WATERLOO ROAD JUMPS THE SHARK

Then

And so Waterloo Road ended. The once inventive and entertaining BBC light drama went out on a depressingly predictable shock ending. The final episode looked as if it had been cobbled together to just get it over with. All the standard cliches were there as the remnants of the original cast followed the storyline in all its loose end tidying predictability.

What was ultimately depressing, as we saw the run away truck heading for our heroes (conveniently posing for a group photo on the edge of the highway), was that this not inconsequential drama had been pretty good; it knew its limitations.

Waterloo Road had come out of nowhere and became a watchable tale of life in an urban school. Some of the young performers were pretty good and it's always good to see young talent starting out.The adult cast also used to contain a good repertoire from the Manchester acting world diluted over the years.

Like often happens, the last few seasons of this show had seen some outlandish story lines and it had simply run out of ideas. These ideas were then delivered as replacement for character.

So it ended on the Scottish border with a small group representing Waterloo Road about to be flattened by a runaway truck.

But the BBC has relocated the show to Scotland where further unbelievable topical issues will no doubt arise.
The shark was seriously jumped last night though; which is a pity.

now