Time Jumps in tv series - like it or not

[caj]

When a tv series does a time jump, do you like it or not?

Who did it best and who failed miserably?

[AndrewCrossett]

It can be OK if the main plot threads in the original time are wrapped up and there is some sense of closure. Otherwise you're just admitting that there was no urgency or crisis in your story and characters were just sitting around passing the time.

One exception was Xena: Warrior Princess. The two main characters were cryo-frozen right in the middle of a huge crisis and woke up 25 years later... with that crisis having morphed into different crises that they now had to deal with despite a quarter century having passed that they knew nothing about. It worked quite well the way it was done, helped by the fact that several of the supporting characters were gods who didn't age.

[Riv86672]

The 100 used time skips pretty liberally (and well, imo). Between things like waiting out radiation in underground bunkers/out in space and cryogenic sleep, the story spanned hundreds of years.

Parks & Rec skips forward 3 years(?) for the finale.
It was mostly pretty well done.

An oldie but a goodie, Wonder Woman S1 was set in WWII, and S2 skipped to then present day 1970s w. the explanation that WW didn’t age, and had teamed w. Steve Trevor in the war and his son Steve Trevor Jr. in the present, both Steves played by Lyle Wagoner.

[Starter Set]

I usually aren't a big fan of it and i plain hated it in Young Justice, that was way too soon for such an extreme measure.

Cause that's what it very often is, an extreme measure taken in a desperate attempt to bring back some life in the smelly dead corpse of a tv show/cartoon/anime.

But in the case of YJ, the show was doing just fine. Pointless. And the show ended up being cancelled, for other reasons, making it even more pointless.

[Sacred Knight]

Case by case basis.

An example of it being done well was Lost. The reveal of a time skip completely reinvigorated the series and created an all-time season finale moment.

Meanwhile Walking Dead's was kinda ho-hum. Aside from Judith, nothing changed. There was nothing to really mark that they had jumped ahead in time a significant amount of years. Oh and I guess Henry counts as a noticeable change, forgot about him because...yeah.

[green_garnish]

The most clumsy example would have to be the Wonder Woman series when it switched networks.

Followed closely by Battlestar Galactica, I suppose

[Riv86672]

How was the WW time jump clumsy?
It was pretty straight forward, other than Steve Trevor having an identical looking son, which is hardly a novel idea in TV and movies.

I mean, WW doesn’t really age.
They actually took something from the comics and used it.

[caj]

One Tree Hill did a nice job with their time jump IMO. They went from high school graduation to jumping 4 years later. We didn't really need another 'kids go to college' program at that time.

[LordMikel]

There are times I wish a show would do a time jump. I loved the show Perfect Strangers. In the final season, they got married and each family had a baby. Ratings had declined and it got cancelled. but I very much thought a time jump of 12 years would have been great for the show. It would have made both of the kids 12 instead of newborns. It might have reinvigorated the show for at least one more season.

Sledge Hammer had a terrible time jump.

Dollhouse simply had a confusing time jump.

Once Upon a Time had an interesting time jump for its final season, but it became a ploy.

I would mention the Star Wars time jumps but I don't want to derail the entire thread.

Jane the Virgin and Zoey's Extraordinary play list both did time jumps because the main character lost a significant person through death. We got to the, "Ok, I'm better about their death now." To sit through episode after episode where the main character languishes about a death would cause the show to be cancelled.

So I don't mind a time jump if it assists in speeding up a story, but I dislike it to be able to have "Reveals."

[LordMikel]

When a tv series does a time jump, do you like it or not?

Who did it best and who failed miserably?

To ask, were there shows you had in mind?

[Riv86672]

Sledge Hammer had a terrible time jump.

I’d forgotten about that one!

In their defense, I remember reading the show was scheduled for cancellation so they decided to go out w. a literal bang.

...and then they were renewed.

[LordMikel]

I’d forgotten about that one!

In their defense, I remember reading the show was scheduled for cancellation so they decided to go out w. a literal bang.

...and then they were renewed.

Actually it was a dare, "you want to know how I'll resolve this? You need to renew it."

[Gaastra]

Fairy tails time jump was not bad. Shock things up some without changing to much.

Young justice time jump made me drop the show. Worse they just added new members who were gone the next episode making them join a waste of time as they were gone by next episode!

Transformers time jump added more space adventures.

[Kusanagi]

One Piece was fine, it made perfect sense within the story why it was needed.

Jojo's (at least up to part 4 not as familiar with the rest) were great imo, fit it's premise as a generational show.

I thought Samurai Jack's was fitting, especially since it was geared more toward adults who grew up with the show. Made a nice break between before and after.

YJ I agree wasn't smoothly handled.

[PD98]

Overall my opinion on time jumps are a case by case situation and my opinion on the time jump depends on how well the show handled the time jump
One show that I would say failed in time jumps in Young Justice since it resulted in more questions about when/what/how/why things are the way they are after the time jump with no solid answers or we have to read the tie-ins which SHOULD NEVER BE REQUIRED READING TO UNDERSTAND WHAT'S HAPPENING