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| 6 | %% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks! |
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| 13 | ''Series/DoctorWho'' has its own [[BrokenAesop/DoctorWho page]]. |
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| 15 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 16 | |
| 17 | [[folder:A]] |
| 18 | * ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryCoven'' uses the "supernatural monsters are people too" analogy, this time with witches and intended to be an analogy with gay people, in its finale. The result is an even more BrokenAesop than ''Series/TrueBlood'', since all of the witches shown in the season bar the Supreme [[spoiler: Cordelia]] have been murderous bitches. |
| 19 | * The ''Series/AreYouAfraidOfTheDark'' episode "The Tale of the Pinball Wizard" makes a statement that its Aesop is "don't get obsessed with computer games, you don't get anything when you win". Except that Ross has no ''choice'' but to play the game forever, as he's trapped; and he didn't get trapped in the game because he was obsessed with it, but because he played a particular game machine one time. Well, ok, maybe the Aesop is "keep your promises, and when someone tells you not to do something, don't do it"; after all, he did promise Mr Olsen he'd watch his shop, only to abandon it to play the machine he was told not to. Except that Mr Olsen turns out to be the ''villain'' and quite happy to torture Ross inside the machine, presumably meaning that his interaction was planned all along. So, um, "old men who own curio shops are psychopaths"? |
| 20 | * Subverted in-universe in the ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' episode "Notapusy". Maeby enters an "inner beauty pageant" disguised and in a wheelchair in order to demonstrate that it's just like any other beauty pageant. She doesn't think she'll even be allowed to compete, but ends up winning as her attempts to sabotage herself only advance her further, culminating in her standing up to try to prove herself a fraud, which the judges interpret as a miracle and a divine sign that she deserves to win. |
| 21 | * The short-lived reality dating show ''Series/AverageJoe'' was basically a Broken Aesop incarnate. The premise was that a beautiful, though superficial model was brought into the show on false pretenses, and was forced to date a dozen dorky, unattractive nerds instead of the hunks she was promised. The implied understanding was that she would eventually come to realize that appearances are only skin deep etc etc. However, halfway through the season a team of actual hunks were abruptly thrown into the mix, competing against the nerds. After the crowd was whittled down to the two final men — one nerd, one hunk — ''the beauty always chose the hunk!'' |
| 22 | [[/folder]] |
| 23 | |
| 24 | [[folder:B]] |
| 25 | * ''Series/{{Batwoman|2019}}'' 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". |
| 26 | * ''Series/{{Benson}}'': |
| 27 | ** In the episode "Don't Quote Me", it is discovered that somebody in the governor's mansion leaked damaging information to a reporter. Paranoia quickly infects the staff as, one after another, [[spoiler:Benson, Marcy, Kraus, and Taylor are all suspected of being the leak.]] The entire episode seems to be warning against the paranoia that can develop in these situations, and depicts the characters as being wrong for turning the matter into a witch hunt, and for accusing people they should have known were trustworthy and loyal to the governor. This aesop about trust would work, if it wasn't for the fact that [[spoiler:the leak turned out to be, of all people, ''Katie.'' [[TheDogWasTheMastermind When the governor's 8-year-old daughter proves to be the guilty party]] ... Well, it appears that nobody ''was'' above suspicion, after all.]] |
| 28 | ** In "Checkmate", Benson strikes a deal with the visiting Russian official, Petrov. Since there is no way to ensure that either man would keep his end of the bargain, Benson and Petrov agree that they will simply have to trust each other. The episode would make a solid point about the value of people ''trusting'' each other and working together ... if it wasn't for the fact that Benson was only able to make the deal after ''tricking'' Petrov into revealing a secret about the impending arrival of a high-ranking Russian official. |
| 29 | * ''Series/BluePeter'', a British LongRunner {{Edutainment}} series has tried to do a GreenAesop at times, but in more recent episodes, the moral was often contradicted by them driving a luxury car or SUV when the presenter did their links, effectively negating any moral on the environment the episode presented. They've also had the [[AnAesop aesop]] "Don't buy fast fashion"... while the presenters wear trendy clothes from name-brand designers on-screen. |
| 30 | * In an episode of ''Series/{{Bluestone 42}}'', Simon loses his gun's firing pin while cleaning it. Squad prankster/Simon's nemesis Mac finds it, but doesn't return it because Simon would assume he stole it. Therefore, [[FawltyTowersPlot through a series of wacky misadventures]] Mac tries to trick Simon into "finding" it, eventually just dumping the pin in his tea, and Simon swallows it. When Tower Block tells Simon this should teach him to trust his men next time, Simon responds that it hasn't because next time his pin goes missing Mac will have actually stolen it, to which Mac cheerfully replies "Aye, I will". |
| 31 | * Pretty much any episode of ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' where Sheldon is called out for being a {{Jerkass}} and learns not to be one falls flat when the other characters are ALSO [[{{Jerkass}} Jerkasses]] [[DesignatedHero yet are rarely if ever called out on it]]. One episode even has Sheldon call out Leonard for how mean HE is to him, but of course Leonard goes back to being a jerk to him in other episodes. |
| 32 | * On two episodes of ''Series/TheBobNewhartShow'', when Carol was vacationing, Bob was saddled with an extremely incompetent elderly secretary who could neither answer the phone nor remember his name. At the end of her second appearance (which started with an exasperated Bob pleading to Jerry not to get this same woman again), it's revealed that once she was young and cute, and hired solely for this reason. Now that she was older, all of her presumed ditz qualities were magnified and she was not in a good place. Bob feels bad for this, and we are supposed to as well--but consider. When she was younger, she got all kinds of employment opportunities women deemed less attractive but presumably more competent did not. In the present of that show, it can be inferred that these other women are the competent vets badly wanted for their skills. The villain is supposed to be sexism and tossing someone aside when their looks fade. But while this woman got used by the system, she also once made good use of the system. It's hard to sympathize with her entirely, since this sad turnaround is also a bit of karmic justice. Plus, she is blazingly incompetent. She is also very far on in years, so her looks have probably not been a factor for some time. One wonders how she's had any recent employment. It seems like she's now trading on people feeling sorry for her, again diluting potential sympathy. |
| 33 | * In the ''Series/{{Bones}}'' episode "The Goop on the Girl", a bank is hit by a suicide bomber who apparently triggered the bomb using the signal from an angry left-wing radio show. Booth accuses the show's host of spreading "poison" on the airwaves and claims that he is responsible for the attack, even if he isn't legally responsible. [[spoiler:As it turns out, the suicide bomber had been forced to do it by a pair of bank robbers who were not motivated by ideology. The only reason the radio show's signal seemed to set off the bomb was because it was very close to the signal used by the robbers' own detonator.]] The episode ends with the host lecturing to his audience on the dangers of media-stoked anger and signing off for the last time. |
| 34 | * ''Series/BostonPublic'' had an incident from a previous episode's Aesop altered to fit the Aesop of the current ep. An academically-overachieving girl suffers a stress-related panic attack meant to open Lauren Davis' eyes to the intense pressure she puts on her students with her DeathGlare, high standards and stern attitude. In the next episode, which is about students using performance-enhancing drugs, the hospitalized student is revealed to have been on a Ritalin-esque drug that caused her attack. Lauren still struggled with it in later storylines but the girl's speech to Lauren about how her students really see her falls flat. Furthermore, it's implied that the teacher's techniques ''work''. |
| 35 | * ''Series/TheBoys2019'' is, per WordOfGod, supposed to be about blue-collar stiffs banding together and using grit and gumption to take on the PowersThatBe, but in the end, the Boys' quest to take down the Supers is [[OvershadowedByAwesome only made possible by friendly external forces on the same physical or political power level as the Supers]]. The aesop becomes less "Ordinary people working together can do anything" and more "ordinary people need benevolent powers to protect them from malevolent ones". In Season 3 Butcher & Hughie become {{Empowered Badass Normal}}s like the [[ComicBook/TheBoys original comic]], but here their use of the SuperSerum [[NoManShouldHaveThisPower is framed as a bad thing]] with the two turning into {{Well Intentioned Extremist}}s, adding a layer of consistency to the show's moral. |
| 36 | ** But even this falls flat in the season finale. [[spoiler:Hughie's motivation for becoming an EmpoweredBadassNormal is that he felt guilty and emasculated for being unable to protect the woman he loved, with Starlight trying to reassure him that he's fine the way he is. In the final fight against ArcVillain Soldier Boy he uses his wits to help her out from the sidelines, but this proves to be ineffective and nearly gets her killed with them being saved by Queen Maeve's PlotArmor, again reinforcing the idea that ordinary people are useless. Maeve adds insult to injury by directly playing into his insecurities and teasing him for being submissive, and Butcher & Hughie managed to accomplish more in the short time they had powers than the entire team did during all the years they worked together.]] |
| 37 | ** In addition to being heavily outgunned by the supes, EvilInc Vought itself is simply too big to fail as it's a MegaCorp that owns in-universe equivalents of everything you can think of (CNN, FOX, Disney, Amazon, Spotify, Lifetime, every streaming service & every other form of media down to Telemundo) while in the comic it was much more limited. In the comic, The Boys may have been outgunned and outnumbered but the message was that despite their brutality and horrible optics, they were getting somewhere and accomplishing something even if they hated themselves for it and were ultimately just lashing out like "angry boys." In the show, Hughie, Butcher, and Mother's Milk are still lashing out but the anger is not only petulant, but it's also impotent. Not only are they getting nowhere, [[ShaggyDogStory they're effectively right back where they start at the end of every season with next to nothing to show]]. |
| 38 | ** Another issue with the show is that it frequently mocks corporations using progressivism to pander to audiences, only to engage in the same kind of behavior itself. Season 2 had Queen Maeve irritated with [[EvilInc Vought]] using her bisexuality as a selling point and giving her special treatment, [[spoiler:only for the show's writers to do the same thing and turn her into a KarmaHoudini with PlotArmor in the season 3 finale because they wanted to PreserveYourGays, despite writing her into a scenario where she was depowered while falling from a skyscraper]]. |
| 39 | * ''Series/TheBrothersGarcia'': |
| 40 | ** "You Go Girl" attempts a feminism Aesop, where Lorena decides she wants to be considered equal to her brothers. She spends the whole episode interrupting their activities just to {{Troll}} them, claiming it's in the name of equality. Yet when the brothers give her a taste of her own medicine and trash her cupcake baking with friends, it's portrayed as a low moment. The boys are forced to apologise for excluding her - except they never exclude because of her gender; they exclude her because she's always trying to get them into trouble (a RunningGag is that she makes her money by blackmailing them). Lorena gets a free pass for her actions because she claims she just wanted to be included - and she never apologises to her father for making him miss a hockey game in the name of equality[[note]]Ray bought four tickets for him and the boys as part of a tradition they have. He didn't buy a ticket for Lorena because she went before and hated it, not because she's a girl.[[/note]] just to be a {{Troll}}. |
| 41 | ** "Larry's Curse" has Ray getting on his high horse to preach about how there's no such thing as bad luck - after an episode where Larry had broken an Aztec antique that brought inexplicable rushes of bad luck to the house. But after Larry and Abuelita cleanse the house, all the bad luck stops happening. What's more is that the bad luck isn't just Larry's childish imagination; it comes from Abuelita's beliefs. So Ray also comes across as very intolerant to his mother-in-law's beliefs. |
| 42 | * ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': |
| 43 | ** "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E5BeerBad Beer Bad]]" has an anti-alcohol Aesop, But the reason the beer caused the problem is because someone tampered with it. The plot would not change in ''any way'' if the beverage were soda. In fact, the episode was made to procure funding from the anti-alcohol lobby, who then noticed the broken message and refused to pay up. |
| 44 | ** "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E11Gingerbread Gingerbread]]" appears to be a libertarian satire about knee-jerk attempts to aggressively [[MoralGuardians suppress "darkness"]] in youth culture in response to isolated horrible events, but then in the end it takes the very paternalistic approach of "TheMasquerade must be maintained because if humans in general learn about magic they'll start persecuting good or neutral magic-users along with the evil ones". |
