Today, we look at when (or if) you folks believe that New Girl “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?
The great Jon Hein had a website devoted to this topic, but he sold it off in 2006 and after being maintained for a couple of years it was then merged into TV Guide in 2009, so I figured it’d be fun to look at shows that launched after the sale and see what we all think about whether they jumped the shark and, if so, when did it happen? Here is the archive of the show’s we have done far.
New Girl was an offbeat sitcom about a woman who moves into a large loft with three guys whose lives are changed dramatically by the addition of “the new girl” to the group. As is typical for shows like this, when the show goes on for a certain amount of time, you have to come up with some weird things to keep the characters from growing too much and I can see why people might think it jumped during those years, but I tend to think it never got THAT bad.
So first…DID IT JUMP THE SHARK? I personally vote no, but I would like to hear your thoughts.
WHEN DID IT JUMP THE SHARK My wife says when Nick and Jess were doing that “we’re eventually going to get back together bit” after Megan Fox left the show.
Feel free to e-mail me at brian@popculturereferences.com for suggestions for shows for us to do in future installments!
I was ready to give up on the show right before Jess got her jury duty break. There was an extended fall down some stairs that just seemed so pointless and hammy that I was worried the show was about to become unwatchable, but it did have some solid laughs after that as well. (One nice thing about a show that allows improvisation is that the cast can stay pretty consistently funny even if the writing room takes a turn, and little improvised lines from Schmidt and Winston are what make the show for me.) So I am tempted to say Jess falling down the stairs is my moment, but then later that same episode Nick yells at the random woman he kidnapped, “And stop being so mean to me, or I swear to God I’m gonna fall in love with you,” so I don’t really believe the show was too big of a drop off in quality. Maybe it jumps a minnow?
When Marlon Waylans joined the show. Then it jumped the shark a few more times.