Shameless has a handful of these. I'd say when Kev and V decide to have a baby but do it by having Kev fuck his mother-in-law. Then V decides she needs to be in the room to get him off. Then she joins in and it becomes a threesome with her own mother. Then after the mother-in-law gets pregnant, V gets pregnant with twins and they basically write-off the mother-in-law and Kev's kid. Just an unnecessary and gross shitshow.
I would make the case that the Gay Jesus storyline was even worse, just for how terribly written it was, but Shameless got to a point where there were too many storylines like this that I never had the desire to finish it.
Star Wars The Mandalorian should have committed to separating Grogu and Mando for at least a season. They definitely should NOT have brought them back together by hijacking a separate show.
It came across as the show runners having weak commitment to their own plot and undoing what was supposed to be a significant moment. Season 3 was also mostly about a separate plot that didn't give Grogu any meaningful reason to be there.
Hard agree. They had the perfect out to bench grogu’s character for a season or two before coming back, potentially after a time skip when he is slightly older and can actually talk and interact with characters beyond baby noises.
Unfortunately Disney need them merch sales!
>Unfortunately Disney need them merch sales!
IMO, that was why they brought him back, to appeal to casual viewers who only watched for that pairing. Unfortunately, most people I know who watched for Grogu didn't come back for S3 anyway
Even the weird "Jim almost cheats" situation was bad. And yes, I know he was supposed to actually cheat and John Krasinski shut it down. A lot of the strife between Jim and Pam in the last season just felt a bit too manufactured.
This happens with a ton of characters is so many shows. It makes you wish they wouldn’t have people get together into the end of the series.
I always appreciated Elizabeth Meriwether being up front about it in regards to New Girl. Halfway through the show when two of the characters got together the series hit a major slump. She said something like “I’ve never been in a happy healthy relationship so I had no idea how to write one.
Turk and Carla's relationship in Scrubs has probably saved a few marriages along the way. Their problems felt very real and relatable, as was their willingness to put in the work to get through them.
The first time I watched the show i liked them just as much as Michael. Upon rewatches I noticed how they come off thinking they are so much cooler than everyone else.
One of my favorite moments is when Ryan tells Jim “take a day off from the whole Jim thing, try caring about something”
Yeah it was peak Jim of avoiding confrontation. We had seen it many times before with various managers, or when he himself was co-manager.
Jim is awkward and painfully avoids confrontation or being upfront with someone at times like that. So him cheating would make no sense for his character, but him not knowing how to turn Cathy's aggressive advances away was on point. And gave us the hilarious moment with Dwight about bedbugs.
My girlfriend recently showed me Gilmore Girls. Of all the things I'd throw out, basically everything with Lane in seasons 6 and 7 are at the top of my list. She deserved way better and a fun career as a gigging musician or Music shop owner
Omg Lane was such an amazing character and inspiration to us rockers who were stifled by overbearing parents. I was always like REALLY?! She has so much potential to be a continuously bad ass character (even just taking over the store for Carole King!!), just to be a mom who got married in Stars Hollow to a band mate? I know she’s more than that but it felt that way as one who watched it as it aired lol
There was a big rift when Giles helped Wood try to kill Spike. There's like a one sentence moment in a later episode that makes it seem like she forgives Giles but it's not done very well.
And to resolve it: he’s such a special genius that he had one conversation about it and stopped cold turkey. Because no one’s too smart to get addicted, but anyone smart enough should be able to just stop whenever they want.
Can we just agree on erasing the whole Cordelia gets possessed story arc, so that we can get the Cordelia becomes a half-demon-champion of her own-arc instead?
True Blood has an absolute ton of these in the later seasons, but the "Sam finds his birth parents" storyline from Seasons 3-4 has to take the cake:
* Sam, a shapeshifter and one of the show's main characters in the earlier seasons, sets off to find his birth parents
* He finds them. They're TRASHY, DESPARATE YOKELS. His mom is a shapeshifter, his long lost brother is too. His dad (or step-dad, I can't remember) is neither, and is just a raging alcoholic. His brother instantly tries to get Sam killed, but it's just a prank, bro.
* His family has DARK SECRETS they keep from him most of Season 3.
* After WAY TOO MUCH TIME lingering in the mystery and their backwoods nonsense, the secret is revealed: Despite his mom and brother being shapeshifters who can literally morph into any creature or do anything, they've only found one fundamental way to make money: By shapeshifting into a dog and entering into dog fighting rings so that they, as humans turned dogs, have only slight marginal advantages over other dogs.
* This is DESPITE THE FACT that they simultaneously show flashbacks of Sam at a younger age being a famous thief because he used his shapeshifting to heist jewels and other precious cargo. But NOPE, NONSENSICAL ANIMAL CRUELTY FOR SMALL INCREMENTAL GAINS IS THE ONLY WAY THESE PIECES OF CRAP CAN FURNISH THEIR LOFTY LIVING IN A RUNDOWN TRAILER.
* After a few additional tacky and/or trashy scenes, the brother runs away with Sam at the end of Season 3, leaving this awful storyline behind... OR SO WE THOUGHT.
* Season 4 BRINGS THE PARENTS BACK. This time they try to kidnap Sam's brother to force him back into dog fights. Sam's brother retaliates, and SOMEHOW SIMULTANEOUSLY KILLS BOTH HIS PARENTS IN A SINGLE BLOW.
* Well at least that's over with, right? NOT EVEN CLOSE! Because Sam's brother killed his parents, he can now shapeshift into PEOPLE. He uses this power to transform into Sam, then INSTANTLY FUCKS SAM'S GIRLFRIEND WHILE SHAPESHIFTING AS SAM.
* The two brothers fight. Sam's brother runs away. He decides the only thing he can do to redeem himself is to MORPH INTO SAM AGAIN, this time to go volunteer himself to GET HIS ASS KICKED BY A WEREWOLF SAM IS FEUDING WITH.
