Today, we look at when (or if) you folks believe that Silicon Valley “jumped the shark.”
This is “Just Can’t Jump It,” a feature where we examine shows that launched in 2006 or later and whether they “jumped the shark.” Jumped the shark means that the show had a specific point in time where, in retrospect, you realize that show was going downhill from there. 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?
Gotham was a drama showing what the lives of Bruce Wayne, James Gordon and all of the rest of Gotham City was like before Bruce Wayne became Batman.
So first…DID IT JUMP THE SHARK? I think so.
WHEN DID IT JUMP THE SHARK I think that it is a rare example of a show that probably jumped right from the gun, but since I stopped watching it, I’ll allow you folks to make the call!
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!
As soon as they brought on a Joker character. Whether they turned out to be the Joker or not.
I second the Joker thing, only it was when after killing their proto-Joker character, they brought him back to life. And then they killed proto-Joker again, only this time he had previously Jokerized proto-Joker’s identical twin brother played by the same actor, who then became the “real” Joker. Although I must admit that I am only relaying what other people have told me because I stopped watching it after the first season.
I used to call this show “Batman Without Batman” (like the web-edit, “Garfield Without Garfield”) and could never get into it.
I remain amazed at the absurd lengths WB will go to in order to NOT make a live action Batman TV show, even if it could work quite well as a vigilante crime procedural. They’ll merrily make this, BIRDS OF PREY, BATWOMAN, TITANS, no end of Superman shows (it could be argued Superman has been more successful on TV than in film since the late 80’s), and so on. They even built an entire universe around Green Arrow, who was often seen as being incredibly similar to Batman (at least until the 70’s). There was even an unproduced prequel series starring Robin before he became Robin (“GRAYSON”) that was nixed before the pilot phase. NBC even did THE CAPE, which was a vigilante crime procedural, but not done well. THE BATMAN was so long that it could have been a TV mini series with such a premise. But, no, WB has decided that Batman, and only Batman, cannot appear in both live action TV and film at the same time (unlike Superman or the Flash). Instead they have to do a Batman show without Batman, which still managed to last 5 seasons on Fox of all places under such a premise.
Just. Do. A. Live. Action. Batman. TV. Show. But no. WB is more likely to produce a show starring Alfred Pennyworth having prequel adventures. Oh, wait…
I couldn’t get past the premise stage of the show. When I first heard about the show, it seemed like it was going to be about Gordon as a young man dealing with corruption and crime in Gotham with maybe hints of what we all know eventually happens. As soon as it was made clear that Bruce Wayne was going to be a regular character, I no longer cared.
It’s not that I don’t like Bruce Wayne, but Batman is always the more interesting side of the coin.
Alex, as to your point regarding them doing ridiculous gymnastics not to have a live-action Batman on TV while he’s in the movies, was the Crisis crossover in the Arrowverse that introduced Batwoman. Batman had just disappeared a while ago, no explanation. I never got to the episode with Conroy as Batman, but I’ll just say I’m shocked they allowed even a cameo.
Xander, Conroy was an old, bitter and possibly villainous Bruce Wayne, you did not get to see the cape. Bruce Wayne is OK (see Crisis, Titans and Gotham as well), Batman is not. You shan’t have Batman on TV, unless it is Batman ’66.
Brian, has this something to do with the original show rights being with FOX?
Thank you for the information, Riccardo. I will temper my expectations accordingly.
As a huge fan of the show, actors, and plot, it jumped the shark starting season 5 when Gotham was cut off from the rest of America, not for a couple days via blown bridges, but for the entire season as the US Government abandoned the city.
This created an Escape from New York vibe, which potentially cool for like 1 week, became entirely contrived and unbelievable as a story telling crutch. Lastly penguin and riddler ending up in jail for like 10 years until until Batman came back betrayed their super villiany to me. But awesome thrill ride first 4 years! Don’t hate on it.
I didn’t watch Season 5, but that sounds like they based it on the comic’s storyline No Man’s Land.
MY jump the shark moment was the moment I couldn’t keep watching it any more, which I think was the second or third season, when the oh-so-noble Jim Gordon killed a cop. That moved me from hate-watching it to just hating it, so I stopped.
I once saw the suggestion that Gotham shouldn’t have started with the Wayne murders; it should have saved that for the first season finale — or even the series finale — to actually SHOW us what the Waynes meant to the city, to SHOW us what they meant to Bruce, to let us viewers really feel the loss when they were killed.