Today, we look at when (or if) you folks believe that Miami Vice “jumped the shark.”
This is “Just Can’t Jump It,” a feature where we examine shows and whether they “jumped the shark.” Jumped the shark (coined by Jon Hein) means that the show had a specific point in time where, in retrospect, you realize that show was going downhill from there (even if, in some rare occasions, the show later course-corrected). Not every show DOES jump the shark. Some shows just remain good all the way through. And some shows are terrible all the way through. What we’re looking for are moments where a show that you otherwise enjoyed hit a point where it took a noticeable nose dive after that time and if so, what moment was that?
Miami Vice was a fascinating series because it was one of those shows that really hit the cultural zeitgeist HARD, so that everybody remembers it, and its influence (especially on the use of popular music on TV shows) was dramatic, and yet it only lasted five seasons, and it seems like most people stopped caring about it by the start of season 4, despite the fact that Dick Wolf, who took over the show in Season 3, later went on to become a TV icon. Wolf, though, had a MUCH different take on the show than the show’s original showrunner, Michael Mann. Right off of the bat in Season 3, the show got MUCH darker and more serious. Wolf left after Season 4, and the show got pretty bad in Season 5 (despite some good episodes) and the show ended after five seasons, which seems crazy considering just how big of a deal it was in Season 1.
So first…DID IT JUMP THE SHARK? Definitely.
WHEN DID IT JUMP THE SHARK Like I said, the show changed a lot in Season 3, but it was still pretty good. A few episodes into Season 4, though, was the hilariously bad “The Big Thaw,” which was then followed by the INSANELY bad “Missing Hours,” a Trudy spotlight episode (she had, like, two spotlights the entire series) where she is ABDUCTED BY ALIENS! So yeah, that was the shark jumping moment for sure. “The Cows of October” was also a really bad episode involving bull sperm. Basically, Wolf was trying to do WEIRD shit, and I honestly admire him for it, but this wasn’t the show for it. By the end of the fourth season, there was a big cliffhanger involving AMNESIA, people! So yeah, it got bad. But “Missing Hours” is my pick for the shark-jumping moment.
Let me know what you think in the comments or on social media!
Feel free to e-mail me at brian@popculturereferences.com for suggestions for shows for us to do in future installments!