| 45 | [[/folder]] |
| 46 | |
| 47 | [[folder:C]] |
| 48 | * A Mexican ''telenovela'' called ''Series/LaCatrina'' revolves around the story of a rich woman just before the Mexican Revolution who went around in disguise, [[JustLikeRobinHood robbing from the rich and giving to the poor]]. It's meant to be heroic, but the question is: since she was so rich, why didn't she just give to the poor from ''her own'' fortune, instead of stealing others'? |
| 49 | * One episode of ''Series/Charmed1998'' has the girls discover a baby manticore and face the dilemma over whether they should kill it or not. On the one hand, manticores are one of the AlwaysChaoticEvil races in their world. On the other, Paige argues for Nurture over Nature, stating that the child deserves the chance to be raised properly and decide its own fate, which she feels passionate about because she herself is adopted. Ignoring the fact that Paige's adoptive family only gets a handful of mentions and that all of her plotlines are driven by her connection to magic, which comes from her biological family, the baby manticore is only proven to have a chance at being good because he's a HalfHumanHybrid with a human father. Had he been a full-blooded manticore, there would have been no chance at raising him right, so the moral about Nurture winning out falls flat. |
| 50 | * The ''Series/CriminalMinds'' episode "What Fresh Hell?" was about the abduction of a little girl named Billie Copeland. The FBI agent protagonists at one point go off on a tangent (directed towards both the local police and the audience) about how Stranger Danger was misguided at best and dangerous at worst because it taught children everywhere that predators were all just complete strangers who would snatch them off of the street, when in reality nearly all predators are someone who the child already knows or has been in contact with. At the end of the episode, the predator is revealed to be... a complete stranger who just snatched the child off of the street. |
| 51 | [[/folder]] |
| 52 | |
| 53 | [[folder:D]] |
| 54 | * Invoked in ''Series/DadsArmy''. When a committee is planning for there to be a Squander Bug in the St George's Day celebrations, it is pointed out it would defeat the point if they had to spend a lot of money on a Squander bug costume. This is averted as Mrs. Pike already has a Squander Bug costume. |
| 55 | * ''Series/Daybreak2019'': [[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.]]]] |
| 56 | * ''Series/{{Derek}}'': This was a recurring criticism of the series as a whole, where the actions of the title character and the central cast generally often failed to honour the stated theme of “kindness is magic” i.e. social ills are best solved by determined benevolence. Conflict was resolved by recourse to verbal and physical abuse of designated antagonists, Derek himself is often depicted as self-absorbed, petty and greedy and his constant indulgence is justified in the final episode is justified by the statement “Derek’s always right” which comes across as less a simple statement of accepted wisdom than a concession to ProtagonistCentredMorality. [[https://kindness-is-derek.tumblr.com This Tumblr feed]] began as a log of some of these tonal inconsistencies although has since evolved into a repository for ironic fan art. |
| 57 | [[/folder]] |
| 58 | |
| 59 | [[folder:E]] |
| 60 | * In an episode of ''Series/TheEqualizer'', eponymous character Robert [=McCall=], whose client has been shot, delivers a blistering screed against private ownership of firearms. He's standing in his private (and illegal) arsenal at the time. (Satisfyingly, sidekick [[DeadpanSnarker Mickey Kostmayer]] points this out.) |
| 61 | [[/folder]] |
| 62 | |
| 63 | [[folder:F]] |
| 64 | * ''Series/FamilyMatters'': |
| 65 | ** One of 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. |
| 66 | ** When a {{Jerkass}} date ridicules Steve, Laura defends him by ranting about how despite his many flaws, Steve always treated her with "respect". Except that when you sum up Steve's behavior towards Laura throughout the series, you realize that he hasn't been any better. Steve repeatedly refused to accept that Laura was ''not interested in him'', took even the most minutely nice thing that she said or did as a sign that she ''did'' return his feelings, constantly ignored her requests that he leave her alone, and just as frequently interfered with her dates and relationships to the point where he was literally chasing guys off. That is ''not'' respect, that's the basis for an episode of the Investigation Discovery series ''"Stalked"''. |
| 67 | ** 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 the 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 the bully'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. Oh, as for the bully and her gang? [[KarmaHoudini They get away scot-free.]] |
| 68 | * The series finale of ''Series/{{Fi}}'' essentially backtracks on the thematic core the show, which examines how abusers can manipulate the people around them while hiding their true face from the world.. After two seasons establishing Can as an obsessive, manipulative man (and more significantly, holding him culpable for his wrongdoings), the episode essentially [[spoiler:exonerates Can of responsibility and paints him as a victim. Meanwhile, the blame is shifted to his mental illness, childhood trauma, and the influence of his guardian/mother figure, Eti]]. Naturally, many viewers were left wondering how a show that generally handled these issues well in the beginning got it so wrong in the end. |
| 69 | * In ''Series/TheFlash2014'' season two SuperSerum Velocity 9 gives that temporary SuperSpeed or improves it if one already has it is used as stand-in for performance-enhancing drugs in sports. At one point Barry is tempted to use V9 to level the playing field against evil speedster but is discouraged from it by Dr Wells. Message is pretty clear, but earlier in the series Jay Garrick was ''encouraged'' to use Velocity and 3 out of 4 times he used it he ended up saving the day thanks to it. Bonus points for Wells saying "Be like Jay" when discouraging Barry from doing [[{{Irony}} exactly what Jay did]]. |
| 70 | * ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'': |
| 71 | ** There's an episode where the moral is supposed to be that slacker Will shouldn't be afraid to work hard in school. It's about how Will's Aunt Viv teaches Black History at the private school, where Will and his cousin Carlton are the only two black students in their class. Will is reprimanded for thinking that he would just ease himself through a Black History class, but it turns out that Viv gave more work to him and Carlton than to the others, because they were black! That's totally not fair, but everybody seems cool with it... |
| 72 | ** Another example is an episode, where Will pretends to be his baby cousin Nicky's father to impress a girl. It all gets out of hand, until a TV show is going to award him several gifts (including a trip to Hawaii) for being such a devoted single father. Will feels guilty and reveals that he had been lying, so all those gifts go to another man, who seems to be a real single father. Except that this man suddenly tells Will that he had been faking it too! So the aesop seems to not be that lying is wrong, but that you should know when to keep your mouth shut... |
| 73 | * ''Series/FullHouse'': |
| 74 | ** A later episode had Jesse going back to school so he can get his GED. The Aesop of “stay in school, no matter what” ends up being undermined by the fact that he has to deal with the same rude teacher who was convinced that he would never amount to anything and who scared him away from his education in the first place. Oh, sure on one hand he should not have let him deter him from graduating, but on the other hand, what the hell is wrong with that board of education for allowing such an unprofessional and condescending JerkAss that has no problem humiliating others to continue teaching students? Even worse, at the end of the episode, it was ''[[StrawLoser Jesse]]'' [[StrawLoser who was completely in the wrong for not staying in the class.]] What's more, Jesse isn't exactly a loser; some of the (very successful) jobs he's had over the years have included rock star, nightclub owner, and Radio DJ, plus he's got a hot wife and is clearly doing well for himself. Not graduating clearly hasn't hurt his life in the slightest. |
| 75 | ** Many times--especially in the later seasons, when [[CreatorsPet Michelle]] became the major focus of most plots--the intended Aesops of "Sometimes things don't work out the way you want to" or "You don't always get what you want" almost ''always'' fall flat. Why? Because after Michelle (or, more rarely, Stephanie or D.J.) decides to accept the lesson, they're [[SweetAndSourGrapes immediately rewarded with what they wanted in the first place]]. For instance, in one episode, Michelle is upset because she doesn't get to play Yankee Doodle in a school play; after she accepts her new role and encourages Derek, who's playing Yankee Doodle, to do the best he can, he makes up an entire verse of the song all about her to sing to everyone. Similarly, in "Day of the Rhino," Michelle is tricked into spending her saved-up money on what turns out to be a cheap toy given away by Rigby the Rhino, her favorite TV character. She leads a protest against his unfair tricks, and while she doesn't get her money back, Joey praises her for speaking up and therefore keeping other kids from making the same mistake she did... but then Rigby literally ''shows up at the Tanner house'' to give Michelle a much better toy! |
| 76 | ** One episode had Michelle being picked on by a kid. Michelle is then told to fight back the next time, and she does. It gets her in trouble at school, and she learns that she should always go to an adult when she is picked on. The problem? The one who told her to fight back was ''[[CoolUncle Jesse]]''. Michelle ''did'' go to an adult, and it was how the situation got worse in the first place. Perhaps the real lesson is to take you grievances to a ''responsible'' adult. |
| 77 | ** In another episode, Danny dumps a woman he's been dating after seeing what a slob she is. When he tells Joey and Jesse about this, they gently, but firmly tell him that every time he meets a woman he likes, [[MinorFlawMajorBreakup he dumps her for some ridiculous reason]] because he still misses his late wife and doesn't want to let her go. They lecture him about how unhealthy this pattern is, etc, etc. This is all true...except Danny didn't break up with this woman for a dumb reason. He dumped her because her apartment looked like a trash heap, something that would bother anybody, especially a NeatFreak like Danny. |
| 78 | ** The episode "Aftershocks" tries to promote a positive message about therapy, and how parents shouldn't be embarrassed to admit that their children need help, by having Stephanie become obsessively clingy to Danny after an earthquake. The Aesop falls apart because Stephanie is only in therapy for about ten minutes: the psychologist asks her to draw a picture of her family, and Stephanie depicts Danny as outside of the house, because he was late getting home during the earthquake and she didn't know where he was. The psychologist suggests making a list of ways for Stephanie to feel better about knowing where Danny is, and she's apparently cured of her separation anxiety, which makes the Aesop seem like "if you talk to a therapist for a few minutes and draw a picture, all of your problems will be revealed and instantly solved." Yeah... |
| 79 | ** One ChristmasEpisode saw Stephanie and Michelle greedily thinking about all the presents they'll be getting. Uncle Jesse promises to give them a truly unique gift; later, the girls come home and reveal that the mystery gift was time spent volunteering at a homeless shelter. Stephanie and Michelle talk about how eye-opening and inspiring the visit was...a visit that ''the audience never sees.'' And neither of them imply that they're going to give up any of the presents they received anyway to homeless people. |
| 80 | ** Another ChristmasEpisode had the whole family stranded in an airport on Christmas Eve; the presents get lost, the connecting flights are all snowed in, and everyone's miserable in general. Uncle Jesse then steps up to give a speech about how Christmas isn't about material things. How does he do that? By comparing random objects in the airport to material things. So he's cancelling out his own Aesop ''as he's speaking''. And then, just to twist the knife further, [[SantasExistenceClause the real Santa Claus]] shows up to magically summon the girls' missing presents, so they get them anyway. What is it about this show and Christmas episodes? |
| 81 | ** Another good one is in "Michelle a la Carte", wherein Michelle enters a Soap Box Derby. The intended Aesop is, naturally, that girls are just as capable as boys, since she builds the car with Aunt Becky and beats a boy who had been bullying her throughout the episode. Why is this broken? Because Aunt Becky gives Michelle a rose, both for good luck and as a symbol of femininity. This would be fine if she carried it in her pocket, tucked it in her hair or something like that. But no, Michelle attaches it to the front of the car, and manages to win a photo finish thanks to the rose. This is a huge violation of the official rules of Soap Box Derby racing, as it's artificially increasing the length of the car outside of guidelines. In other words, girls are just as capable as boys...provided they cheat. |
| 82 | ** But the one that really takes the cake has got to be "The House Meets The Mouse". Michelle becomes "Princess for a Day" at Disney World after ''cutting in front of Stephanie'' and winning the draw. She gets 3 wishes that can be fulfilled by the staff. Stephanie is treated as in the wrong for being jealous of Michelle, even though the prize should have been hers in the first place. After using the first two selfishly, Michelle then decides to relinquish the position over to Stephanie. ''Right as the day is ending and she'd no longer be princess anymore anyways''. They treat this as a big generous gesture for Michelle, when she really wasn't giving up much, just an hour or two of special privileges. Hell, ''she still gets to be in the parade!'' Nothing indicates that they'll let Stephanie keep the title for a full day tomorrow, or even if the Tanners would be there the next day. The moral seems to be "be generous to your sister, by given back something that was rightfully hers to begin with after you've already milked all the benefits of it dry." |
