Jumping the Shark? Even Worse.
Saturday, October 17, 2009 I have a problem when comes to the television shows I watch, and what happens is that once I start watching a show and make the 'commitment' to record, download or stream episodes, I keep watching until the end. No matter how bad it gets, I'm there.
Lot's of shows are accused of 'jumping the shark', but in some cases I'm ok with it. 24 jumped the shark and then got better again. Entourage sucks for lots of people now, but I find it entertaining and funny, and every episode only takes 20 minutes of my life. Still, the writing on those shows may not be as great as it once was, but they are still fun and the story somehow continues to evolve in a potentially realistic way (Jack Bauer should be like 60 now and Tony Almeida died 17 times, but whatever).
My point is that there are cases when the non-sense is too much. Cases where I don't get how a show stays on the air, considering that there are so many good shows that get cancelled or good shows that don't even make it to the air in the first place. I understand this is a business, and ratings and advertisers are more powerful than anything else, but I believe that show-runners should have the balls and decency to pull the plug when the time comes.
Yes, I am talking to you, Ryan Murphy, creator of Nip/Tuck. This was once one of the most edgy, creative and fun shows on television. The characters were great, the dialogues were clever, and although it was always a little bit 'out there', it was fun and exciting to keep watching. We could easily say that the show jumped the shark years ago, at the end of season 3, with the whole "Carver" reveal. Well, season 6 just began and if you are one of the people who quit watching in season 3 god bless you.
Not only there is no storyline and nothing that remotely makes sense in the script, but these characters became clowns. The writing is awful, so bad that now they even had a narrator filling in the gaps of the impossibly retarded storyline. The dialogues are as empty as the lives of these people who we have know followed for the past six or seven years. And as bad as all the characters are, there is one in particular who I just want to kill with my own hands. MATT. What the fuck? This kid has had sex with a transexual, then he decided he wanted to circumcise himself and almost cut his penis off, then became homosexual, then had a nazi girlfriend, then became a Scientologist and married a porn-star, then became a junkie, then he was set on fire and dumped by a girl who looked like Gollum, then decided to become an actor, and now he wants to be a mime, but he is so retarded he fails at that and ends up becoming a fucking grocery store robber. SERIOUSLY WHAT THE FUCK. KILL HIM ALREADY. This summarizes how little sense this show makes in every way.
Once again, I understand that sometimes decisions make sense because of financial reasons and that wins over how creative they may be. We are seeing it happen with the film industry and all the remakes, and I saw it with another show I used to enjoy which is Smallville. The thing about Smallville is that as little sense as it makes now, it's still a teenager show about Superman and you can forgive certain things.
I think in the Nip/Tuck case, it's FX's responsibility to do quality control on the crap they show. It's Ryan Murphy's responsibility to decide if he wanted to end the show with the spark of brilliance it once have, or as one of the biggest jokes on television. I think he made up his mind.
I don't watch many of the new shows because I already have enough with the old ones I already watch. I should reevaluate my rule of watching things until they end, because honestly sometimes it becomes embarrassing to watch some of this crap.
I wish the networks would pay more attention to quality control. As much as NBC has fallen behind their competitors over the past few years, I like that they continue to focus on what they believe in. 30 Rock? Ratings continue to slip even though the show continues to win every award possible. Same goes to Friday Night Lights, which is one of the best shows on television and for some reason people don't watch. I understand and respect CBS and their excellent business of making thirty versions of CSI and NCIS, but come on.
Very mysterious things happen in the behind the scenes of the television business. I'm glad that content continues to dominate the market and as much as the networks continue to have certain domain over the audience, as long as a good show finds a home somewhere and continues to be available, there is hope for the television producers, writers, show-runners who really put the focus on their story and characters beyond everything else.
Dylan Walsh, FX, Joely Richardson, John Hensley, Julian McMahon, Nip Tuck, Ryan Murphy, Smallville in Movies & TV 
Reader Comments (4)
It jumped for me at the carver reveal and has been downhill ever since. I fail to see what purpose Julia serves anymore, and wish they would just not bring her back anymore...and why did she out of the blue turn gay?
You are 100% right about Matt, he needs to go. The writers have taken what was once a likable character and made him repulsive...btw, you forgot to mention the incestuous relationship he had with his half-sister.
This show was much better when it had good supporting characters like Mrs. Grubman, or the drug kingpin they sent to prison...now the supporting characters (not regulars), seem to be one dimensional murderesses.
I loved the first season, thought the second was uneven but good, and really liked the third up until the carver reveal which made me like the third season a lot less. Everything since then is crap.