Line #68 DeconstructedTrope/LiveActionTV


1	* ''Series/DegrassiTheNextGeneration''
2	** The character [[ArmouredClosetGay Riley]] is a deconstruction of the gay gym bunny gay trope. Usually played for laughs on other TV shows, it's implied that Riley's masculine posturing and steroid use are attempts to compensate for his sexuality.
3	** The belief that all people need to be comforted until fully healed is deconstructed at its fullest [[spoiler: after Cam's suicide]] through Eli and Clare. Having [[spoiler:discovered Cam's dead body]], Eli was clearly distraught and afraid, but such a thing is normal. Clare knows that she must be there for Eli, and attempts to help him as much as possible with his grieving. The thing is, every time they meet up, she brings up [[spoiler:Cam's suicide]], constantly reminding Eli of the event and keeping him from moving on. As a result, he begins to distance himself from her and [[spoiler: experiments with MDMA]], until ending their relationship for the second time.
4	* The reimagined ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica\|2003}}'' series deconstructs the maverick pilot trope with Starbuck. Ron Moore played the trope straight, even admitting using it slightly unrealistically by having Starbuck be as good a sharpshooter out of the cockpit as in the cockpit too. Yet they showed exactly how messed up and driven by demons that person would have to be to be that skilled and yet that much of a loose cannon. And of course, the consequences in military and personal terms for those actions aren't glossed over either.
5	* ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'':
6	** The series makes it a point to show just how badly a teenager would be affected by BecauseDestinySaysSo and being forced to constantly move around the country, and the only people he can trust are his mother and a [[EmotionlessGirl very scary]] RobotGirl.
7	** The whole "robot learning to act human" plot portrayed as adorable in the movies is seen as frightening and unnatural in the series.
8	** John Connor himself is a {{Deconstruction}} of the FutureBadass, in that he's always known he's going to become one. The series pulls no punches with putting him through the traumas and harsh life lessons that would turn somebody into one. He's also frequently seen asking characters from the future (who are often disappointed and frustrated that he's still just a kid) what his future self would do in a given situation.
9	** "Self-Made Man" asks [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} wouldn't it be great]] [[BrutalHonesty if Cameron]] [[NoSocialSkills was your friend]]. In the end, she drove away the only friend she had but that's okay, he has a replacement whom she can exploit.
10	* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' is partially based on this, taking tropes related to monsters from myths and legends ([[MonsterOfTheWeek of the week]]) and deconstructing the hell out of them. Call it 75% [[OurMonstersAreDifferent establishing a unique universe]] and 25% this trope.
11	** Season 2 deconstructs ReallyGetsAround with Dean. The only reason why he's this way is that his lifestyle doesn't allow for stable long-term relationships.
12	** It also began examining just how ''incredibly'' screwed up a person would have to be to lead the lifestyle hunters do. Although it never sacrifices its premise of being a fun show about two guys with a cool car hunting monsters, it gets very serious and thus very dark on these occasions.
13	** The notion of the HeroicSacrifice is deconstructed with Dean's "DealWithTheDevil" storyline. He knows it was selfish and only did it because he should have stayed dead, feels like he's fucked up so much that he deserves eternal torture, and he can't be without his brother because John told him to look after Sam at all costs. For his part, Sam thinks it was self-righteous, hypocritical, suicidal, and extremely selfish. As for the others - Bobby ''finally'' realizes how broken Dean was and how much he hates himself, both the Crossroad Demons call it needy and Azazel knows it was self-destructive, pathetic, and self-loathing. So Heroic Sacrifices? Not so noble after all - more like selfish, pathetic, destructive and so very suicidal.
14	** One episode deconstructs the idea of standing up to a bully. As a kid, Sam beat up a bully named Dirk and saddled him with an unflattering nickname, "Dirk the Jerk". This ruins Dirk's reputation and his life spiraled out of control as he grew up until he died of a drug overdose. Since the Winchesters moved around a lot, Sam left before he could witness any of the fallout. It's only years later that Sam found out Dirk himself was also being bullied in school and his own bullying was his way of lashing out.
15	** "Wishful Thinking" deconstructs a SatelliteLoveInterest in an example of a guy who made the wish that his high school crush would love him over anything else. At first, he is happy with this new situation but eventually, he becomes disheartened by the fact she literally has no other personality other than pleasing and loving him, even resorting to murder for him to maintain their "love".
16	* The British Superhero comedy-drama, ''Series/{{Misfits}}'', is a deconstruction of the Superhero franchise. Getting powers that reflect one's personality isn't always a good thing. The main characters are all foul-mouthed, drug-taking delinquents, and yet ''they're'' the good guys. It's the girl who spreads the knowledge of virtue, the probation workers who keep the kids in line, the church pastor, and the woman in a coma who are the evil ones. And when you think about it, that actually makes a lot of sense. Out of all the five original main characters, only one of them ever came up with the idea of using their powers to help people, and it's TheQuietOne who's usually picked on. That's rare. To this day, none of the characters have become intentional superheroes. The superpowers in this show are also not what one would expect. The girl who you think would get super strength instead gets the power to read minds, and the guy who you think would have either the best or worst power gets the power of immortality, which of course, only works for him and otherwise isn't truly useful. Not to mention the fact that some of these supers include a girl who can make people automatically want to have sex with her through skin contact (and can never turn this ability off), a girl who can give cheating or distrustful men [=STDs=], a man who can turn into a woman, and a trans man who can take male genitalia. You don't get stuff like this on the [[Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica Justice League]] or the ComicBook/TheAvengers.
17	* ''Series/FoylesWar'' deconstructs the myth of wartime Britain being a place where everyone pulled together to make a stand and fight the common foe; in the early years especially, there's an awful lot of defeatism, cynicism and would-be collaboration afoot, and there's more than a few people who are willing to cynically exploit the confusion, desperation and uncertainty produced by the war to venally line their own pockets. Furthermore, the British government is willing to do whatever it takes and make deals with whomever they need to win the war, resulting in an awful lot of {{Karma Houdini}}s in [=DCS=] Foyle's investigations.
18	* ''Series/{{Angel}}'':
19	** Jasmine's beautiful, her mother is in a coma, and from her first appearance, she completely [[SpotlightStealingSquad steals the spotlight]] from the main cast, who are instantly trying to help her accomplish her goals, while constantly talking about how wonderful she is. (Because they're {{Brainwashed}}!)
20	** TheBigGuy. Charles Gunn resents being thought of as little more than "the muscle," and so make a (basically literal) DealWithTheDevil to gain intricate knowledge of the law, human and demon alike. To maintain this new skill, Gunn makes a second deal that [[spoiler:ends up killing someone he loved]]. He doesn't even realize that his upgrade has actually made him TheBigGuy version of a lawyer.
21	** Illyria deconstructs the ReplacementGoldfish. [[spoiler: As she inhabits Fred's body, effectively killing her, she's a living reminder of the Fred they used to know. Wesley, Fred's boyfriend, is stricken with grief over the loss and keeps Illyria around partially because she looks like Fred. It's eerily paralleled to LovingAShadow and, although Illyria offers to pretend to be Fred, Wesley can't accept this]].
22	* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
23	** Season 6 episode "Dead Things" consciously deconstructs the trope of MindControl by following it through to its unsettling conclusions. Led by [[StalkerWithACrush Warren]], the geeky Trio use a device to hypnotize Warren's ex-girlfriend into doing their bidding, even having her dressed up in a French maid's outfit. Jonathan and Andrew even giggle childishly about how cool the situation is ... until Warren takes his ex into another room and orders her to give him oral sex. She comes out of the trance, is utterly [[{{Squick}} squicked]] by what the Trio are doing and points out that it's ''rape''. [[spoiler: She is then killed by Warren in her attempt to escape the basement,]] and the Trio are sobered out of ever using their MindControl device again.