| 83 | ** One episode has Stephanie upset and ashamed of her name since some kids at school were making fun of it so she opts to change her name to "Dawn". While Danny, [[GoodParents being who he is,]] decides to make her take pride in her name, he mainly does so by mocking her new name instead, even predicting that the kids will hate ''that'' name, too! So in other words, not only does she still have a complex over her own name, but she's taught the lesson that "kids will always mock your name, no matter what you change it to." This isn't even getting into [[ThisLoserIsYou what any girl named Dawn would think watching this episode.]] |
| 84 | [[/folder]] |
| 85 | |
| 86 | [[folder:G]] |
| 87 | * ''Series/GameOfThrones'': |
| 88 | ** The Hound telling Arya to give up on her quest for revenge before it corrupts her and ruins her life falls rather flat when Arya has already committed some [[PayEvilUntoEvil majorly brutal acts of vengeance]], so it's hard to argue one more would hurt, and by that point, the one remaining person Arya wants vengeance on (Cersei) is a major-league AssholeVictim who is largely responsible for the worst events of the series. To the viewer, it seems like the only problem with Arya taking revenge is the bafflement that [[ForgotAboutHisPowers she didn't sneak into King's Landing with her ridiculous stealth skills]] and knife Cersei at the first opportunity. |
| 89 | ** A common moral of the series is essentially that actions have consequences, and that a ruler who ignores the desires of their governing agents or their people will not live long. This is seen in cases like how Joffrey's execution of Ned leads to massive backlash in the North, or how Robb disrespecting his vows to the Frey family causes them to turn traitor. However, this moral is broken completely by Cersei in the later seasons. Cersei kills the members of popular noble houses like the Tyrells, blows through money like water, relies on the loyalty of pirates and mercenaries, publicly humiliates loyal and beloved knights like Barristan, treats the smallfolk with utter contempt, and destroys the Sept of Baelor, essentially the main religious center of the Seven Kingdoms. By all sensible rights, she should be dealing with a ZeroPercentApprovalRating and be facing nigh-constant threats to her rule. And yet [[PlotArmor she faces no real internal tensions after the Sept's destruction, manages to win battles it makes little sense for her to win, and has a rather spurious claim on the throne be treated as ironclad]]. Characters frequently advise Dany to not try to conquer King's Landing because the people might not accept her as legitimate, even though they should be viewing ''anything'' as better than Cersei, and when Cersei is ultimately brought down, it is by [[OutsideContextProblem a wholly external threat]]. |
| 90 | ** Daenerys's [[spoiler: FaceHeelTurn]] is supposedly foreshadowed by her doing things such as executing the Tarlys via dragon fire, and siccing the violent Dothraki on the Lannister army. The latter is given a sad face from Tyrion - who himself used wildfire to blow up an entire fleet of Stannis's forces to defend King's Landing. The Aesop that any cruelty or brutality is a sign of a bad ruler falls flat in comparison to other things heroic characters have done - Jon Snow hanging all his mutineers (including a [[DeathOfAChild child]] who stabbed him), Arya slaughtering all of House Frey and tricking Lord Walder into cannibalizing some of his sons, Sansa feeding Ramsay Bolton to his own hounds, and even Ned beheading a Night's Watch deserter in the first episode - and they've been treated as justified by the narrative. |
| 91 | ** The series ending with [[spoiler: the North becoming a separate state]] seems especially odd in light of how the White Walkers were only defeated once most of Westeros joined forces to fight them - making a pretty good case for a United Seven Kingdoms. |
| 92 | * ''Series/GilligansIsland'': |
| 93 | ** According to series creator Sherwood Schwartz, the show was supposed to be about the need for us all to work together. So who ends up getting off the island? The guest stars, by betraying the regular cast. |
| 94 | ** Also worse considering the one sure fire way [[JustEatGilligan they could have gotten off the island]]. |
| 95 | * The ''Series/GirlMeetsWorld'' episode "Girl Meets STEM" is supposed to be a girl power episode encouraging girls to pursue careers in math and science. The way this plays out has their science teacher set up boy-girl teams to complete a project: one partner does an easy task after school, and the other partner does the hard part the next day. Riley becomes indignant when she realizes all the girls did the easy part and all the boys got the hard part, and decides to take a stand by refusing to complete her task. She then riles up the rest of the girls in her class and gets a speech from Topanga about how important it is to be involved in STEM topics and not frivolous matters. This could have worked out if there was some more exploration of ''why'' the teams split up the way they did, but we only see Riley-Farkle and Maya-Lucas; Farkle is a nerd who delights in all forms of school work, so it's only natural that he'd take the hard part over Riley, whereas Maya is a slacker who routinely does the minimum. If those partners had been switched and Riley had asked to do the hard part, Lucas would have let her (unless he'd been handed the ConflictBall). Then there's Topanga's speech to the girls. At one point, she berates a middle schooler for saying "I like your shoes" instead of saying "I want to own the company that makes your shoes." Bullying a person into a career path is as much of a problem as bulling a person out of a career path, but it's presented as a life lesson. And at school the next day, after Riley and Topanga get done with the girls, they form a primitive tribe and attempt human sacrifice as some means of reclaiming their empowerment. Meanwhile, the boys are hard at work trying to complete the assignment. If the message were really about trying to get girls interested in STEM, shouldn't they be helping? Or at least observing and taking notes (since actually helping could have jeopardized their grade, as each partner was supposed to stick to their designated task)? The episode ends with the teacher explaining that he'd set up the whole thing in the first place for the exact reason of highlighting the disparity between boys and girls in STEM, and Riley's choice not to do her part is presented as the right and proper solution (basically, the "easy" part was to make mud, the "hard" part was to figure out what was in the mud, and all the other teams were left with a muddy beaker, representing the muddy relationship between the genders, whereas Riley and Farkle had a clear beaker, representing balance). Except that whole metaphor crashes if one single team sent a boy to do the "easy" part. They'd still have a muddy beaker despite having a girl taking on the STEM task. |
| 96 | * ''Series/{{Glee}}'': |
| 97 | ** Towards the end of Season 1, the show tried to promote a GayAesop. [[BigManOnCampus Finn]] learns to his shock from his mother that they're moving in with her boyfriend. Her boyfriend happens to be the father of [[CampGay Kurt]], who has a crush on Finn. The two have to room together, and Finn's homophobia causes tension between the two. Eventually at the end, Finn has to learn to respect others despite their differences. Sounds simple enough, but the way they go about achieving this aesop made it broken. Kurt, both in this episode and over the course of the season, '''had''' a blatant crush on Finn, and continued to make advances toward him despite Finn clearly being uncomfortable with the situation; Kurt even deliberately arranged the rooming situation while making the room itself look "romantic" to try to get into Finn's pants. Thankfully, the writers realized this flawed Aesop, and had Kurt's father give his son a speech in the following season which made it clear that Kurt's behavior was completely unacceptable, and that if [[DoubleStandard Finn had been a girl and Kurt a straight guy, the latter probably would have been arrested]]. |
| 98 | ** In season 2, Kurt calls Blaine out on the fact that Blaine is the only one to even have solos with The Warblers and everybody else just sways in the background and provide back vocals for him. Blaine takes this seriously and when the Warbler council argue which song would be the best for Blaine to sing at Regionals, Blaine stands up and tells them he wants their voices to be heard too and that they should have solos as well. When the council wants to vote who should have the solos instead, Blaine tells them he already decided he wants one of his songs to be a duet with Kurt, then he tells Kurt he picked him to spend more time with him, because he wants them to be boyfriends. Then at Regionals they sing one duet together and the second song is a Blaine solo with the rest of the Warblers swaying in the background and providing back vocals. |
| 99 | ** In the Christmas episode in season 3, the club is given the choice between volunteering at a homeless shelter for the holidays and filming a Christmas special. They arrive near the end and we are clearly supposed to see it as a noble heartwarming moment which ignores the fact that they filmed the special anyway and arrived later. It wouldn't be as troubling but for the way the writers obviously want this to be seen as a selfless moment on their part. The message comes across "Do the right thing but only if it doesn't cost you anything". |
| 100 | ** 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 inevitably cheated with a man, and is never called out for it, and a trans girl forced to dress as a boy 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! |
| 101 | ** A perfect example of the above is "The Rocky Horror Glee Show". It attempts to have a big message about how the show represents people because they're "outcasts" and therefore the glee club can empathize with that - ignoring that one of the biggest elements of ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'' that made it such a hit among those outcasts was its use of transgender characters, something the episode scrubs out by giving its version of Frank N. Furter a GenderFlip and editing "Sweet Transvestite" to turn "transsexual" to "sensational". |
| 102 | ** Also in season 1, Puck wants to be recognized as the father of Quinn's baby. Mercedes gives him a stern talking-to, saying Quinn has already chosen the man she wants to be her baby's father, and it's Finn. Who doesn't know it isn't his and has been led to believe that the baby is his responsibility whether he wants it or not. And doesn't know that Quinn cheated on him with his best friend. Yep, the decision is all Quinn's. |
| 103 | ** The show tried to redeem itself on transgender issues in the final season by having Coach Beiste come out as a transgender 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 being gender nonconforming. All that was thrown out the window by revealing that Beiste secretly identified as a man all along. |
| 104 | * ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'' |
| 105 | ** One episode had a visit by Blanche's estranged daughter Rebecca, who, during her time in Paris, has become [[FormerlyFit very overweight]]. Rebecca wants to introduce her mother to her boyfriend Jeremy, who's a massive JerkAss: he verbally abuses her and makes cruel, rude comments about her weight. This is treated as unacceptable, and she dumps him in the end. But the moral of the story breaks, because the whole first half of the episode involves some fat jokes being made at her expense (either by [[ScrewPolitenessImASenior snarky Sophia]] or by [[InnocentlyInsensitive dumb Rose]] ) and ends with Blanche suggesting they go outside rather than the previous intent to eat some cheesecake. It's somewhat justified in that Sophia can't censor her statements due to a stroke and Rose is, to be frank, too stupid to realize that she's being mean; furthermore, Blanche's initial statements about Rebecca's weight are treated as serious by the younger woman, who makes it clear that she won't take her mother's interference any longer. But still, it could have been presented better--especially because Rebecca was later recast, with a much thinner actress playing the role. |
| 106 | * ''Series/Goosebumps1995'': While the aesop of "[[Recap/Goosebumps1995S3E5Click Click]]" is not to abuse power for one's own ends, the company that devised the universal remote is clearly setting up Seth to fail. First, giving so much power to a teen is just [[KidWithTheLeash begging for it to be misused]]. They also warn him not to try to repair the remote by himself when he makes the perfectly valid point that he did try to go through the proper channels: they don't answer any phone calls and the address of the "showroom" they gave him was just [[TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday some abandoned building]]. They also appear to be aware what Seth is doing at all times, so they could have intervened at any point. |
| 107 | [[/folder]] |
| 108 | |
| 109 | [[folder:H]] |
| 110 | * ''Series/TheHandmaidsTale'': June has her child baptized into the Catholic Church, which has been implicated in major sexual abuse, undermining her opposition to the similarly sexually abusive Gilead. InUniverse, her own mother points this out. To be fair, the Church is portrayed as violently persecuted under the Gilead regime, and June probably also does this because her father was Catholic and June may have been raised as one too. (Also, there are plenty of people who practice Catholicism to varying degrees without necessarily believing everything the Church does is always right.) |
| 111 | * A ''Series/HannahMontana'' episode where Miley goes out with a rich boy and his parents make fun of her accent and stereotype her. They're portrayed as jerks for this and get comeuppance. Earlier in the same episode Miley said that ''they'' talked funny and the ZanyScheme of the episode involves everyone donning [[IAmVeryBritish bad British accents]]. |
