History BrokenAesop / LiveActionTv

** In "Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E17EyeOfTheBeholder Eye of the Beholder", it tries to raise the message that depression might not be obvious from an outsider's perspective. However, the guy who killed himself wasn't even depressed; he killed himself due to telepathic images.

** In "Eye of the Beholder", it tries to raise the message that depression might not be obvious from an outsider's perspective. However, the guy who killed himself wasn't even depressed; he killed himself due to telepathic images.

** "iMeet Fred" has a very confused moral about not expressing your opinions online in public forums. Freddie politely says he doesn't think Fred is that funny. He doesn't say he hates the character, but just says that the humor isn't his cup of tea. Then Lucas Cruikshank, Fred's creator and actor, declares Fred's dead due to Freddie's comments. After, Freddie's relentlessly bullied by pretty much everyone in school, as apparently they're all fans of Fred. When the gang all travel to Idaho to confront him, it's revealed that Lucas did it to start an internet fight between iCarly fans and his to boost their ratings. Before this, Freddie refused to apologize on the grounds that he doesn't think Lucas deserves it. That is until Sam beats the apology out of him with a Tennis racket. What should've been a story about sticking to your opinions, especially when you're proven right or not wrong for having them, becomes an episode about the exact opposite of that. Neither moral holds up because Lucas was a major {{Jerkass}} to them by not informing them of his plan and not even apologizing for all the pain he caused Freddie. On top of that, Fred wasn't always seen as comedy gold back when he was popular and is now seen as a laughingstock of the early days of Website/YouTube, so Freddie was ultimately proven right in the end.

** "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E20InTheHandsOfTheProphets In the Hands of the Prophets]]" is an {{Allegory}} for how creationists try to prevent the teaching of evolution in schools, with the episode coming down firmly on the side of teaching scientific fact despite religious objections. Except the series has established that the Bajoran religion ''is'' scientific fact: the Bajoran Prophets and their powers have been empirically proven to be real. So Winn isn't disputing the actual science being taught in Keiko's classroom; their only objections is over the terminology used, with Keiko refusing to use the word "Prophets", instead referring to them as "entities".

* ''Series/{{Batwoman}}'' Season 2 had the lead character spend a lot of time speaking out against police brutality, even as their own crimefighting actions were often just as brutal, with seemingly no awareness of the hypocrisy. Like, they get outraged at Jacob Kane for [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique trying to beat information out of a prisoner]], when Batwoman's plan was to keep that same prisoner chained up underground with no lawyer, no arrest warrant, and ''no food'', saying they'd start answering questions once they were "literally starving".

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': The episode "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S6E1JudgmentDay Judgment Day]]" revolves around a murderer being hunted down on national television as part of an ImmoralRealityShow. They make a point about condemning sensationalization of violence in the media and people who would watch it, before revealing that the target was actually framed by the show's producer. In the end the former target hunts down and murders the producer with just as much glee as he had previously been pursued, turning the intended message "killing people for public entertainment is wrong" into "killing people for public entertainment is wrong only if they didn't do it".

*** When the juice bar gets a new pachinko machine, Rocky enjoys the game and finds it addictive...and then Lord Zedd casts a spell to make him ''literally'' addicted to it, playing the game to the exclusion of everything else going on. And when Zedd turns the machine into the MonsterOfTheWeek, Rocky--who is still under the effects of the spell--spends most of the fight playing around rather than helping. After the monster is destroyed and the spell is lifted, Rocky apologizes for his behavior and Aisha drops the aesop, "All play and no work makes a guy a real jerk." However, Rocky only behaved that way because he was under a mood-altering spell, and since the machine was ultimately destroyed, he was never given the opportunity to decide for himself how to budget his free time without neglecting his responsibilities.

** One of ExtravertedNerd Steve Urkel's redeeming traits was originally that he was a personification of the [[AnAesop aesop]] "just BeYourself." The original appearance of his alter-ego Stefan Urquelle was merely a vehicle for preaching of this aesop. Unfortunately, then someone on the creative team decided that Stefan should become a regular part of Urkel's bag of MadScientist tricks, and the aesop was broken. Attempts to mend it -- for instance, the fact that Steve and Stefan could not exist at the same time, forcing Laura to give up her romance with Stefan because Steve had the right to exist as himself -- were ''themselves'' [[YoYoPlotPoint broken by later, new wrinkles]] (Steve accidentally clones himself and the clone decides to be permanently Stefan). The Aesop was finally mended in the final season when Laura accepted Steve's proposal over Stefan's but by then, the series had moved to CBS and not enough viewers were watching to keep the show on the air.