24	** Buffy's whole arc that season can be considered a deconstruction of BackFromTheDead, and why it can be a ''bad'' idea. She was so miserable that season because of the contrast between heaven and earth, her life doesn't seem to matter without death, and the world pretty much completely overwhelmed her. How [[DeusAngstMachina crappy her life was]] that year doesn't help either.
25	** The same season also deconstructs the relationship [[DestructiveRomance by showing what would happen]] if a heroine and villain surrendered to their attraction to each other, with the [[SexIsViolence combat-as-sex metaphor]] becoming rough sex devoid of any tenderness, and their mutual ValuesDissonance culminating in [[spoiler:Spike's AttemptedRape of Buffy.]]
26	** And, of course, Buffy deconstructed such amounts of gravity even more blatantly than the ''Angel'' example above in "Superstar," in which Jonathan, having cast a spell on himself, becomes one not only overshadowing Buffy as one of the Scoobies but apparently the entire world, retconning himself into a famous basketball player (despite being shorter than Buffy), the star of ''The Matrix,'' and a strategic genius to whom even the most classified of military operations defer.
27	** Buffy's status as TheChosenOne increasingly made her emotionally distant towards her family and friends.
28	** The final few episodes of Season 7 show a deconstruction of AsskickingLeadsToLeadership; after losing faith in Buffy's leadership skills and methods, the Scoobies mutiny against her, force her out of her own house, and appoint Faith the new leader on the logic that, as the only other full-fledged Slayer, Faith is the most qualified for the job, despite Giles and Willow both having far more leadership experience than her. While things initially go well, Faith soon leads herself and several Potential Slayers into a DeathTrap, and they are only saved by Buffy's BigDamnHeroes moment. The survivors even consider the whole ordeal as LaserGuidedKarma for turning against Buffy.
29	* ''Series/TheLeagueOfGentlemen'' has deconstructed both the FagHag and [[HaveYouTriedNotBeingAMonster the equating of gay people with vampires]]. One of the League members is gay.
30	* The characters Han Won Soo and Mo Ji Ran from the KoreanDrama ''First Wives Club'' deconstructs the typical portrayal of the VictoriousChildhoodFriend. In order to be together, the childhood sweethearts cheated on their respective marital partners, with Ji Ran abandoning her family, and Won Soo [[DomesticAbuse beating up]] his wife when she doesn't want to sign their divorce papers.
31	* In ''Series/{{Flashpoint}}'':
32	** Parker and his team generally try to avoid WhyDontYaJustShootHim, even when they get a clear shot of the hostage taker. Because they want to ensure that casualties are minimal to none, which includes the life of the hostage-taker, only using lethal force as a last resort. Not to mention the show deconstructs the general idea that all hostage-takers are crazy, unbalanced criminals. The viewers get a chance to see what lead to the events, which are often because of misunderstandings or an emotional crisis. More than once, the hostage-takers never intended for things to spiral out of their control, which causes them to panic and things get messy, both for them and for the team.
33	*** Also deconstructed in "Broken Peace" where Ed is forced to shoot a teenaged girl instead of letting her shoot her abusive father who had taken her mother hostage. The team argued and agonized over what they could have done to prevent this. They had not known the girl had a hidden gun and that the girl insisted on seeing her father, even running directly into the line of fire. They could not shoot to wound as the girl was an active shooter and would have continued to fire at the hostage taker, who was not an immediate danger and not firing (the girl had ''already'' fired two shots and was going for a third). If they did let the girl shoot her father, they would have been in complete violation of SRU protocols, which is for dealing with immediate threats to life of ''any'' kind. Ed himself pointed out there are rules because otherwise nothing is consistent and they are interpreting the law instead of enforcing it. Regardless, Raf leaves the team because of it and Ed suffers severe PTSD after the event.
34	** BabiesMakeEverythingBetter is taken apart in "Backwards Day" where the frustrations of not having a baby caused the husband to cheat on his wife with an old flame, though he genuinely felt guilty afterwards and remained faithful afterwards. His adultery lead to [[spoiler: the old flame becoming pregnant]]. [[FromBadToWorse Things got worse]].
35	*** The same trope is deconstructed with [[spoiler: Sam and Jules]] after the first day of finding out [[spoiler: Jules]] was pregnant. They initially decided that everything was fine and no one needed to know. But throughout the episode, both of them were quietly having minor freakouts, such as calling each other to check up on the baby and panicking when one of them was put in a dangerous situation.
36	* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'':
37	** It deconstructs RunawayBride and how badly it affected Ted, who was trying to make everyone happy and especially the bride. He was left with serious emotional baggage that affected future relationships, which is not helped at all when that story is depicted in the [[ShowWithinAShow fictional movie]] ''JustForFun/TheWeddingBride'' that plays him as a more traditional jerk who doesn't deserve the girl he is marrying.
38	-->'''Ted:''' [regarding the film] I mean, the guy's life was shattered in a very public humiliation. What a hoot! It may be years before he can look certain family members in the eye again. He may be so emotionally traumatized, he never fully loves or trusts anyone ever again. It was hysterical!
39	** In the seventh season, Victoria (Ted's first season girlfriend whom he reunites with) points out that because they are such a close knit group of friends, with Ted in the center, it has become near impossible for Ted to find someone who can enter that bubble. This is further shown as AmicableExes is deconstructed through the relationship of Ted and Barney with Robin after they had broke up on good terms. Ted's relationships fail because he is still thinking things might work out with Robin in the future. Likewise with Barney, this cost him greatly when [[spoiler: he slept with Robin while dating Nora.]]
40	** Season 7 also deconstructs TrueCompanions. Robin's psychologist boyfriend Kevin points out that while the gang cares for each other and would do anything to help them, they are far too codependent and are somewhat dysfunctional because they rarely hang out with other people and meddle in each other's personal lives too much. Additionally, because they are such a tight knit group, it has become nearly impossible for Ted to find someone who can enter the bubble.
41	** In season 2, JourneyToFindOneself is taken apart when Lily abandons her loving fiancee and friends to go to an art course in San Francisco to open her horizons and fulfill her dreams to be an artist. But when she actually ''gets'' to San Francisco, she realizes that she's broken up the love of her life in the worst possible way and alienates her friends. She spends her time away alone and bitter, afraid that she ruined everything for herself. Lily's old life wasn't holding her back but provided love, happiness and stability.
42	* ''Series/ColdCase'' deconstructed:
43	** InWithTheInCrowd - A girl was murdered after finding out her friend had been gang raped as part of her initiation into the cheerleader squad. [[spoiler:The friend helped cover up the crime because she wanted to be popular]].
44	** SaveOurStudents - A teacher is killed by [[spoiler:another teacher who's basically a jaded, older version of her, when she tries to get him to confess to drug use to save the future of the student he forced to carry for him. The student in question feels so responsible for her death that he descends into the life of crime he would've had without her intervention, despite his obvious talent as a writer.]]
45	** RescueRomance - The one about a girl and her friend who got into a car accident and the fireman who saved her and eventually married. [[spoiler:He married her out of guilt because his carelessness during the rescue was what crippled her. The friend who was blamed for the accident found out so he had to die]].
46	** NostalgiaFilter - Exaggerated, most of the time. Those happy, halcyon days of TheFifties, TheSixties, TheSeventies...and so forth? It was a CrapsackWorld of homophobia, racism, domestic violence, sexism, [[ValuesDissonance well-meaning, but awful ideas]], child abuse...all of it just as bad as now, but no one spoke about it.
47	* ''Series/EarthFinalConflict'' gives us a rare deconstruction of EnergyBeings: the energy-based taelons ''burn'' the energy they're made of simply by existing. It turns out that they are, for all intents and purposes, an evolutionary dead-end; they can't naturally reproduce, nor do they have the knowledge to synthesize the energy they're built on, so while an individual taelon with a full life-span would live for a thousand years, they've been dying out and are down to their last generation as the total reserves of core energy dwindle to nothing.
