May 22 - Pet Peeve Monday

Yes its Pet Peeve Monday once again. It’s May Sweeps on Television which brings us to this week’s Pet Peeve – Season Finales. Specifically Season Finales with gun violence. Last week, I counted six shows that featured a crazed gunman shooting up the office place and talking hostages usually shooting a key cast member in the process.

First it was CSI, and a nut just happens to take the wife of another character hostage IN THE MIDDLE OF A CROWDED CASINO. I’ve been in many casinos and I challenge anyone to find Waldo. Another main character gets shot negotiating with the hostage taker. Within two minutes of flat lining, the character makes a miraculous recovery and is sitting up talking in bed. Must be that clean Las Vegas living.

The show that immediately follows CSI is Without a Trace. This show should be renamed Without a Plot. The main character’s love interest is taken hostage by a serial murderer on this series finale. She somehow is unharmed at show’s end because at 45 she is pregnant, opening up a new story line for next season. When ratings decrease, add a baby or start jumping sharks. In truth, she probably just agreed to a pay cut.

Jumping the shark is a metaphor that denotes the tipping point at which a TV series is deemed to have passed its peak. Once a show has "jumped the shark," fans sense a noticeable decline in quality or feel the show has undergone too many changes to retain its original charm.

The phrase was popularized by Jon Hein on his website, jumptheshark.com. It alludes to a scene in the TV series, Happy Days, when the popular character, Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli, on water skis, literally jumps over a shark.

Other snippets from last week’s Season Finales:

Boston Legal – Hollywood Celebrity shoots photographer

ER – Gunmen invade the hospital

Conviction – The DA office is in a hostage situation after a wild shootout in the courthouse.

It used to be one incident for all of TV, like “who shot J.R.” on Dallas. Now every show tries to up the body count and the violence. This was just a sampling. Many more season finales haven’t aired.

Why can’t someone gun down Eva Longoria on Desperate Housewives? She made a nice blog appearance on May 11.

One happy note from last week is that Commander in Chief was cancelled. This show deserves a blog entry of it’s own. As they say in TV Land, Stay Tuned.