** In the VerySpecialEpisode, they went the standard "guns are bad" route but in an extremely hypocritical way. First of all, they portrayed Laura as wrong for trying to buy a gun in the first place. Granted it was from a very shady guy selling them from the back of his car but they were more concerned about the gun in general rather than who she was buying it from. Laura had a very good reason to buy a gun seeing as her life was being threatened if she testified against a girl who robbed her. Next, during the gun turn in rally Laura claims that a guy turning in his gun will save his own life. The girl who was shot in the episode was shot by another person's gun and she never used her own in self defense so she was about as safe as not using one. Lastly, during the poorly thought out PSA, they tell people in a confrontation to walk away rather than resorting to a gun even though Laura had tried to walk away but was ganged up on.

*** When the juice bar gets a new pachinko machine, Rocky enjoys the game and finds it addictive...and then Lord Zedd casts a spell to make him ''literally'' addicted to it, playing the game to the exclusion of everything else going on. And when Zedd turns the machine into the MonsterOfTheWeek, Rocky--who is still under the effects of the spell--spends most of the fight playing around rather than helping. After the monster is destroyed, Rocky apologizes for his behavior and Aisha drops the aesop, "All play and no work makes a guy a real jerk." However, Rocky only behaved that way because he was under a mood-altering spell, and since the machine was ultimately destroyed, he was never given the opportunity to decide for himself how to budget his free time without neglecting his responsibilities (and, most likely, he would've eventually grown bored of the game anyway).

*** When the juice bar gets a new pachinko machine, Rocky enjoys the game and finds it addictive...and then Lord Zedd casts a spell to make him ''literally'' addicted to it, playing the game to the exclusion of everything else going on. And when Zedd turns the machine into the MonsterOfTheWeek, Rocky--who is still under the effects of the spell--spends most of the fight playing around rather than helping. After the monster is destroyed, Rocky apologizes for his behavior and Aisha drops the aesop, "All play and no work makes a guy a real jerk." However, Rocky only behaved that way because his mood was altered by Zedd, and since the machine was ultimately destroyed, Rocky isn't given the opportunity to decide for himself how to budget his free time without neglecting his responsibilities (and, most likely, he would've eventually grown bored of the game anyway).

* ''Series/IronFist2017'': In the second season, Danny gets the Iron Fist power stolen by [[BigBad Davos]], [[spoiler: but when he's ready to take it back towards the end of the season, he makes the difficult decision to let Colleen have it instead, knowing she'd make better use of it because she has more clarity of purpose. Even though he ''wanted'' the Fist back, he gave it up for the greater good, and he leaves New York to find his purpose without it. Then we get a six-month TimeSkip where Danny has not only gotten a new Fist, but he's even learned a few tricks like [[MageMarksman channeling his chi through his guns and controlling bullets in mid air]], meaning his sacrifice meant nothing since he ended up with powers after all. Also, considering Davos had to resort to [[{{Necromancy}} some pretty]] [[BloodMagic dark magic]] to steal the Fist from Danny, it becomes FridgeHorror when you wonder what ''Danny'' had to do to get his new powers.]]

*** When the juice bar gets a new pachinko machine, Rocky enjoys the game and finds it addictive...and then Lord Zedd casts a spell to make Rocky ''literally'' addicted to it, playing the game to the exclusion of everything else going on. And when Zedd turns the machine into the MonsterOfTheWeek, Rocky spends most of the fight playing around rather than helping. After the monster is destroyed, Rocky apologizes for his behavior and Aisha drops the aesop, "All play and no work makes a guy a real jerk." However, Rocky only behaved that way while under Zedd's spell. At no point was he able to decide for himself how to budget his free time without neglecting his responsibilities, especially since the machine (as the monster) was destroyed in the end.

** An episode of ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' has the Yellow Ranger being talked to about honor. Most notably, how she should fight monsters all on her own because it's honorable. Besides all of the other things wrong with this aesop, this episode was very closely placed to an episode about teamwork, which had literally the exact opposite aesop. And between the two, on a show where 5 super heroes usually beat up on one monster, the whole honor thing just doesn't make as much sense.

* ''Series/TrueBlood''. The vampire rights movement seems to parallel every oppressed minority ever, but the Vampires Are People Too message just doesn't ring when you examine how the vampires actually behave. The vampires we see have no problem killing and exploiting humans for their own gain, even "[[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampires nice]]" vampires like Bill and Jessica. Despite claiming that they want to integrate with human society, they still maintain their own parallel system of government, with Monarchs and Sheriffs empowered to deal out punishment. They view and keep humans as property. Sookie is kept relatively "safe" because Bill says that she belongs to him, and Sookie agrees to go along with it. The fears that many people have against vampires are thus shown to be legitimate, not just the result of ignorant prejudice.