48	* ''Series/TorchwoodChildrenOfEarth'' did this with the idea of an AlienInvasion. Instead of fighting the aliens back with {{BFG}}s and MoreDakka, Earth's leaders instead decided to heed the commands of the SufficientlyAdvancedAliens so as to safeguard humanity's survival and almost ended up committing unspeakable atrocities.
49	* Mitchell from ''Series/{{Being Human\|UK}}'' is a deconstruction of the FriendlyNeighbourhoodVampire. Blood as an addiction isn't a new metaphor, but consider how difficult it is for real people with real addiction to go a lifetime without falling off the wagon. For Mitchell, losing control means killing people, ''lots'' of people, and because he's immortal, it's inevitable that he'll fall off eventually. It happens at the end of series 2 and when his friends find out, they can't forgive Mitchell, even though he's genuinely remorseful.
50	* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'':
51	** [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E2Darmok "Darmok"]] deconstructs one of the most taken-for-granted tropes in all of Star Trek, TranslatorMicrobes, with an alien race who think and speak entirely through [[MemeticMutation cultural metaphors]]. Without understanding the context behind the words, they are no less incomprehensible after being translated.
52	** Kamala from the episode [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E21ThePerfectMate "The Perfect Mate"]] is a deconstruction of the RelationshipSue. As the title says, she is bred to be the perfect mate with whoever she's with, having no real desires or passions of her own.
53	* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' subtly picks apart the ManicPixieDreamGirl and DoggedNiceGuy with Leonard's relationship with Penny. When they get together they are very happy, but the reality was that with Leonard having to convince her to date him there was a significant inequality between them. Leonard even commented that "It's understandable we are in different places, I've been in this relationship two years longer than you." They eventually broke up because she didn't know if she could reciprocate the strong feelings he had for her, but quickly realized that she not only helped build his confidence to be more successful in the dating pool but that from dating Leonard she couldn't go back to dating the dumb guys she did before.
54	* ''Series/{{Charmed\|1998}}'' deconstructs Phoebe's SerialRomeo lifestyle by showing how the endless stream of failed relationships, both human and magical, leaves her emotionally fragile and terrified of love. She even resorts to using her premonitions to see if the relationship will go anywhere on the first date and is punished by the Elders. However they eventually delve into reconstruction when Phoebe considers getting a sperm donor and realises that she doesn't just want a baby, she really does want to be in love and a cupid gets sent to help her overcome her problems.
55	* ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'':
56	** Gabrielle deconstructs WideEyedIdealist since her unbending morals and naivete cause her to commit [[NiceJobBreakingItHero rash though well intentioned actions]].
57	** "A Day in the Life" deconstructed ImprobableWeaponUser since Xena used the frying pan to fight off bad guys, they have no way to cook their food. She also used their knife the week before so Gabrielle is forced to use the chakram to slice fish which Xena did not like.
58	** In their use of Callisto, the show deconstructed ButForMeItWasTuesday. Back in her warlord days, Xena led a raid on a village that involved an accidental fire that killed women and children. Though she felt regret, it didn't exactly keep her up at night. Years later, Callisto turns up, swearing vengeance for the deaths of her parents and sister in that raid, and confronting Xena with the fact that her past crimes have created a psychopath. It's not until this point that Xena realizes the full consequences of her actions and the fact that she's [[CreateYourOwnVillain unknowingly created her worst enemy]], a woman who doesn't want anything in life but to make Xena suffer. Xena's "Tuesday" ends up costing her dearly, both with her GuiltComplex and in all the chaos that Callisto causes.
59	** The season 4 episode "A Good Day" deconstructed TrainingThePeacefulVillagers.
60	* ''Series/{{Tosh 0}}'' deconstructed DudeNotFunny in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment. During a video breakdown Tosh makes a joke that a guy falling two feet off a roof "Flailed like Saddam at the end of a noose." The audience is shocked by this joke until Tosh responds by saying, "Is it too soon for Saddam jokes? ...Do you guys miss Saddam?"
61	* ''Series/ICarly'':
62	** It deconstructed EpicFail in the episodes "iChristmas" and "iGot A Hot Room". Spencer has an innate ability to cause things he creates or even ''touches'' to catch on fire. Normally they burst into flames and Spencer puts the fire out, like he did to a drum kit and a reception desk bell. In "iChristmas" he destroys all of their Christmas presents with his metal tree, and in "iGot A Hot Room" his lamp made of gummy bears causes Carly's room to be completely gutted by fire.
63	** "iKiss" deconstructs FelonyMisdemeanor, in which everyone in whole school makes fun of Freddie for not having had a FirstKiss after Sam reveals it on the show. These incidents end up emotionally breaking Freddie so much that he cuts off all social contact, and Carly blasts Sam for the trouble she caused, stating that it all can't be done away with a simple apology.
64	* ''Series/NewGirl'' deconstructed the TomboyAndGirlyGirl dynamic when Jess couldn't get along with Nick's lawyer girlfriend from season 1. Jess' speech in the same episode deconstructs the RealWomenDontWearDresses trope, responding to said girlfriend's mocking by saying that she is no less of a strong woman because of her girly behaviour and interests.
65	* The British mini-series ''Series/DisConnected'' deconstructs TheCasanova and ReallyGetsAround; the character of Ben fancies himself a lady-killer, but all the female characters of substance find him repulsive (resulting in a GenderFlipped version of MyGirlIsNotASlut considering they label him "a little slut" and "a man-whore"), and he only manages to get lucky with unintelligent and/or slutty girls (deemed as such by their peers).
66	* In response to Mitt Romney's claim that every business owner built their businesses themselves, Stephen Colbert on ''Series/TheColbertReport'' deconstructed the idea of the SelfMadeMan, first by firing all of his staff, then shutting down all the cameras and doing the show on his iPhone, lit by a desk lamp, and doing the word on a dry-erase board. The segment ends with him choking on the dry-erase marker's cap.
67	--> '''Colbert:''' The only accomplishments I value are ones I create entirely by myself. [[CrossesTheLineTwice That's why I'm not that crazy about my children.]]
68	* ''Series/TheFollowing'' deconstructs the idea of a ReligionOfEvil with Joe Carroll's cult of serial killers, showing it to be a self-defeating venture. An organization composed almost entirely of murderous sociopaths couldn't possibly hold itself together, as sooner or later the collective dysfunctions of its individual members will cause the whole thing to fall apart. Forget about finding some kind of common purpose; these people can barely get through a day without almost killing each other. The only thing holding them together at all is the sheer force of Joe Carroll's personality, and since he's ''also'' a murderous sociopath with his own agenda that doesn't always jibe with what his followers want, that only goes so far.
69	* ''Franchise/KamenRider'':
70	** ''Series/KamenRiderWizard'' deconstructs the old classic Kamen Rider trope of having good monsters. For a while, the Kamen Rider Franchise had quite the number of monsters who become good guys, or at least be neutral with varying degrees of good, particularly in the Heisei era, where the monsters in most cases were either human once or took the guise of a human. Kamen Rider Wizard went both ways with that, as Phantoms ''were'' human, but were just essentially an inner demon ripping apart and taking control of their human host, called Gates. However, the show wags at the audience with the idea that not all Phantoms are evil, much like the previous shows. However, every time they did, they point out just how absurd that is when the Phantom's personality almost ''counterbalances'' the Gate's personality, as the Phantom uses the memories and feelings of their Gate and uses it to their advantage. In two cases, the Phantom managed to convince their victim that there's good in them... [[MoralEventHorizon only to kick them to the ground and dash any hopes of that]]. There ''is'' a case where a Phantom believes he's still human... [[spoiler:And he ''is'', but only because he was so evil to begin with that he pretty much ''became'' a Phantom as opposed to having a Phantom rip him apart]]. It's {{Reconstruction}} with Haruto's Phantom, Dragon. Even if Dragon is a petty dick who only wants Haruto to fall to despair, he's somewhat surprised when Haruto begs him to lend some power and that he gives him hope. Eventually, he warms up to Haruto [[spoiler:and when he gets killed, revives as a being of pure hope, [[DeathEqualsRedemption ready to give Haruto all the hope he can muster]]]].
