Q: I was wondering how Hurricane Fiona impacted this year’s search on “The Curse of Oak Island”? News reports say Nova Scotia was hammered, so one would have to assume that Oak Island, just offshore, got it as bad if not worse than the coastline. Has this year’s search season come to an abrupt end? Or will the Laginas and crew clean up and continue on until winter sets in? I can’t even begin to imagine what a sizeable storm surge would have done to their work in the swamp area.
– John, Green Tree
Rob: Per an “Oak Island” executive producer, “The storm, thankfully, did not do any damage to the island. Power went out in the area over the weekend, but everyone is safe and other than some re-draining of the swamp, the island was pretty much unscathed. Northern Nova Scotia got the brunt of the impact.”
Q: I recently discovered that Verizon FiOS TV added TCM HD as Channel 730 on their lineup after years of asking Verizon to do this. What I’m curious about: Is this the true HD version of the network? The picture appears improved, but the channel menu doesn’t list this as HD.
– Joe, Pittsburgh
Rob: Verizon says Turner Classic Movies was added in HD to the entire FiOS TV channel lineup on Sept. 15.
Q: How would you define the term “jumping the shark” when referring to TV shows? The only major network show I watch is NBC’s “Chicago P.D.” It has been on for nine years now and from season one they have been teasing two characters getting together. Of course, the tease is still going on. Do showrunners deliberately not get couples together to try and get people to keep watching? I’m ready to leave it behind.
– Linda, via Facebook
Rob: The problem with getting characters together is the perception that it sucks out all the drama and then viewers tend to leave because storylines get boring. There are ways to avoid that fate, but it can be hard to do on a procedural where the focus is more on the case/fire/medical event-of-the-week than on the characters’ relationships.
As far as the term “jumping the shark” goes, it was coined by Jon Hein in reference to Fonzie jumping over a shark on water skis on an episode of “Happy Days” and now the term gets applied to any creative endeavor that seems to have gone off the rails, particularly those that were once popular but no longer are as popular. Not sure the “Chicago P.D.” example qualifies since it sounds like the show is doing what it has always done rather than making a plot turn in a grasp for relevance or renewed popularity.