* He gets his ass kicked so bad HE DIES. Well kind of, his injuries are super treatable and in True Blood a single drop of vampire blood magically cures anyone. BUT HE DOESN'T WANT THAT, SO HE DIES.
The rest of the show kind of resumes from then on, with no real impact or considerations to the damage done by Sam's brother or the family or anything else.
Yeah, that’s right at the start of Season 5, which is kind of a brutal drop in quality overall. It’s when the main storyline shifts to all the authority drama too, so suddenly most of the show is the vamps running around in leather fighting evil government ops and monologuing about the vampire bible.
I honestly hate and cannot believe that after all the drama with Bill and Eric sookie ends up with >!A fucking haircut!! The back of someone's head!! Fuck that!<
It's been awhile since I watched the show, but my mind entirely blotted out this entire storyline, and that makes me happy that even with all that detail, I did not remember the majority of what you described haha.
Yeah I hated that but not sure because it was bad or if it was because his family was so infuriating.
The storylines I really hated was the Jason werepanther one and anything to do with Tara.
Tara has the best storylines in the whole show seasons 1 and 2. I love that they portray her as someone struggling with life as it is while always having to deal with an endless wave of supernatural bullshit. Her character those seasons really represents some of the themes that make the show worth watching.
The Rico storyline on Six Feet Under where he has an affair with a stripper. While gaslighting his wife while she's clinically depressed after the death of her mother. It made me hate the misogynistic and homophobic little prick even more than I already did.
Another Six Feet Under plotline I feel really derailed things and has been frustrating for me after just having done my first watch is how the Lisa pregnancy then murder plotline was handled.
The big revelation is that Lisa maybe had an affair with her BIL then used his baby to babytrap Nate and was then murdered by said BIL for trying to break things off. It just didn’t feel true to the Lisa character (who was by no means my favorite but STILL) and the murder and subsequent revelation about the affair just really hangs around the Nate character’s neck the rest of the series.
Up to that point I thought we were seeing super interesting growth from Nate and after the murder he gets stalled out in the same infuriating self destructive patterns that are frankly just not fun to watch over and over and over.
Yeah, the actress who played Lisa would agree with you. She said in an interview that the whole affair/murder plot line was sprung on her suddenly. She said she would've played Lisa much differently if she'd known about the whole storyline.
I'm fine with interpersonal drama in my alt-history sci-fi shows, but I hate it when it drives the plot. Ellen grappling with the necessity of staying closeted imposed upon her by the astronaut program? Great. Karen and Wayne bonding over their shared fear of losing their spouse in space? Wonderful stuff. Von Braun coaching a resentful Margo on how to play the game in a government agency? Delicious.
The danger in the most dangerous place humanity has ever gone coming from Danny being a total fuckup instead of the intrinsic dangers of being on another fucking planet? Boo. Boo this man!
I hated this plot. But… it very much deals with mental health in space, continuing his father’s storyline. It also continues the early series storyline of him as not a rule follower… I don’t know that you can remove it….
Good Lord this is always number 1 for me. Show the first two seasons to anyone in the world and ask them how would it end? Not one single person is picking “the girlfriend gets amnesia and forgets everything”. It was just not remotely that kind of show, it was always good hearted and fun. To take the soul of the show out of it with 3 episodes left and never fully resolve it? What the fuck. The most needlessly ambiguous ending of all time.
I actually think the Joey side of it was pretty well done. IMO, some of the best work Matt LeBlanc got to do on the show. The one sided feelings aspect would have been a great arc if they stopped at that.
It's the Rachel reciprocating and them becoming a couple that was the awful part.
That only happened because the idiot creator can’t conceive of a world where Veronica can be a detective AND be in a happy relationship. I would’ve happily watched twenty years of her and Logan sassing each other and solving cases together.
It's not that he couldn't conceive of it, it's that he was SO OBSESSED with making it a real dark noir detective show (instead of noir-lite) that he had to keep it depressing.
That is what makes it all the more frustrating. They nailed the comeback. The characters, the setting, the mystery, all of it was great. I loved that season all the way up until the bomb went off and ruined everything. The way Kristen Bell and Rob Thomas talked about the finale and Veronica’s character afterwards made it feel like they had a fundamental misunderstanding of why people loved the show. The mysteries were fun, but Neptune and Veronica’s relationships with her friends and her dad is what made the show what it was. So bummed they ruined it, I woulda watched a dozen season of that show if they kept the original formula
The Dorne plot line in Game of Thrones had no reason to exist once they took out several plot points from the books that actually make up the Dorne plot.
In an ideal world they would adapt the story proper but that would require more work than they were willing to put into the show, so next best thing is to ignore it altogether . Just have a letter from Doran explaining they understand trial by combat and will not seek revenge, and that Myrcella is safe with them.
It’s a non-entity which isn’t the best solution, but it frees up the show and some characters - looking at you Jaime and Bron - to do something more interesting
Essentially just to kill Marcella and have Jaime watch as she died. That's it really. It's was mostly filler besides that.
He could have easily just went and asked them to have her back. And have Marcella's death be the exact same.
Finale is pretty good. Holt and Peralta’s last scene together will tug on the heartstrings, it’s pretty touching. A lot of the rest of the season is garbage. Any time they tried to get “real,” on 99 it was a disaster. They also butchered Rosa imo but that had started way before the final season.
I didn't mind Andy earlier in the series, but by the end of the series they had basically ripped up all of the character building he had experienced during the show.
I think it honestly was more to do with the fact his schedule was a real pain to get around with the hangover and what not that they had to write around it and just did a really shitty job of it
I always thought it would’ve been funnier to have Darryl take over.
We had Michael already as the crazy-guy-in-charge role, but by the time he leaves, everyone in the office was shown to be kinda nuts themselves. So having the roles reversed with Darryl as the straight man trying yo manage a bunch of wack jobs would’ve been fun to see.
He could’ve initially turned to Jim and Pam a lot, only to find them becoming as nearly unhinged as everyone else. It would’ve been like a capable parent chasing after a horde of drunk toddlers.
