Before they 'jump the shark'!

Brooklyn Nine-Nine (season 8, final season)

After a long hiatus, Brooklyn Nine-Nine returned with its last season. A lot of things happened after the previous season. George Floyd's mishandling, Black Live Matters movement and calls to defund the police did not put the police in the best of light. Despite the public sensitivities and the problems of filming under pandemic situations, the team managed to churn out an entire ten-episode season. The producers decided to keep it neutral by avoiding too much police work and limiting the storyline more to the precinct's pranks.

Fonzie on water skis, in a scene from the
1977 Happy Days episode "Hollywood,
Part 3", after jumping over a shark

Maybe it is just me; I feel that actors have all grown lethargic playing their roles. The initial glow and enthusiasm seem to have been lost. Perhaps the producers saw that too. Rather than creating a 'jumping the shark' moment or even 'nuke the fridge' scene, they wisely decided to call it quits. After eight years of 'working', the team ended the season emotionally with their classical whacky treasure hunt during the Halloween season.

What do these jargons 'jumping the shark' and 'nuke the fridge' even mean, you may wonder?

Between 1974 and 1984, 'Happy Days' was flying the waves with its sitcom set in the mid-50s to mid-60s midwest USA. After an initial stutter, they started flying high but hit a bump in Season 5. The producers tried to push the limit by using the show's main star, Fonz's, waterskiing abilities. They made him leap over a shark in one episode in his trademark leather jacket and shorts. The show went on for seven other seasons but never really regained its past glory.

Pundits always mention the 'jumping the shark' moment as the beginning of the decline of the show's popularity. It may not have not totally true as other outlandish characters appeared in that season too. Mork, an alien, stranded on Earth, made his debut. He was so popular that he went on to have a life of his own in a spin-off 'Mork and Mindy'. All in all, 'Happy Days' had 255 half-hour episodes.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) is rumoured
to be the next Indiana Jones. 

The general understanding is that any film sequels more than three are bound to be a dud. So when the 'Indiana Jones' franchise became so popular, the monetary attraction to make a fourth film was just too great. The scene where Indiana Jones survives a nuclear explosion by hiding in a refrigerator lined with lead was simply too outrageous for even a die-hard Indy fan to stomach. Just when you think that the 'nuke the fridge' scene would put an end to future Indiana Jones endeavours, think again. Indiana Jones 5 is in the pipeline for 2022, and in keeping with Hollywood's gender fluidity agenda, a female actor may be whipping the asses of the baddies.

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Reflection of our lives

Brooklyn (2015)

At a time of the US elections and a possible candidate whose selling point seem to be to limit immigration to his country, this movie appears to be all so relevant. It is a sober reminder that movement of people is inevitable. From a time in antiquity, people have been displaced around either for political or economic reasons.

We are all immigrants, not by choice but by birth. It is history that we cannot change. No one can proclaim superiority over the other. After all with the affluence of society, the menial tasks of the society would be shunned by its members.

As long as the capitalistic model of keeping the rich wealthy and suppressing the wages of the working class remains status quo, till then, migration will stay. We are still a long way from automation, or perhaps the master class is quite content with this arrangement.

This 2015 period drama set in the early 1950s America and Ireland, depicts aptly the uncertainties and the emotions that the immigrants have to endure to ensure a footing on life. Knowing that there is not much of a future in their motherland, the protagonist has to leave her love ones behind. Her sole intention is to secure a better life. There is so much sacrifice on the part of her sibling towards this end.

Reaching the destination is no pleasure cruise either.  The emotional baggage that has to be left and the uncertainty of able to survive the journey and to turn a deaf ear to the uppity glances at a newcomer are just the tips of the iceberg.

If adjusting to new work in an alien nation is a challenge, what about the uphill task of studying while working?

Then there is the problem of keeping hormonal urges under check so that the priorities do not go astray.

Those who can sail through these challenges are indeed the ones who change the landscape of many newly emerging economies. Evidence towards this end is by far too many to enumerate. It is the story of many an American Dream.