Labels

-books -dates -Lists -Movies -Music -musicals and broadway 24 30 Rock 666 Park Avenue Alcatraz Alias America's Next Top Model American Horror Story American Idol Americans Are You There Chelsea? Arrested Development Arrow Awake Awkward Bates Motel Being Human Ben and Kate Bent Best Friends Forever Better with You Big Bang Theory Big Brother Big C Big Love Blue Bloods Boardwalk Empire Body of Proof Bones Borgias Boss Breaking Bad Breaking In Breaking Pointe Bridge Bunheads Camelot Carrie Diaries Charlie's Angels Chicago Code Chicago Fire Chuck Community Continuum Copper Cougar Town Cult Dark Tower Deception Defenders Degrassi Dexter Doctor Who Dollhouse Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 Downton Abbey Elementary Emily Owens MD Enlightened Episodes Event Fall Falling Skies Family Tree Felicity Finder Firefly Following Fosters Freaks and Geeks Friday Night Lights Friends Fringe Game of Thrones GCB Gifted Man Gilmore GIrls Girls Glee Glee Project Good Wife Gossip Girl Grey's Anatomy Grimm Hannibal Happy Endings Harry Potter Hart of Dixie Hawaii Five-O Hell on Wheels Hellcats Hemlock Grove Heroes Homeland House House of Cards House of Lies How I Met Your Mother How to Be a Gentleman How to Live with Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life) I Hate My Teenage Daughter In Treatment Intervention Jane by Design Jersey Shore Justified Last Man Standing Last Resort Life Unexpected Lone Star Longmire LOST Louie Lying Game Mad Men Make it or Break it Man Up Mindy Project Missing Mockingbird Lane Modern Family Mr Selfridge Napoleon Dynamite Nashville New Girl New Normal Nikita Nine Lives of Chloe King No Ordinary Family Off the Map Office Once Upon a Time Originals Outlaw Outsourced Pan Am Parenthood Parks and Recreation Perfect Couples Person of Interest Playboy Club Pretty Little Liars Prime Suspect Psych Raising Hope Real Housewives of New Jersey Revenge Revolution Ringer Rob Rookie Blue Running Wilde Saving Hope Scandal Scrubs Secret Circle Secret Life of the American Teenager Sex and the City Shameless Sherlock Smash So You Think You Can Dance Sons of Anarchy South Park Southland Suburgatory Supernatural Switched at Birth Teen Wolf Terra Nova The Fall The Fosters The Killing The River The Voice Touch true blood Twisted Two and a Half Men Two Broke Girls Under the Dome Unforgettable United States of Tara Up All Night V Vampire Diaries Veep Vegas Veronica Mars Walking Dead Web Therapy Weeds White Collar Whitney Whole Truth Wilfred Work It X-Factor X-Files Zero Hour

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Plots We Hate

TV Plots we want to omit

Beef: Sometimes, you are watching a TV show, and it’s going well, when all of the sudden if completely jumps the shark with one stupid, outlandish, or just plain boring plotline. It has happened to the best shows. Here are a few plotlines that make us want smack the writers.

Friday Night Lights, the season two murder - Friday Night Light’s is a certain kind of show. It involves small town and family politics, high school issues, marriage, and sports. It should not involve murder. That was stupid.

Grey’s Anatomy, George cheats on his hot wife with Izzie, “Gizzie” officially happens, and then they just fizzle - Did ANYONE like this plotline? This was worse than Dead Denny (and we hated that too), because that at least had a good explanation later on, unlike this. It just made no sense. It ruined both characters involved, and it was one of the things that made the George actor want to leave the show. He signed onto Grey’s hoping to play the nice guy, but the writers did things with the character that came out of left-field, namely, this. The actor didn’t understand or believe in the character anymore after this, and neither did we. (Note: We will actually defend the ferryboat accident episodes where Meredith died, if anyone asks us to. Sure, they had a dumb, supernatural element to them on a non-supernatural show, but we enjoyed many parts of those episodes.)

24, Kim goes on some random adventures in season two and wastes everyone’s lives - Even though one of us loves this show, it’s hard to pick just one stupid moment from it. There have been countless lists and articles written about its unrealistic plots and pointless deaths. But we have to go with the season 2 Kim Bauer tangents. Kim Bauer is an idiot. No one liked Kim Bauer. So naturally, the writers spent a third of season two on her getting into trouble. Her kidnapping a kid, fighting off an abusive employee, getting a guy shot, getting caught in a trap for a wild animal, getting taken underground by a paranoid creeper, and escaping police custody all coincidently happen on Jack’s Bauer’s busiest day. First of all, yeah right. Second of all, stop wasting our time, show.

