History ProtagonistCenteredMorality / LiveActionTV

* {{Inverted|Trope}} on ''Series/{{Scrubs}}''. No matter how badly [[ButtMonkey JD's friends]] act, ''he's'' always in the wrong so he can [[AnAesop learn something]].

* This happens a lot in ''Series/LawAndOrderSVU'', when it comes to the police detectives actions, especially Olivia Benson in the later seasons who goes from being a cop, passionate about women victims, but reasonable in her judgement most of the time, into a StrawFeminist who always sees men as the predators and women as the victims, even when there are women doing amoral or criminal acts that got them in trouble in the first place. One example, is how Benson becomes determined to have a college coach arrested and convicted of being a rapist, because he promised mothers he'll get their child into college if they have sex with him. Even though the sex was consensual and the mothers were the ones actually committing a crime by illegally making a deal to get their children into college, Benson guilt trips D.A Barba into charging the man. The Judge of the case makes it clear that no crime was committed and if the jury does convict, he will set aside the verdict and Barba's reputation would be ruined. When Barba eventually drops the charges, Benson is outraged.

** Soulless vampires Spike and Harmony are quite sympathetic in the later seasons, mainly because they are both so ineffective as to be laughable, and because Spike is such a martyr for love. Meanwhile, Harmony is killing a whole bunch of people while Spike is completely unrepentant and cares so little for other's welfare that he helped a BigBad bring on the end of the world at least once, and was selling weapons (demon eggs) -- the sort which could kill entire cities -- to the highest bidder.

** A perfect example occurs in the ''Angel'' episode "[[Recap/AngelS01E19Sanctuary Sanctuary]]". As Angel is TheHero of this show, he's shown as in the right for wanting to rehabilitate Faith, while Buffy is a HeroAntagonist depicted as in the wrong for wanting Faith to suffer for her crimes. If Buffy were the point-of-view character, Angel would be the one in the wrong for harboring a criminal who [[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E16WhoAreYou swapped bodies with Buffy and used it to have sex with her boyfriend without consent]], just because he identifies with Faith and wants her to be redeemed like he wished he could be.

** A version of this is in the episode [[{{Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E16Doppelgangland}} "Doppelgangland"]]. Willow is uncomfortable with the idea of destroying her own vampire double at the end of the episode and apparently the other Scoobies think it's perfectly fine to send the vampire back to [[ExpendableAlternateUniverse her own universe instead of staking her, based on the fact that she was willing to go home and only kill people there, where they can't see it]] (she gets staked there by Alternate Oz as soon as she returns, but the Scoobies didn't know that and still aren't aware it happened). All of this despite the fact that Vampire Willow had also fed on a girl named Sandy in the regular universe and turned her into a vampire (who resurfaces in Season 5).

** Anya is considered to have become good once she's {{depower}}ed and teams up with the good guys, even though she shows no remorse for going around killing people for a millennium and temporally turning Sunnydale into a vampire paradise (unintentionally but she was happy with the result). It helps that once she became human she ''stopped'' killing people and started romancing one of the Scoobies. Still, contrast Angel, for whom the same is true and who was also arguably an entirely separate person when he committed his crimes [[note]]depending on how much you consider Angelus to still be "him"; the show is a little inconsistent on the subject[[/note]], and who still frequently gets called on and is haunted by them.
** A version of this is in "[[{{Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E16Doppelgangland}} Doppelgangland]]". Willow is uncomfortable with destroying her vampire double and apparently the other Scoobies thought it was perfectly fine to send the vampire back to [[ExpendableAlternateUniverse her own universe instead of staking her, based on the fact that she was willing to go home and only kill people there, where they can't see it]] (she would be staked there and the universe would be extinguished by Giles, but the Scoobies had no way to know that). All of this despite the fact that Vampire Willow had also fed on a girl and turned her into a vampire.
** When Angel loses his soul, the characters go to great lengths to restore it -- but they never try to do the same for anyone else who gets turned into a vampire. It's only because they already know Angel that they make an exception for him. Of course, the only means of restoring Angel's soul is a complicated ritual that it took a long computer program to translate so that it could be re-used; it may be that they don't know enough about the spell to know how they can adapt it to be used on anyone else. Also, it required an orb that may not be easy to find in large quantities.
** A perfect example occurs in the ''Angel'' episode "[[Recap/AngelS01E19Sanctuary Sanctuary]]". As Angel is TheHero of this show, he's shown as in the right for wanting to rehabilitate Faith, while Buffy is a HeroAntagonist depicted as in the wrong for wanting Faith imprisoned or killed for her crimes. If Buffy was the point-of-view character, Angel would be the one in the wrong for harboring a criminal who [[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E16WhoAreYou swapped bodies with Buffy and used it to have sex without her consent]], just because he identifies with Faith and wants her to be redeemed like he wished he could be.
** In one of the last season's episodes, Anya has killed over a dozen people and Buffy decides she'll have to kill her. Xander tries to dissuade her, saying that Anya's her friend, and Buffy gives him an '''epic''' chewing out on how she doesn't get to play favorites, and reminding him of how gung-ho he was to kill Angel when he'd lost his soul.
** Ben is horrified by the idea of killing Dawn even if it will stop [[GodInHumanForm Glory]] from destroying the world, however he saw no issue in summoning an uncontrollable Queller demon to kill the people who Glory drove to madness. The Queller demon kills at least six people, and Ben shows no remorse for this, then it never comes up again.
** In "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS6E11Gone Gone]]", a social worker sent to look after Dawn sees legitimately suspicious activity. Buffy, who has turned invisible, sets things up to make it look like the social worker is insane in a way that could easily get her fired or sent to a mental institution. This is portrayed as a comedy routine and we are apparently supposed to feel sympathy with Buffy harassing an innocent person merely because she's frustrating a main character.
** Spike and Harmony are quite sympathetic in the latter series, mainly because they are both so ineffective as to be laughable, and because Spike is such a martyr for love. Meanwhile, Harmony is killing a whole bunch of people while Spike is completely unrepentant and cares so little for other's welfare that he helped a BigBad bring on the end of the world at least once, and was selling weapons (demon eggs) -- the sort which could kill entire cities -- to the highest bidder.
** Willow's RoaringRampageOfRevenge is forgiven fairly easily, even though (in-universe) it was really just luck and timing which prevented her from bringing about the apocalypse. She also flayed somebody to death (granted, someone who richly deserved it). Given a notice in the final season episode "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS7E13TheKillerInMe The Killer In Me]]", where it's pointed out by a bad guy who put a hex on her not for almost destroying the world but just because they're jealous.