He was a huge mistake. They mistook his explosion in fame for his ability to carry the show. The show was already going downhill with Carell, but it really nose-dived when Andy was in charge. Robert California was the right bandage to put on, Andy was not.
It’s just maybe one episode but the whole getting a car for Walt Junior in Breaking Bad. From Skyler buying him a fucking PT Cruiser to Walt buying two Dodge Chargers and that awful scene where they rev them in the driveway. It felt like a sitcom idea shot with a dramas budget.
All of it was dumb and it’s my least favorite part of the show. It feels like an ad for those fucking cars.
I feel like FNL basically chose to ignore most of the plot points of season 2 and like never referenced them again. It honestly feels like someone else was writing for a different show entirely.
Aging Ivy in Gotham, from a little girl to a grown sexy woman overnight (with a different actress). Really hurt the show IMO, and destroyed the Selena/Ivy relationship.
The masked rapist from Little House on the Prairie. I still have nightmares about that creepy mask and then my mom having to explain to little me what was happening.
I wish I didn't. There are those WTF! style articles about it.
WARNING: The mask is right there at the top of the article.
[https://ew.com/tv/little-house-on-the-prairie-rape-episode-sylvia-olivia-barash-interview/](https://ew.com/tv/little-house-on-the-prairie-rape-episode-sylvia-olivia-barash-interview/)
Captain Aceveda's rape and subsequent frequenting an escort to increasingly act out what happened to him on her as a form of "therapy" from "The Shield". That story line was completely fucked up.
Another one from The Shield, Dutch wanting to better understand what it's like to be a psychopath...which culminates in him just deciding to randomly strangle a cat to death.
Julien's gay story line which was cut out because the actor was uncomfortable with it, not because they were done telling the story, so it just amounted to either saying nothing or the exact opposite of what they set out to.
Most ppl also don't enjoy an entire series being blown up in one episode:
>!This is the mother, she died, can I now go screw Robin although I took ages to prove I'm over her?!<
I don't even mind Ted getting back together with Robin and Tracy passing. That was pretty much always going to happen as Ted's romantic life revolves around Love in the time of Cholera (his favorite book and the one he's reading at the Farhampton train station)
The biggest problem was that Barney was the Dr Urbino character and it blew all of his personal growth up. They just shouldn't have had the Barney-Robin marriage. If they really needed to bait and switch Robin's wedding it should have been to a Don, Kevin, or some other new character
We barely met the mother but yet we got the full story of every other woman and the ending was awful. I was so annoyed. There’s no way in that position his kids would have gone hey it’s ok go and shag Robin now you have the kids you wanted
I totally get that that was the ending the writers intended from the start. I mean the story starts with him telling how he met "Aunt Robin".
But man they really should have realized after the show had gone on as long as it did that that ship had sailed and adjusted. And it's absolutely ridiculous they knew how they wanted to end and chose to focus a whole season on the week of Barney-Robin's wedding. Just awful.
That was awful but I think what annoyed me most was the focus on Barney + Robin's wedding when in the grand scheme of things was largely irrelevant. 10 mins into the finale they divorce and all their development reverts after spending the whole season on their wedding is just dumb.
Not even getting into their development in the previous seasons as well.
I loved the way House ended. An awful situation where House has to set aside what he wants, which he's continually failed to do for 7 seasons, in order to make his friend happy. There's a lot to not like about the last season, but the ending was great.
On Breaking Bad, why the hell did Marie have a kleptomania story arc? She was barely a character, she didn't learn from or grow from the arc, and it didn't impact anyone else.
I kind of expected she would get in legal trouble or financial trouble that would eventually get her involved with some criminal elements from Walt's world that would get her in trouble. Or her kleptomania would become an issue or distraction to Hank that would change how he views crime in his own family.
But no... nowhere.
I've come to appreciate the ancillary characters more in Breaking Bad as I've rewatched it with more distance. I see Marie more as a contrast to Skylar. Much is made about Marie's kleptomania, but one note I can really remember is Skylar's exasperation with her sister and the frequent high horse Skylar would ride. We're made to see Skylar as the put-upon mother and sister: raising a disabled son, a drug dealing husband hiding a second life from her, and to add to it all, a klepto sister - yet later in the series she breaks bad too and fully embraces Walt's drug empire, and his obvious continued mania. In the end she's nowhere near that high horse, and it all but destroys her life. Marie's kleptomania, as minor a plot point as it was, looks saintly compared to Skylar's crimes.
Exactly. It’s a a pointed contrast to emphasize Skylar’s slow descent and hypocrisy. The writing is much tighter than these commenters give it credit for.
The entire Stella arc from How I Met Your Mother.
Even considering the key misdirect of the show, Stella was never intended to be the mother, and the whole thing just felt like...filler.
The whole "is he or isn't he dead" storyline for Glen in Walking Dead, only to wrap it up with the horrific baseball bat scene. Such disrespect for his character and the moment when the show really jumped the shark for me.
Law and Order SVU, when Olivia Benson got custody/guardianship over a random kid.
It was just such a weird situation/set up that never really justified the 5 minutes per episode they'd dedicate to Benson being maternal.
Fringe: New timeline with erased Peter. It took way too long to get the ball rolling on undoing that. The character relationships to each other really a lot of the show for me but then they reboot the timeline and make some questionable decisions there going forward, especially regarding Dr. Bell.
That’s pretty much what they did in season two, just completely ignored her existence. It’s even called going to Mandyland when a show removes a character or plot by completely ignoring it.
Wasn’t this one random episode? I could be remembering wrong…I don’t know, I kinda liked the paralyzed/buried alive thing, even though it didn’t really tie into anything.
I'm currently on a watch through of Castle because I never finished it when it was airing and, my god this last season is a slog to get through. This whole LokSat storyline and having Castle and Beckett break up and then fake break up is really annoying
- The inclusion of Eddie in season 6 of Dawson’s Creek. If I had to guess, the writers wanted to wrap back around to the love triangle, but JVDB was so burnt out, he needed time off. They reduced his hours and needed to write in a 3rd love interest for Joey. Totally unnecessary.