| 112 | * When Hiro from ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' discovers that [[spoiler:his father had died]], he traveled back into the past to [[spoiler:save his father, but his father declined the offer]] by saying that he should not play God with his powers; then the entire episode is about Hiro learning that [[spoiler:his father]] is absolutely correct and he presents this as AnAesop [[spoiler:during his father's funeral]]. The problem is that Hiro's TimeTravel abilities are about changing the past and he had done it before without complaining once. Worse, [[spoiler:Present!Dad wouldn't have died]] if Future!Hiro hadn't traveled through time to [[spoiler:save Past!Dad from dying]] in the first place! It could be that the very Stargate-Aesop is, "Time Travel gives everyone a headache, even when it's their main ability." This was somewhat lampshaded when Hiro was put on trial in his own mind for playing around with causality for his own benefit. |
| 113 | * ''Series/HighwayToHeaven'' |
| 114 | ** Johnathan, the angel, is often reminding his mortal friend, Mark, that violence is not the answer, often in cases where violence could reasonably be used. However, there are times when Johnathan uses violence himself, such as a time when he beats up three guys for stealing another guy's lunch. So, violence is not the answer, except when it is, but only if it's for something trivial. |
| 115 | ** The episode "Friends" has a fat girl who doesn't have any friends. Why? Apparently, it's because she's fat. The ''just be yourself'' Aesop is broken in this episode. The life lesson this fat girl learns at the end of the episode is that it's okay to be yourself - unless you're fat! Then, it's okay to lose weight, but not because it's healthy or because doughnuts were costing her $3.10 a day, but because people will like you if you're thin. The intention may have been "Obesity is bad. Diet and exercise can make you thin" which isn't so bad, but pretty much the opposite of "Be Yourself". |
| 116 | ** In the episode "Man to Man", a 19-year-old is good at just about everything he does. Johnathan and Mark discuss how ''winning isn't everything'', despite the fact that the guy is just good at the things he does and applies himself. Mark and Johnathan come up with a few ways to show him how it's okay to lose sometimes, then use God's power to make him lose. |
| 117 | ** A student athletic star ends up getting his legs paralyzed in an accident, which makes him feel worthless until someone helps him learn that there are other sports that he can participate in without the use of his legs, such as the pommel horse, except that there's no way he'd be able to do the routine he did without the use of his legs. |
| 118 | * ''Series/HolbyCity'' had an episode in 2020 where the aesop was "Don't be abusive to people who are there to help you" with an abusive PatientOfTheWeek who was constantly misogynistic and sexist towards Chloe Godard (who had, pre-TimeSkip, undergone a ''severe'' TraumaCongaLine). However, the aesop was then contradicted by Chloe [[TookALevelInJerkass temporarily becoming a jerkass]] towards ''other staff''. Yes, she may have suffered, but it's no excuse for her to be abusive towards other staff, and [[LampshadeHanging she was called out for her behavior]] by others. |
| 119 | * ''Series/{{House}}'': |
| 120 | ** "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. |
| 121 | ** In "The Right Stuff", an Air Force pilot needs to get breast enlargement surgery as a pretext for another surgery for a condition that would rule her out of NASA, but she's concerned that she won't be taken seriously as a result. It's presented as "sometimes you have to make a compromise to achieve your dreams", but considering the effort she's gone to keep any disqualifying condition off the books, it's more like "if you're willing to defraud the Government to further the pursuit of your dream, you have to accept any compromise you might have to make". |
| 122 | [[/folder]] |
| 123 | |
| 124 | [[folder:I]] |
| 125 | * ''Series/ICarly'': |
| 126 | ** The whole reason Carly, Sam, and Freddie started the webshow is to give a platform for kids to share whatever weird talents and interests they have, even if adults deem them too strange. Noble message, but the show goes on to constantly make fun of characters who have weird interests, with one key example being how Carly dumps her boyfriend because he collects plush toys, something her friends mock endlessly. Even Freddie is frequently bullied for his nerdy interests, even when they make the webshow more interesting. |
| 127 | ** There are a few ways "iGo Nuclear" could be considered to have broken the supposed GreenAesop: the first telling Freddie he failed because he imported worms from Portugal, then telling Carly that taking the bus would've been better. When Sam passed for doing nothing, it made it seem like the moral was "Don't bother trying to help the planet, because you are unwittingly doing it wrong anyway." It's worth noting that ExecutiveMeddling mandated a GreenAesop that the creators didn't want to write--[[WriterRevolt this might be a purposeful]] SpoofAesop that being forced into environmentalism just sucks. |
| 128 | ** A shocking truth in RealLife is presented in "iBeat the Heat." Carly gives AnAesop speech based from her utopian city project contrasting the Old American "neighborhood" life to the hubbub of the people in her loft. The lesson seemed to have sunk in, until all power inside the building gets restored, prompting the residents to leave the loft immediately without giving any form of gratitude. The stunned expressions of the main characters are just priceless. |
| 129 | ** The [[AnAesop aesop]] of "iStart a Fanwar," where everyone should concentrate on the show itself because it's only about comedy and not shipping? The very next episode started a 5 part {{Shipping}} arc that Creator/DanSchneider himself hyped to the point he was expecting it to break the 12 million viewer record of ''iSaved Your Life''. [[ToughActToFollow It didn't.]] |
| 130 | * ''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 kidnap Danny and resort to [[{{Necromancy}} some pretty]] [[BloodMagic dark magic]] to steal the Fist from him, it becomes FridgeHorror when you wonder what ''Danny'' had to do to get his new powers.]] |
| 131 | [[/folder]] |
| 132 | |
| 133 | [[folder:J]] |
| 134 | * ''Series/JustShootMe'': Jack tries to tell Elliott an anti-racism parable using different-colored ''slushies'', comparing them with people of varying colors. However, it comically collapses as both agree "blue is the best" (tasting). |
| 135 | [[/folder]] |
| 136 | |
| 137 | [[folder:K]] |
| 138 | * ''Series/KamenRiderBlackSun'' gives the mutant-human racism of the [[Series/KamenRiderBLACK original series]] a PersecutionFlip and attempts deliver an aesop about racism related to [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything contemporary times]], with less than spectacular results for multiple reasons: |
| 139 | ** Firstly, the kaijins and their history simply don't work as an allegory for racism, as they have fictional elements as play that real-world marginalized ethnic groups don't, namely that they're all monsters created from human experiments in a lab who are reliant on a [[HumanResources cocktail made from murdered humans called "Heat Heaven"]] to keep themselves alive and forcibly experimenting on other humans to make more kaijins. As such, TheHero's goal of killing the Creation King and preventing the kaijins from being able to make more of themselves (along with the Heat Heaven) works as a solution to the kaijin racism problem in universe, but has [[FinalSolution troubling implications]] out of universe. |
| 140 | ** While the show critiques the racist views humans have towards kaijins, that being the belief that they're all subhuman save for some "model" examples, the way in which ''Black Sun'' portrays humans ironically mirrors the very anti-kaijin views it aims to be critical of, with humans mostly being depicted as savage and violent save for some "model" [[TokenHeroicOrc heroic exceptions]]. |
| 141 | * In its final arc, ''Series/KamenRiderZeroOne'' attempts to deliver a message about how hatred and violence beget hatred and violence by having TheHero Aruto become obsessed with {{revenge}} and trying to kill his nemesis Horobi, almost starting a RobotWar between humans and [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot Humagears]] in the process. There are several problems with the message's delivery however. First of all, it comes immediately after an arc which featured a contemptible villain whom [[HateSink the show actively encouraged you to hate]] and enjoy watching get beat up, making it inconsistently applied. Secondly, even before Aruto went after him, Horobi was already a terrorist whose plans would have led to [[FinalSolution untold amounts of death]] and who even murdered one of his own kind [[EvilIsPetty just for trying to reason with him]]. All Aruto did was redirect Horobi's preexisting hatred for all of humanity to himself. Thirdly, the only reason things get out of hand is less to do with Aruto trying to get revenge and more because Aruto chose to use the ObviouslyEvil Ark Driver against Horobi when he had other tools that would have been enough to defeat him. Thus, the message comes off less as "revenge is bad" and "revenge is bad ''if'' you use your SuperpoweredEvilSide to obtain it", with no distinction made between Aruto trying to get revenge and Aruto using the Ark-One Driver. |
| 142 | ** The ''Zero-One Others'' V-Cinemas attempt to reinforce the series' CycleofRevenge moral by introducing vilains that operate outside of it, only to glorify said cycle instead. Kamen Rider Metsubojinrai [[spoiler: is implied by Isamu to be performing a GenghisGambit to turn both Humans and Humagears against it to broker peace]], yet the Rider gestalt is [[AIIsACrapshoot such a single-minded program]] that it's only [[KnightTemplar engaged in its own revenge against ZAIA and its components]],[[note]]influenced by the savior-complex-coded Mass Brain Key - something [[FailedASpotCheck nobody thinks to look into in the second film]] despite [[spoiler: Lyon Arkland making no effort to hide his involvement in what's going on and Fuwa being witness to his death at the gestalt's hands]].[[/note]] killing a bunch of people in its rampage against the factions and planting other seeds of revenge in both the Solds (who briefly rebel against humans in its name but [[spoiler: are snapped out of it]]) and by the end of the film, [[spoiler: the Defense Minister]]. ([[CreateYourOwnVillain Who the film makes clear will be lobbying against A.I.]]) The Rider effectively creates the very problem it wanted to solve, yet the destruction of most of the cast ([[FridgeLogic and by extension, most outlets for Humagears in trouble]]) is treated as the unsung solution to everyone's problems by the film's ending in an attempt to tie it all together; effectively vindicating the CycleOfRevenge [[spoiler: [[SpecialAesopVictim the films killed most of the cast]]]] to frame as a bad thing. [[spoiler: Isamu, ZAIA and Metsubojinrai]] are gone though, so [[SarcasmMode clearly world peace is on the way]].[[note]]Except ''Presidents'' indicates [[spoiler: The Ark]] is alive, so...[[ShootTheShaggyDog nothing was accomplished anyway]].[[/note]] |
| 143 | * Towards the end of the second arc of ''Series/KamenRiderGeats'', Keiwa [[ShutUpHannibal chews out]] Girori for not only failing to understand Ace's desire (and the seemingly frivolous wishes he makes in order to get closer to achieving it), but the desires of the other Riders as well, saying that if someone is willing to risk their life for a dream, no matter how insignificant it may appear to be, you shouldn't think less of them. The {{Flashback}} accompanying Keiwa's speech displays ''all'' of the previous Riders, not only the ones with simple wishes like [[HealthcareMotivation Taira]], [[IJustWantToBeLoved Neon]], [[WeightWoe Yukie]], or [[FountainOfYouth Ittetsu]], but also Riders with more destructive wishes like [[HeroKiller Michinaga]] and even [[KillAllHumans Kanato]], who obviously will have others object to their wish. It also displays [[OpportunisticBastard Morio]]; while his wish was [[TheUnreveal unrevealed]][[note]]Given his past as a shady dealer, it's hinted to be related to money[[/note]], [[JerkassHasAPoint he was the one]] who pointed out that the DGP's sheer power of granting seemingly any wish was worth risking his life in #4, but not long after the other Riders object to his pursuit of his desire due to his double-crossing and underhanded tactics to get a leg up in the DGP when his true nature was revealed. |
| 144 | * ''Series/KidsIncorporated'' frequently had to shave off some load-bearing plot elements to fit in their morals -- each episode only had about 7 minutes of actual show between the musical numbers. The two most common: |
| 145 | ** Anything based around the Aesop of "BeYourself". Time after time, one of the Kids would try something new or to hang out with someone who was different from their usual peer group. Unless this newcomer was InspirationallyDisadvantaged, the end result was always that hanging out with the new person made them change, act like a punk, act too sophisticated, act arrogant, etc. The writers wanted to show that it was bad to change yourself to make new "cooler" friends, but the story was used with such frequency that it seemed as if ''trying in any way to broaden your horizons or make friends outside your usual circle'' was a bad thing. |
| 146 | ** AmbitionIsEvil: About once a season, something would give one or all of the kids a taste of stardom, and they would promptly forget about ThePowerOfFriendship and start acting like jackasses and rivals. In the end, they would have to turn down any chance at becoming rich and famous in order to keep to what's "really important". Aside from the usual "Success is evil" vibe, we're repeatedly told in the early seasons that Kids Incorporated ''are already the most famous juvenile band on the planet'', and are ''world famous''. Heck, the ''theme song'' includes the phrase "Looks like we made it!" So, um, exactly how successful are you allowed to be before it becomes immoral? |