** The Calling. When the First Slayer is Called, it is presented as being exploitation of a young woman by old men, and conscription of a minor to fight and die. The scene has strong overtones of sexual assault, and in spite of the world ''needing'' a Slayer, it is presented as an evil act. However, when the Scoobies Call all the potential Slayers, effectively doing the exact same thing to hundreds of people, this is presented not as a necessary evil but an objective good, and as a liberating and empowering action.

-->'''The First:''' Really? Why? So you can earn a spot on her little pep squad? You think she'll ever let you in? You're a murderer.\\

'''The First:''' Interesting. And, you're the only one she makes seek redemption.

* The later seasons of ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'' just smack of this. The sisters can steal souls, wipe out free will with the Avatars, and even encourage killing higher ups of Good simply because it suits them. In one episode, they trick a mortal man who's threatening them with a gun into getting himself killed (in a way that gets a target off the back of their nephew), when they could have easily just orbed the gun out of his hands. Phoebe in particular mixes this with heavy doses of {{hypocri|te}}sy to boot.

* The later seasons of ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'' just smacks of this. The sisters can steal souls, wipe out free will with the Avatars, and even encourage killing higher ups of Good simply because it suits them. Phoebe in particular mixes this with heavy doses of {{hypocri|te}}sy to boot.

* Discussed in-universe in Series/CrossingJordan: our Cowboy Cop protagonist can be a real pain in the ass, but since she's motivated by such a strong quest for justice, it's usually forgivable to her coworkers and the audience. Until it's personal in the later seasons, at which point her coworkers help her to the detriment of their lab's reputation, risking having all the cases they've worked on called into question, just because it's Jordan - even though at that point she seems self-defeatingly fatalistc and frankly pretty careless.

*** When [[TheEmpire The Dominion]] first showed up, the Federation had every reason to be cautious and skeptical of their claim to own the entire Gamma Quadrant because they'd been exploring it for a year before meeting anyone who'd even heard of the Dominion, and their first act was to kidnap Sisko (and possibly destroy some civilian ships). But the Federation's actual response [[MirroringFactions was rather violent and imperialistic;]]. Instead of negotiating, they sent in a heavily-armed ship into Dominion territory to rescue four people and seemingly fired on the first Dominion ships they saw. Apparently, the Dominion acting aggressively is a sign of how evil they are, but the Federation doing the same is a justified showing of force.