71	** ''Series/KamenRiderKuuga'' deconstructs the FinalBattle for the series. It wasn't some glorious final fight where the Kamen Rider makes one final speech, uses a spectacular weapon and defeats the great evil for good despite overwhelming odds. It was a no holds barred fist fight that Daguva wants out of Kuuga to see that he becomes exactly like him. The fact that Kuuga would become the new avatar of destruction and make humanity just like his people. Yusuke did not derive any enjoyment from the fight or the hope that Daguva's death will end everything, instead he cried throughout the entire fight.
72	** Kuuga also deconstruct the motivations of the villains, unlike Shocker and other Showa era organizations. The Gurongi have no interest in world domination despite being superior to humanity (Or what they once were in every way. The tribe murder and kill not to conquer but just because they are bored and sees humans as beings to torment. They are so disinterested in conquest that Daguva would murder his own kind to keep them from participating in the Gegeru.
73	* ''Series/Bluestone42'' deconstructs {{Flanderization}} and ButtMonkey. Simon initially starts out as a neurotic and obnoxious but somewhat normal character, and over the course of three seasons becomes increasingly manic, not helped by the breakdown of his engagement and a constant lack of personal and professional respect due to his unlikeable personality, despite his legitimately impressive military accomplishments. The final episode deconstructs this by showing what an actual human being going through that arc would be like- an already unstable man having a serious mental breakdown. He deserts from the Army and hides out in the Afghan countryside, talking to his water can, à la ''Film/{{Castaway}}''.
74	* ''Series/JonathanCreek'' has an episode that deconstructs the ConnectTheDeaths trope. Three women have been murdered, and the police are at a loss to explain how or why. However, [[TheWatson Carla]] twigs to the fact that the women were called Heather, Rose and Iris, and goes on her crime show to share this news with the viewing public, telling them that the killer is symbolically "deflowering women". As it turns out, the first two deaths were done by a psychotic woman that had no discernible motive, and the third was by a police officer who used the first murders to cover up his own crime. That the women had floral names was a complete coincidence, and as Jonathan says at the wrap-up, the fact that Carla shared her bogus theory only resulted in mass panic among women named after a flower (including a woman called Coral, at least until Jonathan assures her that coral is actually an animal).
75	* Several in ''Series/{{Community}}''.
76	** LoonyFriendsImproveYourPersonality is taken apart in ''[[Recap/CommunityS3E07StudiesInModernMovement Studies In Modern Movement]]'' where (relatively) strait-laced Annie angrily calls out Troy and Abed that she is always the one who adapts to their silly antics and it isn't fair that they never meet halfway and adapt to ''her''.
77	** ManicPixieDreamGirl and CloudCuckoolandersMinder is deconstructed in ''[[Recap/CommunityS3E12ContemporaryImpressionists Contemporary Impressionists]]''. Troy had been actively avoiding playing that role for Abed because he doesn't want to ruin Abed's fun and points out that Abed makes things more magical and fun for the rest of them. But by the end of the episode, it's seen how exhausting and irresponsible Abed can be and it puts a strain on Troy's friendship with him.
78	** Britta's thing for [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys weirdos and jerks]] is a result of a lot of self-esteem issues and self-loathing on her part from childhood experiences, leading her to throw herself into those disastrous relationships as a subconscious way of validating her self-worth. Likewise, Annie's crush on Jeff is pointed out to be unhealthy due her issues of loneliness and being a bit of a ControlFreak who finds the idea of a man completely changing his identity for her appealing.
79	** Annie's entire routine in ''[[Recap/CommunityS3E10RegionalHolidayMusic Regional Holiday Music]]'' as a BrainlessBeauty was this. She was dressed in a [[MsFanservice short-skirted outfit]] and began her song in a cutesy-dumb attitude, unlike her normally intelligent and straight-A personality. As the song continues, she dissolves into increasingly childish behavior to the point she was flopping on the ground spewing baby talk. Even Jeff (who she was trying to seduce) is incredibly turned off by this.
80	** Season 5 deconstructs SuckySchool by showing how difficult everyone's lives after graduating from Greendale became due to having such an institution like Greendale. Jeff's CrusadingLawyer plans left him broke, Britta became a bartender at a sleazy bar, Abed retreated into programming as an escape, Troy is only counting on Abed's friendship to keep him going, Annie is stuck in a dead-end job and Shirley's lack of experience of running her own business led her to use up all her money and her husband taking the kids and leaving.
81	* Ryan's father in ''Series/{{Wilfred}}'' is a deconstruction of the ArchnemesisDad. Ryan and his mother spoke of him as if he was the devil himself, whose scheming and obsession with control alienated then both. When he finally appears, he is... just a man. [[ParentsAsPeople A deeply flawed man]] who never understood why everything he did to do right by his family kept blowing up in his face.
82	* ''Series/{{Friends}}'' deconstructs CrazyJealousGuy through Ross and Chandler. Ross's irrational jealousy leads to his and Rachel's breakup. When Chandler becomes jealous of Kathy's co-star, it eventually drives her to sleep with said co-star.
83	** One episode deconstructs ImprobableFoodBudget by showing that Joey (a frequently unemployed actor), Rachel (a waitress) and Phoebe (a freelance masseuse) are struggling to keep up with the expensive meals and plans that Ross (a paleontologist), Chandler (a corporate data analyst), and Monica (a sous chef at a high class restaurant) come up with since they don't earn as much money.
84	* ''Series/{{Nikita}}'' deconstructed TragicKeepsake. Alex kept getting into trouble because her late father's watch gets recognized by her enemies. Later it gets planted with a tracking device but she can't bear to have it destroyed because it's all she has left of her father.
85	* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
86	** The show deconstructs the InvincibleVillain with Ramsay Snow. After five seasons of achieving all sorts of victories, it all falls apart for him near the end of Season 6. His winning streak causes his ego to grow massively and he comes to truly believe he's unstoppable, causing him to make several stupid decisions and [[SanitySlippage he can't understand that he's losing until it's far too late]]. [[spoiler:Even after losing his entire army, Winterfell, getting his face bashed in by the vengeful Jon Snow, and being locked up in a cell and tied up in a chair at Sansa's mercy, he's ''still'' deluded enough to think he can find a way to win. [[OhCrap The reality of his loss and impending death only sinks in the moment his own starving hounds' fangs sink into his flesh.]]]]
87	** Tywin will go down as one of the great conquerors; a FourStarBadass in wartime and a ReasonableAuthorityFigure in peace. It doesn't make him a nice person or mean that extremely PragmaticVillainy has a long shelf-life if you neglect the grassroots in the form of Tyrion, Cersei and Jaime.
88	* ''Series/LastManStanding'' deconstructs the JackieRobinsonStory[=/=]YouGoGirl tropes. Eve is asked by her high school's football coach to become the team's kicker after he sees her kicking skills at a contest. After she does well in a few games, everyone keeps praising her for being the only girl in the league and tells her how inspirational it is for women everywhere. On the other hand, Eve hates being singled out by the press and would rather have people not make a big deal of it and treat her just like the other players. Eventually the pressure of representing women gets to her and her performance suffers as a result. It's also worth mentioning that there is never any mention of her teammates being sexist towards her and that she joined the team because she thought it'd be fun, not to show people she's just as good as the boys.