| 147 | * On the ''Series/KirbyBuckets'' episode "The Hurt Box", Kirby makes a comic book containing insulting cartoons about his teachers, which Fish accidentally enters into the school's submission box. When the gang sneaks into the school to try and stop the teachers from reading the comic book, they discover that the teachers only look the students' suggestions to laugh at them, prompting the two sides to agree to stop making fun of each other. Now if only Kirby would stop drawing "Dawnzilla"... |
| 148 | [[/folder]] |
| 149 | |
| 150 | [[folder:L]] |
| 151 | * ''Series/LawAndOrderSVU'': |
| 152 | ** There are a few episodes centering on what becomes of child pornography victims when they grow up, and a few of ''those'' focus on the lives of those victims who are constantly re-victimized because of how permanent the materials are once they hit the internet. The message is very clear: it may be easier for consumers of kiddie porn to convince themselves that they're not hurting anyone because they personally do not harm children and the kids they watch are no longer children by now, but they're still the reason there's a demand for kiddie porn to begin with, and those kids do indeed grow up into deeply scarred adults. It's a very consistent message across several episodes... and then we get an episode where a city official is an avid consumer of ''huge'' amounts of kiddie porn, but the SVU team works to get him the lightest possible sentence and express sympathy for him because his porn consumption wasn't hurting anyone. |
| 153 | ** One episode shares with us in great detail the importance of not judging sex workers for their jobs and valuing them as people, because sex work is work, and being paid to perform in pornographic movies does not mean that a porn actress is degraded or less worthy. The ending spits on the whole thing when the actress in question decides to become a full-time porn star, starting with group sex with a crowd of men, something she previously considered too extreme and is framed in a way to show she's going down a dark path. This is explicitly stated to be a result of her rape. In the end, the message maths out to being porn isn't degrading in and of itself, but degradation will improve your career. |
| 154 | ** The episode "Gray" started with a college girl accusing a male classmate of raping her while she was drunk, but the man said she consented and didn't remember the next day because she was drunk. This gave Olivia the opportunity to lecture the squad that if a woman has been drinking, it's rape (one might think that a sex crimes detective [[CluelessAesop would know the legal definition of rape]]) and that if a man is equally drunk [[DoubleStandard it's still the man's responsibility not to take advantage of her]]. The episode was set up to be an episode-long AuthorTract about drunken he-said-she-said rape cases, but then the investigation went on a tangent, it turned out that the man got his girlfriend pregnant and then caused her to have a miscarriage by using an abortive agent as a sexual lubricant. When the case went to trial, the defense attorney asked the judge to recuse herself because of her bias involving cases with "this type of victim". The judge then went to the reluctant witness victim to [[AuthorFilibuster tell her own story]] about how she was raped and no one took her seriously. This speech might have been perfectly in place in many other episodes of the series, it might have even made sense to have the judge give this speech to the first victim who accused the man of rape, but by this point in the story everyone had forgotten about her. The victim the judge gave the speech to wasn't raped, in fact she was the one girl everyone knew for certain had consensual sex with the perpetrator. So the judge had no reason to recuse herself, her speech to the victim was weirdly out of place, and the perpetrator was never punished for anything he did to the first victim, and even though the episode was supposed to teach the importance of believing women who say they were raped, they never really proved that the original accusation was true. |
| 155 | ** The opening lines of the intro point out that RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil, but that doesn't stop any of the squad from threatening any of its suspects with PrisonRape. Sure, for them it's just an intimidation tactic, but we see several characters who actually do get raped in prison, and those few who actually survive it end up in very bad places and bring consequences back on the squad. Olivia even gets some severe backlash for a casual PrisonRape threat being interpreted as actually conspiring to have a convict brutally assaulted. The entire premise of the show is that rape is serious and terrible, but still largely buys into the idea that PrisonRape is the icing on the karmic justice cake. |
| 156 | ** "[[{{Recap/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnitS21E12TheLongestNightOfRain}} The Longest Night of Rain]]" dedicated a lot of time to talking about the epidemic of suicide among police and the importance of mental health care. The aesop is immediateley undermined when Fin pointed out that being honest about mental health difficulties can be a career-ender and the [[ArmorPiercingQuestion therapist had no response]]. Even worse, none of the suicides in this episode had anything to do with being a cop. [[VictimOfTheWeek Rachel's]] life spiraled after being raped by her boss, Ralphie was being blackmailed, and Ed Tucker had terminal cancer and wanted to die with dignity. |
| 157 | * In ''Series/LincolnHeights'' the whole point of the series seems to be to show how dangerous it is to raise a family there. So then why do the Suttons insist on raising their family there? Because they love the neighborhood so much despite the fact that their kids have been shot, kidnapped and held hostage every other episode. So it's fine to raise your family in a dangerous neighborhood as long as they're comfortable there. |
| 158 | * ''Series/TheLWord'' constantly defended itself from being just a cash cow pandering to the straight male demographic, while featuring extensive sex scenes between women and restricting gay guys to extras. Let's just say most of the so-called [=PSAs=] in the show never really got much impact. |
| 159 | [[/folder]] |
| 160 | |
| 161 | [[folder:M]] |
| 162 | * ''Series/{{MacGyver|1985}}'' says guns are bad and that you shouldn't use them. Then, there's an episode where a racist newspaper editor is confronted by [=MacGyver=] at gunpoint. Someone has to remind [=MacGyver=] that shooting this person would be bad. |
| 163 | ** More often the Aesop is played straight, as [=MacGyver=] will more often throw a gun away or ignore it. |
| 164 | ** In one Very Special Episode, it's revealed that [=MacGyver=]'s gun phobia is due to a childhood accident in which one of his friends was accidentally shot. |
| 165 | * ''Series/TheMagicians'': When Quentin learns that his muggle father is dying of cancer, he sets out to learn a magical spell to cure it and is frustrated that Magicians [[ReedRichardsIsUseless don't use their powers to solve real-world problems]] more often. His attempts fail and he has to accept that even magic has its limits. But at the end of the second season when Magicians worldwide are stripped of their powers, his father's cancer suddenly goes away, suggesting that it was magic-related after all. And when magic is restored, the cancer comes back stronger than ever, making Quentin feel selfish knowing that restoring his powers meant condemning his father to death[[note]]Nevermind the millions of Magicians worldwide who lost their powers through no fault of their own thanks to the main cast's actions in Season 2.[[/note]]. Not only was the nature of the dad's cancer never revealed, but it contradicted the whole point of magic not being able to solve every mundane problem since this was clearly not a mundane illness. |
| 166 | * ''Series/{{MASH}}'': |
| 167 | ** There's an episode where Klinger wants a nose job, but the doctors convince him that he should be happy the way he is. Klinger goes for it and all is great for a while. Then comes the later episode where a guy named Baker, who has a smaller nose than Klinger, wants to get a nose job. He easily convinces the doctors that he should have a nose job because his life would be so much better if he didn't have such an unattractive nose. The doctors even risk court-martial to get a plastic surgeon to do the surgery. |
| 168 | ** The episode "Rainbow Bridge" has one, when you think of the FridgeLogic involved. The plot is that the 4077th is treating a number of Chinese prisoners, and is somehow contacted by a Chinese field hospital who has in its care some UN troops. The Chinese, not capable of treating the UN troops up to their level of care, want to arrange a prisoner swap at the titular bridge, on the condition that Hawkeye, Trapper, Radar and Frank come unarmed to the swap. When they arrive, they are confronted by numerous Chinese guards carrying submachine guns. When it's revealed that Frank snuck a handgun (a tiny derringer that looks like it could have come out of a box of Cracker Jack, really) the commanding Chinese doctor launches into an tirade about US actions ("Is it not enough that your planes harass us day and night? It makes it impossible for me to treat my own people. We make a civilized gesture, and you respond by coming here with a gun ready to shoot us down.") and is about ready to call off the exchange. At which point, Hawkeye browbeats Frank into surrendering the gun and makes an impassioned plea for the exchange to go on as planned. The intended Aesop seems to be "take any proffered olive branch during a war, especially if it saves lives", but it falls apart when you consider ''the Chinese were flagrantly violating the very conditions they demanded of Hawkeye'' et. al. ''by bringing armed men to the rendezvous point.'' Granted, there was no condition prohibiting this, but it's at least a DoubleStandard. Not to mention, the Chinese doctor complaining about trying to treat people while being bombed? If you watch the show, you'll see the 4077th in this exact situation frequently. As the Chinese ''could'' have been laying a trap and taken Hawkeye and the others prisoner or gunned them down with impunity, it seems more likely that the AccidentalAesop was "You know what? [[JerkassHasAPoint This once, in retrospect, Frank was probably right.]]" |
| 169 | ** There's the episode "Souvenirs", in which Hawkeye and BJ force a chopper pilot to stop selling trinkets made out of junk found on battlefields. Granted that people, including little kids, are getting hurt and killed when they try to scavenge something that turns out to be booby-trapped, but this doesn't solve the problem. Fact #1: These people are dirt poor and desperate for every penny they can scrape up. Fact #2: Metal is valuable. Even if the souvenir industry dried up, the brass shells could be sold to someone who can use them, to melt down if nothing else. Fact #2 can't be changed. Fact #1 can, but Hawkeye and BJ don't do anything about it. In fact, they put a guy out of business who gives fifty bucks to the family of one of his suppliers who got hurt. Nice move. He even mentions that his predecessor used to just send flowers. [[SarcasmMode Those families are certainly better off with him gone]]. |
| 170 | ** One episode features Margaret dealing with Nurse Cooper, who repeatedly emotionally breaks down, up to and including running out of OR ''in the middle of an operation'' because the wounded soldiers remind her of her kid brother. Margaret is viewed as an ogre for coming down on Cooper and eventually trying to get her transferred to an easier post, and she eventually learns to empathize with Cooper, letting up on her after crying over a dead dog (NOT while she was working). See the problems here? |
| 171 | ** The central plot of one episode has all the nurses going on a sex strike until one of the men finally agrees to go out with their [[HollywoodHomely cute but supposedly unattractively clumsy colleague]]. The lesson, I suppose, is that everybody should have a chance at love, but then a few episodes later, those same nurses hypocritically sneer at the very idea of any of them going on a date with Radar without anybody calling them on it. |
| 172 | * ''{{Series/Merlin 2008}}'' validates the Dragon's warnings that Morgana was EvilAllAlong and not to be trusted, by having her undergo a FaceHeelTurn in Season 3 to become the BigBad of the series. Except Kilgarrah's warnings are broken by the fact that [[SelfFulfillingProphecy they only come true because Merlin listens to him]], and doesn't tell Morgana about his magic - even though she's terrified about what's happening to her and showed herself to be noble and heroic, so she was unlikely to cause any harm with that information. The incident that brings on Morgana's FaceHeelTurn is when Merlin poisons her because she's the source of a spell that's endangering Camelot. Except she ''didn't know'' she was causing that harm. Season 3 then presents Morgana as an over-the-top pantomime villain to retroactively justify Merlin and Kilgarrah's cruel treatment of her. So YouCantFightFate but only when you're rigging the game. |
| 173 | * In episode 17 of ''Series/MiraiSentaiTimeranger'', an Aesop is taught that fighting is wrong, even in self-defense - in a Franchise/SuperSentai series where fights are the preferred method of problem solving. |
| 174 | * ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'': Does anyone else find it a little strange that Earl puts his list away for a day so people will stop calling him "Karma Guy" while saying an Aesop about not letting other people's labels define you? Since when does changing your actions because of people's labels fit into that Aesop? |
| 175 | [[/folder]] |
| 176 | |
| 177 | [[folder:N]] |
| 178 | * The ''Series/NoahsArc'' movie gets in several aesops, but one is particularly broken. When Noah finds out Alex is addicted to caffeine pills he takes it very seriously, and that's where the DrugsAreBad aesop is played out. But throughout the movie we've seen Brandy enjoy a variety of drugs quite a bit harsher than caffeine, and its all PlayedForLaughs with no real consequences. |
