Skip to content

Top Navigation

EW.com EW.com
    • All TV
    • TV Reviews
    • TV Reunions
    • Recaps
    • What to Watch
    • Animated
    • Comedy
    • Crime
    • Drama
    • Family
    • Horror
    • Reality
    • Sci-fi
    • Thriller
    • All Movies
    • Movie Reviews
    • Trailers
    • Film Festivals
    • Movie Reunions
    • Movie Previews
    • All Music
    • Music Reviews
    • All What to Watch
    • What to Watch Podcast Episodes
    • TV Reviews
    • Movie Reviews
    • All BINGE
    • EW's Binge Podcast Episodes
    • Recaps
    • Survivor
    • This is Us
    • RuPaul's Drag Race
    • Stranger Things
    • The Boys
    • The Blacklist
    • The Walking Dead
    • Better Call Saul
    • All The Awardist
    • The Awardist Podcast Episodes
    • Oscars
    • Emmys
    • Golden Globes
    • SAG Awards
    • Grammys
    • Tony Awards
    • All Books
    • Book Reviews
    • Author Interviews
    • All Theater
    • Theater Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • Gaming
    • All Events
    • Comic-Con
  • Celebrity
  • Streaming

Profile Menu

Your Profile

Account

  • Join Now
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletter
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Logout
Login
Subscribe

Explore EW.com

EW.com EW.com
  • Explore

    Explore

    • Hell-raisers: The Boys season 3 shakes up prestige TV with superhero debauchery

      Hell-raisers: The Boys season 3 shakes up prestige TV with superhero debauchery

      Just because they're Emmy nominated doesn't mean The Boys are pulling their punches. Here, the team dives into what might be "the most insane season of TV ever filmed." Read More
    • Your guide to 2022's biggest tours

      Your guide to 2022's biggest tours

      From Billie Eilish and Bad Bunny to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Weeknd, here are all the artists who can't wait to get on the road again. Read More
    • Ready for takeoff! We drank 3 rounds with the hotshot cast of Top Gun: Maverick

      Ready for takeoff! We drank 3 rounds with the hotshot cast of Top Gun: Maverick

      The actors playing the next generation of pilots in the action sequel felt the need for lots of cocktails. Read More
  • TV

    TV

    See All TV
    • TV Reviews
    • TV Reunions
    • Recaps
    • What to Watch
    • Animated
    • Comedy
    • Crime
    • Drama
    • Family
    • Horror
    • Reality
    • Sci-fi
    • Thriller
  • Movies

    Movies

    See All Movies
    • Movie Reviews
    • Trailers
    • Film Festivals
    • Movie Reunions
    • Movie Previews
  • Music

    Music

    See All Music
    • Music Reviews
  • What to Watch

    What to Watch

    See All What to Watch
    • What to Watch Podcast Episodes
    • TV Reviews
    • Movie Reviews
  • BINGE

    BINGE

    See All BINGE
    • EW's Binge Podcast Episodes
    • Recaps
    • Survivor
    • This is Us
    • RuPaul's Drag Race
    • Stranger Things
    • The Boys
    • The Blacklist
    • The Walking Dead
    • Better Call Saul
  • The Awardist

    The Awardist

    See All The Awardist
    • The Awardist Podcast Episodes
    • Oscars
    • Emmys
    • Golden Globes
    • SAG Awards
    • Grammys
    • Tony Awards
  • Books

    Books

    See All Books
    • Book Reviews
    • Author Interviews
  • Theater

    Theater

    See All Theater
    • Theater Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • Gaming
  • Events

    Events

    See All Events
    • Comic-Con
  • Celebrity
  • Streaming

Profile Menu

Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
Your Profile

Account

  • Join Now
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletter
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Logout
Login
Sweepstakes

Follow Us

  1. Home
  2. Gallery
  3. 10 Best/5 Worst TV Series' Time Jumps

10 Best/5 Worst TV Series' Time Jumps

''Parks and Recreation'' pulls off a leap into the future; see others that found a better tomorrow, some that left better days behind them
By EW Staff Updated January 14, 2015 at 02:00 AM EST
Skip gallery slides
FB