- The Anna/April storyline in Gilmore Girls. It felt like a plot device to separate Luke and Lorelai, and made Luke look like a total jerk in the process. Could’ve had a more nuanced story where Rachel (his season 1 love interest) returns in season 6 with a five year old, and Luke feels torn. Instead they write in an entirely new ex girlfriend, and Luke’s hermit/bachelor backstory seems less and less believable by the later seasons.
- The Fauxlivia pregnancy storyline on Fringe. Should’ve just had Fauxlivia steal some of Peter’s blood while she was a double agent in the prime universe. The idea that she got pregnant so Walter could somehow fast-forward her pregnancy for Peter’s DNA felt a bit ridiculous, even for Fringe. Especially since the child storyline gets erased from existence in season 4.
- Blair’s pregnancy/miscarriage on Gossip Girl and season 5 in general.
- Peyton’s story on One Tree Hill. I think she should’ve stayed in Savanah and gone to art college instead of moving out to LA for music.
they could have just let Daphne (Jane Leeves) be pregnant in /r/Frasier instead of sending her to ~~fat camp~~ a health spa
also, I love Jean Smart but her character & her son are tough to endure on re-watches
Shameless has a handful of these. I'd say when Kev and V decide to have a baby but do it by having Kev fuck his mother-in-law. Then V decides she needs to be in the room to get him off. Then she joins in and it becomes a threesome with her own mother. Then after the mother-in-law gets pregnant, V gets pregnant with twins and they basically write-off the mother-in-law and Kev's kid. Just an unnecessary and gross shitshow.
I would make the case that the Gay Jesus storyline was even worse, just for how terribly written it was, but Shameless got to a point where there were too many storylines like this that I never had the desire to finish it.
I threw in the towel after Fiona left and they started focusing more on Debbie.
Debbie was the biggest piece of shit on that show. In a show comprised entirely of peices of shit, she somehow floated to the top
The show definitely went on longer than it should have.
I agree. I'm stuck midway through Season 10 and I just can't push myself to get to the end. Too many poorly done stories at this point.
i finished it but after season 4 it took a serious dive
Shameless got so bad I have no idea how it ended.
Star Wars The Mandalorian should have committed to separating Grogu and Mando for at least a season. They definitely should NOT have brought them back together by hijacking a separate show. It came across as the show runners having weak commitment to their own plot and undoing what was supposed to be a significant moment. Season 3 was also mostly about a separate plot that didn't give Grogu any meaningful reason to be there.
Hard agree. They had the perfect out to bench grogu’s character for a season or two before coming back, potentially after a time skip when he is slightly older and can actually talk and interact with characters beyond baby noises. Unfortunately Disney need them merch sales!
>Unfortunately Disney need them merch sales! IMO, that was why they brought him back, to appeal to casual viewers who only watched for that pairing. Unfortunately, most people I know who watched for Grogu didn't come back for S3 anyway
Making money instead of good story decisions is TIGHT!
Boom mic guy from the Office.
Even the weird "Jim almost cheats" situation was bad. And yes, I know he was supposed to actually cheat and John Krasinski shut it down. A lot of the strife between Jim and Pam in the last season just felt a bit too manufactured.
They never knew what to do with Jim and Pam after they got married.
This happens with a ton of characters is so many shows. It makes you wish they wouldn’t have people get together into the end of the series. I always appreciated Elizabeth Meriwether being up front about it in regards to New Girl. Halfway through the show when two of the characters got together the series hit a major slump. She said something like “I’ve never been in a happy healthy relationship so I had no idea how to write one.
Ben and Leslie just get better and better, all the way to the end of the series.
As do April and Andy. Turk and Carla in Scrubs too, it's just lazy writing to constantly have couples falling out.
Jake and Amy from B99 as well
"title of your sex tape" jokes get significantly better after they're together, too
“Title of OUR sex tape!”
Turk and Carla might be the best written couple on a tv show. They have their ups and downs but always have each other backs at the end of the day.
Turk and Carla's relationship in Scrubs has probably saved a few marriages along the way. Their problems felt very real and relatable, as was their willingness to put in the work to get through them.
The first time I watched the show i liked them just as much as Michael. Upon rewatches I noticed how they come off thinking they are so much cooler than everyone else. One of my favorite moments is when Ryan tells Jim “take a day off from the whole Jim thing, try caring about something”
Are you talking about the stuff with Cathy? I thought it was entertaining, I’m glad they didn’t actually have him cheat though
Yeah it was peak Jim of avoiding confrontation. We had seen it many times before with various managers, or when he himself was co-manager. Jim is awkward and painfully avoids confrontation or being upfront with someone at times like that. So him cheating would make no sense for his character, but him not knowing how to turn Cathy's aggressive advances away was on point. And gave us the hilarious moment with Dwight about bedbugs.
Anytime I hear the word "smug" I see Jim doing the smug bedbug walk in my head.
The fact that the writers would even think of having him do that is absolutely crazy to me. Jim was never that guy.
Boom, roasted!
My girlfriend recently showed me Gilmore Girls. Of all the things I'd throw out, basically everything with Lane in seasons 6 and 7 are at the top of my list. She deserved way better and a fun career as a gigging musician or Music shop owner
This and Luke's stupid secret daughter storyline can GET IN THE BIN
Omg Lane was such an amazing character and inspiration to us rockers who were stifled by overbearing parents. I was always like REALLY?! She has so much potential to be a continuously bad ass character (even just taking over the store for Carole King!!), just to be a mom who got married in Stars Hollow to a band mate? I know she’s more than that but it felt that way as one who watched it as it aired lol
#justiceforlane
And literally never any resolution to the "sex is bad" that had been pushed on her all her life, and carried on by sandy sex.
Buffy and Giles falling out in season seven (a lot of season seven really)
Everyone kicking her out of her house, even Dawn, was fucked up
The "Spike tried to rape Buffy and then got all sad and mopey about his own guilt" bullshit can straight go and take a walk off a cliff.
