Line #18 Main/WoobieOfTheWeek


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3	%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!
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6	So we have MysteryOfTheWeek, where the heroes solve a new mystery every week. And we have MonsterOfTheWeek, when the heroes fight a new bad guy every week. We even have PatientOfTheWeek, when the heroes are doctors and they help out a new sick person every week.
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8	And then there's this guy. He's not dead or in danger of dying-- he's just [[TheWoobie troubled]] in some way. Maybe he's angry at God because his wife died, or he's in debt and needs help, or [insert touching story here]. Whatever the problem, our main character has to figure out how to help him. [[OneShotCharacter And then the Woobie promptly disappears]], and [[IndexOfTheWeek next week]] our hero finds someone like him [[StatusQuoIsGod all over again]]...
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10	These series tend toward being spiritual and {{glurge}}y, but really it's up to the skill of the writer.
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12	!!Examples:
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14	[[foldercontrol]]
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16	[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]
17	* In ''Literature/BalladOfAShinigami'', Momo the shinigami finds some way to relieve the pain of the dead or the ones they are leaving behind each week.
18	* ''Manga/DrRamuneMysteriousDiseaseSpecialist'' combines this with PatientOfTheWeek, as the eponymous doctor deals with people suffering from spiritual afflictions that manifest as strange symptoms that normal medicine can't cure. These afflictions are often caused by abuse, trauma, toxic relationships, etc.
19	* Each ''Anime/HellGirl'' episode would focus on various troubled characters who is tormented by someone else, and how they are eventually driven to make a DealWithTheDevil to send their tormentors to hell.
20	* ''Manga/HibikisMagic'' has every chapter focus on a different woobie whose life tends to be either improved or ruined by magic and its applications, one of whom is Hibiki herself.
21	* ''Manga/{{Mushishi}}'' combines this with MysteryOfTheWeek. Most episodes feature people in incredibly unfortunate circumstances due to the effects of various mushi. Then Ginko arrives, figures out what kind of mushi he's dealing with and sees if he can help. Sometimes, he can't.
22	* ''Anime/PrincessTutu'' is mostly this sort of thing in the beginning, with the heroine helping people solve their issues through dancing.
23	* Basically, every other OneShotCharacter in the ''Anime/SailorMoon'' anime is one. It gets annoying after a while, as the Senshi are perfectly fine helping out the character they barely know, but they spend no time with their actual friends. Remember Naru? Usagi probably does not.
24	%%* ''Manga/TokyoBabylon'' has A LOT of these.
25	* Characters in ''Anime/ParanoiaAgent'' are this, except most of them [[DownerEnding don't get happy endings]], while others receive {{Gainax ending}}s.
26	* ''Anime/WonderEggPriority'' has, on average, about one suicide victim per episode whom one of the girls must "save". To be clear, the victims are already dead, and the girls are just helping their souls to find peace, but nonetheless their tragic backstories are often enough to make the viewer cry for them; they are suicide victims, after all.
27	* ''Manga/{{xxxHolic}}'': The heroes go about, helping addicts of various types.
28	* This trope is one of two main gimmicks of ''Manga/YamadaKunAndTheSevenWitches'', along with {{Magic Kiss}}es. Every arc revolves around at least one character with a hard life - usually one of the titular witches - that Yamada needs to help. The series is not afraid to play the JerkassWoobie card, though - many of the woobies of the week are rather uncooperative or even villainous until Yamada finds out what is troubling them and gets through to them.
29	[[/folder]]
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31	[[folder: Literature]]
32	* ''Literature/ParkerPyneInvestigates'' is a series of short stories starring the titular Parker Pyne, who runs an agency that claims to solve unhappiness. Each story features a character struggling with various issues (usually relationship problems), which they eventually resolve with Pyne's help.
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35	[[folder: Live-Action TV ]]
36	* ''Series/TwentyOneJumpStreet'', the episode where the cops go undercover and there's this chick who's all introverted but seems to know about the crimes that are going on, and she's all disturbed. Turns out she's psychic.
37	** Season 4, an episode called "Haunts in a New Age"... A psychic teen says she can predict when an arsonist will next strike during a Halloween dance.
38	* ''Series/BurnNotice'' -- not every episode has Mike and the others helping someone in need, but many do, particularly in the first few seasons. The standard formula is TwoLinesNoWaiting with the Woobie being the A Plot and the progress of the MythArc being the B Plot, or sometimes vice versa.
