Shark Bytes

Well as many said, the show definitely JTS when the Stingers arrived. It just became too complex, unfocused, and the stories/songs became weak.

After watching this awful cartoon, I had nightmares about insects singing the song "Don't Bet On It" during a Raid commercial. And we all know what happens to bugs in the end, don't we? BLAM! RAID...Kills bugs dead!

I kinda missed the whole JEM craze. My big sister loved it though. She had the movie which was like the first 5 episodes and I don't think I will ever forget it. The two of us watched it so many times that the VCR ate it. We also had like two episodes taped. Other than that I can't remember watching any of the other episodes which my parents and big sis said I loved. This year my friend who also apparently loved it but didn't remember it and I, finally managed to get ahold the DVDs and have seen them all. Perhaps maybe none of you did that but if you had you would see the stingers were needed. You needed a male voice and they brought more to the story line. Jem and the misfits just did the same thing over and over again. You needed the new group to mix things up, because frankly after watching episode after episode you noticed a pattern that got old after a while.

After watching Jem on youtube, the cartoon reminds me of a typical Mexican and Colombian telenovela. Jem followed the typical telenovela format because Jem was a good hearted heroine and Pizzazz was a black hearted villainess. This is a good thing about the cartoon. The cartoon also reminds me of classic Disney movies such as Snow White and 7 Dwarfs, Sleeping Beauty and Little Mermaid. The music was really great especially from The Misfits. I praised the fact that they had a Hispanic character named Raya in the Holograms. Jetta was also an excellent addition to the show because she also had a true villainous character like Pizzazz. However, there were characters I could not stand like Kimber from Holograms because she acted like a spoiled brat at times, Jerrica was truly boring which is understandable why she should be Jem all the time and Roxy from the Misfits who was like a dumb and mean-spirited copycat. Stormer was not right for the Misfits even though she is a Misfit in her own way because she was sweet and gentle unlike her cohorts Pizzazz, Roxy and Jetta. I felt that she was more out of place with the Misfits because they steal and lie. The Stingers were an excellent addition to the cartoon. All in all, the cartoon never jumped in my opinion.

The show severely jumped the shark in the one episode where they go back in time due to a machine Techrat invented. What on earth was up with that - Techrat and Eric Raymond could have taken over the world at that point nevermind messing with a few musicians.

Me and my friends are jem girls-aw yeah! Can't say it ever jumped the shark for me but I did notice -not to repeat, the repeated, but I noticeD Synergy kind of took a back seat to the Styngers. You didn't see her that much. And the cast did get a little crowded. The SONG THAT JUMPED THE SHARK was the JEM JAM---OOOOH THAT SONG WAS AWFUL.

The Stingers ruined the show. Nothing to like about them, period. Viewers could not understand why the other characters would be so taken in by a bunch of ugly losers.

i agree with most others, the show jumped the shark with Jetta and Raya, and then totally lost focus when they added the Stingers. An already complex story was made even muddier with uncompelling characters.

the knee jerk reaction would be to say when the Stingers appeared. I used to not like the Stingers and thought that they did take something away from the entertaining and fully developed Misfits.

But after rewatching a few episodes, the Stingers weren't so bad. Riot was annoying and his storyline practically ruined the Jerrica/Jem balance, but Rapture and Minx were hilarious characters. Rapture scaring the crap out of the little Starlight girl is classic.

What's kind of fun is the number of pop singers in their 20's that worshipped Jem when they were kids. All of the young Destiny's Child girls loved Jem and Pink said she used to play Jem with her friends on the playground.

I love Jem, I'm sorry to punk enthusiasts that they stole a name, I understand that it had some of the most ridiculous premises for shows (President of the US gets kidnapped, Misfits don't go to jail for the several murder attempts on the girls, they seem to travel back in time for a Robin Hood episode but then again they dont- what was going on there?) and I know that a lot of the music was cheesy.

But I loved that the dolls were wierd looking and unique. I loved a lot of the songs- I mean, look at the quality of most songs for kids' shows and you'll see how good Jem could be. I enjoyed that it was trying to portray characters with a little depth- like how the girls dealt with their grief from losing both their parents young.

It was colourful, campy, outrageous and glorius. I would love to see a revival (or at least the third season DVD finished) but even if I don't, it will remain a treasured show from my childhood!

The Stingers joining, definitely. Completely ruined the Misfits characters, who were far more likeable.

JEM would never have jumped had The Stingers not appeared. When they came on The Misfits were pushed into the background and given far less airtime. Not only that but The Stingers themselves were complete @$$holes! Riot was chauvanistic, Rapture was just pure evil, and Minx was...well Minx I can tolerate somewha because she actually tried to redeem herself in the episode that focused on her.

I have been a lifelong Jem fan. I DO think the show jumped the shark after the 3-part segment on "Starbright" the Jem movie. In my opinion, the music went downhill after that, especially for Jem. In the first eight episodes of the series we got the greatest hits of Jem such as "Only the Beginning", "Truly Outrageous", "Jealousy" and "People Who Care". In later episodes the 'hits' were few and far between. (One reviewer mentions "Dear Diary", a definite flop if it were a single.) The early Misfits songs were better too but some of the later ones seemed to hold up better than the Jem songs. In my opinion, the songs of the Stingers weren't much of an improvement and I have forgotten most of them except "All in the Style".

Jem never jumped. It stands firm as a show that, even though it was created by Hasbro as a 30-minute commercial for their new doll line, from the get-go was developed by Christy Marx as a plausible world with multi-layered characters. Because it was designed to promote the toys, the writers were at the mercy of Hasbro and required to introduce new characters (Raya, Jetta, Astral, Regine, The Stingers). But to that end, they did a superb job of fitting them into the storylines and fleshing them out. Someone compared Jem to other 'Rainbow fluff-type' shows of the time like Carebears and Rainbow Brite, but did those shows ever explain that a character's deep-seeded need for attention stems from a mother who abandoned her as a child and a workaholic father (like Pizzazz)? Did they tackle adult illiteracy (Roxy), teenage drug use (Laura), or attempted suicide (Minx)? Jem is a show full of such rich characters, that I think much of it was lost on the young children the show was originally aimed for. With its recent DVD release, I hope many fans who loved the show for it's pop influence, fun music, and colorful characters will rediscover just how much deeper these characters are. It is, as some people had mentioned, a sort of soap opera, filled with drama, adventure, romance, and depth. As for the introduction of The Stingers, it was sadly at a bit of expense of the Misfits' airtime, but the Stingers were more sinister, psychologically menacing foes, choosing to play "Mind Games" (loved that song!) rather than simply stealing Jem and the Holograms' instruments and throwing them off a cliff Throw in the romantic entanglements offered by Riot and Minx to the existing Jem/Rio/Jerrica triangle, and The Stingers make for a very interesting new addition to the show. Sigh...I only wish they'd been on longer. If any episode came close to jumping, I'd say the Shangri-La episode (though based on the classic novel 'Lost Horizons') didn't translate so well in Jem's world. But I still contend that Jem didn't actually jump...she might have just hopped a little :P

OK, I must preface this comment by saying that I loved Jem when I was a kid. However, if Jerrica and Jem were the same person, don't you think she would have gotten mad that Rio was dating them both?