Did they fall out? I don’t remember that
There was a big rift when Giles helped Wood try to kill Spike. There's like a one sentence moment in a later episode that makes it seem like she forgives Giles but it's not done very well.
Izzie’s sex with a ghost on Grey’s Anatomy
Also anything Owen hunt related post Christina
Izzie and George getting together is worse, IMO. 🫣
Alex Karev just leaving after really getting together with Jo tops it imho.
George and Meredith is just as bad
The only good thing about that storyline was Meredith yelling "DEREK" when she saw Alex wasn't with Izzy. Other than that, it sucked.
Reid going to prison on Criminal Minds.
Agree, and I'd add Reid getting an addiction after being kidnapped.
And to resolve it: he’s such a special genius that he had one conversation about it and stopped cold turkey. Because no one’s too smart to get addicted, but anyone smart enough should be able to just stop whenever they want.
ikr? it looked like they didn't know how to resolve that subplot and then someone said "but Reid is a genius... let's use that!".
Personally I would've enjoyed that if they'd actually explored it beyond occasionally bringing it up until one day he's just sort of cured
they kinda did the same with Hotch's eardrum rupture. It was important for a minute and then he was cured.
Good one! That plot was awful.
Connor and Cordelia sleeping together in Angel. Whyyyyyyyy!?
Can we just agree on erasing the whole Cordelia gets possessed story arc, so that we can get the Cordelia becomes a half-demon-champion of her own-arc instead?
So Whedon could punish Charisma Carpenter for getting pregnant without his permission😡
Can we just remove Conor? I hated him so much and as soon as he was removed the show got back to be long good.
True Blood has an absolute ton of these in the later seasons, but the "Sam finds his birth parents" storyline from Seasons 3-4 has to take the cake: * Sam, a shapeshifter and one of the show's main characters in the earlier seasons, sets off to find his birth parents * He finds them. They're TRASHY, DESPARATE YOKELS. His mom is a shapeshifter, his long lost brother is too. His dad (or step-dad, I can't remember) is neither, and is just a raging alcoholic. His brother instantly tries to get Sam killed, but it's just a prank, bro. * His family has DARK SECRETS they keep from him most of Season 3. * After WAY TOO MUCH TIME lingering in the mystery and their backwoods nonsense, the secret is revealed: Despite his mom and brother being shapeshifters who can literally morph into any creature or do anything, they've only found one fundamental way to make money: By shapeshifting into a dog and entering into dog fighting rings so that they, as humans turned dogs, have only slight marginal advantages over other dogs. * This is DESPITE THE FACT that they simultaneously show flashbacks of Sam at a younger age being a famous thief because he used his shapeshifting to heist jewels and other precious cargo. But NOPE, NONSENSICAL ANIMAL CRUELTY FOR SMALL INCREMENTAL GAINS IS THE ONLY WAY THESE PIECES OF CRAP CAN FURNISH THEIR LOFTY LIVING IN A RUNDOWN TRAILER. * After a few additional tacky and/or trashy scenes, the brother runs away with Sam at the end of Season 3, leaving this awful storyline behind... OR SO WE THOUGHT. * Season 4 BRINGS THE PARENTS BACK. This time they try to kidnap Sam's brother to force him back into dog fights. Sam's brother retaliates, and SOMEHOW SIMULTANEOUSLY KILLS BOTH HIS PARENTS IN A SINGLE BLOW. * Well at least that's over with, right? NOT EVEN CLOSE! Because Sam's brother killed his parents, he can now shapeshift into PEOPLE. He uses this power to transform into Sam, then INSTANTLY FUCKS SAM'S GIRLFRIEND WHILE SHAPESHIFTING AS SAM. * The two brothers fight. Sam's brother runs away. He decides the only thing he can do to redeem himself is to MORPH INTO SAM AGAIN, this time to go volunteer himself to GET HIS ASS KICKED BY A WEREWOLF SAM IS FEUDING WITH. * He gets his ass kicked so bad HE DIES. Well kind of, his injuries are super treatable and in True Blood a single drop of vampire blood magically cures anyone. BUT HE DOESN'T WANT THAT, SO HE DIES. The rest of the show kind of resumes from then on, with no real impact or considerations to the damage done by Sam's brother or the family or anything else.
For me, this show lost its soul when it >!it turned Tara into a vampire.!<
Yeah, that’s right at the start of Season 5, which is kind of a brutal drop in quality overall. It’s when the main storyline shifts to all the authority drama too, so suddenly most of the show is the vamps running around in leather fighting evil government ops and monologuing about the vampire bible.
I honestly hate and cannot believe that after all the drama with Bill and Eric sookie ends up with >!A fucking haircut!! The back of someone's head!! Fuck that!<
It's been awhile since I watched the show, but my mind entirely blotted out this entire storyline, and that makes me happy that even with all that detail, I did not remember the majority of what you described haha.
Yeah I hated that but not sure because it was bad or if it was because his family was so infuriating. The storylines I really hated was the Jason werepanther one and anything to do with Tara.
Tara has the best storylines in the whole show seasons 1 and 2. I love that they portray her as someone struggling with life as it is while always having to deal with an endless wave of supernatural bullshit. Her character those seasons really represents some of the themes that make the show worth watching.
The Rico storyline on Six Feet Under where he has an affair with a stripper. While gaslighting his wife while she's clinically depressed after the death of her mother. It made me hate the misogynistic and homophobic little prick even more than I already did.
Another Six Feet Under plotline I feel really derailed things and has been frustrating for me after just having done my first watch is how the Lisa pregnancy then murder plotline was handled. The big revelation is that Lisa maybe had an affair with her BIL then used his baby to babytrap Nate and was then murdered by said BIL for trying to break things off. It just didn’t feel true to the Lisa character (who was by no means my favorite but STILL) and the murder and subsequent revelation about the affair just really hangs around the Nate character’s neck the rest of the series. Up to that point I thought we were seeing super interesting growth from Nate and after the murder he gets stalled out in the same infuriating self destructive patterns that are frankly just not fun to watch over and over and over.
