"Jumping the shark" refers to that point in a TV series where everything just goes south. Remember the final season of the X-Files when Mulder was replaced by that other guy? Or on Enterprise when they went back in time and found Nazi aliens? Both of those are definitely shark-jumping points. Usually shark jumping involves the show's creators coming up with a bunch of really dumb ideas to try and reinvigorate a series, or they just come up with a bunch of ideas so bad that no one has ever tried them before. Turns out, the phrase comes from an episode of Happy Days where Fonzie literally jumped over a shark on water skies.
What brought this whole issue to mind was the last episode of Sleeper Cell's second season. Sleeper Cell is a TV show on Showtime about a FBI officer, Darwyn Al-Hakiem who infiltrates an Islamic fundamentalist terrorist cell. What is really great about this show is that the main character is, himself, a Muslim. The entire issue is dealt with in a much more mature fashion than anything Fox News would try to foist on the viewing public. The differences between true Islam and that of the terrorists are shown in detail. The reasons why terrorists become so hateful are explored as well, to a much deeper degree then "they hate our freedoms."
Then, after spending two seasons explaining how true Muslims don't target innocents, and don't go after revenge, Darwyn loses it, convinces the CIA to fly him to London, where he masquerades as a mujahadin, convinces the villain's wife to go with him, flies to Yemen, surreptitiously puts a GPS tagged satellite phone in her bag, gets brought to the villain's camp, where the tagged phone becomes the homing beacon for a missile. A homing beacon that the villain's wife is carrying. As if that weren't enough, Darwyn and his arch-nemesis then have a Rambo-esque shootout, leaving Darwyn with a few bullet holes.
Ridiculous. Not only was this whole segment stupid and over-the-top, it completely changed a) the show's entire storytelling dynamic, and b) the personality of the main character. I really don't understand how the creators could have lost touch like that. Sure the second season was a little lackluster compared to the first, but that's mainly because the first did such a good job exploring its themes that a second was unnecessary.
One day, all television and movie producers will learn that making things not suck is a really good idea.
Honestly though, that's probably wishing for a bit too much, even if it is Christmas Eve.
Technorati Tags: tv, television, sleeper cell, islam, muslims, happy days, fonzie, jumping the shark, terrorism
What brought this whole issue to mind was the last episode of Sleeper Cell's second season. Sleeper Cell is a TV show on Showtime about a FBI officer, Darwyn Al-Hakiem who infiltrates an Islamic fundamentalist terrorist cell. What is really great about this show is that the main character is, himself, a Muslim. The entire issue is dealt with in a much more mature fashion than anything Fox News would try to foist on the viewing public. The differences between true Islam and that of the terrorists are shown in detail. The reasons why terrorists become so hateful are explored as well, to a much deeper degree then "they hate our freedoms."
Then, after spending two seasons explaining how true Muslims don't target innocents, and don't go after revenge, Darwyn loses it, convinces the CIA to fly him to London, where he masquerades as a mujahadin, convinces the villain's wife to go with him, flies to Yemen, surreptitiously puts a GPS tagged satellite phone in her bag, gets brought to the villain's camp, where the tagged phone becomes the homing beacon for a missile. A homing beacon that the villain's wife is carrying. As if that weren't enough, Darwyn and his arch-nemesis then have a Rambo-esque shootout, leaving Darwyn with a few bullet holes.
Ridiculous. Not only was this whole segment stupid and over-the-top, it completely changed a) the show's entire storytelling dynamic, and b) the personality of the main character. I really don't understand how the creators could have lost touch like that. Sure the second season was a little lackluster compared to the first, but that's mainly because the first did such a good job exploring its themes that a second was unnecessary.
One day, all television and movie producers will learn that making things not suck is a really good idea.
Honestly though, that's probably wishing for a bit too much, even if it is Christmas Eve.
Technorati Tags: tv, television, sleeper cell, islam, muslims, happy days, fonzie, jumping the shark, terrorism
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