89	* ''Series/OnceUponATime'' has made a habit out of deconstructing IDidWhatIHadToDo and highlighting that the phrase doesn't excuse one from the consequences of their actions:
90	** The main plot has Snow White and the prince sending their newborn daughter through a portal to another world, to help her escape the Dark Curse. While she grows up into The Saviour and breaks the curse, she still has huge amounts of resentment from having to grow up without parents. And she points out that if they hadn't done "what they had to do", she would have at least grown up happily. It's three seasons before she properly comes to terms with these issues.
91	** Snow White uses a pragmatic choice to [[spoiler: trick Regina into murdering Cora, which provides a double whammy of saving Rumpelstiltskin from the curse Cora had used]]. Although this is the best possible option, Snow instead suffers MyGodWhatHaveIDone - because she pretty much [[spoiler: manipulated Regina into killing her own mother]]. Snow later refutes the saying, claiming she didn't ''have'' to do it. She did it because it was ''easy''. It's also strongly implied she was motivated by revenge over what Cora did to her.
92	** Rumpelstiltskin's master plan involved casting the Dark Curse so he could be reunited with his son. The show never hesitates to point out that he ruined hundreds of lives for his own desires. [[spoiler: When he's reunited with his son, the son is disgusted at what he did]].
93	** Geppetto sent his son Pinocchio through a second portal in order to save him from possibly turning back to wood as the Dark Curse was cast. In this case doing what he 'has to do' is separating a mother from her child (as Snow could have used the second portal to go with Emma). [[spoiler: In fact, when Geppetto confessed the truth about the second portal in "Selfless, Brave, and True", Snow is '''''extremely pissed off''''' and punches him in the face for betraying her trust and depriving her of a chance to care for her daughter]]. And in this case it acts as a StartOfDarkness for Pinocchio, since his father is still abandoning a young boy to fend for himself.
94	** TheChosenOne is massively deconstructed in the sixth season. [[spoiler: Rumple was revealed to have the previous Savior. So, how did Emma end up taking over? Well, when Rumple was born, his parents were told of his destiny by Tiger Lily. However, Rumple's mother read up on the rest of the prophecy and learned that he may die in the Final Battle. So, she and Tiger Lily went on a search for the enemy that he was supposed to fight. However, her extreme measures in wanting to protect him resulted in a) her becoming the enemy that he was supposed to fight; and b) her using magic to ruin his destiny. She was then banished and became the Black Fairy, while Rumple was raised by his father who blamed him for her fate and eventually became Peter Pan.]]
95	* ''Series/DowntonAbbey'' deconstucts TheGloriousWarOfSisterlyRivalry, by showing us just how nasty it can get if the parents do nothing to stop it. Being the popular and beautiful sister, Mary believes that she is superior to HollywoodHomely Edith in every way. And she can see no other purpose for Edith ''existing'' than that she can use her as her personal punching bag to make herself feel better. And it becomes very clear [[TheUnfavorite that Edith also is their mother's least favorite daughter]], so she can get no sympathy from her either. The father is a bit better, but he too dotes on Mary ([[TheDutifulSon who is the oldest daughter, who will do everything to keep the family estate running]]) and has little time for the unlucky middle child Edith. What should have only been a teenage grudge between the two sisters turns into a poisonous relationship, that will not change for the better until they have both reached their 30s.
96	* ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' deconstructs TheReasonYouSuckSpeech in the episode "The Six Thatchers". Sherlock and the others catch the bad guy, and he tears into her... only for her to pull out a gun and [[spoiler:Mary]] TakingTheBullet and dying. In short, these types of speeches are reliant on the other person just standing there and taking it as opposed to reacting violently.
97	** Both ''Sherlock'' and ''Series/{{Elementary}}'' end up deconstructing Sherlock's drug issues, due to ValuesDissonance. In the former, it comes up regularly, and never in a lighthearted way. In the latter, Sherlock is a recovering drug addict, and takes his issues ''absolutely seriously''. It uses its longer runtime to examine what kind of personal sacrifices one would have to make to be ''that'' good of a detective, and regularly shows Sherlock and Joan practicing esoteric skills, or spending hours doing research. He can also "outsource" certain esoteric types of work to his Irregulars, which allows him more of a social life.
98	* ''Series/{{Motive}}'' deconstructed MyGreatestSecondChance in an early episode. An emotionally abusive woman wants to gain custody of her granddaughter in order to have another shot at motherhood, rather than make any sort of amends with her estranged son. The child's mother calls her out on her selfishness and NeverMyFault tendencies, and ends up killing her to keep the child out of her hands.
99	* ''Series/NCISLosAngeles'' brutally deconstructed ActionGirl in the eighth season, in terms of how it is seen as one's identity. During a mission, Kensi was badly injured and was put into a coma. When she finally awoke, she learned that she was crippled on one side of her body. She took up rehab therapy in the angriest way possible, lashing out at Deeks and her doctors nearly every chance she had. Meanwhile, she had to resentfully watch as her team temporarily moved on without her, as her replacements (Anna and Nell) proved to be more than up to the task. This led to a fantasy she had where she bested the two of them in a fight during a Christmas party, only to be greeted with cheers and hopes for her return in reality. Everyone stayed supportive of Kensi and wanted her to come back, whereas she was very afraid that she wouldn't recover in time and could be replaced very easily.
100	* The ''[[Series/TheLoneGunmen Lone Gunmen]]'' episode "Like Water for Octane" deconstructed the ConsumerConspiracy, specifically "free energy" conspiracy theories claiming that cheap alternative energy sources are being suppressed by the oil companies in order to protect their profits. The plot revolves around the search for a man who allegedly built [[PerpetualMotionMachine a car powered by water]] that the protagonists believe was destroyed at the orders of Big Oil, only for the twist to be that the car's inventor destroyed it himself. Having built it in order to save the world from pollution, he realized that freeing the world from its reliance on fossil fuels would merely kick its consumption of ''other'' resources into overdrive, leading to a new age of resource exploitation, suburban sprawl, and environmental destruction. The shadowy figures looking for the car didn't want to destroy it, they wanted to put it into mass production in order to save the economy (and their own wealth) from the looming threat of [[PostPeakOil peak oil]]. In real life, somebody who came up with an innovation like that would be a billionaire, and the most powerful people in society would kill (in this case, literally) to take credit for it.
101	* ''Series/{{Cristela}}'' deconstructed DeadpanSnarker a few years back. In one episode, her niece was accused of bullying, and the whole family was evaluating each others' behaviour to see which one of them was being a bad influence on her. Toward the end of the episode, Cristela had an argument with a friend, during which she asked him why he didn't tell her something. When he responds by saying that she would have just made fun of him, [[HeelRealization she realizes that she is actually capable of hurting others with her wisecracks.]] She then explains to her niece that she just defaults to snarking as a defense mechanism in uncomfortable situations and has done so since childhood, but that isn't a good way to behave in general.
102	* ''Series/TheWire'' being a deconstruction of police procedural drama goes on the deep end of cynicism when dealing with the issues throughout the series.
103	** AFatherToHisMen:
104	*** In Season 2, Frank Sobotka is a popular well-meaning union president a the local docks. In the hopes of reviving the shipping industry in Baltimore leads him to aligning himself with international criminals for money needed to finance his ambitions as well as neglecting his son Ziggy. Ultimately [[spoiler: he gets himself killed]] before he can testify against said criminals and his neglected son snaps under constantly being treated as a joke and [[spoiler: kills a man]] who screwed him over.
105	*** In Season 3, Major Howard “Bunny” Colvin decides to enable drug dealing to flourish in a certain area to better combat the drug trade overall under the condition that nobody is killed in said area. As a result crime is lowered the quality of life among the working and impoverished citizens does improve. When his experiment is exposed, his superior officers Rawls and Burrell blackmail him into retirement at a lowered rank. He’s forced to take the retirement with a downgraded pension when they threaten the careers of the officers under his command.