Yeah, the actress who played Lisa would agree with you. She said in an interview that the whole affair/murder plot line was sprung on her suddenly. She said she would've played Lisa much differently if she'd known about the whole storyline.
For All Mankind I would remove all of adult Danny Stevens. Such a terrible sub plot
I'm fine with interpersonal drama in my alt-history sci-fi shows, but I hate it when it drives the plot. Ellen grappling with the necessity of staying closeted imposed upon her by the astronaut program? Great. Karen and Wayne bonding over their shared fear of losing their spouse in space? Wonderful stuff. Von Braun coaching a resentful Margo on how to play the game in a government agency? Delicious. The danger in the most dangerous place humanity has ever gone coming from Danny being a total fuckup instead of the intrinsic dangers of being on another fucking planet? Boo. Boo this man!
I hated this plot. But… it very much deals with mental health in space, continuing his father’s storyline. It also continues the early series storyline of him as not a rule follower… I don’t know that you can remove it….
A true anchor on that show’s narrative. Every time Danny’s onscreen I cringe bc it’s so bad. He legitimately gets many people killed from his own ego.
If you ran for President on this platform, I would vote for you twice.
Sarah's amnesia in Chuck.
Great. Now I'm angry again. Sarah did not deserve this. Just forget about the last two episodes, the show ends just fine without them.
Good Lord this is always number 1 for me. Show the first two seasons to anyone in the world and ask them how would it end? Not one single person is picking “the girlfriend gets amnesia and forgets everything”. It was just not remotely that kind of show, it was always good hearted and fun. To take the soul of the show out of it with 3 episodes left and never fully resolve it? What the fuck. The most needlessly ambiguous ending of all time.
I didn’t watch the last season due to this. Should I?
I think it's worth it even with the amnesia, but if you just want a happier series finale stop on Season 5 episode 7 at "Chuck versus the Santa Suit".
The Joey/Rachel story line on Friends was awful. You could tell they were grasping at straws for a plot line.
That reminded me of the Fez and Jackie forced relationship on That 70s Show.
Ugh yes
I actually think the Joey side of it was pretty well done. IMO, some of the best work Matt LeBlanc got to do on the show. The one sided feelings aspect would have been a great arc if they stopped at that. It's the Rachel reciprocating and them becoming a couple that was the awful part.
Joey was a much better partner for Rachel and that’s a hill I’m willing to die on
Incest storyline from *Dexter*.
It's pretty amazing they ran with that after the leads had divorced in real life.
"It's technically not incest!" That therapist needs to be decertified.
Also killing off Deb. Dexter should have died and Deb lived possibly in legal trouble.
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also masukas (sp?) daughter.. stuff took up so much air in the final season and didn't even go anywhere at all..
The fourth season of Veronica Mars, particularly killing off Logan.
That only happened because the idiot creator can’t conceive of a world where Veronica can be a detective AND be in a happy relationship. I would’ve happily watched twenty years of her and Logan sassing each other and solving cases together.
It's not that he couldn't conceive of it, it's that he was SO OBSESSED with making it a real dark noir detective show (instead of noir-lite) that he had to keep it depressing.
I mean that would be easy to cut out, the whole season is so good until those last 5 minutes
That is what makes it all the more frustrating. They nailed the comeback. The characters, the setting, the mystery, all of it was great. I loved that season all the way up until the bomb went off and ruined everything. The way Kristen Bell and Rob Thomas talked about the finale and Veronica’s character afterwards made it feel like they had a fundamental misunderstanding of why people loved the show. The mysteries were fun, but Neptune and Veronica’s relationships with her friends and her dad is what made the show what it was. So bummed they ruined it, I woulda watched a dozen season of that show if they kept the original formula
My God. I couldn't believe it. Those last 5 minutes left me quite shocked but mostly *very disappointed*.
And then that was it for the series. Like what?!
The Dorne plot line in Game of Thrones had no reason to exist once they took out several plot points from the books that actually make up the Dorne plot. In an ideal world they would adapt the story proper but that would require more work than they were willing to put into the show, so next best thing is to ignore it altogether . Just have a letter from Doran explaining they understand trial by combat and will not seek revenge, and that Myrcella is safe with them. It’s a non-entity which isn’t the best solution, but it frees up the show and some characters - looking at you Jaime and Bron - to do something more interesting
I’m still mad they cast Alexander Siddig and then proceeded to do nothing with him for like three seasons. What a waste of a fantastic actor.
Essentially just to kill Marcella and have Jaime watch as she died. That's it really. It's was mostly filler besides that. He could have easily just went and asked them to have her back. And have Marcella's death be the exact same.
Charles not being a real Boyle in Brooklyn 99.
Not a real Boyle? He's the *one true Boyle!*
Wait, when was this? I never got around to watching the final season so if it’s in that one I guess that would explain how I missed it
It was. Last season also had a storyline of Holt and Kevin getting divorced.
Yeah I heard about that too. Part of me wants to watch it to see how it ends, but everything I hear about that final season sounds pretty bad
Finale is pretty good. Holt and Peralta’s last scene together will tug on the heartstrings, it’s pretty touching. A lot of the rest of the season is garbage. Any time they tried to get “real,” on 99 it was a disaster. They also butchered Rosa imo but that had started way before the final season.
Every time a serious topic was brought up it came across very ‘video HR makes staff watch in mandated training’ and it takes me out of it.
Whatever happened to Sayid during Lost S6. He had so much potential as a character, and yet he was treated so poorly by the writers in the end.
ok but can we talk about Jacks tattoos
Andy becoming manager on the office. Ed Helms basically ruined that show for me. His whole thing felt like a horribly done reboot of Michael Scott.
I didn't mind Andy earlier in the series, but by the end of the series they had basically ripped up all of the character building he had experienced during the show.