Flashforward, Everything after the pilot - In light of this week’s poll, we just have to mention what a dull, pointless waste of time this show was. Way to waste a good premise.

Alias, Vaughn gets shot like a million times by a machine gun, leaves the show, but then is suddenly alive again - One of us loved when Vaughn died, because she was never a fan of him. The other loved Vaughn, but was annoyed at how he was treated in the final season. First of all, it was completely unbelievable that he survived. The end of Alias was a tacked-on, nonsensical fail too. We waded through four years of mythology (and lame Dixon) for THAT? Sydney’s mom was the Big Bad? But we kind of liked her. UGHH. Ok, we have to mention two other things we hated in that show. 1) Sydney’s half-sister. Useless. 2) The genetic goo that changed people into other people. We couldn’t even try to believe that was possible. Jack Bristow was the best thing about that show. Sydney was ok too.

Arrested Development, the whole weird British/Rita thing - We cringed at Charlize Theron’s mentally retarded character, Rita, through most of her stint on this show. For the most part, we enjoyed AD’s frenetic, silly third season. Because the show knew it was getting cancelled, it could be as crazy as it wanted. But we didn’t laugh during the Rita thing until the last episode where Michael almost married her. That was pretty funny, but it didn’t make up for the fact that the show made us think it had become something other than the show we loved by spending so much time on the weird British Rita stuff.

Bones, Zach is Gormagon’s assistant - We miss Zach. That made no sense. We will always miss Zach. The only things on Bones that we hated more than this plotline are Hannah and that one (nearly unwatchable) dream-sequence finale.

True Blood, nearly the entire third season- What WAS that? Ugh. Get it together next season, please.

The Vampire Diaries - Nothing. The show is flawless.

Sex and the City, Carrie dates Berger - Did anyone like that guy? The only redeeming thing about that was the post-it breakup episode. Second place: Samantha’s foray into lesbianism. It was offensive to lesbians to watch Samantha try this, Samantha is straight, her girlfriend was creepy, and it just wasn’t funny.

Dexter, Lila and what happened to Doakes - Doakes was a pain, but we respected him. What happened to him was completely unfair and just plain sad. Also, Lila was too crazy for us, and we can’t believe Dexter spent so much time with her.

LOST, Jack, Kate, and Sawyer spend way too much time captured by The Others - Way to slow this show down. We get that they had to, because the writers didn’t know how long they had to stretch out the show, and they needed an end date. Also, it helped the show save money, since they were over budget. But the slow start to season three lost the show a lot of viewers.

Friends, any major love plotline with Joey, especially the Rachel hookup - Joey was never going to have a serious relationship. All the girls he dates were so temporary and none fit. It was cute when he was helping Rachel with baby Emma, but it was oddly weird when he started liking Rachel. We think it’s because Joey was such an emotional and mental infant. He is sweet, but he should never have a relationship. It’s just awkward to make us watch him try.

Glee, Will’s love life - What a disaster. Why isn’t he with Emma now? We feel like the show changes the reason every time it’s brought up. This is an example of a show annoying us by purposefully dragging something out. His wife faked a pregnancy too, and no one liked that. Dishonorable mention: Jesse St. James dumping Rachel so abruptly and hatefully. He had no reason to hate her that much. It was out of nowhere, and we never got closure on that surprisingly engaging relationship.

Gilmore Girls, Luke’s daughter - This girl broke up Luke and Lorelai and was the source of the most useless Gilmore Girls plots. Lorelai got with Christopher (WRONG) and Luke bummed around in a custody battle, and the whole thing just wasted our lives in the last two seasons. If April had never shown up, the show would have been much stronger for it.

Joan of Arcadia, Adam cheats on Joan with Bonnie - Adam spent the entire first season pining after Joan, and when they finally get together, he cheats on her? Because Joan wouldn't have sex with him? Stupid and (though probably realistic) not what we had come to expect from the otherwise amazing Adam Rove.

Any plots you hate? Tell it to the comments.

8 comments:

  1. Yes, the whole George and Izzie thing was really stupid. I LOVED the ferry accident episodes. I also hated the Izzie having visions of Dead Denny thing. That was so stupid. Honestly? I like the show better without Izzie. It would have been awesome to keep George though.