106	** BeneathNotice: Marlo is introduced as a middle player in the drug trade in season 3. He is not given much attention aside from a murder charge which he beat when the principal witness turns up dead. [[spoiler: After the Barksdale Organization]] is taken down the Major Crimes Unit goes after politicians and others prominent figures throughout the city for corruptions and bribery. Meanwhile no murders have popped up in West Baltimore where Marlo reigns supreme, that is [[spoiler: until the twenty plus bodies in the vacant row houses turn up]]
107	** ButtMonkey: Ziggy the aforementioned son of Frank is constantly treated like a joke by his peers and colleagues at the docks due to the stupid antics he pulls as well a never being held accountable at his job due to the union president being his father. After successfully pulling of a scam, he is screwed over by the international criminal organizations frontman. As a result, he snaps and [[spoiler: kills said frontman]] over payment.
108	** CowboyCop:
109	*** Herc and Carver show how their gung-ho, headcracking style of busting street corner hustlers is actually not very useful policework. Over the course of the show, Carver matures into a more competent policeman who becomes a part of his community and uses more intelligent tactics to disrupt the drug trade. Herc, not so much.
110	*** [=McNulty=] is a cowboy who plays by his own rules and is constantly getting into hot water with his superiors despite the fact that he gets results. How he goes about it, however, is completely the opposite of a standard movie cowboy cop. His tactics involve navigating government bureaucracy and patiently building up intelligence on high-ranking targets rather than busting street hoodlums, which is what his superiors actually want him to do.
111	*** There's also another layer of deconstruction present with Jimmy. On several occasions he gets impatient with doing things the proper ways and tries to take shortcuts in getting the information he wants. He winds up getting the information... only to find that other competent detectives going through the proper ways have already gotten the same information, or more than he did, without committing unprofessional or possibly illegal actions, as Jimmy did.
112	*** [=McNulty's=] and to a lesser extent Freeman's actions also make an impression on Sydnor, who although he was part of the illegal wire tap scheme, unlike the former two detectives ([=McNulty=] was forced out of the police and Freeman resigned to sidestep being fired), he came out unscathed by the fallout around it. As such it's hardly surprising that Sydnor's final scene ends with him continuing to use these same underhanded tactics.
113	** TheChainsOfCommanding: While being promoted gives the recipients a better pay grade and more influence, it can lead to a variety of different problems.
114	*** Daniels in season one is given command over a few dectectives to investigate the Barksdale. He has to deal with {{Cowboy Cop}}s such as [=McNulty=] who constantly tries to undermine his authority when they butt heads on which direction to go with the investigation. He also has to deal with the political fallout when Herc, Carver and Prez’s outing into a Baltimore neighborhood results in a teenager being blinded in one eye, destruction of the car they were riding in and Herc’s head injury. There are also the two lazy dectectives under his command that also drink on the job. Lastly, he figure out that [[spoiler: Carver]] is the mole that has been feeding the higher ups information that results in stonewalling a long term investigation.
115	*** Even [[DaChief Burrell]] himself is not immune to this as his stonewalling the long term efforts of Daniels to investigate the political ties of the Barksdales leads him to being blackmailed by the lower ranked, but influential Valchek, into getting more capable dectectives to investigate Sobotka.
116	*** In season 3 a major who can’t deliver when it comes to lowering the crime stats in his district. This leads to his brutal humiliation at the hands of Rawls and his dismissal from command in front of his peers.
117	*** Carver himself runs into this problem in season 5. When one of his subordinates gets into an altercation with a motorist and remains unrepentant about the issue, Carver is forced to write him up for excessive force. He gets the reputation of being a rat in the department.
118	*** The drug trade also has its own set of problems between the leaders and their subordinates. Stringer Bell orders the hit on his strip club frontman Wendell “Orlando” Blocker because he became a liability when he was arrested for selling drugs to an undercover cop. While Orlando is killed by Wee-bey and Little Man the rash decision of Little Man leads to Kima getting wounded. This also leads to Little Man’s death as well as the Barksdales losing their top enforcer when Wee-Bey is arrested.
119	*** The Barksdale's rival Proposition Joe constantly has to worry about the incompetence of his own relatives in his organization and can’t solve it in the usual way that organized crime would (killing them), due to their kinship.
120	** ClearMyName: In season 4, Omar initiates a feud with Marlo Stanfield that results in the latter framing the former for the murder of an innocent woman. Omar is sent to county jail to await trail, where he is surrounded by enemies. He eventually enlist the help of Bunk to transfer him of a safer jail as well as exonerated him for the murder. Bunk is reluctant to help Omar due to the fact that he is a criminal that is guilty of several murders, but eventually caves in because he also know that Omar would NeverHurtAnInnocent. While Bunk successfully proves Omar's innocence, it undermines Bunk's investigation into the disappearance of a drug dealer when the detective who arrested Omar spitefully gives the witness of the missing drug dealer to the much less capable Herc.
121	** CluelessBoss:
122	*** The obsession with lowering the crime stats often leaves the upper management of the police force clueless about what would actually improve the conditions on the ground or would facilitate truly big busts that bring down and criminal organizations, and worse yet, the police brass is usually unconcerned with the long term implications of caring only about the stats. Such is the case in season one when Burrell's interference with the Barksdale case only nets the arrest of Wee-bey, the leader Avon Barksdale, his nephew, and soldier Savino Bratton. While Wee-bey gets life imprisonment and D’Angelo receives twenty years, Avon receives seven years and is eventually paroled early while Bratton only receives three years. Furthermore, Avon’s number two Stringer Bell remains unscathed and able to keep the organization afloat. The early busts also stonewall any attempts to find out who the Barksdale have been bribing in the political arena.
123	*** Season 4 introduces Marimow to the Major Crimes Unit. In contrast to Lieutenant Asher whose offhand approach enable Lester to make decisions that enable to make MCU effective in making long term drug cases. Marimow on the other hand micromanages the unit and bullies them into making short term street arrest which are ineffective, as drug dealers change their stash houses every few days. He ultimately alienates Kima and Freeman to the point where they both transfer out of the unit when his methods become too caustic to bear. Furthermore while Marimow thinks his tactics are effective police work, he is being used by Rawls to deliberately and unwittingly destroy what made MCU an effective unit in the first place, due to his reputation among the police department as a "Unit Killer."
124	** FalseFlagOperation: [=McNulty=]'s [[spoiler: fake]] serial killer is this, with the funds and overtime being used to take down the Stainfield organization. When it is exposed, most of the political elite are more concerned maintaining or enhancing their careers. While the organization's top enforcer and other lieutenants get imprisioned, Marlo is able to escape charges due to [=McNulty's=] illegal methods and never answers for his crimes. Furthermore, while [=McNulty=] and Lester Freeman are able to keep their jobs, they leave the force when they are told that their days of investigating criminals are over.
125	** FriendOnTheForce: FBI Agent Fitzhugh usually tries to aid the Baltimore Police Department whenever he can. This becomes especially helpful in the Major Crimes Unit investigation against the Greek organization. However, not everybody in the FBI who is investigating the Greeks has reasons for not bringing down the Greeks. Such is the case when Fitzhugh informs another FBI agent of flipping Frank Sobotka. Said FBI agent has the leader of the Greeks on his payroll as an informant on the War on Terror. This results in Sobotka getting killed and the leader and his NumberTwo leaving Baltimore and ultimately escaping punishment.
126	** HardWorkFallacy: Bodie early on proves to be observant of the goings-on in the pit where he works. The viewer sees his rise in the drug trade under the mentorship of Stringer Bell. When the Barksdale Organization is permanently dismantled, despite all his hard work is career is effectively stalled out, and then he is strong-armed into working for his hated former enemy Marlo. [[spoiler: Before he is killed]] he realizes despite the work he put in, he remains nothing but a pawn.
