It's always sad when a good series goes bad

[jducoeur]

msmemory and I have been fans of JAG pretty much from the beginning. It was fairly tough at first -- the first season was dreadful -- but she was a longtime fan of Don Belisario, the producer, due to Quantum Leap (which was his previous series). Even from the beginning, we could find a spark of the same deep-down sense of decency that made QL both fun and moving. And after that (and after switching networks), the show really took off: it replaced the bimboesque leading lady with one capable of standing toe to toe with the leading man, got some decent writing, and generally became one of our favorites for many years now.

Sadly, though, I think it's jumped the shark. This season has seen a serious shift in several respects. On the one hand, the writing has become a lot more hackneyed. Same general concepts and plots, but presented poorly -- which in a show that has always skirted close to cliche is very dangerous. Somehow, the sincerity just doesn't feel like it's there any more.

Perhaps even worse, the politics of the show have taken a decided rightward shift without warning. Granted, a show that is centered on the military was always going to have a somewhat overblown sense of the patriotic. Previously, though, I always felt that it managed to balance that with a reasonably good understanding of how the US really works. But somewhere a few months ago, it took a turn for the jingoistic. I began to blow my stack with the episode "Posse Comitatus", which was basically a ringing endorsement of the idea of US Military personnel acting on US soil (if it seems like a good idea at the time). And it's just continued since then: episode after episode advocating ideas that range from the illegal to the unconstitutional.

On the one hand, I'm rather deeply invested in this story and these characters. But I'm beginning to think that, if the series survives this season, I may have to drop it. I'm just too disgusted by the blatant political agenda. I just wish I knew whether it's the creator or the network that's at fault...

Comments

[zachkessin.livejournal.com]

I've missed the last 2 seasons, due to time conflicts with buffy last year, and being here this year. I want to go online and start downloading, but you know not enough round tuits and such. How is Naval CIS? Is it good?

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

NCIS I like a lot. The repartee between the characters is pretty sharp, and the plots have actually had twists. I particularly like Abby, the forensic scientist.

[baron-elric.livejournal.com]

We've been catching Navy NCIS with some regularity, and I'm enjoying it. It's always nice to see David McCallum back on screen, and Mark Harmon is generally good at whatever he does. We've been a little disconcerted by the incresingly obvious product placements for Panera. We like Panera, and go there with some regularity, but are they filming a drama or an ad?

JAG never really grabbed me when it first appeared. We caught a couple of episodes this season when Stargate: SG1 was in repeats or off the air entirely, and I found it only okay.

If you haven't been watching them, I would suggest that you check out Monk on USA (Fri. at 10 and midnight, plus other repeats), and Keen Eddie on Bravo (Tue. at 9, with repeats that are hard to track down). Both are a lot of fun, but in very different ways.

Only sort of related, did you see the notice that Universal has added to its list of movies in production a flick called Serenity? Yes--it's the Firefly movie!!!! (We still have those DVDs...)

[jducoeur]

In general I'm enjoying NCIS. It's still finding its feet, but it's a good entry into the "forensic science" niche, and doesn't seem to be succumbing to as much of a political bent as JAG. (Well, except for a fairly foaming-at-the-mouth anti-terrorist attitude, which is kind of to be expected. But at least they don't seem to have JAG's new anti-constitutional tendencies.)

Decently snappy writing, entertaining and slightly odd ensemble cast (I agree with msmemory that Abby, the resident Goth geek, is just plain fun). Not a show I'd go around dragging people to watch, but I find it worth the hour...

[zachkessin.livejournal.com]

Sharp anti-terorist I can deal with. There have been 3 bombings within 2 miles of my home in the last 6 months, all with major body counts.

[tangerinpenguin.livejournal.com]

This is the series that prominently and sympathetically featured regular cameos by Ollie North several seasons back, yes?

But snarky comments aside, I do think they've gone to fewer lengths to moderate the natural wingedness than they have in some earlier seasons, which is a shame but probably not too surprising. I'd be more upset about it if the writing, as you noted, didn't look more and more like it was being phoned in the last year or two.

[jducoeur]

This is the series that prominently and sympathetically featured regular cameos by Ollie North several seasons back, yes?

Well, yes -- but that was during the admittedly dreadful first season. Ollie was closely associated with the bimbette blond leading lady, who I completely despised. Once they hired Mac and dropped Ollie, things got much better fairly quickly...

Indeed, that's part of why I wonder about network interference. I'm pretty sure that the blond was a network demand -- you'll note that Mac is much more like the lady who was in the original pilot. I *suspect* that Ollie was the same. And the current situation reminds me unpleasantly of The Omega Glory, my standard for network interference with a TV show.

Or maybe I'm just giving Belisario too much credit -- it's possible that this really is all his idea. Hard to be sure, but the shift is conspicuous enough that I'm inclined to suspect otherwise. msmemory has speculated that his attention is mostly on NCIS, and that JAG is basically on autopilot at this point...

Jumping the Shark

[antoniseb.livejournal.com]

Haven't seen JAG. The show we get in this house that just jumped the shark is Dora the Explorer. After shifting to a more musical format, and including the catching of some marketable stars, in a recent episode the writers decided to throw up their hands and literally have the main characters jump over some sharks. It's gotta be all over for Dora.

Re: Jumping the Shark

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

I haven't run into this phrase before. Does it have more connotations than simply "took a turn for the worse?"

Re: Jumping the Shark

[jducoeur]

The phrase refers to the moment at which you realize that a TV show has become irretrievably bad. Specifically, it refers to the episode of Happy Days (which I blessedly never saw) in which Fonzie jumps his motorcycle over a shark tank for some reason...

[antoniseb.livejournal.com]

Noting jducouer's reply to your message and the end of Happy Days...

See for example this website:
http://www.jumptheshark.com/

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

My language-parser seems to be on the blink this early in the morning, because the definition seems to be contradictory.

"A defining moment when you know that your favorite television program has reached its peak. That instant that you know from now on...it's all downhill. Some call it the climax. We call it "Jumping the Shark." From that moment on, the program will simply never be the same."

This definition sounds like the JtS moment is the absolute best time, and nothing can match it. But elsewhere on the site, it's used more like the JtS moment is when you know the show is now bad, bad, bad, and irretrieveable. Argh. Anyone have some brain jumper cables?