** In season 8 Kersh becomes the new AD and assigns Doggett to not only head the manhunt for Mulder, but also replace him on the X-Files. Kersh is supposed to be seen as [[TyrantTakesTheHelm an evil dictator of sorts]], very different from Skinner, who started out as a boss and ended up a friend. He constantly says he's keeping on eye on the X-Files, which the audience assumes means he's looking for any reason to shut it down. In reality, having a division with essentially rogue agents and a vague case-closure percentage means he ''should'' be looking at it closely. Not to mention Mulder had just ''disappeared'' and it was seemingly connected to the work. When he says that he'll fire Scully or Skinner if they mention the word "aliens" to his own superiors, one forgets that his job is not only to police the agents under him but to make the FBI itself look good. He also makes several good points when Mulder returns and is refused reinstatement to the FBI -- Mulder has a personnel file thick enough to rival ''War and Peace'' and Doggett does not, and the case closure rate for the X-Files had gone from a very low amount to the highest in the bureau during Doggett's tenure in the office. In the end, he does agree to reinstate Mulder, but rightly fires him in "Vienen" when he -- surprise, surprise -- ignores direct orders and almost causes an international incident. And who are we supposed to identify with? Mulder and Scully.

** If one compares the early seasons to the later seasons you can easily see that this trope has become rampant in this show. Where once the boys angsted over the rights and wrongs of killing a demon -- which ''always'' means killing the innocent person they are possessing too -- nowadays they cut them down by the dozen without a shred of hesitation or remorse, and in season 8 at one point Sam actually ''stops'' a demon from leaving a victim and ''then'' kills it. (This is particularly jarring since during seasons 3 and 4, much of Sam's initial motivation for [[spoiler:drinking demon blood and being involved with Ruby]] was explicitly to be able to exorcise Demons ''without killing their hosts''.) The only times they don't do this are, of course, with people they personally know and like. In earlier seasons, they were opposed to hunters who treated every single monster out there as fair game and slaughtered with impunity; nowadays, they do exactly that themselves, making only occasional exceptions for, once again, monsters they know (and admittedly, once or twice, for "new" monsters who haven't killed anyone... yet).

* On ''Series/SavedByTheBell'', Zack and most of the other main characters aren't much nicer to their [[{{ nerd}}y classmates]] than any of the various bullies who appear on the show in its run. They insult them frequently and look down on them as people (including Screech, who's [[WithFriendsLikeThese supposedly Zack's best friend]]), but because they're the main characters, this is treated as totally normal and acceptable. One particular example comes in the Date Auction episode, wherein Lisa's Guy of the Week is a handsome brainy kid (not a "nerd") who isn't interested in her until she puts on an intellectual façade. Later in the episode, he's made out to be a pompous jerk because he expresses less-than-complimentary feelings about Lisa's friends, as well as Lisa herself before putting on the façade, and Lisa is made out to be correct in telling him off. Of course, it's never pointed out that Lisa expresses similarly condescending views, [[AlphaBitch if not outright hostile ones,]] of people she feels are beneath her (nerds, [[DoggedNiceGuy especially Screech)]] to some extent in almost every other episode and the only ever called on it once. It comes off like the only thing the smart guy did wrong was insult main characters.

* When a character in ''Cold Feet'' cheated on their spouse, the person they cheated with was always depicted as a villain; yet when Karen, one of protagonists, starts an affair with a married man, there is nothing negative shown about her behavior, nor that of her friend Rachel, who encouraged her to pursue the affair.

* ''Series/DowntonAbbey'': When penniless Lord Hepworth pursues Lady Rosamund for her money, the Dowager Countess warns her that she's a conniving fortune-hunter; the narrative also paints him as a jerk [[spoiler:who is also carrying on with Rosamund's maid]]. Meanwhile, Lord Grantham married Cora for her money in the series' backstory, presumably with the Countess' encouragement. Every so one character or another will gently rib him about this; otherwise no one seems to judge.

* The titular character of ''Series/IDreamOfJeannie'' She often would punish Tony for going out with other women, even though they weren't officially in a romantic relationship, [[note]] At least, not until the final season. [[/note]] turned people into things, caused all sorts of mischief that got Tony in trouble (usually unwittingly, but still)or made [[DesignatedVillain Dr. Bellows]] look crazy, but it was considered acceptable, cause she was the main character. Yes, her sister was more evil cause she basically wanted to keep Tony as a SexSlave, but Jeannie herself wasn't much better. [[note]] Sometimes, this could be justified by her naivete in human matters, but other times, she knew exactly what she was doing and was rarely (if at all) punished or called out on it. [[/note]]

** Sam's behavior at the start of the eighth season -- giving up hunting, shacking up with some random woman, and not even trying to find Dean or rescue Kevin from Crowley. It ''might'' have worked if the show had at least acknowledged he'd screwed up, but instead the narrative and WordOfGod tried to push that Sam's decision was 'mature' and Dean was wrong for being upset over it. Eventually the show did have [[spoiler:Bobby]] call Sam out on this, but this was 19 episodes into the season and was likely only done to [[AuthorsSavingThrow appease the fans]] once it became clear that nobody liked the decision. While Sam does succesfully retire in the series final episode, doing so when your brother is trapped in a monster dimension and one of your friends is being held hostage by a demon is probably the worst possible moment for Sam to hang his hat up.

