When Shows Jumped The Shark

[Colly]

Ah good, thought I'd missed some pop culture phenomenon.

[LexChaney]

Anything with Poirot in since 2002. When Miss Lemon, Captain Hastings and Inspector Japp stopped being in it and the comedy and humor went in favor of it being all dark. I do know the characters of Lemon, Hastings and Japp aren't in the later books. But it didn't stop the writers of the show including them in some of the earlier shows when they weren't in the books. Kind of took away how good it used to be.

Burn Notice after season three. Enough said with that really. But yet I still watch it.

Jonathan Creek after Caroline Quentin left. The mysteries somehow still had their appeal. But lacked any sort of energy it did have with their pairing.

Also the return of Only Fools and Horses in 2001. Again I still watched and loved it. Just wasn't the same.

[Skummy]

Flintstones, when the kids grew up and Scooby Doo when Scrappy came into it.

No, Flintstones jumped the shark when Fred had an alien sidekick that only he could see. Seriously, I will never understand some of the shit that cartoon writers assume kids would like. See also; Gizmoduck.

As for Two Pints Of Lager, it's dross, but it did spawn a fantastic quote.

"I can lend you some locomotive horse pornography?"

"That doesn't exist."

"...I could make a collage".

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I agree with Jonathan Creek. They just showed all the episodes, two per weeknight between midnight and 2am, over the course of a few weeks here. I watched about 90% of them cos I love me some Creek. You're right. The last half dozen episodes aren't anywhere near as good. Though I DO prefer the longer (2 hour) mysteries over the hour mysteries because they just get bedded into the story much more. See Poirot for the same idea - the short Poirot's are rubbish as the show, of course, has to make a few jumps to get to the conclusion because of time limitations.

Midsomer Murders when people complained about there being no black people on there.

[LexChaney]

I agree that with Jonathan Creek two hours are a lot better than a hour as it has time to build up a real little mystery in your head. It can add a lot more to it, making you wait for a great conclusion. Rather than it being rushed in an hour. But it lacked a lot of chemistry without Caroline Quentin. After she left they added random females in a hope that it would match what was started with Quentin. But it didn't.

Poirot. I love the hour episodes. But I agree two hours again is better. But it just doesn't have the same feel to it as the series did which you can tell its lacking. The likes of Hastings, Lemon and Japp are missed. Plus the comedy.

Also Ashes to Ashes. That really could have been wrapped up in the second series. But they did a third series and it was all ugh. I admit the mystery of what was going on and what it was all about kept me coming back each week. But it really dragged on. And Mr. Hunt was no fun no more. Preferred Sam Tyler really. Life on Mars was a lot better than Ashes to Ashes. The only good thing about the third series and really Ashes to Ashes was Daniel May.

[Guest BK2010]

Bad Girls - Defo when Yvonne died, the show never picked up aterwards.

Farscape - see above but for Zhaan.

[Guest mr. potato head]

Flintstones, when the kids grew up and Scooby Doo when Scrappy came into it.

No, Flintstones jumped the shark when Fred had an alien sidekick that only he could see. Seriously, I will never understand some of the shit that cartoon writers assume kids would like. See also; Gizmoduck.

I loved the Great Gazoo!

Also, that show wasn't written with kids as the intended audience.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Bad Girls - Defo when Yvonne died, the show never picked up aterwards.

Farscape - see above but for Zhaan.

Shame on you. Farscape didn't jump the shark. It's one of fairly few shows that was legitimately cancelled too early.

I'm watching through Farscape again with the mrs at the moment. We're midway through season 2 and I just keep remembering how many great episodes there still are to come. I think the quality stayed pretty level throughout the entire run. The advantage was that the characters and their interactions and relationships with eachother got deeper as it went through as each character started to carry more baggage with them due to what had happened to them. Series 1 you've got the distrust leading to acceptance of eachother, series 2 is an increase in friendship and romantic attraction between characters, series 3 deals with D'argo and his son as well as John and Aeryn and series 4 builds on that more. Add in Scorpius slowly becoming the best villain in sci-fi history because he's not a black and white clear cut villain but because everything he's doing is for various reasons....and it stayed strong throughout for me.

Of course, for the entirety of its' run the show had the odd weak episode, generally when a creature or being got onto Moya and ran amok, but anything planet based or relationship based remained top TV throughout.

[AnnIQ Edison]

Since there seems to be some Jonathan Creek fans here (and some who have seem most of the episodes), I was wondering if anyone knew the episode I'm trying to find. It involved a magician (i think) and all I remember is the death was a woman who was sawn in half with one of those big circular wood saws that you push wood through due to an accident.

That episode actually scarred me as a child and I had nightmares and an aversion to the show for a very long time. I'm trying to re-find the episode so that I can re-watch it and see if it really was all that bad.

Sorry for derailing the topic a bit.

[Guest BK2010]

Bad Girls - Defo when Yvonne died, the show never picked up aterwards.

Farscape - see above but for Zhaan.

Shame on you. Farscape didn't jump the shark. It's one of fairly few shows that was legitimately cancelled too early.

I'm watching through Farscape again with the mrs at the moment. We're midway through season 2 and I just keep remembering how many great episodes there still are to come. I think the quality stayed pretty level throughout the entire run. The advantage was that the characters and their interactions and relationships with eachother got deeper as it went through as each character started to carry more baggage with them due to what had happened to them. Series 1 you've got the distrust leading to acceptance of eachother, series 2 is an increase in friendship and romantic attraction between characters, series 3 deals with D'argo and his son as well as John and Aeryn and series 4 builds on that more. Add in Scorpius slowly becoming the best villain in sci-fi history because he's not a black and white clear cut villain but because everything he's doing is for various reasons....and it stayed strong throughout for me.

Of course, for the entirety of its' run the show had the odd weak episode, generally when a creature or being got onto Moya and ran amok, but anything planet based or relationship based remained top TV throughout.

Maybe I think the way I do, because Zhaan was my fave character. I just don't think any of the characters that appeared afterwards made up for the fact she left. Don't get me wrong I still enjoyed it, but it was missing its "beautiful blue bitch" (thanks Rygel). If it was still on I'd watch it, adored it. Always kinda wanted to see Braccka (however you spell it) join them. But I agree, it did end to early.

Side note: I still say Noranti had testicles dangling from her ears.

Edited September 29, 2011 by BK2010

[Bobfoc]

Since there seems to be some Jonathan Creek fans here (and some who have seem most of the episodes), I was wondering if anyone knew the episode I'm trying to find. It involved a magician (i think) and all I remember is the death was a woman who was sawn in half with one of those big circular wood saws that you push wood through due to an accident.

That episode actually scarred me as a child and I had nightmares and an aversion to the show for a very long time. I'm trying to re-find the episode so that I can re-watch it and see if it really was all that bad.

Sorry for derailing the topic a bit.

I think you're talking about one of the Christmas specials, which was called "Black Canary".

[LexChaney]

Yeah it is the Christmas episode. Its the one with Rik Mayall in it

[AnnIQ Edison]

Yep that's the one. The twin sister being cut in two was the scene that scarred me for life. *Shivers*

[AnnIQ Edison]

EDIT: Double Post