This “let’s skip to the good stuff” attitude is why Sons of Anarchy leapt ahead 14 months to jump over the time the crew spent in prison. We’d much rather see SAMCRO out causing havoc on the road than ruling the roost behind bars. The real question with this brand of time jump, though, is whether these short cuts feel earned. This is the “have your cake and eat it too” approach to storytelling. Leslie Knope should have a family, Carrie Mathison needs an unbreakable connection to Brody, the outlaws of Charming, California, ought to have their misdeeds catch up to them at some point. All that happens without any of the narrative downsides of slowing our characters down from doing what they do best. But is that honest storytelling? Skipping the rough stuff?

This, right here, is my favorite time of the year. What, you thought the return of the pumpkin spice latte was the best part of fall? Think again, friends. Summer may be over, but the fall TV season is officially in session. We kick off slow tonight with Boardwalk Empire, but brace yourself for two solid months of season and series premieres.

Whatever your particular poison may be –– comfortable, familiar comedies or edgy, new dramas –– fall TV has you covered. HBO unveiled a pulse-pounding look at what’s on their slate this fall and in among the Beyoncé, the returning TV shows, and last year’s blockbusters you’ll spot a familiar friend.

This Sunday, HBO’s series Boardwalk Empire returns for the last time. After three seasons spent in the roaring 20s, the fourth and final one jumps an astonishing seven years forward in time to bring us to 1931. The change is somewhat alarming: some regular characters won’t even be around this season. But it’s also only one of many time jumps we’ve seen on television this year. In fact, the time jump has become so prevalent it’s become a bona-fide TV trend. From cheery sitcoms like How I Met Your Mother and Parks and Recreation to dreary crime dramas like True DetectiveFargo, time, as the song says, keeps on slipping into the future. And while the time-jump gimmick is sometimes just that—a gimmick—it can be deployed deftly and artistically. Here’s a look at the various reasons the time jump has been deployed in recent TV history. What’s clear is that even though it works very well sometimes, like any TV trend, the time jump is in danger of wearing out its welcome.

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But, ultimately, it was completely satisfactory and actually proved to be the unlikely inspiration for the Parks and Recreation jump. Why did this reboot of sorts succeed where the others failed? Actions had consequences, and characters were consistent.
TIE UP LOOSE ENDS
The time jump is a mainstay of series finales. Shows like Weeds and The Killing both tacked on some rather ham-fisted jumps to force a strong resolution for their messed-up characters. Dawson’s Creek spent jumped five years in the future in order to bump off poor Jen Lindley (what did she ever do to you, show?) and resolve, at long last, the love triangle between Pacey, Joey, and Dawson. But once again, these huge jumps rob us of the opportunity to bear witness to these adrift characters finally getting their shit together. That clumsy romantic spin on a platonic relationship in the coda of The Killing was the textbook definition of unearned.
But the show that got this particular move right is Six Feet Under, which didn’t try to explain “what it’s all about.” After having flirted with a more standard time jump earlier in the run, Six Feet Under just gave us a very tender (and wisely wordless) goodbye to all the characters we had come to love. Leaving it up to the audience to interpret how and why the Fishers ended the way they did is the smartest move in a show full of smart moves.

This “let’s skip to the good stuff” attitude is why Sons of Anarchy leapt ahead 14 months to jump over the time the crew spent in prison. We’d much rather see SAMCRO out causing havoc on the road than ruling the roost behind bars. The real question with this brand of time jump, though, is whether these short cuts feel earned. This is the “have your cake and eat it too” approach to storytelling. Leslie Knope should have a family, Carrie Mathison needs an unbreakable connection to Brody, the outlaws of Charming, California, ought to have their misdeeds catch up to them at some point. All that happens without any of the narrative downsides of slowing our characters down from doing what they do best. But is that honest storytelling? Skipping the rough stuff?

THE HAIL MARY

For some shows the time jump serves as a narrative Hail Mary to inject life into a worn-out, non-functional plot. This was the case with Desperate Housewives, One Tree Hill, and True Blood, all of which managed to buy a little more time to spin their soapy yarns. In fact, in leaping straight from high school to post-college (a “skipping the rough stuff” of sorts), One Tree Hill bought itself several more seasons. But more often than not this feels like the most disingenuous kind of jump. The life changes here feel completely unearned. A 22 year-old kid is now a highly successful novelist on One Tree Hill? Sam became the mayor on True Blood? Everyone on Desperate Housewives played a game of shuffle-the spouse? This kind of jump is a free pass for the writers to do whatever they want without ever having to satisfactorily explain how and why these characters got here.

On a soap, where character consistency and accountability is never the order of the day, those dots are harder to connect. But there is one example where this risky move paid off. That would be Battlestar Galactica, which skipped right out of the dreary colonization plot and right into an exciting Cylon invasion plot one year later. Sure, this move was not without its gimmicks. We all remember fat Lee Adama, don’t we?

This Sunday, HBO’s series Boardwalk Empire returns for the last time. After three seasons spent in the roaring 20s, the fourth and final one jumps an astonishing seven years forward in time to bring us to 1931. The change is somewhat alarming: some regular characters won’t even be around this season. But it’s also only one of many time jumps we’ve seen on television this year. In fact, the time jump has become so prevalent it’s become a bona-fide TV trend. From cheery sitcoms like How I Met Your Mother and Parks and Recreation to dreary crime dramas like True DetectiveFargo, time, as the song says, keeps on slipping into the future. And while the time-jump gimmick is sometimes just that—a gimmick—it can be deployed deftly and artistically. Here’s a look at the various reasons the time jump has been deployed in recent TV history. What’s clear is that even though it works very well sometimes, like any TV trend, the time jump is in danger of wearing out its welcome.

BECAUSE IT’S OH-SO MYSTERIOUS

One of the most undeniably popular storytelling structures of the modern era is the mystery story. I don’t mean a Law & Order whodunit that even grandma can solve in under an hour. I mean a week-in, week-out bona-fide head scratcher that keeps audiences engaged. “How did Ted meet the mother and who the heck is she?” turned a gentle sitcom into a national obsession. Ditto for our collective fascination with True Detective, which presented one fairly basic mystery (Who is the Yellow King?, etc.), but hooked us all on the bigger mystery of “how did Matthew McConaughey’s Rust Cohle go from sexy, clean-cut weirdo to ponytailed head case?”

REX USA/MOVIESTORE COLLECTION/REX

The Wire is often called the greatest TV show of all time, so we’re going to assume you’ve probably seen it. But just in case you never quite got around to watching and have been faking it for years at cocktail and dinner parties, now’s your chance. HBO is running digitally remastered versions of the series every weeknight starting this Thursday, September 4. Set your DVRs and in 12 weeks we’ll all be sharing Omar’s last cheese stands alone moment together.
It’s tempting to think that this rewatch event is inspired by the smash success of the recent Every Simpsons Ever marathon, but given the digitally remastered angle, it’s clear this plan has been in the works for awhile. It also may mean that HBO will finally release The Wire on Blu-Ray, having just announced the release of The Sopranos. However long HBO has had these plans in the works, this kind of coordinated rewatch will inevitably draw comparisons to the national fascination with The Simpsons that dominated the end of this summer. The nostalgia factor won’t be as high, and the quoting game won’t be quite as fun, be I do look forward to “you come at the king, you best not miss” making its way back into every day conversation.

There are pleasures to be had in a marathon of The Wire, whether this is your first time or your fiftieth. Beyond the superficial joys of seeing actors like Michael B. Jordan and Idris Elba at the beginning of their careers, there’s the deeper realization that the passionate appeals for social justice in David Simon’s show are as applicable today as it ever was.