Top 10 21st Century Jump the Shark Moments

“Weeds” had three fantastic seasons before being derailed by a misguided twist. When Nancy’s actions inadvertently lead to Guillermo burning down a grow field, the fire spreads to the town of Majestic, including the Agrestic neighborhood, in which the show takes place. This leads to the departure of several main characters for no real reason, and a series of desperate manoeuvres to keep the cast together. The show was never able to find its footing again, bouncing around from setting to setting. For a show that was meant to find comedy in a suburban mother dealing drugs, removing suburbs from the equation was a perplexing choice.

Let’s set aside the fact that most pacemakers don’t have wi-fi capability, and that, even if the VP’s was, his security experts wouldn’t leave it enabled. This moment really hammed up a series that only one season earlier swept the Emmys. For a show that created tension from realistic political situations, this took the series’ credibility to a sudden low from which it has never fully recovered. Later seasons have been met with a lukewarm reception from critics and audiences, and, in hindsight, it’s pretty easy to pinpoint this moment as the major turning point. Yes, there were still some high points in those later seasons, but this twist was funnier than it was dramatic.

There’s no shortage of drama on Wisteria Lane, but these episodes take it to the extreme. In the third through seventh seasons, there was always an episode involving a disaster that would drastically shake up the storylines. Though these moments were a fun bit of ridiculousness, it was a bit of a stretch of the imagination for a disaster to hit every year, and they felt like a lazy way of killing off peripheral characters. These disasters included a shooting, a tornado, a fire, a plane crash, and a riot . Were these moments exciting? Sure. Did they feel desperately so? Absolutely.

Though “That ‘70s Show” was an ensemble comedy, it’s hard to argue that the heart and soul of the show wasn’t Eric. When Topher Grace left the series in the finale of its penultimate season, it left a hole in the show, which was only exacerbated by Ashton Kutcher’s exit. The strangest thing about this departure though is that his friends still hung out in Eric’s basement...even though he didn’t live there anymore. Eric was replaced by Randy, who was despised by fans for being a bland imitation of our beloved dork. What’s even weirder is that Donna would later date Randy and even hang out with him in Eric’s basement. Wait, what?

Ashton Kutcher exiting a show may have caused problems, but his entrance on another show was even worse. Everybody knows about Charlie Sheen’s very public meltdown, which led to his firing from this ultra-successful sitcom. Enter Kelso himself, who played billionaire Walden Schmidt. Having a billionaire in the cast essentially allowed the writers to do whatever they want, which only worsened writing that already wasn’t exactly Emmy-worthy. The performance was undoubtedly charming, but the cast’s chemistry changed drastically, and backstage drama continued to snowball until the show eventually ended after twelve seasons.

Depending on who you ask, “Lost” jumped the shark anywhere between...well, any episode, really. The characters of Nikki and Paulo are particularly notorious among fans however, for being generally annoying and dislikable. Apparently, they had been on the island the entire time, but only started interacting with the main characters in the third season. They were meant to start off awful so they could be redeemed later, but the writers may have gone a little too hard in the beginning. Audiences hated them so much that their planned storyline was scrapped and they were killed off in a satisfyingly brutal fashion that felt like pure fanservice - by being buried alive.

Disney’s “Frozen” was the breakout hit of 2013. Disney also happens to own ABC, which broadcasts “Once Upon a Time.” The season three finale ended with a divisive twist: Elsa, the movie’s protagonist, emerged from an urn, ushering in a “Frozen” storyline for the fourth season. This was a strange move, since a 2013 movie isn’t necessarily the kind of story that the series has traditionally incorporated. To the show’s credit, they did work in elements of Hans Christian Andersen’s original fairy tale, upon which “Frozen” was very loosely based. Still, though, the cliffhanger felt desperate, an obvious attempt to get more viewers by cashing in on the popularity of the animated hit.

For a time, J.J. Abrams’ “Alias” was one of the best things to be seen on TV. Unfortunately, they just couldn’t keep the momentum up into its final few seasons. After delivering a thrilling season finale, the fourth season came to a close with a pretty major twist: Michael Vaughn isn’t who he’s been saying he is. Okay...this could maybe be interesting. Nope, no it wasn’t. The following season unravelled this convoluted twist that felt half-baked and lacking real direction, giving fans little reason to care. A fakeout death and ultimate cancellation made a mess of this once-acclaimed drama’s final season.

“The Fairly OddParents” had a charming cast that worked well off of each other...which is why it’s somewhat baffling that the series decided to bring in this entirely unnecessary character. Poof is the child of Cosmo and Wanda, and he really doesn’t serve much purpose other than to generate conflict with his lack of magic knowledge. By this point in the series, the apparent dumbing down of Cosmo’s character already had that angle more than covered. It was only the first of several flat additions to the cast (we’re looking at you, Sparky), all of which made a once wonderful children’s comedy into a bloated shadow of what it once was.



Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few dishonorable mentions.



House & Cuddy Kiss

“House” (2004-12)



A Musical Episode

“Grey’s Anatomy” (2005-)

After twelve seasons, “Family Guy” made the shocking move of killing off the family dog, Brian. It was a surprisingly poignant moment that could have been a bold narrative choice that challenged the writers. Instead, Brian was resurrected only two episodes later. Nobody wanted to see Brian get killed off, but they certainly didn’t want to be emotionally manipulated for ratings either. It was a move that reeked of desperation in a show that many felt had already been declining in quality for some time. What’s worse is that it was an incredibly transparent stunt. Perhaps it’s time to swap out the term “jumping the shark” for “killing the dog”.