Crazy, implausible, far-fetched and insane plot turns, twists, and holes have been a part of the primetime television landscape for decades, but there was a time when it had been typically relegated to nighttime soap operas, like Dallas or Dynasty. However, those ridiculous plot turns have not just creeped into tv lately, they have transformed television narratives. There’s a line of television shows that owe their influence to The Sopranos, like Mad Men, Boardwalk Empire and Breaking Bad, but almost on a separate plane, there’s another line of shows that have been more influenced by the works of Ryan Murphy and Shonda Rhimes, shows that start out as one thing, but twist and turn themselves almost into different television shows.
FX’s Nip/Tuck was one of my first memorable experiences with this phenomena: It began as a really amazing, heartfelt, often devastating drama about two plastic surgeons and the stories that developed with their patients, but within two seasons, it had become about something else: The Carver, a serial rapits who disfigured his victims. Nip/Tuck completely went off the rails, and after a couple of seasons, it was unwatchable, thought it ran for another four seasons (that I didn’t watch).
That kind of writing has been popularized in recent years, and thanks to the popularity of shows like Scandal (which I loved for a season and a half), everyone is adopting this approach. Don’t like where your characters are headed? Exhausted your premise? Have you written yourself into a corner? NO PROBLEM. Just contort the narrative in an implausible, unrealistic way, and then ratchet up the twists, and viewers will forgive all, right?
Mostly, but sometimes, a plot development, twist, or turn gets so out of hand that it actually damages the show. That happened all too frequently in 2013. Here’s the 10 most ridiculous examples. SPOILERS, obviously.
10. Breaking Bad — The best series on television — and maybe, the best drama in the history of all of television — didn’t go out with a completely perfect season. One episode, “To’hajiilee,” ended in a Mexican stand-off in which no one — initially — was killed. The writers wanted to end the episode in a big cliff-hanger, but in order to do so, the final scene required some unrealistic gunplay. The series, obviously, moved past it, but not without some minor controversy, as some called it the worst shoot-out in television history. It was a minor misstep in an otherwise brilliant final season.
9. Downton Abbey — Granted, the ridiculous twist was necessary because of a contract dispute, but the season three finale of the Julian Fellowes series saw them kill off one of the major characters, Mathew Crawley, suddenly, tragically, and without warning. Not only did it come after killing off another major character (Lady Sybil) in a series that’s not about character deaths, but it was done in a way that didn’t really service the plot (Matthew is killed in a car crash on the way to see his wife, who had just had their baby), and more ridiculously, a letter is found six months later, written shortly before his death, that gives his estate to his wife. HOW CONVENIENT.
8. Girls — Many take issue with the episode in which a character played by Patrick Wilson (who looks like Patrick Wilson) had a two-day sexual fling with Lena Dunham’s character, but that was actually one of my favorite episodes of a somewhat disappointing second season of Girls (and I had no problem believing that a man in his 30s would have a two-day sexual affair with a stranger). The biggest problem I had with this season of Girls was the left-field, out-of-nowhere, revelation that Dunham’s character, Hannah, had obsessive compulsive disorder. There was zero groundwork for it, and no hint that it had been a problem for the character, and it had never been mentioned before in a series where the characters talk about everything. Suddenly, out of the blue, Hannah had a recurring episode of OCD and had to repeat everything she did and said eight times, and it then became a major plot point for the rest of the season.
7. The Office — Though the means ultimately justified the ends (the last four episodes of The Office’s final season were fantastic), Jim and Pam’s entire arc up until the end made absolutely no sense: The writers attempted to pull them apart by turning Jim Halpert into a huge dick and Pam Beasley into self-doubting shrew. Through the first eight seasons, neither of these characters had ever betrayed any of these characteristics, so it was fairly preposterous for the writers to attempt to create tension by assassinating two of the most beloved characters on television, even if it allowed for a sweet ending to the series.
6. The Walking Dead — The entire first half of The Walking Dead’s fourth season turned out to be little more than a stall, allowing showrunner Scott Gimple to circle back around and pick up what the narrative missed from the comic book series at the end of the third season. To accomplish this, the writers attempted to redeem The Governor basically for the sole purpose of tearing him down again, and making him the villain again before doing what the series should’ve done at the end of last season: Kill him off (like Breaking Bad above, the bad marksmanship in finale shootout in The Walking Dead also strained credulity). It was a needless plot turn written not to advance the plot, but to correct last season’s mistakes.
5. The Following — One of several series on this list completely built around ridiculous plot turns, The Following‘s plot twists were actually so bad as to be completely insulting to the viewer’s intelligence. There are many to choose from, but let’s go with the premise of the show itself: An imprisoned serial killer basically uses the Internet to set up thousands of websites to gain obsessive, murderous followers without anyone in the prison knowing about it. REALLY? I didn’t realize that prisoners received laptops and free reign to establish a network of murdering cult followers, and that the prisoner could even arrange for certain hits from inside his prison cell. (The heavy handed Edgar Allen Poe symbolism was the icing on the sh*t cake).
4. American Horror Story — The entire season fits into this category of narrative. Why? Because nearly every major character of the season has died, and yet, not one single character has remained dead (the winter finale saw yet another major character death, though it remains to be seen if she will return. If the first half of the season is any indication, she surely will, probably in the next episode). It’s so ridiculous that a character played by Kathy Bates was buried alive for 200 years, dug up, turned into a house maid and later decapitated, and yet, she’s still alive, her chattering head perched on a table forced to watch Roots because she’s a racist former slave owner.
3. Scandal — Honestly, there’s nothing but absurd plot turns on Scandal, so the show has to work really hard to fall outside of the show’s mean. It’s difficult to pick just one ridiculous plot turn in Scandal this season. Was it the fact that, 20 years ago, the President shot down the plane of his lover’s mother under orders from his lover’s father? Was it the fact that the Vice President of the United States murdered her gay husband for banging the Chief of Staff’s gay husband? Or maybe the fact that the President’s father raped the First Lady 15 years ago? Or was it the fact that the sister of the leading candidate for the Democratic nomination turned out secretly to be the candidate’s bastard daughter? It’s too hard to pick one!
2. Homeland — The entire third season of Homeland wasn’t a complete waste, as it ended with a strong, sad finale. The pointless return of Dana Brody, however, was ridiculous, and Carrie’s pregnancy was largely unnecessary. A couple of absurd plot turns actually worked, in their own way, but the most preposterous plot turn of the season was Saul’s decision to locate Nicholas Brody — who had been left in confinement in South America, with nothing but heroin to keep him company — and transform him into an assassin. Basically, with one magical pill and a musical montage, they changed a junkie on the brink of death into a lucid killer of one of the most guarded, high-profile leaders in the world. (To the show’s credit, the lousy plot turn yielded great results).
1. Dexter — You could say that the entire incredibly disappointing final season was a ridiculous plot turn itself (that began its turn around the bend after season four), but nothing — and I mean, nothing — was a bigger disappointment to me in 2013 than the absurd ending of the series. For some reason, network executives at Showtime wouldn’t allow the writers to kill off their character, so instead, they killed off Dexter’s sister, Debra Morgan. Meanwhile, Dexter drove his boat INTO A HURRICANE in order to fake his own death. Somehow, he survived, and instead of meeting the love of his life and his son in Europe as he had initially planned, Dexter chose to live out the rest of his life AS A LUMBERJACK.