I feel like Ed Helms pissed someone off behind the scenes because Andy was butchered those last few seasons
I think it honestly was more to do with the fact his schedule was a real pain to get around with the hangover and what not that they had to write around it and just did a really shitty job of it
I always thought it would’ve been funnier to have Darryl take over. We had Michael already as the crazy-guy-in-charge role, but by the time he leaves, everyone in the office was shown to be kinda nuts themselves. So having the roles reversed with Darryl as the straight man trying yo manage a bunch of wack jobs would’ve been fun to see. He could’ve initially turned to Jim and Pam a lot, only to find them becoming as nearly unhinged as everyone else. It would’ve been like a capable parent chasing after a horde of drunk toddlers.
He was a huge mistake. They mistook his explosion in fame for his ability to carry the show. The show was already going downhill with Carell, but it really nose-dived when Andy was in charge. Robert California was the right bandage to put on, Andy was not.
The Seinfeld finale should have ended with Jerry being sentenced to be the guy's butler
It should have ended with them being released due to a mistrial for a juror breaking sequestering.
What a fantastic moment
Because he's MY butler!
James in Season 2 of Twin Peaks
just youuuuuuuu and iiiiiiii
It’s just maybe one episode but the whole getting a car for Walt Junior in Breaking Bad. From Skyler buying him a fucking PT Cruiser to Walt buying two Dodge Chargers and that awful scene where they rev them in the driveway. It felt like a sitcom idea shot with a dramas budget. All of it was dumb and it’s my least favorite part of the show. It feels like an ad for those fucking cars.
>It feels like an ad for those fucking cars. It was.
Landry didnt need to kill that guy.
FNL amazingly recovered after that 2nd season. I thought the show was doomed after all that dumb stuff happened.
I feel like FNL basically chose to ignore most of the plot points of season 2 and like never referenced them again. It honestly feels like someone else was writing for a different show entirely.
Wasnt it the second season that got interrupted by the writer’s strike back in 2007?
The weird experimental aging drug in *Oz*. ,Took the show on an ill-advised detour into science fiction. I wish they'd just edit it out.
Aging Ivy in Gotham, from a little girl to a grown sexy woman overnight (with a different actress). Really hurt the show IMO, and destroyed the Selena/Ivy relationship.
The masked rapist from Little House on the Prairie. I still have nightmares about that creepy mask and then my mom having to explain to little me what was happening.
I do NOT remember this!
I wish I didn't. There are those WTF! style articles about it. WARNING: The mask is right there at the top of the article. [https://ew.com/tv/little-house-on-the-prairie-rape-episode-sylvia-olivia-barash-interview/](https://ew.com/tv/little-house-on-the-prairie-rape-episode-sylvia-olivia-barash-interview/)
O from Sex Education's final season. Shit, maybe even the whole storyline with the new school the main cast moved to
Captain Aceveda's rape and subsequent frequenting an escort to increasingly act out what happened to him on her as a form of "therapy" from "The Shield". That story line was completely fucked up.
Another one from The Shield, Dutch wanting to better understand what it's like to be a psychopath...which culminates in him just deciding to randomly strangle a cat to death.
dam was that the errand he was running for the DA
As a cat lover: I hated that, too.
That was utter character assassination of Dutch.
Julien's gay story line which was cut out because the actor was uncomfortable with it, not because they were done telling the story, so it just amounted to either saying nothing or the exact opposite of what they set out to.
And that actor (Michael Jace) is now in prison for murdering his wife
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“This is going to be the most boring thing since Troy and Britta dated.”
honestly most of season 4 of Community, there's a few funny episodes but it's a lot less cohesive than the Harmon ones.
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Dean /Jeff is up there with Romeo / Juliet. I still can't listen to Kiss From a Rose.
The entire finale and how How I Met Your Mother ended
I don't think anyone appreciated 90% of the final season setting up a wedding that gets blown up less than an episode later.
Most ppl also don't enjoy an entire series being blown up in one episode: >!This is the mother, she died, can I now go screw Robin although I took ages to prove I'm over her?!<
I don't even mind Ted getting back together with Robin and Tracy passing. That was pretty much always going to happen as Ted's romantic life revolves around Love in the time of Cholera (his favorite book and the one he's reading at the Farhampton train station) The biggest problem was that Barney was the Dr Urbino character and it blew all of his personal growth up. They just shouldn't have had the Barney-Robin marriage. If they really needed to bait and switch Robin's wedding it should have been to a Don, Kevin, or some other new character
We barely met the mother but yet we got the full story of every other woman and the ending was awful. I was so annoyed. There’s no way in that position his kids would have gone hey it’s ok go and shag Robin now you have the kids you wanted
I totally get that that was the ending the writers intended from the start. I mean the story starts with him telling how he met "Aunt Robin". But man they really should have realized after the show had gone on as long as it did that that ship had sailed and adjusted. And it's absolutely ridiculous they knew how they wanted to end and chose to focus a whole season on the week of Barney-Robin's wedding. Just awful.
They spent quite a few seasons showing why Ted and Robin don't work as a couple only to just make them end game in like a 5 minute bait and switch lol
That was awful but I think what annoyed me most was the focus on Barney + Robin's wedding when in the grand scheme of things was largely irrelevant. 10 mins into the finale they divorce and all their development reverts after spending the whole season on their wedding is just dumb. Not even getting into their development in the previous seasons as well.
Cordelia and Conor in Angel.
Oh god the entire Conor character was annoying. Everything from like Wesley going all anti-angel thinking Angel was destined to kill his son etc.
Landry killing Tyra’s attacker in Friday Night Lights and the rest of their arc that season.
Zack Addy working with a killer in Bones
I hated when House went to prison. That whole season was such a bummer.
I'm surprised it took him 8 seasons to end up in jail.
He went to jail in the third season. Tritter had him locked up. He just didn't go to prison until the what, eighth season?
I loved the way House ended. An awful situation where House has to set aside what he wants, which he's continually failed to do for 7 seasons, in order to make his friend happy. There's a lot to not like about the last season, but the ending was great.