127	** HeadbuttingHeroes: Just because they are colleagues does not mean all police get along. [=Mcnulty=] often goes behind his superiors' backs to get the investigations he desires, much to the consternation of his bosses and fellow detectives. When he tries to rope Kima in the fake serial killer scheme in order to investigate the Stanfield Organization she exposes this to Daniels. This results in him, along with Lester, getting blacklisted from doing any investigational work in the police department.
128	** HidingBehindTheLanguageBarrier: When more than a dozen corpses are discovered in a shipping container on the docks, the detectives start questioning the crew members. While all the crew members are capable of speaking English, they resort to speaking their native languages out of fear of their lives when the detectives question them. The detectives realize that no one is going to talk so they ultimately let the ship leave the port it is being held at.
129	** JustAGangster: While Avon is the TropeNamer, he is also a deconstruction. After [[spoiler:Stringer Bell's]] death he realizes how petty in the grand scheme of things his beef with Marlo is over the street corners. He is ultimately forced to go to war with Marlo, whose gang his been taking credit of the [[spoiler: Stringer Bell's]] murder, when he knows who truly murdered him as well as his heart no longer wanting to fight over said corners.
130	*** Marlo himself also qualifies after a series of circumstances force him [[spoiler: to retire]] he is unhappy with is new life and leaves a party with businessmen to runoff two boys at a corner.
131	** TheNeedsOfTheMany: During season 4, the educational system takes prominence. Cutty takes a job as a truant officer rounding up kids who skipped school, but quickly resigns when he realizes the students only have to spend one day for the month in the school as opposed to regularly attending class. This is done because on paper it looks like they have enough students attending to keep receiving funding from the city.
132	** {{Nepotism}}: putting relatives in positions of authority oftentimes can backfire.
133	*** D’Angelo is given prominent positions of power due to his status as Avon's nephew. While he has skills and knowledge that make him a good manager with the non-violent side of the drug trade, it is clear that he is not mentally cut out for the rougher side of the drug trade. This cumulates with him being arrested and [[spoiler:his eventual death in prison]].
134	*** Prez is the son-in-law to Major Valchek, and only received his position as detective due to the latter’s influence. After accidentally [[spoiler:killing a fellow officer]], he resigns from the force.
135	*** Melvin "Cheese" Wagstaff, like D'Angelo above, is often given positions of prominence due to being the nephew of Proposition Joe. Proposition Joe's propensity to look after his nephew is one of the contributing factors that [[spoiler: gets Joe killed]]
136	*** Prop Joe also has a nephew known as Drac who only appears in a single episode. He is so incompetent and unable to talk in code that the detectives burst out laughing listening to him talk on a wiretapped phone, and try to engineer a promotion for Drac by busting his superior in the hope that Drac would get promoted and take down Joe's entire operation with his LooseLips.
137	** NobleMaleRoguishMale: Frank Sobokta and Stan Valchek.
138	*** Valchek would be the publicly the noble male as a ranking and well connected officer in the BPD. Privately he is a JerkAss to his son-in-law and cares little for the men under his command. Furthermore his is only having Sobotka investigated because Frank donated a larger glass painting to the Catholic Church.
139	*** Sobokta, the leader of a crew on the Baltimore docks is the Roguish Male, especially after his crimes are exposed due to the fact that his is taking money from an organized crime group. He is only taking money from said criminals to help the men under his command, whom he cares deeply about with better wages and hours. The donated painting was an attempt to help his men by currying favor with the Catholic Church.
140	** RankUp: People are often promoted as political favors as opposed to meritocracy. Valchek notes that entires careers have been made by the most seemingly insignificant factors, and a bit of blackmail material over the right person can be the difference between a career as a police foot soldier and having upward mobility.
141	*** Carver is promoted to the of Sargent for acting as [[spoiler: TheMole]] within Daniel’s investigation unit in the first season.
142	*** Herc is given a promotion to Sargent when he walks in the mayor receives oral sex, acting on Valchek’s advice of not saying anything about the affair.
143	*** Rawls is promoted to Maryland State superintendent when he keeps his mouth shut about [=McNulty=]’s [[spoiler: fake serial killer plot]] scandal from impacting the Carcetti administration.
144	*** Pearlman, the usually well-meaning prosecutor is last seen as a judge, where it is strongly implied that she the promotion due to finessing Levy to convince his client Stanfield to walk away from the drug game, thereby preventing Levy from gaining knowledge about [=McNulty=]’s [[spoiler: fake serial killer plot.]]
145	*** Valchek is acknowledged throughout the series as both the embodiment of the worst tendencies of the BPD and the one person that nobody in either the police or city hall wants to end up in a position of true influence. He patiently and skillfully plays the political game and come the end of the series he gets promoted to police commissioner due to the fact that he is the highest ranking officer left after Burrell’s, Rawl’s, and Daniel’s departure, and Nerese Campbell needs a commissioner with no real scruples who is willing to work with her. Valcheck certainly qualifies.
146	*** In the school system, Dukie is socially promoted to ninth grade to "juke the stats" and make it seem that the students are progressing forward than they already are. Already apprehensive, he gets cold feet on his first day of class, dropping out of school altogether. [[spoiler: He then joins Michael, who recently joined the Stanfield gang himself, as a corner boy dealing drugs.]]
147	* In ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'', Rosa Diaz deconstructs AllGirlsWantBadBoys. She tends to fall for bad guys such as the Vulture and Pimento but she admits that she is the one to end these relationships because all the guys are messed-up losers and that she enters into these relationships precisely so she could be the one to break up with them as a subtle way to maintain control over how the relationship progresses/ends.
148	* Season three of ''Series/TheFlash2014'' deconstructs the CloseEnoughTimeline trope. In the throes of depression following his father's murder, Barry goes back in time and saves his mother from death, creating the Flashpoint timeline. Eventually, he realizes his mistake and undoes his revision of the timeline. However, while Barry is relatively unaffected by the timeline changes, they are devastating to the people around him: Joe and Iris have a wedge driven between them, Cisco's older brother is dead in a hit-and-run, Caitlin is being taken over by Killer Frost, John Diggle's daughter is erased from existence and replaced with a son, and two villains (the Dominators and Savitar) enter the picture as a direct result of Barry's interference with time.
149	* ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' ends up deconstructing TheScrappy. Dale Stuckley is a new forensics technician on the team. He was smart, but he ended up being annoying to the others, even causing groaning whenever he called out to the others. This ultimately leads to "Zebras", where [[spoiler:his public humiliation over allowing a criminal to go OffOnATechnicality and his swift rebuking by both the judge and Stabler causes him to snap and murder various people in order to try to catch the criminal he let go. His rampage also leads to the death of one of the SVU's team and Stabler getting kidnapped by Stuckley.]]
150	* ''Series/TheOrville'' deconstructs the OneGenderRace trope through the Moclans. They live in a harsh, inhospitable world inhabited only by males, [[HomosexualReproduction who procreate with each other]]. However, not only are female Moclans born every so often, and in far greater numbers than the government will admit, they are also forced to undergo "corrective surgery" to make them male. Moreover, the Moclans are ''[[HeteroNormativeCrusader Homo]]''[[HeteroNormativeCrusader normative Crusaders]] who consider [[HetIsEw heterosexuality to be an abomination]] and persecute any Moclans who express it.
151	* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode [[Recap/DoctorWho2019NYSResolution "Resolution"]] takes a bat to the SuperPrototype trope with the [[EliteMooks Reconnaissance Dalek]]. On the one hand, this Dalek was part of the ''first'' wave of Daleks to leave Skaro in search of new worlds to conquer, and it has many capabilities not seen in standard Dalek soldiers (such as the ability to act as a PuppeteerParasite). On the other hand, since it's from Skaro's early days, it lacks many of the modern '''advantages''' of Daleks (especially the Time War-era Daleks), such as DeflectorShields. This ultimately results in its immobilization and the subsequent destruction of its casing ''twice'' over.