| 179 | [[/folder]] |
| 180 | |
| 181 | [[folder:O]] |
| 182 | * ''Series/OneTreeHill'': A season four episode had Nathan finally sick of his mother Deb's alcoholism, [[NeverMyFault lack of any responsibility for her actions]] and overall {{Jerkass}} behavior, especially towards his wife Haley and he decides to confront her about it. However, what should have been a great moment of him [[CallingTheOldManOut calling the old woman out]] was undermined by him, who after she admitted that she had a disease, just dismisses this and reminds her that Peyton's [[spoiler: biological]] mother, Ellie, died of a ''real'' disease, cancer. Even though Deb ''was'' being an insufferable bitch and he was ultimately trying to get her admit she had a problem and take control of her life by getting help, it was still wrong of him to imply that alcoholism is just a weak excuse to be an asshole instead of a legitimate disease. |
| 183 | * ''Series/OutOfThisWorld1987'': |
| 184 | ** In one episode Evie uses her powers to pass her driving test, with the result that she gets a license despite not being able to parallel park. This is, obviously, a reprehensible thing, and consequentially, she gets in a car accident the very first time she takes the car out. Everything's reasonable so far, except for the fact that the tester was being a jerk and demanded she park in a space ''visibly smaller than the car''. So the moral is "[[FantasticAesop It's not fair to use your superpowers]] to succeed at something that would be physically impossible to do without them." |
| 185 | ** "I Want My Evie TV": Evie's recently-arrived Uncle Mick tries to persuade her to use her powers for personal gain. After being repeatedly cautioned about using her powers for personal gain, she uses her powers to make a music video for a school project. She is punished by her mom, for using her powers for personal gain. So far so good, right? In the end, her video gets entered in a contest and she wins $500. ''And that's the end of the episode''. That's it. No confession, no moment of revelation. No moral epiphany. Turns out that using her powers for personal gain ''just works with no negative consequences''. |
| 186 | * ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': |
| 187 | ** In the episode "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S2E7FirstAnniversary First Anniversary]]", two aliens who are stranded on Earth use their shapeshifting/psychic powers to make themselves appear as beautiful women to seduce men. The problem is that the effect wears off after a year of exposure and reveals their hideous true forms to their husbands. The guys can't handle this revelation and are unable to see that TrueBeautyIsOnTheInside. However, the aliens are not just ugly but so [[StarfishAliens downright inhuman]] that even touching them makes the men violently ill and eventually GoMadFromTheRevelation. As a result they look less like a bunch of superficial jerks and more like a bunch of duped victims; it's implied that the two aliens have been doing this for some time, and one of them has already stopped caring about the damaging effect she has on humans. |
| 188 | ** 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". |
| 189 | [[/folder]] |
| 190 | |
| 191 | [[folder:P]] |
| 192 | * ''Series/PoliceCameraAction'' is a British {{Edutainment}} show where AnAesop is an EnforcedTrope, but the message about "Don't drink and drive" starts to ring rather hollow when he talked about it in ''three'' episodes; the episode "Police, Camera, Action!" in December 1994 where he ''openly admitted to being convicted of drink-driving on screen'', "International Patrol" in April 1996, and then in "Under the Influence" [[TheShelfOfMovieLanguishment an episode made in 2002 but not aired until 2006]], considering that he was later prosecuted for drink-driving in 2003 (causing a ''four-year'' SeriesHiatus and a three-year TheShelfOfMovieLanguishment for the series). It was little wonder that he ended up DemotedToExtra in the 2007 SoftReboot, then [[RoleEndingMisdemeanor was no longer a presenter]] for the 2008 Drink Driving Special, with Gethin Jones taking over for the short-lived 2010 SoftReboot. |
| 193 | * ''Franchise/PowerRangers'': |
| 194 | ** ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'': |
| 195 | *** Trini is 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. |
| 196 | *** 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--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 was not in control of his actions. He 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. |
| 197 | ** ''Series/PowerRangersMysticForce'' |
| 198 | *** The lesson in the three-parter "Dark Wish" is supposed to be "don't take shortcuts, do the work you're supposed to", demonstrated by having the Rangers try to wish away the bad guys through the resident genie and having it backfire horribly. This is undermined by A) the Rangers have been encouraged all season to embrace their magical gifts, so "don't cheat with magic" rings hollow, B) the bad guys get the chance to use the genie themselves, and their wish to depower the Rangers is completely successful, and C) the Rangers' reward for learning not to use magic is ''even stronger magic'' that fuels their SuperMode. |
| 199 | *** A second one is when Itassis asks why the Rangers continuously defeat the Terrors despite the latter's greater power. The answer she gets is "We're more courageous than you". This is despite the fact that Isassis personally bailed the Rangers out when four of them were down for the count and the other two couldn't morph ''and'' killed a Terror the Rangers couldn't scratch because of the 'Rules of Darkness'. Then there's the whole 'one Terror vs six Rangers' thing. |
| 200 | ** ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm'' when Sensei told Dustin not to use his abilities for trivial matters. Said trivial matter involved protecting a business that was basically being vandalised. |
| 201 | ** ''Series/PowerRangersSPD'' has the RobotGirl two-parter, where the team is supposedly suspecting the cadet who turns out to be a robot just because she's different, obviously a metaphor for racism. However, Sophie did a ''great'' deal of suspicious things, and not telling anyone that she was who the villain of the week was after put ''everyone'' in danger. They had ''many'' good reasons not to trust her ''before'' the RoboticReveal that happens in the last five seconds or so of Part One. That doesn't stop Part Two from ''pretending'' Part One was all about racism instead of a someone who couldn't have done more to look suspicious if she were going out of her way to. |
| 202 | ** ''Series/PowerRangersJungleFury'' has Jared being shown his past, when he was being bullied by older kids and the villain was mocking him for simply taking it, despite knowing martial arts at the time. Jared states that his code was to never use his arts against weaker opponents and that fighting the bullies with his martial arts was bad, anyway. [[{{Hypocrite}} In other words, it's wrong to self defense training, for self defense.]]! |
| 203 | ** In ''Series/PowerRangersSamurai'', the Red Ranger stays behind to train on his day off while all the other Rangers go to an amusement park. His master says that in order to master his weapon, he needs balance in his life and should have more fun. The Ranger shrugs him off and eventually masters the weapon with more training, even after all these hints that in order to master his weapon, he needed to have more fun. |
| 204 | ** In ''Series/PowerRangersMegaforce,'' there's an aesop about not taking things too seriously by having Noah, the blue ranger and team brain, examine jokes too closely. The problem is that the jokes in the episode are legitimately awful to anyone over the age of 7, so he comes across as the OnlySaneMan in the episode when the rest of the cast are laughing their heads off at the terrible jokes. |
| 205 | ** In ''Megaforce'', and especially its second season, ''Super Megaforce'', one of the most complained about parts is that in almost every episode of both seasons, the rangers are given new zords out of nowhere, with Gosei's dialogue implying that they learned a lesson to get them, but the lesson was either never set up, more often than not, or it's barely there. There's also the fact that the central message of all of ''Power Rangers'' is that every single team was chosen for good reasons to be the rangers of their teams. However, with the rushed pacing of both of these seasons and absolutely ''zero'' character development for the team as people, we never get any sense as to why that is outside of the first season's first episode, where we're explicitly told why they were chosen by Gosei's computer. Outside of that, we never delve into their personal lives and they never really show off any hidden depths of self doubt or anything and the rangers seem to treat defending the Earth like it's a video game with no real stakes involved, thus making the aesop go from, "if you're good enough, you can too be someone who can help the planet" to, "if you're picked randomly by a computer owned by an alien, you too can transform into spandex suits with powers and pilot giant robots." |
| 206 | ** In the ''Super Megaforce'' tribute episode to ''Jungle Fury,'' Troy, the red ranger, says that "a ranger never lets go of their weapons," ostensibly to justify later footage used from the source series, ''Gokaiger,'' where there it was originally the rangers learning from the tricks of the Action Commander earlier in the episode so that they wouldn't fall for the same trick twice of him using his magnet fists to take their weapons from them. Not only does this make no sense within the episode itself, since they mainly use the powers of ''Jungle Fury'' and ''Wild Force,'' which used mainly kung-fu-based martial arts first and weapons second, and had the rangers have a versatile range of weapons from their fists to their weapons, respectively, but in the very last episode, ''TROY'' throws his sword into the beach ground in the last minute of the episode for no reason. |
| 207 | ** ''Super Megaforce'' also has Orion say, in the second to last episode, that he wasn't filled with as much hate as he was when he got to Earth and that he was going to go back to his planet to search for survivors. Not only does this move from him make no sense where it's placed in the episode, since not only is the Armada still a threat to Earth, but it's also not even for Sentai stock footage reasons, but the Armada is still a threat in need of taking care of, meaning his whole revenge storyline completely crumbles for making bad guys pay for their misdeeds. On top of that, we never personally see his transformation into a happier person. After the episode where he's properly introduced is over, he's suddenly much happier the very next episode for no reason. The intended development of a character like him is supposed to be that he dreads having any other world end up like his, which is his entire reason for coming to Earth, but then he finds value in the new planet he's on and makes it his new home with his friends helping him cope, as well as defeating the ones who caused the genocide to give him a sense of relief that no one else will feel what he did. It's a message saying that you can't change the past, but you can try to assure a better future. Too bad this also crumbles under him not getting any proper development of this, but his leaving Earth ''before'' the threat is defeated makes him seem like he doesn't care to help take care of them anymore. |
| 208 | [[/folder]] |
| 209 | |
| 210 | [[folder:R]] |
| 211 | * ''Series/RedDwarf'': |
| 212 | ** In the episode "Timeslides" Rimmer attempts to convince an alternate Lister (created by Lister's fiddling with the past) to come back to the ship. |
| 213 | --->You call this happiness? Surrounded by toadying lackeys and paid sycophants? Living with a love-goddess sex-bomb model megastar? You call this contentment? You know, I stand here now and I look at the two of us, and I ask one simple question: Who is the rich man? You, with your fifty-eight houses, your private island in the Bahamas, your multi-billion pound business empire; or me, with... with... with what I've got. ''(Pause)'' It's you, isn't it? Yes, it's all very clear to me now. You -- richer ''and'' happier. I should have thought a bit harder about that speech, really. I cocked it up a bit, didn't I...? |
| 214 | ** Also a straightforward example; In a season 1 episode, Lister's Confidence and Paranoia become personified. Lister completely ignores Paranoia and only listens to Confidence - which almost gets him killed. The lesson Lister takes from this? He should stop listening to his paranoia and be confident. Then again, perhaps the point was to highlight the fact that Lister learned the wrong lesson: the result of listening to his confidence was [[spoiler: having to live with two Rimmers]]. |
| 215 | * The Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} sitcom ''Series/{{Romeo}}!'' had an episode in which Romeo's older sister got a boyfriend. She is lectured on how she is not mature enough for a relationship. Later, when the boyfriend comes over for dinner, he eats some BlazingInfernoHellfireSauce and reacts hilariously. The sister dumps him and it's presented as her being "mature." However, what would be truly mature is ''not'' breaking up with your boyfriend over something so [[MinorFlawMajorBreakup minor]]. |
| 216 | * Mexican's ''Series/LaRosaDeGuadalupe'' it's supposed to give valour and ethics to the people but it manages to screw things so bad more times than not, at times like in a Chick strip the bad guy will repent and get a happy ending with some innocent dying in the process, and one particular time with all of the people about to get killed saved by nothing but a miracle which in a country like Mexico sounds cruel and unnecessary. |
| 217 | [[/folder]] |
| 218 | |
| 219 | [[folder:S]] |
| 220 | * The final episode of ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' badly mangled its moral. [[spoiler:On the eve of her wedding, Sabrina gets cold feet because the magical stone representing her soul doesn't quite interlock with the magical stone representing the groom's. The entire rest of the episode builds to a clear moral: there are no sure things, don't rely on magic, just do your best and have faith. Then she [[RunawayBride leaves him at the altar]] to run off with Harvey -- and their magic stones interlock perfectly.]] Hm. Guess the moral was that magic is right after all. Also, [[spoiler:FirstGuyWins, so the whole 'no sure things' lesson is out as well]]. |