    Agree about Flashforward.

    Zack leaves Bones?? Sad. I hate this serial killer Epps storyline.

    Agree about Dexter. Lila was a really loathsome character.

    Completely disagree about Friends. I liked the Joey/Rachel thing - I thought it was great for Joey's character development and it showed that he isn't shallow all of the time. I still wish Joey could have ended up with SOMEone.

    I liked Luke's daughter, and it could have gone so much better if he had just told Lorelai about it instead of hiding it from her for so long.

    And it's been a while since I've watched them so I can't remember anything specific, but I know there were tons of plotlines on both The OC and Heroes that made me eventually stop watching all together. They both started out great but then they just got ridiculous. You could add them to the "other" category for this week's poll.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I wasn't going to comment but Ms Potts OC reference reminded me of my all time least fav. plot- Ryan falls for Taylor in a series of hot dreams. UHGG. most terrible plot ever. it did absolutely nothing for his character development. uninteresting and worthless.

    I agree about the FNL murder plot, but, it did have a purpose for the characters involved and I liked where it took them. but that's FNL, they might have a week plot now and then but the character development is always excellent

    vampire diaries did make one terrible mistake, Lexi! they killed off the best guest star ever after one episode. terrible loss. bring her back from the dead, i don't care if its a bad plot, I want lexi back!

    I think Eric M. had to leave Bones for personal reasons- but I'm not sure about that. i think I'm the only one on the planted that didn't think the dream ep. was that bad in fact I thought last seasons finale was the worst bones ep ever. the scene in the dream ep with Vincent, Zach, and the gun was great.

    i'm sure gossip girl has had some plots that should be on this list.

    I didn't enjoy the last story line of Rory and Dean in Gilmore. it wasn't a bad plot, in fact maybe it was a really good one, because it was kind of grimly very realistic. it just was sad to watch. (but now dean hunts demons and saves the world and his scorned wife is a bad a** vamp, so its ok...)

    Hatts

    ReplyDelete
  3. You guys have officially climbed inside my head. The best thing about the FNL murder plotline was when the producers pretended like it never happened in season 3. As far as I'm concerned, Landry got out of high school murder-free. FNL's my favorite show on TV, though, so it gets a free pass for one or two bad plots.

    The "Gizzie" thing pushed me over the edge to full-fledged Izzy-hating. Seriously, I've hated her ever since. I always thought George was irritating. He turned his wife into a lesbian, for crying out loud.

    "Cougar-gate" on 24 was bad. The creeper in the woods is hilarious in retrospect.

    That half-sister thing on Alias was AWFUL, plus the whole "underground" special forces thing was a fail. Plus, they introduced Balthazar "Primetime Poison" Getty into the cast, and the show ended shortly thereafter.

    I actually liked the "Mr F" thing on AD, but I had just moved to England at the time, so I enjoyed all the British mocking.

    Berger on SATC was Carrie's worst multi-episode boyfriend. My theory about Ron Livingston as an actor is that he must be really charming in real life, because he always gets cast in these fantastic roles, where he's supposed to come across as an amazing guy. Dear TV casting directors, it doesn't translate!

    Friends' best season was the one right before it started to get all Joey-Rachel weird. That show should needed to chill with the cliffhangers in later seasons.

    Luke's daughter is still my vote for the "worst producer decision on an awesome show" award. It made Luke supremely unlikable, which is, I think, the opposite effect it was supposed to have. FAIL!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good thoughts/comments. It's these kinds of comments that keep us warm during the cold, boring night classes. Has anyone taken the law of corporations and other business entities? Because it SUCKS. Anyway.

    LOVE all the hate for Gizzie. We know some people actually rooted for them as a couple. They are high, and they need a chemistry lesson. We actually liked the Izzie character though. Well, we liked her in seasons one and two, when she was awesome, but then the show systematically ruined her character as much as possible. We also liked her in season four. We hated George for most of his run on the show, but then we missed him when he was gone. Kind of like Charlie on LOST.

    Lila was gross. Mrs. Potts’ opinions on Friends and Luke’s daughter are interesting, but we mostly disagree. He SHOULD have told Lorelai though, but it was consistent with his character that he kept it a secret for so long.

    Ern only watched season one of both Heroes and The O.C. (plus enough episodes of the second seasons to figure out they were going to be bad) and considers every plot after those seasons to be bad plots.

    As to Vampire Diaries characters we miss: ANNA!! We liked her. We agree with hatts about last season’s Bones finale. It almost made Ern stop watching the show for good.

