Shark Bytes

this show was excellent, and would have lasted quite a while if given the chance. i have always been a chris carter fan since the x-files and i love all his shows. millenium was a great series as well and i always thought it never got the devotion it deserved. thank god for dvd series collections. peace to all.

Although not germane to the quality of the series, let's tackle the "never found by viewers" saw. 7.5 million people saw the premiere. Admittedly, not a lot. The important thing is that this figure went down to 4.9 million for episode two, and to 3.7 for episode three, at which point Fox canceled it. That is, Fox's decision seems to have been based less on viewers failing to find it, and more on nearly half of those viewers who did find it, leaving it within two weeks. I always thought one of the reasons for the dismal failure of "Dark Skies" was that it imitated "The X-Files" without the realization that after that show, the public may not feel it wants to see *more* government conspiracy theories. If true, Chris Carter might have fallen into his own trap with this one. The series might have been able to overcome this hurdle if only it had had SOME personality, SOME emotion, SOME wit. It all seemed to be performed in what psychologists call "blunted affect." Dude, harsh realm!

Whooosh! What was that? I was robbed. First, I get hit with these episodes where I am trying to figure out what happened, then they started resolving things by the third episode. Then, it was gone. They didn't give this show any time to work out the kinks or let us catch up during reruns. How many shows in TV history took more than one season to catch on? The problem with this one was, there would be no coming in late anyway because it would involve too much studying to catch up.

Great program!! I wish they would bring it back and give it another chance without airing at the same time as a major sporting event! D.B. Sweeney was awesome!!

Great sci-fi series was never given a chance be hack network executives. Terry O'Quinn was at his best as the villain Gen. Omar Santiago and great performances from D.B. Sweeney, Samantha Mathis and the rest of the cast. Thank God I have all nine episodes on tape but what I really want is closure for the story. To hell with Fox!

The FOX network pulled it after 3 episodes. Can't jump the shark if you never get aired. At least FX aired the other episodes that were already in the can. But could you imagine Robert Patrick in the DB Sweeny role?

Hey, what do I know?--I only worked on the show, that's all!! Here's the skinny on why it went down. It's true that some members of Fox's upper house aren't really into CC and his shows. Harsh Realm was deliberately positioned to air against Major League Baseball's final games, which surely killed it. Yes, it was rough around the edges, but the characters still needed to be developed. Fox gave that kind of time to X-files and Millennium, but not to HR. Somebody wanted to clip CC's wings. Up against baseball...coincidence? The truth is out there.

Harsh Realm never jumped the shark. Its best episodes were *after* the series was cancelled, when the last six filmed episodes aired on FX. "Manus Domini" was an Emmy-worthy performance by DB Sweeney, but he never had a chance to get nominated because only the devoted fans who followed it to FX ever saw the episode.

It never jumped! It never had the chance. You really had to see the first episode to know what was going on though. I loved the sound track during the action sequences and the episode where they were stuck in the bridge portion of the sim was great! (seen on FX). FOX or FX, bring it back!!!

Don't know what the hell jumping the shark is but I'd just like to say how harshly treated Harsh Realm was in Australia even though when we finally got to see it it was probably already canned in the U.S. I thought it was a brilliant new show that just wasn't given a chance. Over here it was aired at midnight on Friday/Saturday. What sort of time slot is that.

Harsh Realm was one of my favorite shows. I'm glad that I finally got to see all the episodes after a cable channel picked them up. The only downfall it ever had was the "X-files" syndrome known commonly as the "monster of the week" episodes. There were a couple of these that had me thinking that maybe they had good reason to not air these, but then the episode that started with showing Santiago as their prisoner got me right back glued to the screen. I wish this show had been given a chance because it could have been a hit.

A bit of trivia: The term "harsh realm" was dreamed up by a couple of writers as a spoof of Gen X slang. It was supposed to be said like, "Oh, bummer, dude!"...hence, "I'm busted, dude, harsh realm!" It's true. A really great sounding title, even so.

It was a great show that never even got a chance to jump the shark.

this show NEVER jumped the shark. nine episodes, and the greatest show ever. anyone who thinks otherwise can bite me.

Never! One could make the argument that the show went downhill when Hobbes had the chance to escape Harsh Realm and didn't take it, opting instead to stay in the Game to defeat Santiago. But this is really a series-defining plot/character choice, rather than a traditional shark-jump. HARSH REALM is one of the greatest tragedies in modern TV history. Its (incredibly) premature cancellation was in no way due to poor quality, but rather due to network politics: The then-president of FOX TV didn't like Carter or THE X-FILES; FOX severely underpromoted the show so that not even Carter/X-FILES fans knew what it was about or when it was on; and overall network ratings were so low at the start of the 99/00 season that execs at FOX panicked and pulled the plug on several under-performing new shows rather than giving them a chance to develop. But even in nine episodes, HARSH REALM demonstrated a distinct and intelligent style and innovative plot structure that many longer-running shows never achieve, ever. Also, D.B. Sweeney kicked ass as Mike Pinnochio!!