| 221 | ** Another episode ostensibly tells us not to be hard on {{geek}}s, but about 95% of its humor amounts to making fun of geeks. |
| 222 | * One way that the characters in ''Series/{{Salem}}'' were supposed to be seen as morally grey is that the witchhunters often employ some very mean ways to identify and catch witches. Unfortunately, witches are ''real'' in-universe, and identifying them stops them from killing people and summoning Satan. In real life, Witch trials were bad because they targeted ''innocent people''. While the methods may seem barbaric, they absolutely ''need'' to catch witches because Witches can cause more harm. |
| 223 | * A ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' sketch parodying ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "The Eye of the Beholder" intentionally does this by having the male characters look at the "ugly" patient (played by Creator/PamelaAnderson) and proclaim, "She's hot!" Not only did they {{lampshade|Hanging}} this trope, they slightly-more-subtly sent a message of modern media eschewing thought-provoking entertainment in favor of gratuitous T&A that ensures ratings. They took this even further by having all the characters ''except'' the patient literally have pig noses, and the male pig-people complain that after having seen the patient, they would no longer be able to stand looking at their pig-faced wives. This drives a pig-nurse to angrily point out (to no avail) that [[YouAreWhatYouHate the men had pig faces themselves]]! Even Rod Serling (played by Creator/NormMacDonald) has to concede that he didn't have a point this time, because c'mon; she really ''was'' hot. |
| 224 | * ''Series/SavedByTheBell'': |
| 225 | ** One episode of ''The College Years'' has Slater discovering his Hispanic heritage and that his father changed his name to get into the army. Zack is presented as being ignorant of this and the one who has to learn AnAesop. Except Slater out of nowhere calls Zack a racist because he tries to set Slater up with a blonde girl. The exact quote is "why do you only think girls with blonde hair and blue eyes are attractive? I've dated girls with dark hair and dark eyes before" - which is a massive ContinuitySnarl given that many girls of different ethnicities have served as Zack's love interests and Slater's own major love interest was a Caucasian blonde. Zack apologizes for his behavior at the end of the episode but Slater never apologizes for being overly sensitive. Oh and there's a scene where Zack uses a racist remark and Slater comes back with a racist response of his own. Zack apologizes for his but Slater doesn't. |
| 226 | ** Also, in the original show's SeriesFinale, "The Graduation", after Jessie bad mouths Screech for being a dorky guy, Lisa immediately scolds her, explaining that upon learning he was valedictorian instead of her, he gave it up as he knew how much it would mean to her, with her even guilt-tripping Jessie by saying that "the world would be much better place if we had more little dorky guys, don't you think?" However, as true as that comment in its respective context, it all becomes significantly weakened by the fact that it's ''[[AlphaBitch Lisa]]'' trying to call someone else out on their treatment of Screech. In reality, she was the main one who consistently insulted him throughout the series, calling him a dork and a nerd while either mocking or downright dismissing him and his ideas (even the logical ones) and was really bitchy to him whenever she sought fit, even in those times that he ''wasn't'' flirting with her. |
| 227 | * In ''Series/TheSecretsOfIsis'' TV show, one episode, "Spots of the Leopard," has a girl named Jenny suspecting her father of being a diamond thief. Throughout the episode, despite all the evidence pointing at Jenny's father, both Isis and her alter-ego Andrea keep reassuring Jenny that she should just have faith in her father. Meanwhile, everything he does makes him look like he's the diamond thief, including lying about his whereabouts and double-crossing the police. In the end, Andrea/Isis was right, but she had no way of knowing that until the real criminal confesses. |
| 228 | * The finale of ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' tried to make a point about the JerkAss nature of the cast by having their actions over the course of the series catch up with them in a way that's more than temporarily inconvenient [[spoiler:when they get on the wrong side of a severe Duty to Rescue law and a ContinuityCavalcade of players from past episodes shows up in court to denounce them.]] However, the final [[spoiler:CharacterWitness who sets the seal on the case against them]] is Babu Bhatt, one of the few characters Jerry actually went out of his way to help; everything bad that happened to him was the result of bad luck or his own poor decision-making. Several of the other testimonies rely on NotWhatItLooksLike situations, such as Kramer being caught "pimping" in "The Wig Master" (he got attacked by a prostitute who had been turning tricks in his car and was wearing a CoincidentalAccidentalDisguise). Whether or not you think they deserved [[spoiler:the jail time they got]], the defense really blew it. |
| 229 | * An episode of ''Series/SexAndTheCity'' had an Aesop about how you can't change a man. However, in this same episode, every male character who appears changes in some way. |
| 230 | * ''Series/SherlockHolmes'': Lead actor Jeremy Brett received permission from the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle estate to show Sherlock Holmes beating his drug habit in the episode "The Devil's Foot" because he feared that young fans would find Holmes' drug use appealing, but he apparently had no such misgivings about Holmes' (and Brett's own) prolific on-screen smoking. |
| 231 | * At the end of ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' episode "Unsafe", Martha Kent lectures Clark on using better judgment about something he did ''while he was on red Kryptonite'', which impairs his judgment. Characters in the show are pretty consistently forgiven for things they did "while they weren't themselves," including at the beginning of season 3 when Clark comes home after a much longer bout with red Kryptonite in Metropolis ''during which he was committing serious crimes''. And for all of that he was on red Kryptonite voluntarily, whereas in "Unsafe" Alicia gives it to him without his knowledge. |
| 232 | * ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': |
| 233 | ** The episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E6TheGame The Game]]" attempted to make an aesop that [[NewMediaAreEvil video games are EVIL]]. However, the game in question (a weird "put disc into bad CGI tubes" game) was actively programmed to brainwash whoever plays it. Also, holodecks are the final form of video games (they can simulate ANY scenario imaginable, and stimulate all the senses while doing it), and nobody had a problem with them (at least, the fact that certain personality types had a tendency to find them addictive didn't lead to demands that they be banned). |
| 234 | ** 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. |
| 235 | * ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': |
| 236 | ** "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E23ProfitAndLace Profit and Lace]]" undercut not just one, but two different morals. First was the lesson about female equality, carried out through a display by a sex-changed Quark that came across as sexist due to Quark having mood swings, which he blames on being female. Then came everything dealing with Quark's relationship with his mother Ishka, where the effects of their mutual loathing for each other is portrayed as entirely his fault. However, Ishka consistently treats him badly (for instance, blaming him for her heart attack and saying he would've made a better daughter than son) throughout the episode, either ignoring or forgetting the time Quark risked his own life to save her from the Dominion, even ''after'' he undergoes extensive surgery, [[IncompatibleOrientation flirts with another man, endures Zek hitting on him]] and pisses off the Acting Grand Nagus in order to bring about a social change ''he doesn't even want'' in order to help Ishka get the reform she was pushing for. |
| 237 | ** "[[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; her objection is to Keiko discussing the wormhole and the Prophets in a scientific rather than religious context. |
| 238 | * ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': |
| 239 | ** The episode "Tattoo" attempts to pay tribute to Native Americans, except it portrays them as backwards, languageless cavemen until they were touched by aliens who look like white people. |
| 240 | ** At the end of "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E25S4E1Scorpion Scorpion, Part 2]]", Janeway says that the ship (and by virtue, the Federation) have something the Borg could never offer -- friendship. For the next four years or so, Seven of Nine faces prejudice from her crewmates for being a Borg. The crew's behavior towards Seven makes less sense in context of the first few episodes of the series, where the Federation and Maquis crews drop their attitudes towards each other and more-or-less integrate seamlessly after Janeway gives a speech ordering them to set aside their differences. |
| 241 | ** Prejudice against Cardassians seemed to be disturbingly well-accepted by the ''Star Trek'' franchise, considering how firm it normally was against any sort of bigotry. In "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS5E8NothingHuman Nothing Human]]", B'Elanna displays racial prejudice against a holographic Cardassian physician. The Doctor objects to this racism, and the episode seems to be building toward an Aesop opposing bigotry ... until it is revealed that the Cardassian doctor, Crell Moset, is actually a war criminal. The episode then turns into a debate on medical ethics, and the racism issue is all but forgotten. In fact, the remainder of the episode seemed to take the view that the prejudiced characters had been right all along. B'Elanna acts like the discovery of Moset's war crimes vindicates her earlier hostility toward him. When she says that she had "a bad feeling" about the Cardassian as soon as she saw him, nobody calls her out on the fact that her "bad feeling" was the product of nothing more than her own racial prejudice. |
| 242 | ** The two recurring themes in "Flesh and Blood" are that people should take responsibility for their actions, and whether an artificially-intelligent hologram has the same rights as a person or is JustAMachine. However to [[EasilyForgiven let the Doctor off the hook]] Janeway declares that he's not responsible for his actions. Which would certainly be the case if the Doctor were JustAMachine, but [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatResponsibility not if he has the right to exercise his free will]]. |
| 243 | ** "Repentance" is about the moral dilemma when the ship rescues a ship of prisoners on death row. The warden is abusive and closed-minded, and one of the prisoners reveals that he's part of a minority who are [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything disproportionately found guilty and sentenced to death]]. The statistics he quotes are confirmed by the government itself. But he turns out to be a liar and manipulator who ''did'' commit murder after all, which handily kneecaps the whole allegory to how black people are treated in the American justice system. |
| 244 | ** "Leap of Faith" supposedly has the Aesop of how faith is more important than science, but it's broken for three reasons: Firstly, ''Star Trek'' in-general is very pro-science and many episodes of all the series involve characters saving the day with the scientific method, secondly the EMH explains that the supposedly-magical goings-on in the episode ''did'' have a scientific explanation after all, and thirdly the notion the episode gives off that science and faith are mutually exclusive is disproved by several characters in various ''Star Trek'' series, including Worf (who's dedicated to the Klingon religion but doesn't reject science), Kira (a very devout Bajoran who ''works in her space station's control room'' and whose best friend is the science officer) and ''Voyager'''s own Chakotay (who's very spiritual but rejects his parents' Amish-like lifestyle, having a great regard for technology). |
| 245 | * ''Series/StepByStep'' has an episode where J.T. takes a part time job as a shampoo boy for Carol's salon after he fails spectacularly at working at his dad's construction site. This upsets Frank because "there are some things men shouldn't do" and Carol calls him out for having a sexist attitude, but when he tells J.T. he's okay with him being a shampoo boy, J.T. tells him he's only doing it so he can touch girls without getting in trouble and Frank is visibly relieved to hear that, despite an effeminate line of work, he's straight. Frank then goes and hires his tomboy daughter to take J.T.'s spot on the construction company and has no problems at all, so rather than "gender roles shouldn't matter in the workplace", we get "girls can do masculine work if they want, but a boy doing feminine work is weird and wrong unless he can prove he's heterosexual." |
| 246 | * ''Series/StrangerThings'': A key theme of the series is the importance of accepting people who are marginalized or seen as different. However, the flashbacks to Henry Creel's childhood use a number of neurodivergent tropes to portray him as a CreepyChild, showing him as being unusually quiet and socially awkward, and describing him as a "sensitive" child who was rejected by other kids, and in his case it's not meant to make him sympathetic but to code him as TheSociopath. It would actually have fit better with the show's theme if Henry had been portrayed as an unnaturally normal, outgoing child, and it would have made his reveal as a villain more shocking. |
| 247 | * ''Series/StrongMedicine'': |