152	* ''Series/BlackMirror'' deconstructs quite a few tropes.
153	** Many episodes deconstruct AssholeVictim, mainly by showing them as normal, if flawed, people. Often, it's taken to levels that are just plain sadistic, like in [[Recap/BlackMirrorShutUpAndDance "Shut Up and Dance"]] where a young man who is caught on film masturbating is forced to go through a series of dangerous tasks, up to and including [[spoiler:murdering someone through blackmail, only for it to be revealed that said young man was masturbating to child pornography]]. Or [[Recap/BlackMirrorHatedInTheNation "Hated in the Nation"]], where someone who is otherwise portrayed as a normal person [[spoiler:takes a distasteful picture of a war memorial and is rightfully terrified to be targeted via social media and marked for death, which eventually comes to them in the most painful way possible]]. It's harsh.
154	*** The former example also deconstructs the PaedoHunt trope. Yes, [[spoiler:Kenny's certainly not innocent for acting on his pedophilia by jerking it to child porn but ultimately, he was still a scared kid who was being extorted and forced to commit crimes, which could have resulted in the death of an innocent bank teller and resulted in the death of the stranger in the woods]]. In short, the people who blackmailed him still did more harm than good, regardless of how deserving their victims were, and in many ways, their actions appear to be motivated far more by petty cruelty than any desire for justice.
155	*** The latter also doubles as a deconstruction of DisproportionateRetribution, showing just how terrifying it is to be on the receiving end of [[spoiler:a horrific amount of hate just for an innocent, albeit in poor taste, joke.]]
156	** In a particularly heartwarming example, [[Recap/BlackMirrorSanJunipero "San Junipero"]], ends up completely dismantling the BuryYourGays trope.
157	* ''Series/NeverHaveIEver'' deconstructs DisabilityAsAnExcuseForJerkassery by means of [[DiscussedTrope discussion]]. Devi has undeniably been through a fair share of trauma, having spent some time paralyzed while mourning the sudden death of her father, but her friend Fabiola makes it clear to her that it's "not a free pass to treat [her friends] like crap." Part of Devi's CharacterDevelopment is improving her treatment of others while trying to heal from her trauma.
158	* ''Series/SonsOfAnarchy'' deconstructs NeighborhoodFriendlyGangsters. On the surface, the Sons are protecting their hometown of Charming from exploitative outsiders, keeping it a "friendly little town". However, it soon becomes that the Sons' only interest in Charming is having a base of operations where they can operate with impunity and that their stranglehold on local business life, which has kept a lot of companies away from Charming, has also stunted the local economy and left many of the locals in poverty or semi-poverty.
159	* ''Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy'' is a deconstruction of the superhero trope, particularly the KidHero trope, with the main characters having grown up in the titular superhero academy, leaving them all with major issues like Diego's hero complex and Klaus' drug addiction. Additionally, Allison used her powers on her daughter, Luther can't function without a mission (at least at first), and Ben... is dead. The series explores the trauma and damage that superheroeing would do to kids, and the damage that child abuse does, too, through the lens of the now-adult characters.
160	* ''Series/KevinCanFuckHimself'' does this to the [[BumblingDad goofy, dimwitted husband]] sitcom protagonist (the creators having been [[TakeThat specifically inspired]] by Creator/KevinJames' TV comedy characters, particularly on ''Series/KevinCanWait'') by [[PerspectiveFlip looking at things through the eyes]] of [[AwfulWeddedLife the wife who has to actually live with him]]. Through her eyes, the trappings of this trope come to resemble an [[DomesticAbuser abusive]] {{manchild}} who thinks that [[ItsAllAboutMe the world revolves around him]] and any affection she had for him in the past has completely evaporated away to the point that she wishes he'd die already. Notably, the show [[PaintingTheMedium regularly switches]] between a conventional, LaughTrack-heavy sitcom style in scenes told from Kevin's perspective, and [[ThisIsReality a more dramatic and naturalistic one]] in scenes from Allison's perspective where the consequences of Kevin's actions are most seriously felt.
161	* ''Series/TheSopranos'' deconstructs many of TheMafia's aspects:
162	** Instead of portraying La Cosa Nostra as a synonym of UndyingLoyalty, power, and success like ''Film/TheGodfather'', it's the total opposite. Very few members are really loyal (it's telling something that Silvio Dante was the single most loyal member of the mob) and most of them betray their partners for vengeance, envy, or greed. Also, while many of the mobsters live in the lap of luxury, it comes at the cost of being in constant fear of imminent death or indictments, in which all of that power can evaporate overnight. Not helping matters is that the old-timers are dying off and the younger members are essentially DumbMuscle.
163	** Tony Soprano himself deconstructs TheDon. He's not a very powerful kingpin with high resources like most fictional Mafia bosses. Sure, he has resources, but these resources are limited. It makes sense as the show is set in modern times, where anti-racketeering laws give Tony daily nightmares. The Mafia is also a bitter shell of itself, partly because of informants, the government, hostility from rival gangs, and drugs. All these attributes make Tony one of the most realistic representations of an American mob boss in the modern day.
164	** Tony's nephew and acolyte Chris Moltisanti deconstructs DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster. His ambition in life is [[IJustWantToBeBadass to become a made man]]. He doesn't realize being a made man comes with a lot of responsibility, which means he cannot goof around when he's under the gun from his bosses to earn more money. [[spoiler:By the time of his death, Tony had realized that Chris was TheLoad to the crime family]]. While being a mafioso has its perks, Chris should have known that some parts of a mobster's life can be monotonous and dangerous at times.
165	* ''Series/{{Riverdale}}'' deconstructs EasilyForgiven with Alice Cooper’s character arc: Despite everything she does from victim blaming Archie during his sexual abuse from a teacher to [[spoiler: gaslighting Betty while pretending to be a cult member]], to [[spoiler: covering up Hal’s murders, even when he killed a deputy and buried him ''in their house.'']], Betty and others forgive and forget, even acting like she’s a better person than she actually is. But by season 6, it’s clear that Alice is becoming dependent on this as opposed to learning from her mistakes and becoming a better person, resulting in her being a StaticCharacter and utterly refusing to even acknowledge that she screwed up. Betty in turn is increasingly becoming fed up with her behavior and starts taking steps to distance herself from her mother.
166	* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'' deconstructs the MayflyDecemberFriendship between immortals and mortals as shown with Elrond and prince Durin. Elrond is Really700YearsOld, while Durin has the life span of a Dwarf. Because he is this old, Elrond didn't realize how valuable time is for mortals and is genuinely baffled at Durin being so upset for his twenty years absence. As Durin points out, "twenty years might be the blink of an eye to an Elf, but [he've] lived an entire life in that time", in which he got married and had children. They rekindle their friendship later.
167	* One episode in ''Series/{{Castle\|2009}}'' has Castle's old schoolmate Damian as the main suspect to his wife's murder. Due to Damien recognizing Castle's writing talent and helping him to become a writer, Castle [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe feels deeply indebted to Damian]] and continually supports his friend. However, it becomes clear throughout the episode that Castle never noticed Damian's flaws and was always willing to excuse his friend's questionable life choices [[spoiler: Even if Damian did not kill his wife, he was the one to orchestrate his father's murder.]]
168	* A subplot in ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' deconstructs the AwfulWeddedLife sitcom marriage. There are occasional hints that Kenny's marriage is in real trouble, for example he shows up to KACL's Valnteine's party alone, claiming that his wife was "busy", and there are references to him sleeping in his office; but it's all PlayedForLaughs. When his wife [[UnseenNoMore finally appears]] in an episode, it's part of a FawltyTowersPlot where she and Kenny both come close to cheating, which Frasier seemingly resolves when he unravels what happened and encourages them to fix their relationship. In the next season it's revealed that they went through a bitter divorce.

Context DeconstructedTrope / LiveActionTV