Summary
Character development is a tricky thing to get right inTelevision, with the best character arcs in the medium meeting unfortunate ends with baffling decisions. Thebest TV character arcsare immensely satisfying,slowly changing a given cast member’s personalityas they grapple with extenuating circumstances to become a new person, for better or for worse. However, it’s all too easy to ruin good character development with baffling decisions that undermine everything they’d been through up to that point.
Simply bringing a character to the endpoint of their arc isn’t enough in the realm of TV. Episodic writers also have to maintain the new status quo after concluding a given character’s development, which can be tricky to do depending on how much more of the show remains. In some cases,terrible series finalesor even just single episodes can undo all the good faith writers have built up for themselves in a single blow,losing the faith of the audience in a disappointing return to form.
The longer a series goes on, the more likely it is for them to mess up the development of popular characters through sheer statistics.The Walking Deadwas on the air for an incredibly long time, and some of its characters continue to live on in various spin-offs that continue to put the conclusions of their arcs in peril. No single member of the cast has suffered from this more than Negan,the series most infamous bat-wielding villain whose development was frustratingly reversed.
Negan beginsThe Walking Deadas one of the most despicable series introduced, mercilessly killing fan-favorite protagonists with a smile on his face. Shockingly, Negan gets something of a redemption arc when he saves a helpless character others left for dead, implying the beginning of a fascinating story of atonement. Unfortunately, this all ends up being for naught whenNegan reverts to his psychotic ways in the later seasons,reigniting his rivalry with Maggie for no reason other than shock value.
Amongthe cast ofThe Umbrella Academy,Klaus has become a fan-favorite for a good reason.Klaus starts the show defined by his addictive personality and vices,acting in pursuit of short-term pleasure seeking while never taking anything too seriously. However, season 2 and 3 would see Klaus focus on loving someone other than himself, discovering his roots, mastering his power, and even overcoming his addictions, being completely sober at the start of season 4.
Unfortunately, the final season ofThe Umbrella Academysees fit to undo Klaus' progress in many respects. Season 4 of the Netflix seriessees Klaus relapse, falling back into old habits for no good reason.As if that weren’t enough, the series ends before he can get better again, unceremoniously wrapping up Klaus' slow development with a deeply unsatisfying apathy.
The final season ofGame of Throneswas a brutal time for the development of many characters, hastily wrapping-up long-running arcs left and right with reckless abandon. Jon Snow and Daenerys' characters may have been smeared by season 8,but no single character had their entire arc so thoroughly reduced as Jaime Lannister.Not only did the way Jaime’s story end undermine his development, but it stood completely antithetical to everything he had learned leading up to the final season.
Jaime starts the show in an obsessive incestuous relationship with his sister Cersei, stopping at nothing to protect her and their children. Over the course of many episodes, Jaime learns humility, as his close calls alongside Brienne and Bronn slowly convince him to see the error in his sister’s ways.Sadly, the final season threw that all away in order for Jaime to die alongside his sister in a pointlessly dramatic setpiece,utterly insulting the years of careful character development he had recieved up until that point.
Ted Mosby presents an interesting case for a ruined character arc, being that his story wasn’t just invalidated by only the final episode ofHow I Met Your Mother,but specifically the last five minutes of it.Ted spendsall 9 seasons ofHow I Met Your Motherlooking for an idealized version of the love of his life,frequently messing up his own chances of happiness with love-bombing and self-sabotage. It isn’t until he meets the mother of his children, Tracy, that his learned experiences allow him to take the opportunity to meet his “the one”.
Infuriatingly,How I Met Your Motherundoes the importance of Ted finally letting go of Robin by having her go running into her arms as a middle-aged man. What’s even stranger is the “permission” his kids give him to seek out this connection following the death of their mother, making for an incredibly awkward finale that was in incredibly poor taste.How I Met Your Mother’s biggest sin wasgiving Ted and Tracy so much chemistry only to have him come crawling back to Robin.
LikeGame of ThronesandHow I Met Your Mother,Dexteris another drama plagued with an unpopular and controversial ending. WhileDexter’s revival somewhat acted as a band-aid fix on this disappointing climax, it can’t undo the seasons' worth of character development destruction that Dexter Morgan suffered at the hands of his writers.Dexter begins the show as a charismatic, but awkward man struggling to control and direct his dark urges as a serial killer.
