Home Entertainment 8 Worst TV Storylines of My Lifetime

8 Worst TV Storylines of My Lifetime

by W.E. Sauls

40 for 40 Episode 2

As decided upon through responses to a Facebook post

This article was born out of my hate for the final entry on this list and the utter betrayal I felt from the entire cast and writers. The rest were crowdsourced from FB…or whatever the hell it’s called now that Data from Next Generation come to life read the first two paragraphs of a book on how to rebrand and decided he knew enough.

Buckle up friends…these are gonna start some comment section excitement 🙂

Joshua Douglas Windle

Pam and Jim and their marital problems undermined the show in the final season of The Office

You know why Seinfeld is the greatest sitcom of all time? They never tried to get serious. From scene one episode one to the end of the finale it was about making people laugh. Nothing gets under my TV loving skin more than when comedy writers say, ”hey, you know what would make this situational comedy better? Let’s write a serious storyline about a marriage nearly collapsing and let’s do it in the last season!” Stop. You’re good at writing jokes, write jokes. 

Shout out to Always Sunny for being the true heir to the Seinfeld throne. That is a team that does it right every time. 

Emily Lecaque

The ghost sex arc in Grey’s Anatomy Season 4

Ok, so I had no idea what Em was talking about, but I mean…wouldn’t you Google that sentence? So I did. 

Here’s my opinion…

You know when you’re in a meeting at work and someone says something so stupid you think about putting your two weeks in at that very moment, but you don’t, and eventually that stupid thing comes to life in the workplace and you then begin everyday wondering what fresh hell awaits as you head from the coffee maker to your cubicle? That’s what it had to feel like for at least one person after this idea was muttered.

“I mean, like, what if she has sex with his Ghost?”

“Like in Ghostbusters when Ray’s belt gets undone and…?”

“No…but..like…yeah with a ghost still.”

This is why I am a proponent of fan-oversight in every writer’s room. A level headed adult fan that understands what stupid sounds like. They get 2 vetoes per season and a sweet buzzer to hit when something so dumb is uttered the writer should be canned on the spot. 

Joshua Douglas Windle

The weird love between Dexter and his sister at the end of the show.

What Josh is speaking of here is when Deb comes to a realization that she is “in love” with her adopted brother Dexter whilst in therapy. This was one of the stupidest things I have ever witnessed on the small screen. I love Dexter. Myself and the better half are currently in the process of rewatching the series in anticipation of Sunday’s “Dexter: New Blood” launch. This plot line so ruined the series for me that I cannot remember anything that happened after Dexter killed the Trinity Killer. 

This was unnecessary and only detracted from the greatness of the show. How the hell did this get out of the writer’s room? Did they think, “Well…these two weirdly got married in real life…let’s get some incest in this script!!!!” 

Jeffrey Trotter

Fake serial killer in “The Wire”

I have to admit I’ve never seen a minute of The Wire. So, I had to call in the brains of the MFG operation, Kyle Kelley, to school me on why this was so bad.

Man, it’s been a solid fifteen years since I’ve seen it, I bet, but, if I remember right, the storyline just takes up a big chunk of space in the final season of a great show and doesn’t really accomplish much. I think the sorta main character, McNulty, decides that in order for the police to get funding for taking care of investigating actual crimes and drug trafficking, he has to create this serial killer because then it will get the whole city in a panic and the mayor and chief will be forced to support the police more. So he stages regular homicides or homeless people who died from exposure or other causes to be “victims” of this fake serial killer. 

It’s bad because I honestly can’t remember what the actual goal was in getting more support. Just that the whole scenario seemed ludicrous and completely out of step with the character or characters participating in the scheme. It was just really out of step, and it seemed like the writers/creator were kinda surprised they got another season. And then wanted to tackle a theme around the lack of support for the police. But then just tanked the actual plot dealing with those issues. It was like a sensationalist story for a series that otherwise was really grounded.

Great, now don’t even want to watch The Wire. Sorry Omar. 

David Birk

Judy, the youngest daughter in Family Matters just disappears after Season 3 with no explanation as to where she went and they just act like she never existed.

