Today, we look at when (or if) you folks believe that Heroes “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?
Heroes was a series about a group of seemingly ordinary people who all discovered that they had superpowers, and some of them become heroes and others…villains. It launched a number of stars from it, including Milo Ventimiglia, Hayden Panettiere, Masi Oka and Zachary Quinto. After initially being a bit of a sensation, the show took a big dip in popularity in its second season, and kept going down from there before ending after four seasons.
So first…DID IT JUMP THE SHARK? Definitely.
WHEN DID IT JUMP THE SHARK This is a tricky one. Truth be told, the series never really recovered from the idea of it being an anthology series with a season-long plot resolved in the Season 1 finale…only for the show to just continue from there despite the story being done in one. However, I think it was still at least pretty decent for Season 2, but I think the real “jump the shark” moment was when Sylar went to work for The Company. That just spoke to a whole sense of “spinning wheels” that really did the show in.
Let me know what you think in the comments or on social media!
Thanks to reader werehawk for suggesting this one! Feel free to e-mail me at brian@poprefs.com for suggestions for shows to do in future installments!
I largely agree, though my memory of it is a little hazy so I don’t remember exactly when Sylar went to work for the company. Resetting the momentum of the show back to 0 to try to get another slow-burn out of the formula for season 2 felt pretty bad. So did the messy, rushed ending of season 2 because of the writer’s strike. Killing off the one dude between seasons was bad (especially when it seemed like he might be dying at the end of season 1 and then you find out he survived but was randomly gunned down later, like, what?). Or when they killed off Nathan and had Sylar replace him.
Wow, this show had a lot of jump-the-shark moments, didn’t it?
As I recall, it was a perfect one-season show.
Too bad it never got renewed for a second season, because that would’ve spoiled everything.
For me, the show jumped the shark in season 2 when the bad guy’s plan involved a long con on a guy who could read minds.
Wasn’t there a writer’s strike heading into the second season? I seem to recall they had to cut the season shorter than planned and hurry and get episodes out in order to even do season 2.
Not that it got much better after that, but I think their hands were at least somewhat tied for season 2.
Yeah, there was a writers’ strike that affected season 2, but… there were still a LOT of missteps that should never have happened, even at that. I mean, as Joe Arashikage pointed out, the overall plot involved the bad guy tricking a guy who could read minds, and they never even addressed that. Even when other people (whom Peter already knew and had good reason to trust) tried to tell Peter that the guy was outright lying to him, Peter just went along with the plan without a second thought. It was practically the poster child for the Idiot Plot concept. The writers’ strike can (weakly) excuse some of the other issues (Peter’s girlfriend being abandoned in an alternate future was caused by the strike), but… literally the entire plot required a massive plot hole to have lasted longer than a single episode.
I’d probably have to say Heroes definitely jumped the shark, and that it probably happened in season 2, but picking just one moment isn’t easy, because there are just SO MANY options. Really, Heroes seems to be a case where it jumped the shark, then decided to see just how many MORE sharks it could jump, especially in the utter mess of season 3. (Sylar’s a secret Petrelli brother! Oh, wait, no he’s not! It was like a less coherent Exquisite Corpse story. And that Nathan/Sylar switch… sure, Mohinder had previously revived the dead Bennett using an injection of healing blood, but they’ll both conveniently forget that so they can come up with a ridiculously complicated workaround that stands no chance of ever working. Did I mention the Idiot Plot concept already?)
And season one was so good, too.