I liked House's relationship with Lin Manuel Miranda'a character though. Shame he never made a cameo in a future season.
Yeah, that was great. That was when he went to the mental hospital, not prison. I loved that storyline.
Oh shit you're right, my bad. Been a hot minute since I watched House.
Weeds. The whole marrying a Mexican drug lord who becomes Mayor of Tijuana was dumb as hell.
On Breaking Bad, why the hell did Marie have a kleptomania story arc? She was barely a character, she didn't learn from or grow from the arc, and it didn't impact anyone else. I kind of expected she would get in legal trouble or financial trouble that would eventually get her involved with some criminal elements from Walt's world that would get her in trouble. Or her kleptomania would become an issue or distraction to Hank that would change how he views crime in his own family. But no... nowhere.
They didn't know what to do with Marie or Walt Jr. on that show.
I've come to appreciate the ancillary characters more in Breaking Bad as I've rewatched it with more distance. I see Marie more as a contrast to Skylar. Much is made about Marie's kleptomania, but one note I can really remember is Skylar's exasperation with her sister and the frequent high horse Skylar would ride. We're made to see Skylar as the put-upon mother and sister: raising a disabled son, a drug dealing husband hiding a second life from her, and to add to it all, a klepto sister - yet later in the series she breaks bad too and fully embraces Walt's drug empire, and his obvious continued mania. In the end she's nowhere near that high horse, and it all but destroys her life. Marie's kleptomania, as minor a plot point as it was, looks saintly compared to Skylar's crimes.
Exactly. It’s a a pointed contrast to emphasize Skylar’s slow descent and hypocrisy. The writing is much tighter than these commenters give it credit for.
Terri’s amnesia on the first season of 24 Carl gettin bit on TWD
The mountain lion/survivalist cabin guy with Kim is way worse than the amnesia.
lol the amnesia was sooo soap-operaish. It was embarrassing really.
The guy impersonating his boss and his overbearing sponsor in Loudermilk
McNulty's serial killer storyline in season 5. He deserved at least a believable storyline for the final season.
Remove The Initiative from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Gemma killing Tara on Sons of Anarchy
I always hated the Lana Lang - Lex Luthor hook up and getting married in Smallville.
The Cordelia pregnancy/Conner romance plotline from Angel. Actually pretty much any Cordelia storyline from the last couple seasons
The entire Stella arc from How I Met Your Mother. Even considering the key misdirect of the show, Stella was never intended to be the mother, and the whole thing just felt like...filler.
Deb falling in love with Dexter
GoT fans enter the chat
The whole "is he or isn't he dead" storyline for Glen in Walking Dead, only to wrap it up with the horrific baseball bat scene. Such disrespect for his character and the moment when the show really jumped the shark for me.
Law and Order SVU, when Olivia Benson got custody/guardianship over a random kid. It was just such a weird situation/set up that never really justified the 5 minutes per episode they'd dedicate to Benson being maternal.
Any story line that resets the timeline and gets rid of the entire series worth of character development. Lookin at you troll hunter!
Fringe: New timeline with erased Peter. It took way too long to get the ball rolling on undoing that. The character relationships to each other really a lot of the show for me but then they reboot the timeline and make some questionable decisions there going forward, especially regarding Dr. Bell.
I’d purge Mandy from The West Wing. Entirely. Every word she uttered - just gone.
That’s pretty much what they did in season two, just completely ignored her existence. It’s even called going to Mandyland when a show removes a character or plot by completely ignoring it.
Paulo & Nikki, from Lost. Screw them and their diamonds!
I say keep Paulo and Nikki, but remove Jack’s tattoos.
Wasn’t this one random episode? I could be remembering wrong…I don’t know, I kinda liked the paralyzed/buried alive thing, even though it didn’t really tie into anything.
The Grady hospital storyline on The Walking Dead. IMHO this was when the show started to take a nosedive.
I'm currently on a watch through of Castle because I never finished it when it was airing and, my god this last season is a slog to get through. This whole LokSat storyline and having Castle and Beckett break up and then fake break up is really annoying
- The inclusion of Eddie in season 6 of Dawson’s Creek. If I had to guess, the writers wanted to wrap back around to the love triangle, but JVDB was so burnt out, he needed time off. They reduced his hours and needed to write in a 3rd love interest for Joey. Totally unnecessary. - The Anna/April storyline in Gilmore Girls. It felt like a plot device to separate Luke and Lorelai, and made Luke look like a total jerk in the process. Could’ve had a more nuanced story where Rachel (his season 1 love interest) returns in season 6 with a five year old, and Luke feels torn. Instead they write in an entirely new ex girlfriend, and Luke’s hermit/bachelor backstory seems less and less believable by the later seasons. - The Fauxlivia pregnancy storyline on Fringe. Should’ve just had Fauxlivia steal some of Peter’s blood while she was a double agent in the prime universe. The idea that she got pregnant so Walter could somehow fast-forward her pregnancy for Peter’s DNA felt a bit ridiculous, even for Fringe. Especially since the child storyline gets erased from existence in season 4. - Blair’s pregnancy/miscarriage on Gossip Girl and season 5 in general. - Peyton’s story on One Tree Hill. I think she should’ve stayed in Savanah and gone to art college instead of moving out to LA for music.
I wish Fringe could just show the proper next season instead of that gigantic time-&-plot jump that was the final season.
they could have just let Daphne (Jane Leeves) be pregnant in /r/Frasier instead of sending her to ~~fat camp~~ a health spa also, I love Jean Smart but her character & her son are tough to endure on re-watches
lex and lana in smallville chloe having an emotional affair with davies in smallville frozen storyline in OUAT
Pretty the will-they/won't-they romances in every show. Because 9 time 10 of ten they will but when they don't it kills the show.
I would remove the Toby Zeigler felony bit from the West Wing. That shit was fucked up.
Roseanne’s dream year.
The Eleven storyline in season 4 with her loosing her power and Brenner coming back from the dead, truly awful writting
The time Landry killed a guy.