Jump the Shark Moments: "Donna Martin Graduates!"

[Jax7917]

On 1/7/2018 at 2:18 AM, SoupThrower said:

And when she cheated on Brandon for Dylan. Everyone gave her pass even Brandon!

Seriously the one time you had the right to bray till the cows come home...and you don't even do it. 

And the best part was that Kelly wasn't even trying to hide the fact that she was cheating. She was skating around town kissing Dylan . How come when Brandon found out that Kelly might be going on the trip around the world with Dylan, he wasn't even mad? He was like "that's not even important". "Will you marry me?" Why is Kelly getting rewarded for cheating? Oh, this show...

[Dr.OO7]

On 3/28/2014 at 10:39 PM, TheGongOfDoom said:

I was a little out of the demo for the show, but not quite and was a regular viewer, through the very early days  including the episode where David's friend shoots and kills himself. Rewatching that wow, could have been an early shark jumping moment, so heavy handed and the acting was B-A-D. But I forgave it because the rant David gave when he didn't think the mic was on felt true. He had semi been goaded into something by someone who really hadn't been that friendly to him before that and he lashed out. It felt true. and the acting I could excuse because the actors hadn't settled into their characters yet.

"Donna Martin graduates!" on the other hand, that was preposterous and kind of foreshadowed the Millienial filth and their helicopter parents and the abdication of personal accountability and accepting the consequences of your actions, be they good or bad.

A quick recap; the gang is gonna go to prom except Brandon because BRANDON WALSH DOES NOT DANCE!!, but of course he ends up going, because the gang has to be together. There had been an announcemtn that anyone caught drunk or with booze at the prom would be punished (this was said by the evil administrator who hasn ever appeared on the show before because the kindly understanding regular admin was at an butthole to mouth and bukkake orgy in Vegas. ALL THE STUDENTS KNEW ABOUT THIS. IIRC there was even a leaflet to bring home to their parents.David's dad throws a pre prom party at which champagne is available and Donna has too much and goes to the prom and makes a fool of herself and gets caught and exposed as being drunk and her punishment is that she won;t be allowed to graduate. Naturally the students led by Brandon think this is some Nazi level bullshit so of course they stage a walkout protest culminating in picket signs and the aforementioned phrase shouting and of course the orgy attending admin comes back JUST in the nick of time and forgives Donna who gets off scot free or maybe she had to bang erasers after school for a week.

When the episode aired my friend and I kept going "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!" in regards to the kids protests and threw up our hands at the resolution.

The kids are told beforehand that no booze is allowed at the prom and that if they show up or are found to be drunk there will be serious repercussions/punishments. They know this because they talk about when David's dad brings the champagne out at the party.

Despite this, and because she is SO INNOCENT and NAIVE Donna has champagne and gets tipsy/drunk and gets caught.

Just, augggh.

However did that mean I stopped watching the show? It did not!

As for when I finally bailed on the show it was about halfway through season 8.

I'm all for the First Amendment and I respect the kids right to protest, but as written here, they had zero grounds. They were warned of the consequences of drinking, Donna broke the rules and was duly punished. What exactly are they protesting?