** Sam's behavior at the start of the eighth season -- giving up hunting, shacking up with some random woman, and not even trying to find Dean or rescue Kevin from Crowley. It ''might'' have worked if the show had at least acknowledged he'd screwed up, but instead the narrative and WordOfGod tried to push that Sam's decision was 'mature' and Dean was wrong for being upset over it. Eventually the show did have [[spoiler:Bobby]] call Sam out on this, but this was 19 episodes into the season and was likely only done to [[AuthorsSavingThrow appease the fans]] once it became clear that nobody liked the decision.

** The show's treatment of the Twelfth Doctor tends to go out of its way to avoid this trope — it's rare to see him do ''anything'' morally grey and/or [[PragmaticHero make the better of two bad choices]] [[WhatTheHellHero without getting chewed out by other characters]], and such actions can come back to bite him where it hurts later. Probably the closest he comes to this trope is his behavior in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E8TheLieOfTheLand "The Lie of the Land"]], in which he [[spoiler:tricks Bill into thinking he genuinely joined the Monks and has given up all he stood for, all in an attempt to prove she's not brainwashed — upsetting her enough to try and ''kill'' him]]. When the true nature of his actions are revealed, it's largely laughed off in a case of MoodWhiplash rather than a WhatTheHellHero speech.

* The ''Series/ICarly'' trio have done things just as bad as the "villains" of various episodes have done. In one specific episode, the villain is a bully, who does the exact same thing that Sam has done and continues to do so long after the bully is defeated, with the only difference being that the villain picked on Carly. The bully insulted the trio and pushed Carly away, so she's apparently a big jerk who needs to be put in her place. Sam ''beats Freddie with a racket, throws him out of a tree house, and then slams onto him because [[TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong he has a different opinion to everyone]]'', and a season or two later, the two '''[[EasilyForgiven are]] [[KarmaHoudini dating]]'''.

* {{Inverted|Trope}} on ''Series/{{Scrubs}}''. No matter how badly [[ButtMonkey JD's]] [[WithFriendsLikeThese friends]] act, ''he's'' always in the wrong so he can [[AnAesop learn something]].

* On ''Series/SavedByTheBell'', Zack and most of the other main characters aren't much nicer to their [[{{ nerd}}y classmates]] than any of the various bullies who appear on the show in its run. They insult them frequently and look down on them as people (including Screech, who's [[WithFriendsLikeThese supposedly Zack's best friend]]), but because they're the main characters, this is treated as totally normal and acceptable. One particular example comes in the Date Auction episode, wherein Lisa's Guy of the Week is a handsome brainy kid (not a "nerd") who isn't interested in her until she puts on an intellectual façade. Later in the episode, he's made out to be a pompous jerk because he expresses less-than-complimentary feelings about Lisa's friends, as well as Lisa herself before putting on the façade, and Lisa is made out to be correct in telling him off. Of course, it's never pointed out that Lisa expresses similarly condescending views, [[AlphaBitch if not outright hostile ones,]] of people she feels are beneath her (nerds, [[DoggedNiceGuy especially Screech)]] to some extent in almost every other episode (and the only time she's ever called on it was a [[{{Discontinuity}} Tori episode)]]. It comes off like the only thing the smart guy did wrong was insult main characters who weren't one of the show's AcceptableTargets.

** Rose Tyler treats her boyfriend Mickey Smith horribly, not showing much concern for him when her disappearing for a year meant he got questioned by the police and her mother thought he'd murdered her. She's [[ClingyJealousGirl horrible to any other woman who interacts with the Doctor]], in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E13ThePartingOfTheWays "The Parting of the Ways"]] even shooting dirty looks at Lynda for acting perfectly nicely to the Doctor and going out of her way to be catty to Sarah Jane just for saying she used to travel with the Doctor. In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E13Doomsday "Doomsday"]], when she is trapped in a Parallel world and the Doctor says them meeting would destroy both worlds her reaction is [[ItsAllAboutMe "So?"]] In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd "Journey's End"]], she clearly says she was working on trying to get back to her world before the barriers collapsed, despite what the Doctor said. Yet the writers and the Doctor portray her as the perfect companion, and these points are never brought up.

* Discussed in-universe in /Series/CrossingJordan: our Cowboy Cop protagonist can be a real pain in the ass, but since she's motivated by such a strong quest for justice, it's usually forgivable to her coworkers and the audience. Until it's personal in the later seasons, at which point her coworkers help her to the detriment of their lab's reputation, risking having all the cases they've worked on called into question, just because it's Jordan - even though at that point she seems self-defeatingly fatalistc and frankly pretty careless.