was fucking shit as the deputy mayor.

 

I've also not liked the current series of American Dad on FX. Stan's cyborg coming back from the future to steal Francine? Hayley falling for Reggie the most fucking ridiculous character ever? Some more stupid crap I'm trying to block out. A couple of episodes have been alright, but still...

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I think the show has declined ever since then, an example being the silly Michael-Jan/Jim-Pam double date at Michael's house later on in the same series.

That's a hilarious episode. I laugh everytime Michael shows off his plasma tv.

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Spin City when Charlie Sheen replaced Michael J. Fox. Heather Locklear was a minor annoyance but she had some great parts and good episodes. Sheen was fucking shit as the deputy mayor.

 

YES. Agreed a million times. I love the first three seasons of Spin City, and the first Locklear season was tolerable, but Sheen's presence instantly killed it absolutely dead. It should have ended when Michael J Fox left.

 

It would seem that Bill Lawrence is just not very good at knowing when to end a show - Scrubs should also have ended at least two years before it actually did.

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