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Jump the shark - part 2!
The readers didn't agree with David Dale and here is their opinion! Willow becoming a lesbian, was it or wasn't it the "Jump the shark" moment? |
Do you remember the "Jump the shark"-article? It said that "Buffy" jumped the shark, when Willow beccame a lesbian.
Read it here!
David Dale asked for the readers' opinion, and the readers answered!
Here some of the readers' comments:
Sandra Seaman: I definitely think Nicole Kidman has jumped the shark. She's now campy and impossible to take seriously. But I do object to when you called Willow becoming a lesbian jumping the shark (in Buffy). The show took a serious turn at that point, but that's more attributable to the fact that the characters graduated from high school and had to move on into new lives. I don't think that the subsequent seasons were worse off for that.
Also, Willow becoming a lesbian was hardly gimmicky, and some of the most critically acclaimed moments of the show occurred following that. In fact, Willow's first inklings of feeling for Tara occurred in Hush, the brilliant silent episode. The Body, the episode in which Buffy's mother dies included lesbian Willow and was an incredible show.
Fan favorite Once More With Feeling included the closest primetime has ever come to seeing cunnilingus on television, and remained classy, tasteful, clever and fun. Later seasons' Willow has a fanbase to rival Buffy's, and not because of her sexuality, but because she is a strong, intelligent character, well-written and well-acted.
The show after this point is different (whether it was better or not is a matter of opinion) but I would hardly call Willow's shift towards girls a defining moment in the downfall of Buffy. I'm not quite sure that Buffy ever Did jump the shark. If so, I suspect it was when Spike got his soul back. But again, I'm not certain I could say that Buffy ever did.
Buffy as a show was so hard to define, was so many things at once, that its defining moments could be treated in so many ways. One defining moment was drama, one was comedy, one was horror... Finding a single thing in a series so rich in content and context that represents its future success or lack thereof is nearly impossible. It is overly simplistic to say this moment was the beginning of the end. Buffy wasn't perfect, but it always managed to recover and always brought itself back to the space that its fans needed.
If Buffy ever jumped the shark, she stopped halfway to kick the shark's ass before turning back. Please reconsider your comparison of Willow's sexual questioning to the lamest moment in television history.
Dana Lawrence: Hello. Given the outcry that occurred when Joss Whedon made the error of killing Tara Maclay, Willow Rosenburg's lesbian lover on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I think your assessment that Buffy jumped the shark when Willow came out is completely and utterly incorrect.
Three years after Tara's death, message boards in the United States are still awash in vehement and passionate arguments about her death and Willow's descent into dark magic, and a goodly number of virtual seasons, including the superb one by jet wolf (www.btvschosen.com) have managed to resurrect Tara in meaningful ways. I would posit that this, rather than indicating the show lost its touch, demonstrates instead that it still held the power to involve its audience well beyond what Joss ever expected. Indeed, in the book Jump the Shark, Buffy is criticized more for bringing in the character of Dawn than for anything else.
But even bad Buffy is better than 99% of anything TV has to offer, and in the polls that have been done here in the US, the vast majority of voters feel it never jumped at all; Dawn comes in second to that. As for Ms. Kidman, she will continue to do very fine work.
Andrew Row: One senses a basic misunderstanding regarding the term jump the shark. You give several examples where normal instances in a stars' movie career are deemed shark-jumps because they failed or flopped. Hudson Hawke (aboring selfish project) may have been jumping the shark, but Oceans 12 (as horrible as it was) probably wasn't jumping the shark for Bruce Willis.
Take a look at thegrosses of Kingdom of Heaven to see if Ridley Scott will jump the shark. Yes, Chandler marrying Monica and the Buffy-Lesbian thing can be considered Jumping the Shark, but one gets the feeling you either miss the point slightly or are blindly searching for examples.
Gwyneth Paltrow is a bland actress whom nobody likes, she lucked out with Shakespeare in Love and has yet to find a role that suits her bland acting style and persona. Shallow Hal was a successful movie, this is close to jumping the shark but not quite. Has she ever even opened a successful movie?
The Stepford Wives wouldn't be considered jumping the shark, just because it was a failure doesn't qualify it...the nature of the incident must be gimmicky in nature. If Arnie made Terminator 4 in 10 years when he is 60+, that would likely be jumping the shark. T3 was very successful, how is this indicative of a decline in popularity? How unpopular could he be when he kicked out the standing gov. and became a Republican Gov. in a Democrat-state?
Darren Booth : Do love your work, however I have an issue with your JTS article. Agree with most of it, but your comment about Buffy jumping when Willow became a lesbian is way off.
Willow's change to a lesbian was foreshadowed in series 2 - several years before she started batting for the other team. Buffy was like that - character development happened over years - not episodes, like most TV these days.
So that was in no way a desperate act of a show on the decline. Right up until the end of the show it continued to be one of the best-written pieces of TV I've ever seen, as are the Sopranos, Cold Feet etc etc.
Also, as more a cult show than mainstream, I don't know that it ever compromised its characters for ratings.
Minh Vu: I was reading your article with bemused interest but noted one point that needs clarification. As an avid fan (bordering on near obsession actually) I disagree with your assessment of Willow turning into a lesbian being the "jumping the shark" moment for Buffy. Although I realise this is pure pedantic and I wholly expect to be ridiculed for my in-depth knowledge of all things Buffy, but the fact remains: Willow came out of the closet in season 4 (New Moon Rising) and Buffy lasted another 3 season (last episode Chosen) till timely finished by Mr J. Whedon. Three years till being cancelled doesn't constitute jumping the shark!
Leon Wolff: I enjoyed your piece on jumping the shark. But I would like to question one of your 'jump the shark' moments. You argued that when Willow came out as a lesbian it marked the beginning of the end for Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
I am not sure I agree. First, Willow came out as a lesbian halfway through Season 4. Yet the show continued for another 3 and a half more years!! It would have continued, too, had not Sarah Michelle Gellar decided to leave the show.
Second, I think Willow's lesbianism actually brought a new depth to the character and made the show more interesting. For example, it introduced the idea of the inordinate pain of losing a loved one. Thus, in the final episode in Season 6, it was Willow causing the world to end because that is how she felt where her lover, Tara, died.)
Third, what *I* think killed the show was Buffy taking on adult responsibilities in Season 7. Since the whole show was about the pain of growing up, the spark and emotional resonance was gone once the main character had actually grown up. OK, too much detail!
Click on the source link and you can read even more comments by readers. But these are the only ones mentioning "Buffy".
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