Girl talk

Is it possible for a TV series to "jump the shark" in only its second season? Human Target, my favorite new action spree of 2010 and FOX's obvious hope to succeed Kiefer Sutherland's 24 for testosterone-driven, blow-'em-up, male fantasy appeal, returns with fresh episodes at 8 tonight (Channel 2 in Detroit). The show has undergone significant changes since last we saw it, and they are not changes for the better. But before we get into a discussion about how girls ruin everything, let's first define that shark expression for the benefit of the uninitiated.

People who work in or around television are often insular enough to assume everyone understands their esoteric lingo, and it's amazing that a phrase originated from a sitcom episode in 1977 still holds meaning. "Jumping the shark" refers to the climactic moment of a three-part episode that opened the fifth season of Happy Days on ABC. The gang leaves the malt shop to visit Hollywood, and Fonzie (Henry Winkler, now doing insurance commercials for seniors), wearing his leather jacket over swimming trunks, answers a challenge to his manhood by waterskiing over a confined shark. The saying refers to that moment in a show's life when you know its premise has made a sharp turn in direction, started its downward trend and never will be quite the same again. Human Target may already be at that point.

Based loosely on a popular comic book of the same name, Human Target has the same outrageous, fanciful spirit. Soldier of fortune Christopher Chance (Mark Valley) gallivants around the world protecting clients from certain death by having assassins go through him to get to their quarry, along the way surviving enough gun battles, hand-to-hand brawls and death-defying leaps to make James Bond jealous. It's mindless entertainment, brain candy. Guys like mindless, but apparently not in large enough numbers to impress a network. The show's first-season ratings were so-so, especially for a series that premiered alongside the last season of 24, and Human Target spent the summer sweating out rumors of cancellation.

I can almost hear the FOX boardroom executive now. "You know what else guys like? Women! What this show needs is more women!" And so the female quotient of series regulars has been increased 200 percent — from none to two. After the kidnapping of Chance's handler-boss Winston (Chi McBride) is quickly resolved from last season's cliffhanger, we're introduced to Ilsa Pucci (Indira Varma, Luther), a billionaire British widow whose life may be in danger from the same forces that offed her husband. By the end of tonight's episode, like old Victor Kiam years ago on those Remington shaver commercials, she likes the job Chance does so much that she buys the company. Her financial boost takes the operation's loft headquarters from shabby rattrap to ultra-high-tech command center, losing a measure of unique cachet in the process.

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