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'd never seen the parallel but now you mention it .... absolutely.

Angel's oyerish accent consistently made me cringe in those ridiculous flashbacks, too.

Angel was nowhere near as irritating or as boring as Edward Cullen or those mopey arses from vampire diaries though let's face it. I liked Angel, and I liked spike as well. They were both pretty cool. My favourite Angel bit was when he turned up at the prom. I must admit, I still shed a tear when I watch that bit. Also cry at the bit in the same ep when they award Buffy the class protector thing. Sob sob . . . I need a hug . . .

Oh and yes about good series going on way too long and becoming seriously deranged in the process. Lost is the classic example but also Heroes - that first series was immense, brilliant TV. Then it went insane.

Hassled - I think I was just naive. As in, I thought nobody would get away with actual murder. I was ready to believe all his other evil stuff. Wasn't a fan of her calling him 'Daddy' as I watched it with my Dad.

Olivia - they were still splitting up/getting back together last season, since the recent near death experiences they are back together and just argue.

LRD- Is that really why Burke disappeared?

Spike and Buffy not having sex on the night before the final battle is everything to do with Joss Whedon's messed up view of sex.

In Buffy they did throw out a bone for the Buffy/Angel fans with the 'cookie dough' speech in the final episode where she hints she might be with Angel again one day - but it was a difficult tightrope to walk seeing as she was with Spike at the time. But the adventure continues in the comic books ...

southern - wiki claims it was announced that it happened (the row, and that it was the reason for not renewing his contract), so it must be fairly 'out there', I think.

Joss Whedon is odd about sex, it's true.

Bones - when Bones & Booth get together, after all that time of will they, won't they & them wanting each other so much over the entire history of the programme, I expected passion. But it seemed lacking in some way. It makes it kinda unbelievable.

I think it's just easier to write good sexual tension than good sex.

YY to yellow hair for carrie in HL.

Annoyed in Spooks when Lucas got someone's password because the characters appeared on screen as they were typed. Come on, even the crappest webSites don't do that, at least make him watch the guy's fingers to see which keys he hits.

I think a lot of problems to do with story arc, for example in Homeland, are that the writers etc don't know until halfway through the season if there will be another one. Works ok for Spooks where there are different external baddies every week anyway, but not for Homeland where the main characters are the whole story. Homeland does feel a bit OTT now with what just happened with Dana and Finn. How unlucky can one family be?

I'm still gutted that Flash Forward was cancelled :(

And although I'm a huge Frasier fan, its demise definitely began when Niles and Daphne get together.

Surely Spike and Buffy not having sex was because he'd previously tried to rape her? I'm (almost) sure that that was in the commentary for that episode on DVD - that they had thought about it a lot and decided that it didn't send a good message to show a young woman having sex with her would-be rapist, so even though Spike had reformed they kept sex out of the relationship.

Just saw the post above mine - Flash Forward was a terrible victim of mid season break/story arc - whole aspects of plot forgotten! Was still great though...

Mmm. See, if I'm picking holes, this is where I get annoyed with Joss Whedon. He does that 'OMG, I'm, like, so feministy' thing, but doesn't ever seem to join the dots. The rape storyline seemed to be a plot-driven thing to force Spike to go off and get a soul. The scene where everyone else is having sex and they gazing into each other's eyes is obviously inviting us to compare that to everyone else's sexual relationship - so I don't think claiming it's about avoiding her having sex with a would-be rapist works (I mean I don't buy Whedon's claim, not I don't buy yours).

I do think he's a bit shite at women and sex (cf. Enara). It makes me sad, cos I do love Buffy. I mostly try to forget the rape bit happened.

The interesting thing about the Spike attempted rape is that it was also within the context of Buffy treating him like a disposable sex toy - and not having a 'safe' word when so much of their sex was based around violence. But no!- weirdo Whedon has to make it that Good Girls can only have chaste relationships with bad boys, when I was actually pleased that it seemed as if the show had begun to dare to show a darker side to female sexuality.
So I have never read the comics for this reason. I always found Angel patronising and paternalistic- so not surpirsing Whedon gets them together

Mmm, I hadn't thought about that re. safe words, but you're right.

Another thing that annoys me (I am watching old episodes atm, can you tell? ) is that although it is so fantastic having the little blonde girl as the physically strong character, he still reckons it's fine for her to hit blokes but not so much the other way around. There's an ep I've just seen where she socks Angel because she's cross then looks shocked he hits her back.

TBF, I suppose being 200 years older than her Angel doesn't have much option not to be paternalistic!

Not wanting to derail into another Buffy discussion but when spike first ent off after the attempted rape, I read his actions as wanting to get properly "revamped" so he could hurt people properly again, and that the process he thought would remove the chip turned out to be not what he thought. Or did I get that wrong?

I thought phoebe picking mike was fair enough - after all, she hadn't been in a "relationshippy place" with David for a long time.

Not wanting to derail into another Buffy discussion but when spike first ent off after the attempted rape, I read his actions as wanting to get properly "revamped" so he could hurt people properly again, and that the process he thought would remove the chip turned out to be not what he thought. Or did I get that wrong?

I thought phoebe picking mike was fair enough - after all, she hadn't been in a "relationshippy place" with David for a long time.

Derail away! Not that I think this is derailing anyway.

DH agrees with you - I don't. I have no idea what the 'official' line is, but I like to read it my way.

Derail derail! Thinking about it- Buffy is always punished for having sex- Angel loses his soul, Spike tries to rape her. And shagging Riley was surely punishment in itself...
Interesting that Xander tried to force her into sex- when he gets turned into a hyena- but nothing is made of that.

Another West Wing one from me - but not the leak. The one that irritates me is CJ being appointed Chief of Staff. I love that she's a woman in the role and she is one of my favourite characters. But she is woefully unqualified for the role and it's just so unrealistic.

As unrealistic as Monica being a chef and getting to spend so much time not at work?

Ok, I just checked on wiki and it says we were meant to think he wanted the chip removed but it turned out to be that he wanted his soul back all along with the ordeal etc.

I still maintain the soul was a surprise to Spike at the end of the ordeal.

None of them in friends ever did any work. Or any parenting!