** The show tried to redeem itself on transgender issues in the final season by having Coach Shannon Beiste come out as transgender and beginning to live as a man, but even this backfired. The message was supposed to be that you're never too old to live your truth, but it contradicted Beiste's previous characterization as a cisgender straight woman who had a masculine appearance and interests but still wanted to be treated like a lady. In fact, Beiste was ''already'' popular with trans and non-binary viewers for subverting gender with a level of subtlety not normally seen on the show. All that was thrown out by revealing that Beiste had secretly identified as a man all along.

** Much of the criticism of ''Glee'' stems from a perception that, despite its pro-tolerance and inclusive message, it frequently undercuts itself through the fact that many of its non-white and non-American characters are heavily stereotyped and often reduced to background roles, e.g. an Asian character freaking out over an A-, calling it an "Asian F". It also doesn't help matters that, while the show routinely condemns homophobia, biphobic or transphobic statements made in-universe go by almost entirely unchallenged. For instance, a lesbian dumps her bisexual girlfriend on the assumption that she would have eventually cheated with a man, and is never called out for it, and a trans girl forced to dress as a man on school property is basically told to suck it up. In another instance, Kurt--who's [[CreatorsPet the show's poster boy]] for "Don't mock/bully/harm gay people"--becomes upset when Blaine thinks he might be bisexual after kissing Rachel while drunk. Kurt (remember--the one who tells us that bullying is never, ever, ever, ever right) ''outright says that's impossible'', and that [[NoBisexuals bisexual men are clearly just gay guys who don't want to admit it]]. Blaine tries to speak up for himself, but Kurt keeps shooting him down. And guess who's proven right in the end? Kurt, of course! Because Blaine was gay all along!

* ''Series/Daybreak2019'': BrokenAesop: [[TheHero Josh's]] desire to find [[LivingMacguffin Sam]] is partially [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone motivated]] by [[spoiler: his [[TheAtoner guilt]] about SlutShaming her over the guys she'd slept with before him.]] While this was an undoubtedly cruel and hypocritical thing to do to the person who [[spoiler: just took your virginity, the fact he mentioned her consensual sex with [[JerkJock Jaden Hoyles]], the school's unrepentant statutory rapist and BarbaricBully, and that she did so twice, meaning she must've known full well who he was by that point, does rather mar her [[FriendToAllLivingThings saintly image.]] It's not OK to judge someone over how many people they've slept with, but to call them out on being intimate with such an [[ObviouslyEvil obviously bad person]] seems a little more reasonable. This is especially egregious because other main character Wesley spends most of the season [[TheAtoner atoning]] for and struggling with his own dalliance with Turbo, who the show portrays as a much lesser evil than Hoyles and possibly even [[HeelFaceTurn redeemable.]]]]

* ''Series/{{Daybreak}}'': BrokenAesop: [[TheHero Josh's]] desire to find [[LivingMacguffin Sam]] is partially [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone motivated]] by [[spoiler: his [[TheAtoner guilt]] about SlutShaming her over the guys she'd slept with before him.]] While this was an undoubtedly cruel and hypocritical thing to do to the person who [[spoiler: just took your virginity, the fact he mentioned her consensual sex with [[JerkJock Jaden Hoyles]], the school's unrepentant statutory rapist and BarbaricBully, and that she did so twice, meaning she must've known full well who he was by that point, does rather mar her [[FriendToAllLivingThings saintly image.]] It's not OK to judge someone over how many people they've slept with, but to call them out on being intimate with such an [[ObviouslyEvil obviously bad person]] seems a little more reasonable. This is especially egregious because other main character Wesley spends most of the season [[TheAtoner atoning]] for and struggling with his own dalliance with Turbo, who the show portrays as a much lesser evil than Hoyles and possibly even [[HeelFaceTurn redeemable.]]]]

* ''Series/{{House}}'': "Better Half" was meant to raise awareness of asexuality (a sexual orientation where you're not attracted to anyone) but it came across as saying that asexuality doesn't even exist, since the male patient was only asexual due to a brain tumour, while his wife was only pretending to be asexual. Adding to the Aesop breakage is that at the end, House says, "It's better to have schtupped and lost than never to have schtupped at all", which comes across as anti-asexual.

* In an episode of ''Series/TheThinBlueLine'', Goody punches a handcuffed 15 year-old Nazi for racially abusing Habib. Fowler is furious at Goody and then at Fowler when she talks back, saying that he can't choose when and when not to enforce the law, and that it's entirely out of his hands now that the boy's mother is pressing charges. Then the boy's mother hits him in front of Fowler and Habib, and Fowler offers to forgo arresting her if she drops the charges against Goody. In the space of about a minute, Fowler has gone from saying he can't choose when and when not to enforce the law to doing just that, and dealt with an abuse of police power by committing one of his own.