39	* On ''Series/FantasyIsland'', each week a different group of guests come to the island and learn some sort of life lesson.
40	* ''Series/GhostWhisperer'': "Distressed ghost who refuses to pass on" of the week.
41	* Done briefly in the third season of ''Series/TheGoodPlace'', where the main cast tries to help a new person every episode become good enough to get into [[{{Heaven}} The Good Place]] when they die. However the premise is quickly dropped due to the plot taking a new turn.
42	%%* ''Series/HighwayToHeaven''
43	* ''Series/TheIncredibleHulk1977'' sees David Banner (arguably TheWoobie himself due to being presumed dead and on the lam because of his "condition") coming to the aid of a new character of the week each episode who have somehow found themselves in messes they need help getting out of. To name a few:
44	** "[[Recap/TheIncredibleHulk1977S1E1FinalRound Final Round"]] has him talk a boxer out of continuing to fight because if he does, he will likely end up being killed in the ring.
45	** "[[Recap/TheIncredibleHulk1977S2E5AChildInNeed A Child in Need]]" sees him make an abusive father realize the physical and emotional harm he's causing his wife and grade-school-age son, ask for their forgiveness, and seek help.
46	** In "[[Recap/TheIncredibleHulk1977S4E9KingOfTheBeach King of the Beach]]", he assists an up-and-coming partially deaf bodybuilder (Creator/LouFerrigno in a double role) with not only trying to win a local contest in spite of it being fixed, but also fulfilling his dream of opening a restaurant.
47	* ''Series/KamenRiderFourze'' has an interesting twist on this, combining [[MonsterOfTheWeek Monster]], [[VictimOfTheWeek Victim]], '''and''' Woobie of the Week into a single package. The MOTW is created by a human "Switcher" using a device called an Astro Switch; the Switcher is someone with a grudge who's so hell-bent on revenge that they're blinded to the fact that the Switch will eventually kill them. So instead of just beating up the MOTW, Fourze and his team reach out and try to befriend the Switchers so that they know there's somebody who cares.
48	* Its predecessor ''Series/KamenRiderDenO'' had a similar format where the Monsters of the Week were {{Jerkass Genie}}s who took the Victim's wish and warped it for their own ends, usually Woobie-fying them in the process. Protagonist Ryotaro would try to help the victims, initially taking some flak from some of his allies who insisted his only job is to protect the timestream, but his response was that helping the victims was part of that job too.
49	* ''Series/JoanOfArcadia'': Joan helps a new stranger every week at the suggestion of God himself.
50	* ''Series/TheLoveBoat'' has a new set of guests every week, all of them looking for love on the cruise ship.
51	* Every ''Series/MidnightCaller'' episode has at least one, since it's about a radio host who gets involved in his listeners' problems. Even the villains are usually somewhat sympathetic.
52	* ''Series/QuantumLeap'' has this built into its premise: Bakula jumps into a new body every episode, and that person, or someone around him, is ''always'' in distress. The series catchphrase, his mission, is to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong; once that's accomplished, he leaps into the next body. It's heavily implied to be the result of divine intervention.
53	%%* ''Series/TouchedByAnAngel''
54	* ''Series/TwiceInALifetime'', where an angel allows a one-shot character to revisit a moment in his life when things started going wrong.
55	* ''Series/{{Wonderfalls}}'': A bunch of animal figurines that may or may not be God annoy heroine Jaye into helping strangers on a weekly basis.
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58	[[folder:Western Animation]]
59	* ''WesternAnimation/CareBears'' episodes often consist of a bear or group of bears going to Earth to help a child that is having difficulties in their life and teach them to care.
60	* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', after the end of the fourth season where the main cast obtains their new castle with its map, they are alerted by the map in several episodes to ponies and other creatures in trouble who need to learn a lesson about friendship, and travel to the place indicated to help out.
61	* ''WesternAnimation/SmilingFriends'' is a DeconstructiveParody of this. The Smiling Friends's job is to help troubled people smile, but while their clients are often legitimately sympathetic and troubled, their issues tend to be too complex and deep-rooted for the main characters to really fix, and their issues are often solved by accidents or circumstance the Smiling Friends had nothing to do with. And while some of their clients are decent people just struggling with things the main characters aren't equipped to deal with, some of them are legitimate terrible people whose misery is their own fault.
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Context Main / WoobieOfTheWeek