1 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

BEST: Parks and Recreation

Parks And Rec Moving Up
Credit: NBC

Episode: ''Moving Up,'' 2014
As soon as Leslie moved into her dream office—the third floor of Pawnee's City Hall—to start her dream job with the National Parks Service, Parks and Recreation pulled everyone three years into the future. The show bypassed the struggles that come with opening a new branch of government and leapt right into a world that Leslie absolutely owned. Suddenly, she and her power haircut and her power husband were taking names and canceling flights and firing Jon Hamm like it was just another day. Anything could happen (and her kids were adorable). —Kelly Connolly

1 of 15

Advertisement
Advertisement

2 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

BEST: Mad Men

Episode: ''For Those Who Think Young,'' 2008 Life's prosaic realities drive Mad Men and—occasional tractor or nipple aside—the passage of time is its bread andÂ…
Credit: Carin Baer/AMC

Episode: ''For Those Who Think Young,'' 2008
Life's prosaic realities drive Mad Men and—occasional tractor or nipple aside—the passage of time is its bread and butter. Matthew Weiner ended ''The Wheel'' with Don Draper's Thanksgiving 1960 blues and a killer Dylan montage, then catapulted his characters 14 months forward. That lengthy jump would demolish most plots, but Mad Men is a character study—and realistic people take time to grow. ''For Those Who Think Young'' picks up the Sterling Cooper crew where viewers left them. But while Peggy's still driven, Pete's still a dick, and Don's still mysterious, they've all evolved enough to inspire curiosity about where they've been and where they'll go next. —Eric Renner Brown

2 of 15

3 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

BEST: Alias

Episode: ''The Telling,'' 2003 After a knock-down fight with the woman she thought was her roommate, Sydney passed out on her apartment floor and wokeÂ…
Credit: Richard Cartwright/ABC

Episode: ''The Telling,'' 2003
After a knock-down fight with the woman she thought was her roommate, Sydney passed out on her apartment floor and woke up in Hong Kong, where Vaughn came to meet her—wearing a wedding ring. She'd been missing for almost two years. It took half of the next season to solve the mystery of Sydney's lost time (captured and forced to go undercover, she erased her own memories to bury a secret and return to her old life), and while later years never reached the height of the first two seasons, ''The Telling'' was Alias at its bold and twisty best. —Kelly Connolly

3 of 15

Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

4 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

BEST: Battlestar Galactica

Episode: ''Lay Down Your Burdens,'' 2006 Battlestar 's season 2 finale had already shaken up plenty of things over two episodes: a new president, aÂ…
Credit: Carole Segal/Syfy

Episode: ''Lay Down Your Burdens,'' 2006
Battlestar's season 2 finale had already shaken up plenty of things over two episodes: a new president, a habitable planet to settle, and a new life for many of its characters. But then the words ''One Year Later'' appear on screen, and everything changes as the Cylons arrive to occupy the human settlement, setting up one of the most politically charged and thrilling story lines the show would ever see. —Joshua Rivera

4 of 15

Advertisement

5 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

BEST: Masters of Sex

Episode: ''Asterion,'' 2014 Masters saved its big time jump for the middle of its second season. While some temporal leaps leave the skipped-over period somethingÂ…
Credit: Michael Desmond/SHOWTIME

Episode: ''Asterion,'' 2014
Masters saved its big time jump for the middle of its second season. While some temporal leaps leave the skipped-over period something of a mystery, the Showtime drama touched on three years over the course of one episode in elegant fashion, bounding from 1958 to 1960. The jump helped the show move closer to some of Masters and Johnson's real-life milestones. —Esther Zuckerman

5 of 15

6 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

BEST: Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad | Season 5, episode 8 As ''Crystal Blue Persuasion'' plays in the background, Walt builds up his empire with Todd?until Skyler forces him to realize he'sÂ…
Credit: AMC