| 248 | ** Lu Delgado is constantly ranting and raving about the evils of rich people and acting holier-than-thou because she isn't. However, she's horrified when her son's girlfriend (whom she's been incredibly nasty to, despite the girl being nice and polite) insinuates that Lu dislikes her for being ''white'' (Lu is Hispanic), and distressed that her son thinks she's racist. So, automatically disliking and judging people because of their race is wrong (which it is, of course), but automatically disliking and judging people because they have money is perfectly fine? |
| 249 | ** Also another fine example of Lu's dislike of wealthy people was in another episode where two couples (one being working class and the other one being, you guessed it, wealthy) are trying to adopt the same baby girl. Well, Lu wanted the working class couple to get the baby, so she told both couples that the girl had some incurable disease (which she didn't; Lu was just trying to trick the wealthy couple into forfeiting the process of adopting a "sick" baby.) After this revelation to both couples, the wealthy couple said to Lu that they would love the child no matter what (and ended up with the child) while the working class couple, upon learning the other couple were now the girl's parents, were relieved that they didn't get the baby, seeing how they felt that they couldn't handle a sick child. |
| 250 | ** Or when she acts downright outraged when Dr. Dylan West joins the staff, saying that he knows nothing about women's health. This is someone who has likely dealt with considerable prejudice given her race and gender, yet is ready to dismiss West simply because he's a man. |
| 251 | * On the Nevada Day episode of ''Series/Studio60OnTheSunsetStrip'', The writers clearly tried to get across a message about how not everyone in small towns is an unreasonable, stuck in the dark ages bible bashing gun-nut (To the point where John Goodman's character actually says something to that effect). Its a nice if glaringly obvious aesop that gets broken because the Judge was giving them every reason to believe that he really was as bad as they thought he was. When he comes into the sheriff's office, He puts a holstered gun on the table,refers to nearby Chinese people as "Japs", refuses to listen to any legal arguments from the attorney and threatens to have him shot if he keeps talking (I.e, actually trying to defend his client) and claims to have never heard of the station they work for. He then has a good laugh at their expense and chastises them in a manner clearly directed at audience members who had made their mind up. Its like calling someone a racist name and chastising them for assuming you're racist. The judge even tells Tom that he doesn't like his show in a manner that basically says "I don't like what you do for a living so I'm not going to be fair or do my job right". The only thing that saves Tom is having a brother in the army and we never get a sense that the judge would have been fair or lenient otherwise. It also doesn't help that the show has previously shown Tom's parents from the Mid West as so hopelessly out of touch with pop culture that they've never heard of Abbot & Costello despite presumable growing up in the 1950's. |
| 252 | [[/folder]] |
| 253 | |
| 254 | [[folder:T]] |
| 255 | * ''Series/That70sShow'': The Season 4 finale "Love, Wisconsin Style" focuses primarily on {{jerkass}} Casey Kelso breaking up with Donna. Donna then attempted to get back together with Eric, but Eric rejected her because he felt like her "backup". Red and Kitty then proceed to ridicule Eric for "being so stupid" for not taking her back. Where to begin? For one, the previous episode, "Everybody Loves Casey", focused on the fact that Casey was a known jerkass (in which his younger brother even concurred), and Eric tried to warn Donna that she could be hurt. Donna, of course, shrugged it off. When the inevitable happened, Donna was broken down and crying from the heartbreak, and almost immediately asked Eric if they could get back together. So why should Red and Kitty ridicule Eric for rejecting her? She was clearly shaken, and not thinking straight. And she clearly came back to her "safe, good boy" Eric after her "cool bad boy" boyfriend Casey left her in the dust. Everything about how that situation played out screamed out that Eric was clearly a backup that Donna ran to when feeling lonely and shaken. The Broken Aesop additionally plays out when you consider the series' history. It's almost as if Eric was right when he said that his parents (mostly Red) don't truly respect him. Especially if they think he should be someone's backup. Perhaps they don't think he can do better? |
| 256 | * 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, dealt with an abuse of police power by committing one of his own and knowingly left a teenage boy in an abusive situation after chewing out Goody for punching the defenseless boy. |
| 257 | * ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b8mYFPlSR8&list=PLA1CF4B0F7FB2FE18 Totally Minnie]]'' is a Creator/{{Disney}} special from the [[TheEighties 80s]] about a guy that goes to a place run by Minnie Mouse that teaches people how to be [[TotallyRadical "totally hip"]] to pick up girls. She and her human assistant teach him how to dress, converse, and other things related. What's the ending message? [[BeYourself "Just be yourself."]] Huh? |
| 258 | * ''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, and even ''they'' won't necessarily punish a sadistic vampire who is useful to them, like Russell not giving two shits about investigator Franklin kidnapping and raping Tara. Sookie is kept relatively "safe" because Bill says that she belongs to him, and Sookie agrees to go along with it. And when Season 4 reveals that vampires have been infiltrating human institutions like the Catholic Church for centuries and executing any human who develops sorcery that could pose a threat to them, it really makes you wonder who is oppressing who. The fears that humans have against vampires are thus shown to be entirely justified, not the result of ignorant prejudice. |
| 259 | * ''Series/{{Tucker}}'' has an episode where Tucker tries to exploit [=McKenna=] and Seth's relationship troubles to make his move on [=McKenna=] - but learns AnAesop about RelationshipSabotage and ends the episode facilitating their reconciliation. Except he only does so once he goes out with [=McKenna=] on what he thinks is a date, and discovers [[JustFriends she only sees him as a friend]] - getting a dose of LaserGuidedKarma when she's checking other guys out during dinner. So it seems as though he only tried to get the couple back together because he couldn't benefit from their break-up, rather than having a HeelRealization. |
| 260 | [[/folder]] |
| 261 | |
| 262 | [[folder:U]] |
| 263 | * In one episode of ''Series/UnbreakableKimmySchmidt'', Jacqueline puts Buckley on a new medication, Dyziplen, which makes him quiet, emotionless, and obedient. By the end of the episode, Jaqueline learns that medication is no substitute for parenting and never gives it to him again. Except the episode repeatedly demonstrates that Buckley is [[EnfantTerrible far more destructive and violent than most children his age]], and previous episodes even imply that he is [[TheSociopath a psychopath in the making.]] So while Dyziplen is wrong for Buckley, the idea of medicating him is not. Downplayed, if not subverted, later on, when CharacterizationMarchesOn and Buckley's later appearances paint him as fairly normal kid. |
| 264 | * The main aesop of ''Series/UndercoverBoss'' is that apparently the actual bosses of the companies are a BenevolentBoss. OnceAnEpisode, someone with a sad story gets the attention of the boss and gets a promotion or a cash bonus so their work for the company is rewarded. This is underminded ''heavily'' by companies featured, who have not ''once'' brought up the idea of actually investing their millions in profit towards employee compensation, since that's always the root of their problems. |
| 265 | ** This is most notable with the sporting goods store. The CEO finds an employee who works full time and has been at the location for three years... yet still lives in a homeless shelter. He then rewards her by giving her a promotion and a large raise. What's ''not'' seen, however, is that woman's replacement will ''not'' receive any more in compensation than she has - meaning it's ''entirely possible'' that he ends up employing another person who is homeless. |
| 266 | [[/folder]] |
| 267 | |
| 268 | [[folder:V]] |
| 269 | * ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'' seems to be making a powerful statement about how unhealthy Stefan and Damon's relationship is, and how bad codependent relationships are in general this season. Everyone keeps telling Damon that Stefan is always suffering due to his selfish behavior. While that is true, [[spoiler: the problem is that Stefan seems to be the one causing his own problems. First off, his blood feud with Julian, which he kept on pushing with Valerie's help, resulted in his mother's death and Damon being trapped in the phoenix stone. Then, when Damon had a nervous breakdown, he was willing to help, to stop when Damon revealed that he thought he had killed Elena (Enzo led him to believe that). Most recently, Stefan willingly went to Damon for help with Rayna, the vampire hunter, only to complain and fear that Damon would let him down. But, the reason he went to Damon in the first place was because Rayna was released by MATT, who is very angry with Stefan for something that happened during the three years that Damon was asleep that resulted in Matt's girlfriend's death. Maybe the moral is intended to be that "there are just some people you need to let go of", but it's coming off more like "if you have a problem, find an emotional punching bag and blame all of your troubles on that person instead."]] |
| 270 | [[/folder]] |
| 271 | |
| 272 | [[folder:W]] |
| 273 | * ''Series/TheWestWing'': The Season 4 premiere two-parter "[[Recap/TheWestWingS04E01TwentyHoursInAmericaPartOne 24 Hours in America]]" ends with Donna eloquently scolding Toby and Josh for politicizing everything, telling them that, in all the time they were traveling from Indiana to D.C., no one brought up the Bartlet vs. Ritchie election except them. It's a nice speech, but it's not true: at several points along the way, when Toby or Josh merely mentions working for Bartlet, whoever they were talking to would immediately shoot back a surly, "Didn't vote for him the first time, don't plan to the second time." |
| 274 | * ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'': |
| 275 | ** Alex never learns to handle life without using magic to get her way. However - ''she is learning''... |
| 276 | ** The Season 3 episode "Moving On" is all about how Justin needs to move on and be open to new relationships after his girlfriend (a vampire) gets scratched by a werewolf (Alex's boyfriend) and RapidAging sets in, causing her to run into the woods to hide. Near the end of "Wizards Vs. Everything", guess who comes back, returned to her teenage form and ready to date Justin again? |
| 277 | [[/folder]] |
| 278 | |
| 279 | [[folder:X]] |
| 280 | * ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'': |
| 281 | ** In the Season 2 episode "Here She Comes, Miss Amphipolis", Xena has to go undercover in a beauty pageant, and finds that one of the other contestants has only entered because she wants to get a winter's supply of food for her village. At the end of the episode (along with the other girls), she quits, stating that winning the competition isn't worth losing her pride and dignity. First of all (according to her), she's already lost it, so she may as well have hung in there and gotten a winter's supply of food to go with it. Secondly, endangering the lives of hungry children over the winter isn't a particularly good reason to quit a competition for the sake of one's dignity. Thirdly, it doesn't seem to occur to her that she had her pride and dignity ''all along'' considering she only entered the pageant in the first place for the sake of others. For an episode that was meant to demonstrate that beauty pageant contestants aren't just pretty faces, they really missed the boat with this one. It gets [[CluelessAesop slightly more off-key]], since most beauty pageants aren't held for charity, and when they are, the charitable donations don't go ''to the winner''. |
| 282 | ** The "Twilight of the Gods" story arc from the fifth season is one long broken Aesop. The gods of Olympus are said to be oppressive tyrants who torment humanity, persecute worshippers of other gods, want to kill Xena's child and viewers are told repeatedly all mankind needs is love. The Aesop is broken since the gods are not oppressive tyrants. They generally leave humanity alone with most human problems being each other and only a few gods being jerks. [[spoiler: Ironically, the three gods perhaps depicted as the biggest Jerkasses in the whole Hercules/Xena series - Hera, Aphrodite and Ares - all end up helping Xena in this arc.]] Until this arc, they did not persecute the followers of other gods. They only wanted to kill Xena's child because it was prophesied to be their doom and from their perspective the child would go to Elysium. Xena is willing to sacrifice anyone and everyone to save her child. And worst of all, the Olympian gods are being replaced by the One God who preaches love and nonviolence, but in the series itself has Xena violently wipe away all of the Olympians because it cannot stand other gods, and its dictates in many ways come off as more oppressive than the Olympians with everything being BlackAndWhiteMorality and being thrown into {{Hell}} which is stated to be worse than Tartarus if you do not measure up. |
| 283 | [[/folder]] |
| 284 | |
| 285 | [[folder:Z]] |
| 286 | * One episode of ''Series/{{Zoey 101}}'' involved Zoey and Logan starting a web segment that quickly became popular in school. However, the dean bans them from doing it, so they fight back and win, the moral being "censorship is bad". Which would be fine, except for the fact that the show was causing full-scale riots in the halls during school hours. That kind of response ''is'' a valid reason to ban something. |
| 287 | [[/folder]] |
| 288 |
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