This is why Dave has been my ride or die since 1992…he asks the real hard questions. 

First, they’re lucky this show aired before the internet and before accountability existed for the great American Family sitcom. Second, all the actors had to sign off on this right…Keep that in mind.

William Bickley, the show’s creator and a writer of the show, said that she was cut due to a “budget consideration.”

That sounds like a nice way of saying either the Cop from Die Hard hated her, or Urkel did. There is no other real reason to not just kill off a character, but to act like she never existed. That takes a lot of balls or indifference to the show you are writing…or both? I say it was personal. 

Die Hard Cop played her dad for 3 years and was like, “Season four script is here! Third child never existed. I need no explanation nor do the fans! When do we roll?”

That is some cold blooded cut throat showbiz right there.  

David Birk

The character Tori in Saved by the Bell. In the final season she just came and went and was never mentioned again.

I remember Tori, and I remember my 11 year old eyes were very happy when she was on screen. I did some digging on this, by which I mean I Googled “Tori from Saved by the Bell” and found an article on Yahoo that pretty much tells the entire story. I also learned that Saved by the Bell was only on for 4 seasons? WTF, it felt like my entire youth. 

But, I digress. Basically, Kelly and Jessie left the show and they needed another girl for Zack to date since he had made his way through the entire cast, and I’m guessing the crew as well, by graduation. So here comes Tori on her motorcycle, leather jacket, and tough take no shit attitude…the perfect foe for the trash that was Zack Morris. 

In the end all we remember about her is that she showed up with zero explanation and we all had no idea as to why Kelly and Jessie were gone. And she leaves pretty much exactly how she came into Bayside High. On a side note she is ⅓ of a set of triplets, so…ya know…that’s cool. 

My Bayside High Crush Ranking: Tori, Kelly, Lisa, Jessie (Though none holds a candle to Topanga) 

Tori from Saved by the Bell

Tori from Saved by the Bell and that sweet leather jacket.

Emily Swain

Ummmm Bran as king of Westeros?

Jesus Christ way to shit the bed in the final episodes. I’m still pissed.

This is exactly how Game of Thrones should have ended…

John Snow: “You will always be my Queen”

Plunges dagger into Daenerys’ abdomen

Daenerys’ dies

Dragon screams, melts iron thrones and flies away

Camera shows John brooding

Cut to black

Goddamn that would have been amazing. We would all still be talking about it daily! “Are they going to bring it back?” “What happened afterwards?” “Did the unsullied and the Night’s Watch go to war over John Snow?” “Were all the Starks hunted and Killed??”

So many amazing discussions and rumors would be in the ether to this day everyday. Instead…ugh…we’ve all pretty much forgotten the series happened. 

But man, The Battle of the Bastards…that was intense. 

Katie Mulligan Hylton

The Rachel and Joey storyline was horrible!

You want to talk about sacrilege? Betrayal of character? Lazy creativity and worse writing? Look no further than the Rachel and Joey love story in Friends. This type of thing was born early in the series the first time Chandler steals Joey’s girlfriend and then Chandler had to stay in that box until Joey forgave him, or some idiocy like that. 

Then Joey and Ross switch Gf’s again at some point when Lana from Archer dated both of them in the course of a season or something. It was all ridiculous. And as everyone reading this knows, in a group of actual friends, when something like this goes down, that group is no more. Sides are taken, lines are drawn and people are blocked. 

WE ALL KNEW THAT ROSS AND RACHEL WERE GOING TO GET BACK TOGETHER. Just get to the bloody point already. 

I will never forgive anyone in the Friends family for allowing this storyline to happen. It makes Joey, the lovable sandwich eating Italian boy, look like an absolute piece of sh%$. AND WE LOVE JOEY! You ruined him…shame on all your houses.  

Betrayal

Joey and Rachel’s Betrayal

Well, that’s the list. Please ague as much as you possibly can about these things. It’s better than arguing about politics or vaccines…I mean…this is the stuff that unites us…TV!

W.E. Sauls is a native St. Louisan, a graduate of Lonedell R-14 Elementary, and the frontman of the band Money for Guns.

 

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