After Rita’s death,Dexter Morgan suddenly is swarmed with emotions he formerly didn’t experience,unconvincingly changing everything about his dynamic in the first few seasons of the show. What’s worse is the fostering of his romantic relationship with his adoptive sister Debra, an event which turns Dexter from a cool, collected killer to a clumsy, love-drunk goofball. The final nail in the coffin for Dexter’s hope of a good arc in the original show is his bizarre decision to run out on his own life and become a lumberjack.
The final nail in the coffin for Dexter’s hope of a good arc in the original show is his bizarre decision to run out on his own life and become a lumberjack.
As a character, Rory Gilmore is supposed to be everything her mother Lorelai wasn’t at her age.She’s studious, not just book smart, but rational as well,making calm, informed decisions with wisdom beyond her years. However, as the series progressed, the writers unveiled Rory’s unyielding weakness for boys and toxic character traits that totally run opposite to her values as stated by both herself and her writers.
The primary culprit isRory’s tumultuous relationship with Dean, which is frequently toxic and one-sided. The ultimate moment of character arc destruction isthe episode in which Rory sleeps with Dean while he’s married to Lindsay,totally invalidating the supposed strong moral compass Rory has been demonstrated to have throughout the show. Even worse, Rory doesn’t feel much regret for her part in Dean’s infidelity, diminishing her agency with out-of-character views on romance.
The falloff of BBC’sSherlockis a TV epidemic worthy of study, going from being one of the most talked-about shows of the mid-2000s to a poorly-remembered crime procedural.This shift in the pop culture zeitgeist can largely be blamed on the mishandling of the eponymous detective’s character arc in the later seasons.Like in many interpretations of the public domain character, BBC’sSherlockbegins the series as a brilliant but grating detective, eschewing most conventional forms of happiness or relationship-forming.
Slowly, but surely, Sherlock learns to appreciate those in his life, especially John Watson, and even has a few romantic encounters that, admittedly, end poorly. However, by the end of the later seasons,Sherlockreverts its titular protagonist back into a puzzle-obsessed antisocial pariah,seemingly having no interest in the realms of mere mortals. It’s a shame the series wasn’t able to maintain Sherlock’s newfound humanity for longer.
Like in many interpretations of the public domain character, BBC’sSherlockbegins the series as a brilliant but grating detective, eschewing most conventional forms of happiness or relationship-forming.
It may seem odd for a show likeThe Simpsonsto even be in the discussion of TV character arcs. The animated family sitcom thrives on resetting the status quo between episodes, with few canon changes being made to the characters from week to week and season to season. That being said, there was once a time whenThe Simpsonspaid more attention to the nuance of its characters, particularly in regard to Ned Flanders.
A devout Christian and friendly neighbor, Ned Flanders actually does grapple with his faith and seemingly perfect facade in the first few seasons, particularly after the shocking death of his wife.Sadly, in the later seasons, Ned becomes a parody of his former self, more zealous and shallow than ever.Ned Flanders' fall from grace was so bad thatan entire trope, “Flanderization”, was named after him, referring to any character that grows to over-rely on their surface level traits.
While he was never the most likable member of the cast,The Office’s Andy became so hateablethanks to the utter dissolution of his character in later seasons.At first, Andy is an obnoxious coworker with something of a temper that ultimately becomes a close friend to Jim,excitedly joining the Dunder Mifflin crew. However, it was after Andy’s return from a poorly-explained absence following actor Ed Helms' hiatus from the show that he truly became so reviled.
In season 9,The Officeerases any good will towards Andy fans have been able to accumulate over the course of his appearances.The training seminar sees Andy return to form as a self-serving, oafish lark that somehow forgets all the personal growth he’d managed to achieve in the previous seasons.This ends up ultimately ruining his romantic relationship with Erin as well, further destroying any positive development he had accumulated over time.
Like Angel before him, Spike was on track to have one of the most satisfying redemption arcs in all of television, let alone theBuffy the Vampire Slayeruniverse.Once upon a time, Spike was a vengeful vampire who earned his nickname through, allegedly, his favorite method of torture,striking fear in the hearts of vampire slayers the world over. YetBuffy the Vampire Slayerslowly morphs him into an anti-hero following his villainous introduction, even having him regain his literal soul.
Unfortunately, all of Spike’s character growth before and after the conclusion of the main series is marred by one particularly uncomfortable and controversial episode in season 2. Here, having developed romantic feelings for Buffy,Spike attempts to sexually assault her, and gets dangerously close to succeeding.This single moment ruined any hope Spike had of becoming a truly likable character throughout the rest of hisTVrun.
Spike, played by James Marsters, also appeared inThe Order(TV Series, 2020) as Xavier, the head of the Sons of Prometheus.