Episode: ''Gliding Over All,'' 2012
In the show's fifth midseason finale, Walt strikes a deal with Lydia to take his blue product to the Czech Republic. We fast forward through several months of booming business to the tune of ''Crystal Blue Persuasion,'' watching a sarcastically cheery montage of Walt cooking up meth and counting cash day after day, not once seeing his kids. The time jump perfectly encapsulated how monotonous, detached, lonely, and money-obsessed Walt has become. The episode ends with Walt declaring that he's out of the meth game—which we might believe, if there weren't eight episodes of Bad left. —Carolyn Todd

6 of 15

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

7 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

BEST: Fringe

Episode: ''Transilience Throught Unifier Model-11,'' 2012 First previewed in the season 4 episode ''Letters of Transit,'' Fringe 's final season time jump saw the plotÂ…
Credit: Liane Hentscher/FOX

Episode: ''Transilience Throught Unifier Model-11,'' 2012
First previewed in the season 4 episode ''Letters of Transit,'' Fringe's final season time jump saw the plot accelerate 20 years into the future while its entire cast was trapped in suspended animation. The following episodes would be equal parts fun and frustrating, not giving very many answers but serving as a fitting celebration of Fringe's universe of science-gone-wrong. —Joshua Rivera

7 of 15

Advertisement
Advertisement

8 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

BEST: Lost

Episode: ''Through the Looking Glass,'' 2007 Flashbacks were a part of Lost 's DNA from the start, and the season 3 finale seemed to giveÂ…
Credit: ABC

Episode: ''Through the Looking Glass,'' 2007
Flashbacks were a part of Lost's DNA from the start, and the season 3 finale seemed to give us more of the same. A drunken, depressed Jack struggled to keep it together on a plane, cried over an obituary, and would have committed suicide if not for his savior complex. When he called Kate to meet him at the airport (''We have to go back!''), the game changed—these were flashforwards. They were also proof that at least some survivors would make it off the Island, though there was no telling who, when, or how. —Kelly Connolly

8 of 15

Advertisement

9 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

BEST: Fargo

Image
Credit: Chris Large/FX

Episode: ''The Heap,'' 2014
It's a bold move to skip an entire year's worth of story in an episode that's neither a premiere nor a finale, especially for a series in its maiden season—but then, Fargo is a bold show. The jump indicated creator Noah Hawley's willingness to take risks and also allowed the show to explore several fun possibilities (Molly and Gus are married—and she's pregnant, just like the original Fargo's Marge! Lester's become a hotshot salesman with a hot young wife!) before reaching its appropriately bloody conclusion. —Hillary Busis

9 of 15

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

10 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

BEST: Dawson's Creek

Episode: ''All Good Things,'' 2003 How do you wrap up six soapy seasons of aquatic drama—long after a show's stars have grown to look muchÂ…
Credit: The WB

Episode: ''All Good Things,'' 2003
How do you wrap up six soapy seasons of aquatic drama—long after a show's stars have grown to look much older than their college-age characters and its verbose dialogue has lost its luster? Just thrust the action forward by five years, solving the aging problem and ditching the series' dreary college setting in one fell swoop. The jump allowed Dawson's to get away from the campus storylines that had stopped it in its tracks, focusing instead on the core four and their relationships to one another—and finally, finally bringing the endless Dawson/Joey/Pacey love triangle to an end. —Hillary Busis

10 of 15

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

11 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

WORST: True Blood

Image
Credit: John P. Johnson/HBO

Episode: ''Radioactive,'' 2013
After an entire season of buildup, the end of the show's sixth year saw the end of Warlow. The bad news: Warlow's death took away the vampires' ability to walk in the sun, leaving Eric to burn all alone on a mountaintop in Sweden. But instead of ending on that cliffhanger, True Blood decided to jump six months ahead, giving viewers an entirely new cliffhanger. Suddenly, Bill was a writer, Merlotte's was Bellefleur's, Sookie and Alcide were living together, and Sam was the Mayor. It was a quick and lazy way for the show to advance the Hepatitis-V storyline, and it began Blood's last season on a sour note. —Samantha Highfill

11 of 15

Advertisement
Advertisement

12 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

WORST: One Tree Hill

Episode: ''4 Years, 6 Months, 2 Days,'' 2008 One Tree Hill was, for a while, a show about teenagers—until it skipped ahead four years atÂ…
Credit: Fred Norris/The CW

