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I love watching programmes and seeing characters’ development go well. It’s amazing when you learn to love particular characters either even more than you did at the start or after really despising what they’re about.
However, there are times when characters you love tend to go the opposite way and you end up cringing when they’re on the screen.
So, here are my top 5 characters (in no particular order) whose personalities went south… or even bombed in some cases! (Poor writing, I guess!)
- Robin Scherbatzky – Now, it pains me to put Robin in the list as I absolutely love How I Met Your Mother and early Robin is one of my favourite characters ever. She was sweet and caring but powerful and scotch-drinking. She knew what she wanted in her career and was driven to achieve the best that she can whilst looking smokin’ hot at the same time. And she was dorky underneath too which just gave her an extra layer of Robin Sparkliness (see what I did there? Woo!) However, there came a point when Robin became a little too self-assured and would comment on how she was hotter than other girls in the show. There’s even an episode where Ted raves about a girl and tells each of his friends why they will love her, and he turns to Robin to say “you’re hotter than her”. Cringe! (Also! Come on, Ted!!)
- Rachel Berry – Ohhhh, Rachel, Rachel, Rachel! I’m currently watching Glee-runs (woahhhh! See what I did there too?) of the show on Netflix and, in the early stages, I can see why I absolutely loved Rachel’s character. She’s ridiculously annoying but in a loveable way where you do really want her to achieve that gold star after her name. The Run, Joey, Run video will probably always be my favourite Glee moment. However, I felt that as time went by, she was just getting whatever she wanted without caring about who she was hurting and would literally slap anyone who got in her way (I’m looking at you, Santana).
- Toby Damon – Wow, the more I write this, the more I realise how much I love these characters and I really want to defend them. However, this is about their character development going wrong… and Toby is one of those who probably doesn’t deserve to be in the list (some people may even want to put Kate in the list above Tobez but I wanted to focus on a male character veering off track as I didn’t want the list to be too female-heavy). OK, so, again, I adore Toby and he has been the perfect partner for Kate in This Is Us; he’s helped her to grow so much and to love herself and to sing publicly – he’s just been a dream… until their son was diagnosed as being blind and Toby pretty much gave up on his own son for a few episodes. Wait, what??? I felt like I wanted to scream at the TV (I think I did, actually) and tell Toby to get a grip as his son needs him but, thankfully, he started to come round… luckily, his son could see some lights which meant that there was hope of him being able to see which meant that Toby could love him. Yeah, bad marks for you on that one, Tobez.
- JD – Now, Scrubs had a way of really hitting you right in the feels at times, and a lot of these times were executed brilliantly by Zach Braff’s character. We had all the comedic elements of the show that provided some light relief, so when there was a particularly sad episode, it really hit hard. His emotional scenes with Dr. Cox were always delivered in such a sincere way that, even though JD could be a bit of a selfish jerk at times, it just showed that he could give us a bit of everything. However, in the later seasons, JD seemed to become more like a comical extra who was almost cartoonish in his delivery of funny escapades. It was even as if I couldn’t really see him and Elliott being end-game anymore because of it.
- Skylar White – I know, I know… she was a nause from the start! But I’ve put her on the list as, at the start of Season 1 of Breaking Bad, she was bearable. It was when Walt went even further down his Making Meth path that you were rooting for him, the baddy, and not the wife who kept trying to stop him. That was the beauty of the show though, it really did skew your view of right and wrong. Skylar just became quite irritating… and I’ll never forgive her for that cringeworthy performance of ‘Happy Birthday’ to her boss. Yak!
Right, I think I’m happy with that list…! I even discussed some of them with Lee and he’s now been sent off to think of his own characters whose development just went haywire.
Additionally, some of those who didn’t make the final 5 are below… I’ve given a brief reason as to why they could have made the list too…
- Piper Chapman – Ahh, the Orange is the New Black protag! I love her monologues when she completely goes off on one about how she is a lone wolf – it fits in with her being an educated hoity-toity character and thinks she is above everyone else. But then she talks about being a badass and it’s a little too far. Pipes, these inmates would eat you alive! I reckon Yoga Jones could even claim a victory.
- Monica Geller (please don’t hate me for this one!!) – Ahhh, another one that pains me as I love, love, love Friends!! But Monica goes a little whiney in about Season 7 or 8. She doesn’t even seem like the same character from the earlier seasons. However, she picks it back up again later on and is back to being less whiney.
- Mr Schue – Ahh, another of Glee‘s characters who lost his way. However, after watching the Glee-runs recently, I do pretty much cringe at Mr Schue whenever he’s on the screen. He’s actually a pretty rubbish character (sorry Schue fans!!) as he emotinally abuses all of the other characters – Emma, Finn, Rachel, and especially his wife, Terrie, in Season 1. I don’t know whether it’s his character development bombing or whether he just never really made it off the starting blocks at all – hence why I put Rachel in the list instead. Weird one!
So, there we have it! You may have agreed with some, or none, of these! I would love to know who you think should have made the list, or even who shouldn’t have made the list… Comment your opinions below.
Loula Bella xoxo