    We actually tried to think of Gossip Girl plots that should have been on the list, but nothing came to mind. As we thought back on the show, nothing annoyed us enough to stand out. There are a few CHARACTERS we hate, but not plots. What we hate the most is when plots ruin characters. In that show, the characters tend to ruin perfectly alright plots.

    Cat is SO RIGHT about Ron Livingston in everything. He is cast as a likeable, charming, everyman, and he comes across as a totally creepy douche. Leeard actually kind of liked the Berger arc though. Ern prevailed in the fight to put it on the list, but only barely, so he DOES have his fans. Also, word to the Friends cliffhanger comment.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh, and we think we hated the Joey thing so much because he seemed like a child. It was like these women were dating a sweet little boy. It was just weird to us. He cried when Beth died in Little Women and had to put the book in the freezer, for heaven's sake. It was like if a normal person married someone mentally retarded. Like Michael Bluth and Rita. Wrong wrong wrong.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Gizzie was ridiculous. I loved Izzie, and I loved George, and I loved them as bffs. But when they had that night of drunken debauchery, I wanted to gouge out my eyes. It was like watching incest or something equally horrific. I started to go off the show then, and when George officially left, I did too.

    Agreed with Bones, on the Zach part. I loved him, still love him, will always love him, and wish he'd come back. The only other truly enjoyable squintern is Wendall, and only after he stopped banging Angela. That was just awkward.

    The plotline I think I hate most was on House. I was a diehard House fan for the first few seasons. Then three or four years ago, they decided to take issue with his drug-abusing, abrasive, rude self... as if it was new! They tried to prosecute him, shut him in rehab, and make him nice. Screw that, I didn't watch House to see him be Patch Adams.

    ReplyDelete
  7. whats your all time favorite plot twist? this is a harder question, I can't think of my answer yet, but i'll post when I do....

    I'm surprised that you all mentioned your hate for gizzie but no one said anything about George and callie, I never believed them as a couple. and if one good thing came out of gizzie it was the end of them. and for the record, I liked george at the begging of Greys

    re: house- tv shows with bad guys as main characters always face this problem, i've heard Ian S. worrying about what he would do when Damon's softer side turned up. just yesterday I saw an interview with NPH from just before the barney-robin affair where he said the same thing. sawyer on lost, spike on Buffy (they did it very well)it always is risky but I agree that houses transition has been more awkward ones.


    E & L- a while ago you asked for a report on Nikita, if it improved. I had stopped watching it too, but this week I decided to watch a bit of nikita and hellcats just to see where they were going. to report- Hellcats is still not worth the time- no surprise there. its not terrible, but I just don't care about the characters that much. Tisdale and the guy playing Dan are interesting, but that's it.
    I think Nikita is going to improve. the last episode was much better than any of the others have been. the pandering display of bikinis that was such a turn off in the pilot has subsided and Maggie Q's Nikita is become likable enough that I'm forgiving her for not being as interesting as Peta W. the show is still not great, and nothing like is predecessor, but I think is going to get better and better and maybe when it hits its stride it will be a decent show. Is anyone else here watching Nikita? do you guys like it?


    hatts

    ReplyDelete
  8. CurvyGirl- Wow, you must have really liked George a lot. We will stick with the show as long as Cristina is on it.

    Ew, we forgot Angela banged Wendell. BLECK.

    Great point about House. We only saw the first season, but trying to make him a nice, healthy person sounds like the worst idea ever. We are sure we would hate it too. Hopefully it didn’t work and he’s as cranky as ever?

    Hatts-
    Best plot twists sounds like a good idea for a post. Next time we are in a boring class and have all of our other posts written, we’ll give it a shot. Just a teaser…the first thing that came to mind for us when we read your question was the end of 24 season 1. If you haven’t seen it, it involves on of Jack’s colleagues and his wife. This might not be our official favorite plot twist, but it was the first thing we thought of.

    We hated George and Callie because we found it unrealistic that she would want him. She was taller, richer, funnier, more confident, weirder, and a better doctor. In real life, she has an amazing singing voice. They had no chemistry and you’re right about it just being a mistake.

    Nice info on the TV baddies. We never thought that would be something the actors worry about, but it makes sense.

    We’ve been thinking of catching up on Nikita, because it might be easier to get into on a binge. We’re glad to hear the bikini pandering has lessened. Thanks for checking in on it for us.

    ReplyDelete