TV show decisions that are just WRONG - I'll start with the West Wing.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

There must be loads of these. I'm sure ER is not in fact a Bible to medical correctness (say it isn't so!).

The one that bugs me is the bit the West Wing where the President breaks out into Latin. It makes me cringe. It's bad, bad Latin (IMHO).

And also - of course - the fact Toby never gets a chance to clear his name. I love Richard Schiff for explaining he played it assuming Toby was covering for someone, which is great explanation of a frustrating storyline. But I never believed Bartlett (who seems to me so good at accepting people's different points of view) would have judged him so quickly.

Is there anything that bugs you massively? Either for being factually wrong or just not fitting your sense of the characters.

I confess that I always thought that Buffy and Spike DID have sex in the penultimate episode. I remembered it as if they did! It must have been wishful thinking

I am slightly uncomfortable with all the Joss bashing though, although I concede you all may have a point. At least he tried to be a feminist.

The rape plotline bothered me greatly though, I could never decide what I thought about it. Also Anya being stood up at the altar. Really miserable episode.

Niles and Daphne. Apart, fantastic. Together, meh.

Oh, I do like Joss really. In many ways he's wonderful.

I did love Anya's wedding dress, btw (not relevant, but she always had gorgeous clothes when they got into that 1940s look.)

I may have to go and watch the penultimate episode to convince myself it was not true

I loved Anya, she was always my favourite character. She is brilliant in the musical episode. Her clothes were great, weren't they?

A good decision.

It's the one before the penultimate one...

(I just wiki'd it, not quite that sad knowledgeable)

I LOATHED Monica and Chandler in Friends. Most unconvincing screen couple ever and a pair of soggy dishcloths. I really couldn't have cared less about them or their relationship or their attempts to have a baby.

A slight aside, but has anyone else caught the trailer for The Killing III? Back soon!!!!!!

Arse. Just realised I only ever had the last season on VIDEO
I am so old....

But didn't Oz (originally) refuse to have sex with Willow precisely because she was using it as a worthiness/apology thing (after the thing with Xander)? He didn't want to have sex unless she genuinely wanted to have sex with him - which is the sort of message (enthusiastic consent) we ought to be giving our children.

Spike was definitely not intending to get his soul back - the look on his when he went through all those or deals only for the witch doctor chap to tell him that that was what he'd done made that quite clear. He'd been looking to be revamped properly. So I don't really go along with the moral event horizon thing (or, by logical extension, rape as a special kind of violence).

It was a show aimed at older teenagers - I don't think "if a guy tries to rape you when you break up with him, it's probably a bad idea to take him back even if he tells you he's changed" is a particularly controversial message to include.

Monica and Chandler were a terrible couple. I really found them unconvincing. They both turned into caricature characters after they married.

SHE SHOULD HAVE GOT BACK WITH MAGNUM.

I never watched Buffy or Angel, I haven't a clue what most of this thread is about now.

Cold Feet - when Pete had an affair because he couldn't cope with Jenny being a mother and didn't find her attractive any more. I realise that it happens (eg Elvis and Priscilla), but Pete and Jenny were a great couple and that was a horrible way for their relationship to end. I couldn't bear to watch after that.

And Supernatural - killing off Bobby, and turning him into a whiny vengeful ghost. HOW BLOODY DARE THEY?!!!

Sorry, GetOrf.

I think it's probably too late now. But just accept it was brilliant and awesome, right? (Although I am now deeply sad about what-might-have-been reading Nathan Fillion was up for the part of Angel initially).

I quite liked Monica and Chandler - though I will admit, I never realized 'caricature characters' was something to hold against Friends.

Operation Iceberg - lots of proper scientists doing proper science in a difficult and exciting environment except the doctor off kids TV who forces genuinely brave army bloke to take part in pointless tests (mossie bites and physical response to cold water) which are not being conducted in any meaningful scientific way, don't tell anyone anything that they don't already know and seem mostly geared towards getting their tops off.
Why? Why cheapen an otherwise excellent programme?

Pip that is exactly what I thought about the mossie bites!

Oh yy to Bones/Booth. And the baby

Also WTF was she doing on her back after that comment a few episodes earlier about squatting being an ideal position for giving birth?!

Heroes was good for the first season, but it wasn't a strong enough premise to sustain a long running show. It was bound to turn into 'Oh Sylar's evil. Oh now he's not. Oh look he's evil again'. And you just got stupid stuff happening like Mohinder deciding he wanted powers too and injecting himself with god knows what.

I seem to remember Ally McBeal going downhill too, although I now remember very little of anything that actually happened on it.

The other thing I really miss from TV now is ER, in the sense of how different it was from anything else on TV at the time - sooo fast paced and exciting. It used to be the thing that my mum and I watched together (I was a teenager) and at the end of an episode we would always collapse on the floor, totally flaked out with nervous tension. Is it that nothing on TV has been as good since, or that everything on TV got more frenetic and I have adjusted?

And now - radio! I stopped listening to the Archers when Ruth had the 50th anniversary non-affair with Sam because it was so contrived and totally out of character.

Ally Mcbeal fell off a cliff, more than going downhill. It went from quirky to plain odd. Bad decisions: ally's "daughter" via egg donation turning up.

I liked Amber Benson as an actress - But I didn't like JW's scripts for her. She's gone on to better things now though, is well thought of on the indi filmaking scene.

I really enjoyed 'evil' Willow - though surely Angel and/or Oz would have reappeared at that stage?

Hated Angels' return prior to the final fight - there is NO WAY that she would have sent him off to 'organise a second front' - Buffy wasn't that altruistic or tactical, she'd have wanted him right there fighting with her, she wouldn't have had the forethought to contingency plan.

Oh, plus point - Nathan Fillion mmmmmm

**

House jumped the shark for me as soon as we lost the original team members. The chinese girl was bloody annoying, the pretty girl was bloody annoying, the plastic surgeon was bloody annoying (can you see where I am going here?). The point of House for me was that HOUSE was bloody annoying and everyone else grounded him.

(Oh but, Wilson's final episodes )

The whole "fat Monica" thing at friends was offensive in a way, and a slap in the face of big people, the way she was constantly stuffing herself with cake.

Hate fat bashing!!!

I think that Spike intended to get his soul back. That is how I read it.

Oh I hated the Daphne gets fat storyline in Frasier that they used when the actress was pregnant. There are better ways to deal with cast pregnancy than that (oh yes and Joss Whedon, I'm still not off your case because I did not like how Charisma Carpenter's pregnancy was handled in Angel).

I think Spike intended to get his soul back.

The look on his face was not surprise at that being what happened, but the shock of what it felt like to have a soul.

I missed that whole series of Angel - my friend told me not to bother, so I didn't.

I have never forgiven them for the death of Fred though. Too sad.

This season of Homeland will be working around Claire Danes' pregnancy (chiefly through careful use of camera angles and use of a "belly double", apparently).