Episode: ''4 Years, 6 Months, 2 Days,'' 2008
One Tree Hill was, for a while, a show about teenagers—until it skipped ahead four years at the beginning of season 5, only to find the characters all grown up. The series lasted until 2012, but the big move killed its spirit. One Tree Hill was supposed to be about relatable teen angst and aww-worthy sentimentality—not failed dreams and marital problems. —Ariana Bacle

12 of 15

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

13 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

WORST: Desperate Housewives

Episode: ''Free,'' 2008 By the time it reached the end of its fourth season, ABC's primetime soap had burned through more stories than the firemenÂ…
Credit: Craig Sjodin/ABC

Episode: ''Free,'' 2008
By the time it reached the end of its fourth season, ABC's primetime soap had burned through more stories than the firemen of Fahrenheit 451. Which meant some kind of reboot was necessary—but even after skipping ahead five years, the sudsy drama's attempts at sensational storylines still seemed a little, well, desperate. Plus: Mike and Susan are forced apart again? Come on! —Hillary Busis

13 of 15

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

14 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

WORST: Arrested Development

Episode: ''Flight of the Phoenix,'' 2013 When fans campaigned to get Arrested Development back, they wanted the AD they knew and loved. What they gotÂ…
Credit: Michael Yarish/Netflix

Episode: ''Flight of the Phoenix,'' 2013
When fans campaigned to get Arrested Development back, they wanted the AD they knew and loved. What they got instead was a new season that picked up seven years after the last left off, one that rarely featured the ensemble cast together in scenes—which emphasized the sad truth: Arrested Development will never be the same as it once was. —Ariana Bacle

14 of 15

Advertisement
Advertisement

15 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

WORST: Glee

Episode: ''Loser Like Me,'' 2014 Here's what you missed on Glee : when the hell this show is supposed to be taking place. (It's beenÂ…
Credit: Jennifer Clasen/Fox

Episode:''Loser Like Me,'' 2014
Here's what you missed on Glee: when the hell this show is supposed to be taking place. (It's been an open question since the finale of season 4, which really threw things out of whack.) Attempts at keeping the main cast involved in the show's action have led to all kinds of timeline weirdness, most recently a lurch forward past the conception, filming, and premiere of Rachel's unsuccessful TV series. Surprise: The jump eventually finds her back in Lima, coaching her old high school glee club. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Now, if only we knew how old Rachel's supposed to be at this point... —Hillary Busis

15 of 15

Advertisement
Advertisement
Replay gallery

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook

Up Next

By EW Staff

    Share the Gallery

    Pinterest Facebook
    Trending Videos
    Advertisement
    Skip slide summaries

    Everything in This Slideshow

    Advertisement

    View All

    1 of 15 BEST: Parks and Recreation
    2 of 15 BEST: Mad Men
    3 of 15 BEST: Alias
    4 of 15 BEST: Battlestar Galactica
    5 of 15 BEST: Masters of Sex
    6 of 15 BEST: Breaking Bad
    7 of 15 BEST: Fringe
    8 of 15 BEST: Lost
    9 of 15 BEST: Fargo
    10 of 15 BEST: Dawson's Creek
    11 of 15 WORST: True Blood
    12 of 15 WORST: One Tree Hill
    13 of 15 WORST: Desperate Housewives
    14 of 15 WORST: Arrested Development
    15 of 15 WORST: Glee

    Share & More

    Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message
    EW.com

    Magazines & More

    Learn More

    • Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
    • Advertise this link opens in a new tab
    • Content Licensing this link opens in a new tab
    • Accolades this link opens in a new tab

    Connect

    Subscribe to Our Newsletter
    Meredith© Copyright 2022 Meredith Corporation. Entertainment Weekly is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. Entertainment Weekly may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Privacy Policythis link opens in a new tab Terms of Servicethis link opens in a new tab Ad Choicesthis link opens in a new tab California Do Not Sellthis link opens a modal window Web Accessibilitythis link opens in a new tab
    © Copyright EW.com. All rights reserved. Printed from https://ew.com

    View image

    10 Best/5 Worst TV Series' Time Jumps
    this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines.