Line #1 SanitySlippage/LiveActionTV


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7	* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': With every emotional disaster dumped on Connor, his stability goes down a tick.
8	* ''Series/BlakesSeven'':
9	** Avon, during the show's fourth and final series. The final straw comes with [[spoiler:Blake's (apparent) betrayal]]. Considering what he's been through, the only wonder is it didn't happen sooner.
10	** Also Travis, who starts off as cruel and obsessive, but rational, and ends up as a homicidal maniac who sells humanity out to alien invaders just to get a chance to kill Blake.
11	* ''Series/BetterCallSaul'': Kim Wexler has a slow breakdown starting season four, losing her cool more often, self-loathing but also having a god complex in thinking she can decide who to ruin and who to save, thinking if she knows everything then she can control everything, more impulsive and so sick of being told she's the "good girl" who Jimmy is corrupting as well as definitely not over her DarkAndTroubledPast, decides to destroy Howard Hamlin's life.
12	* ''Series/BreakingBad'': [[spoiler:Walter White]] displays this at the end of "[[Recap/BreakingBadS4E11CrawlSpace Crawl Space]]" {{laughing ma\|d}}niacally after realising that [[spoiler:Gus Fring is going to kill his family and Skyler gave his money to Ted Baneke.]] Many feel that this is the point where [[spoiler:Walter White]] completely died and only [[spoiler:his alter ego, Heisenberg,]] remained.
13	* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Several examples. Faith, portrayed as not the most stable of individuals, to begin with, begins by trying to strangle Xander to death and it goes downhill from there. After Tara's death, Willow thinks nothing of killing her friends if they get in her way of vengeance, before deciding that destroying the world would be a MercyKill. Even Buffy herself is prone to this: the stress of each season finale seems to bring out the worst in her (such as trying to drive her friends away, fleeing from Sunnydale, thinking she can't let anyone close out of fear of getting hurt, then [[FromBadToWorse It Gets Worse]], oh boy [[DrivenToSuicide does]] it [[DestructiveRomance ever]] get [[TookALevelInJerkass worse.]] Happens to Whistler and Angel bluntly tells him that he believes that being separated from TheMultiverse and the Powers since the Seed was destroyed have made him crazy. And he may have a point.
14	* In ''Series/ChariteAtWar'', Nazi nurse Christel becomes increasingly unhinged as the war is coming to an end and Berlin is about to fall. The more obvious the defeat of her regime becomes, the louder she spouts her propaganda lines, telling everyone around her whom she takes for a dissident (which is meanwhile just about everybody) that they'll be hanged soon and that Hitler is going to save them all.
15	* ''Series/{{Cheers}}:''
16	** Diane does not take her break-up with Sam at the end of season 2 well. In the time between then and season 3, she checks into a mental hos-''[[InsistentTerminology health spa]]'', [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial entirely of her own free will]]. That said, a character who saw her while she was in there is a little alarmed she got out so early.
17	** And again in another episode when Sam gets some amateur poetry published. Diana goes on a jealousy fueled meltdown about how everyone in the world will have read this poetry, and not ''hers''. [[spoiler:She immediately recovers when it turns out the poetry was actually some of hers.]]
18	** Rebecca goes through a long one thanks to the effects of {{Flanderization}}, going from a moderately capable businesswoman to a barely functional human trainwreck on her ''best'' days.
19	* In one [[Series/{{Chespirito}} hour-long]] version of the ''Series/ElChapulinColorado'' [[AppliedPhlebotinum volatile energy extract]] story, Raul "Chato" Padilla's character asks [[AbsentMindedProfessor Profesor Inventillo]] why did the walls and roof disappear from his house, to which Inventillo casually states that the extract causes any object that's been injected to fly away. The rest of the episode centers on Padilla as he becomes more and more unhinged, injecting more furniture in house and giddily laughing as his belongings fly off into the unknown.
20	* ''Series/{{Degrassi\|TheNextGeneration}}'': [[TroubledButCute Eli]] [[DarkAndTroubledPast Golds]][[EmoTeen worthy]] started to become this in the most recent season. First, he reasonably starts to become a little suspicious when a former bully keeps trying to talk to his girlfriend Clare, then he becomes [[CrazyJealousGuy even more possessive]] of her to the point of being controlling, and she responds by saying she needs some space and that they should take a break. How does Eli deal with this? [[spoiler: [[ManipulativeBastard He crashes his car in an attempt to get Clare back]]]] of course!
21	* ''Series/DexterNewBlood'': In New Blood, we see what happens when [[Characters/DexterDexterMorgan Dexter Morgan]] goes a decade without a kill. His first kill is sloppy and he leaves a lot of evidence behind which he has to work doubly hard to cover up. It is hammered home by imaginary Deb being more emotional and angry as opposed to Harry being calm throughout.
22	* Mrs. Tishell on ''Series/DocMartin''. Her crush on Martin went from "she's an odd one", to "what're those pills she's taking?", to StalkerShrine, and finally a full-blown psychotic break, which was a bad interaction between two drugs she was taking.
23	* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
24	** The Master has always been rather unstable, try as he might hide it under his veneer of a MagnificentBastard. However, this takes a turn for the worse in [=NuWho=], when he complains of persistent drumming in his head, getting even worse [[spoiler:after returning from the dead in the Specials Season]]. The main question is whether or not the drumming is real, making the Master even crazier [[spoiler:(It is, turning out to be part of a GambitRoulette by the Lord President of Gallifrey to free Gallifrey from the time-locked Time War)]]. With this revealed, fans speculated on how bad the drumming was during the Master's previous incarnations.
25	*** Whatever [[spoiler:she]] did to [[spoiler:get out of the pocket dimension]] apparently pushed [[spoiler:Missy]] completely over the edge into a perpetually cheerful, self admitted "bananas" borderline {{cloudcuckoolander}} who skips around, breaks into song apropos of nothing, and randomly switches between an English and Scottish accent. [[spoiler:She]]'s also the most sadistic and pointlessly cruel [[spoiler:incarnation]] yet. [[spoiler:Ironically, later on, she comes the closest any Master ever has to making a HeelFaceTurn.]]
26	*** The post-[[spoiler:Missy]] incarnation undergoes an ''even worse'' breakdown when he learns the truth about the Timeless Child - and being the Master, he wasn't all that stable to begin with.
27	** Hell, the Doctor himself gets this sometimes! The Eighth Doctor undergoes this twice, in [[spoiler:"Minuet in Hell" and "Zagreus"]]. The Tenth Doctor has one in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E16TheWatersOfMars "The Waters of Mars"]] that temporarily turns him into [[spoiler:[[AGodAmI the Time Lord Victorious]]]]. The final three episodes of Series 9 see the Doctor FreakOut and undergo a ProtagonistJourneyToVillain — becoming a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds for a while — when he proves unable to handle his anguish and rage over [[spoiler:Clara's death]]. It's telling he needs [[spoiler:MindRape — delivered unto him by no less than Clara herself (though he does this voluntarily)]] to help him return to his best self in the end. The revival series has made it pretty clear that without companions to keep him grounded, the Doctor would likely undergo these slippages ''all the time''. Witness this exchange from [[Recap/DoctorWho2006CSTheRunawayBride "The Runaway Bride"]]:
28	--->'''The Doctor:''' I don't need anyone.\
29	'''Donna Noble:''' Yes, you do. Because sometimes, I think you need someone to stop you.
30	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E2TheShakespeareCode "The Shakespeare Code"]]: The architect who designed the Globe Theatre was driven mad by the Carrionites once they were done using him.
31	** Lesterson in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E3ThePowerOfTheDaleks "The Power of the Daleks"]], between the guilt from having accidentally killed one of his assistants, a gaslighting campaign from the Daleks and the general chaos of the GambitPileup going on in the colony, goes completely round the bend. After finding the Dalek construction line, he's reduced to gibbering like a loon about it, and this is only about halfway to the bottom.
32	* Subverted on ''Series/FamousInLove.'' Actress Alexis gets her own reality TV show which is managed by Ida, mother to Alexis' friend Tangey. However, the show soon makes some bad moves that cost Alexis friends and threatens her acting career. Alexis seems to be slipping deeper into this as she's popping pills, cutting off her hair and videotaped in public playing the guitar and then arrested for breaking into a family's house. With her held at a psychiatric hospital, Ida reveals that Alexis' show has been canceled and coldly leaves her. As soon as she's gone, Alexis sits up and, with, with friend Sloane, reveals she was faking this whole "breakdown" as the excuse to get the show canceled. The "drugs" were candy, the family whose house she "broke into" are friends of Sloane's and her "haircut" is a wig. Thrown at first, Tangey is happier Alexis is okay and congratulates her on this scheme. However, in a case of GoneHorriblyRight, Alexis discovers that she's under a 72-hour hold before a doctor can even see her. Meaning that it's going to be public that she spent the weekend in a mental ward which will affect her career.
33	* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'': Half the fun.
34	** The main protagonist, John Crichton, goes increasingly insane over the course of the second season. Partly it's due to [[spoiler:having an EnemyWithin surgically implanted into his head]], but much of it is simply accumulated trauma. He gets better in the third and fourth seasons, but never completely.
35	** Crais becomes increasingly unhinged over the first season, as his initially not-very-rational quest for vengeance over the (accidental) death of his brother gradually destroys his previous ideals and connections to others. He gets better at the end of the season, although it makes him [[WildCard even less predictable]].
36	** Stark, when initially introduced, is not completely stable but vastly exaggerating his madness to [[ObfuscatingInsanity confuse his jailers]]. However, after [[spoiler:being executed by disintegration and having to create a new physical body for himself]] in the second season, Stark returns with a distinct tendency towards panicky meltdowns and screaming fits; season three only makes things worse when [[spoiler: his lover Zhaan dies]], leaving him swinging wildly between near-catatonic despondency, psychotic rage, obsessive spells, and explosive paranoia - and that's when he isn't just twitching and mumbling to himself.
37	* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': One of the tie-in bits of promotional material for the movie ''Film/{{Serenity}}'' is a short series of films called the "R. Tam Sessions," which depict River's [[MindRape traumatic]] time at the [[SchoolForScheming Academy]]. It starts off with River being a happy, eager girl who really wants to learn and push herself to her limits, but as the series progresses, she is shown slipping into madness due to the Academy's experiments. The series ends with River killing the man who has been interviewing her by shoving a pen through his throat (who, for those of you playing at home, was played by Creator/JossWhedon).
38	* ''Series/FromDuskTillDawn'': Richie Gecko used to be a highly intelligent, methodical and dependable bank robber. However, while his brother Seth was in prison he became more and more unhinged, and it only gets worse as the series starts.
39	* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
40	** Ramsay Bolton. Not that he was ever stable, to begin with, but according to WordOfGod ''he is unable to process that he is losing'' from the moment where the Knights of the Vale arrived in "[[Recap/GameOfThronesS6E9BattleOfTheBastards Battle of the Bastards]]" as he is used to being in control and get his way every time. He remains confident that his cunning and tricks will get him out somehow. When his army is absolutely destroyed by the Vale knights, he waves it off as nothing saying he still has Winterfell and can withstand a siege, never mind that the Arryn forces outnumber him and are prepared to besiege him. When he is being beaten by Jon, he thinks he will be spared because of Stark honor, without realizing Jon spared him so Sansa, Jon's sister, could be the one to deal the final blow. Even when he is chained up inside the dogs' kennel, he still thinks he will break out of this one for some reason until they are literally on top of him. This echoes the last days of UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler, who acted much the same way regarding failure.
41	** Cersei is much more calm, collected, and rational in the first season than she is in the second. Her loss of Jaime and Joffrey's increasingly out of control attitude, complemented by her father's suddenly dismissive attitude towards her don't seem to be doing well for her mental faculties. Her despair over her daughter Myrcella's impending ArrangedMarriage can't help, either. She comes within inches of poisoning Tommen during "[[Recap/GameOfThronesS2E9Blackwater Blackwater]]" when she thinks that Stannis is about to break down the door. In "[[Recap/GameOfThronesS4E2TheLionAndTheRose The Lion and the Rose]]", she's outright screaming with rage at Tyrion, as she believes he poisoned Joffrey, and by Season 5 she's noticeably resorting to alcohol continuously, further worsening her condition. By the end of Season 6, she's clearly gone off the deep end. She not only blows up the Sept of Baelor and dozens of nobles within, including her uncle Kevan and three of the four Tyrells, but she doesn't care at all that Tommen kills himself in the aftermath. She still believes she can create a great dynasty with her children dead and surrounded by enemies. In the Season 7 premiere, Jaime actually calls her out on this last point.
42	--->'''Cersei:''' I understand whoever wins could launch a dynasty that lasts a thousand years.\
43	'''Jaime:''' A dynasty for whom? Our children are dead. We're the last of us.\
44	'''Cersei:''' A dynasty for us, then.
45	** It's implied Aerys Targaryen's raving madness increased with time, and Pycelle describes the young Aerys thusly. In the books, when Aerys was first crowned, he was pretty normal. He had a bit of a temper when roused to anger, but nothing that wasn't forgiven after he calmed down. It was only as time went on that his insanity got progressively worse. Even in the TV series, Pycelle describes how horrifying it was to see his friend gradually melt away before his eyes over the years until there was nothing left of the man he knew. He was kept in check by his advisors for most of his reign but eventually grew paranoid and jealous of Lord Tywin (who, by all accounts, was a tremendously successful Hand of the King), in part due to Aerys's love for Tywin's cousin and wife, Joanna. The king went downhill after he was imprisoned by the rebellious lord of Duskendale for months.
46	--->'''Pycelle:''' Aerys Targaryen. Of all the thousand thousand maladies the gods visit on us, madness is the worst. He was a good man, such a charmer.
47	** Season 4 shows Tyrion facing this as he suffers betrayal and humiliation in a KangarooCourt, feeling more powerless than he ever did and finding his father at his most unmerciful moreover. He finally snaps at his trial giving a bitter speech about his oppression as a dwarf and then upon being released by his brother, he pays a final visit to his father and murders him, after finding his lover Shae in his bed.
48	** While never directly stated, it's clear that the several miscarriages Selyse suffered, combined with her embracing the cult of the Lord of Light, have taken a toll on her mental stability. She also had to endure starvation during the siege of Storm's End, which could have played a role too.
49	** Years ago, it is said Euron lost his mind during a storm and cut out the tongues of his whole crew. He ''claims'' he's better now.
50	* The version of [[ComicBook/TheJoker the Joker]] in ''Series/{{Gotham}}'' has undergone several instances of sanity slippage, some caused by chemicals, some due to his worsening mental condition. [[spoiler: At the end of the fourth season, not long after he's introduced, he's sprayed by something called [[AppliedPhebotinum "insanity gas"]] by his identical twin brother, [[CaptainErsatz who was]] the show's [[DecompositeCharacter first take]] on the Joker. The insanity gas causes mad laughter like the Joker venom from the comics, but it also seems to make anyone exposed to it more aggressive than they were before. Before being exposed to the gas, he appears to be a harmless, if [[TheHermit reclusive]] and [[OmnidisciplinaryScientist brilliant engineer,]] but afterwards, he is a [[ColdHam cold-hearted]] {{manipulative bastard}} who [[LackOfEmpathy who lacks empathy]] to the extent that [[EvilCantComprehendGood he can't even understand]] why [[BatmanTheCharacter his friend, Bruce,]] no longer thinks of him as a friend after he becomes a terrorist. After he succeeds at his goal of cutting off Gotham from the outside world, but doesn't succeed in [[MindRape driving Bruce to the point where he is insane enough to team up with him]], he becomes [[StalkerWithoutACrush so desperate to maintain any kind of bond with Bruce]] that he comes up with an insane plan to put Bruce through even more terrible ordeals, just so they can be connected forever by hatred rather than friendship. He also begins to talk and giggle to himself during this period, [[SplitPersonality sometimes in the voice of his brother.]] Later in the season, he falls into a vat of his own chemical creation, which, like the insanity gas, also drives people insane, and he is severely burned by it. When he wakes up from the coma he went into after that incident, his sanity seems to have slipped even more; he admits that he only has some of his memories, and doesn't even identify with his own name and pre-Joker identity, anymore.]]
51	* ''Series/TheHandmaidsTale'': Happens a ''lot'' in this series, mostly to the Handmaids.
52	** Janine. After having her right eye torn out, she's quickly and utterly broken down, and never recovers.
53	** Emily seems to have experienced something of one, following the trauma of undergoing a clitoridectomy; she is shown to be capable of spontaneous acts of violence against authority figures in Gilead (e.g. her "joyride," poisoning the Wife in the Colonies, kicking a Commander in the groin after his heart attack, and brutally beating Aunt Lydia).
54	** June undergoes this more than once, although she does recover both times. In season 2, she has a breakdown after she's captured after nearly escaping and discovers that both her fellow Handmaids and the family who helped her are being severely punished; she begins to get better when she realizes her baby has managed to survive both a lot of bleeding and a (possible; it's ambiguous) suicide attempt. In season 3, she's made to remain in the hospital keeping vigil over a brain-dead Natalie/Ofmatthew, who is being kept on life support until her baby can be delivered, and it's clearly taking a massive toll on her mental health. [[spoiler: By the end of the episode she is doing better, and volunteers to stay at the hospital with Natalie until she dies.]]
55	** Natalie has one as a result of being shunned by the Handmaids for getting the [=McKenzies'=] Martha executed and then publicly shamed for having doubts about her pregnancy; it results in her going AxCrazy and attacking Janine before holding June and Aunt Lydia at gunpoint and then being shot by the Guardians.
56	* ''Series/{{Hannibal}}'': [[MemeticMutation Somebody please help]] [[TheProfiler Will Graham]].
57	** Specifically, [[spoiler:Will has extreme empathy (that he uses to solve murders) and encephalitis. Will's psychiatrist is a serial killer. Will's psychiatrist knows he has encephalitis, but as it worsens convinces Will that his hallucinations, sleepwalking, lost time and seizures have no physical cause. Will's psychiatrist encourages him to think that killing a different serial killer in the first episode [[EvilFeelsGood felt good]], manipulates him into shooting another serial killer while hallucinating the previous one, and frames him for multiple murders. Will actually copes remarkably well, given the circumstances.]]
58	* ''Series/HemlockGrove'': After Olivia contracts an anti-[[OurVampiresAreDifferent Upir]] virus, she slowly starts to lose her mind until she's actively hallucinating people who aren't there.
59	* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'': During Volume 4, Sylar's [[AxCrazy already-unstable psyche]] takes a dramatic turn for the worse when he acquires the ability to shapeshift and starts to lose his sense of identity after using it repeatedly.
60	* ''Series/{{House}}'': [[spoiler: In late Season 5, House's mental state quickly begins to deteriorate into hallucinations of Amber and delusions of a romantic relationship with Cuddy. House agrees to be voluntarily admitted to Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital.]]
61	* ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'': all of the characters become increasingly unhinged throughout the series, with Dennis deserving special mention. While he starts out as the OnlySaneMan of the group, he is slowly revealed to hide anxiety, feelings of emptiness, and sociopathic tendencies beneath his MaskOfSanity. As he grows older, he finds it harder and harder to keep these issues under wraps, and he is eventually diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and prescribed medication.
62	* ''Series/TheKingsWoman'': Queen Dowager Zhao becomes increasingly unstable after the deaths of her lover and sons.
63	* ''Series/MadMen'': Michael Ginsberg starts off neurotic and gets increasingly more so as the series progresses, but it's not clear the extent until he cuts off his own nipple, leading to him being dragged away to be institutionalized.
64	* ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'': In [[Recap/MarriedWithChildrenS4E17PeggyTurns300 "Peggy Turns 300"]], Al Bundy begins losing it as his wife gets ever closer to bowling a perfect game and beating the record he just set, and when she succeeds at it, Al's mind snaps completely and he's later seen sitting on the couch in front of the blank TV, imagining seeing himself on it as a winner.
65	* ''Series/{{MASH}}'': This is a subtle core theme for the show overall; the wisecracks and wacky antics are a lifeline of [[SafetyInIndifference detached]] GallowsHumor for a camp full of people each slowly being driven toward the DespairEventHorizon in their own way.
66	** Frank Burns shows definite signs of slippage during the fourth and fifth seasons as Col Potter takes over the 4077th and he breaks up with Margaret Houlihan as she undegoes CharacterDevelopment. When Margaret announces her engagement to Donald Penobscot Burns has his first VillainousBreakdown and has to be talked down by his mother over the phone. While on leave after Margaret and Penobscot got married, he had his second breakdown in Seoul. Apprehended by the military police, he is sent for psychiatric evalulation and transferred away from the 4077th.
67	** Although it's never shown onscreen, during the finale, after witnessing a traumatic event, Hawkeye begins to not-so-subtly show signs of a breakdown. Like being convinced one of the anesthesiologists was attempting to suffocate his patient with the gas mask, or crashing a jeep through the mess tent. Little indications of a stressful work environment.
68	*** In "Bananas, Crackers and Nuts", Hawkeye fakes sanity slippage in order to weasel some R&R in Tokyo.
69	* ''Series/{{Manifest}}'': Angelina falls through this from the second half of season 3 to the finale after [[spoiler:Pete's death]]. First was trying to fit into the Stone family by [[IJustWantToBeYou becoming more like Olive]], much to the latter's discomfort. Then came her belief that Eden is her guardian angel, which leads [[spoiler:to a fire pain test that nearly gets them both killed]] and culminates in [[spoiler:killing Grace [[BabyBeMine and kidnapping Eden]]]]. Finally in season 4, [[spoiler:she convinces herself and a few passengers [[AGodAmI that she is an archangel sent to bring vengeance onto the world]] and uses the Omega Sapphire fused into her to establish her claim]].
70	* ''Series/MelrosePlace'': Kimberly, big time. Kimberly initially appeared as a wholesome and ethical doctor friend of Michael's, before beginning an affair with him. Then, a car crash in season 2 nearly killed her. From then on, she became more unhinged, with her acts running the gamut from running down Michael with her car, framing Sydney for the hit-and-run ([[KarmaHoudini and actually getting away with it]]), kidnapping Jo's baby, hiring people to assault Matt to prevent him from leaking revealing test results about her sanity, developing a multiple personality disorder, institutionalizing Peter whilst under one of her personalities, and most strikingly...''blowing up an apartment building with people who didn't really do anything to her''. By season 5, Kimberly began to regain her sanity...only to [[HeelFaceDoorSlam die from an unexpected aneurysm]]. Soap opera, indeed.
71	* ''Series/{{Merlin\|2008}}'': Morgana starts out pretty sane, but after she [[FaceHeelTurn goes evil]] she starts going off the edge. She is encouraged by her sister to isolate herself from everyone nonmagical, and when her sister dies becomes obsessive about gaining her revenge. During the TimeSkip between seasons four and five, [[GoMadFromTheIsolation she was locked at the bottom of a well and didn't see the light for two years]], which has damaged her beyond all repair. Even Mordred goes from idolizing her to being frightened by how unhinged she is [[spoiler: and stabs her in the back when she tries to kill Arthur]].
72	* ''Series/{{Misfits}}'':
73	** Simon Bellamy from this British sci-fi series is a painfully shy and intense introvert (and convicted arsonist) who has been bullied and ignored all his life; it's hinted from the onset that he's teetering on the verge of mental breakdown. As the series continues he accidentally becomes party to murder, is magically imbued with the power of {{invisibility}} (which, awesome as it sounds, greatly heightens his growing sense of alienation and his unhealthy tendencies towards voyeurism) and [[spoiler:inadvertently causes the death of Sally - a woman he was starting to fall in love with.]] During the final episode of Season 1, the full extent of his sanity slippage is magnificently depicted as he [[spoiler:casually munches on some left-over pizza while gazing serenely at Sally's corpse, which he has propped up in a large freezer.]] He got better though.
74	** Series one also shows Sally the probation worker going through a (arguably milder) version of this. Tony, the previous probation worker was her fiance and she spends the whole season trying to prove that the gang is behind his mysterious disappearance. (and she's right about it), though she spends most her time stalking the misfits and by the end became completely obsessed by this.
75	* ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'': Mr. Praline's attempts to buy a license for his pet halibut puts his sanity into question and it offends him.
76	-->'''Praline:''' I am not a loony! Why should I be tarred with the epithet 'loony' merely because I have a pet halibut? I've heard tell that Sir Gerald Nabarrao has a pet prawn called Simon, and you wouldn't call Sir Gerald a loony, would you? Furthermore, Dawn Palethorpe the lady show jumper has a clam called Sir Stafford after the late chancellor. Alan Bullock has two pikes both called Norman and the late, great Marcel Proust had an 'addock. If you're calling the author of ''A La Recherché du Temps Perdu'' a loony, I shall have to ask you to step outside!
77	* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'': More than a few experiments produce temporary insanity in the crew of the Satellite of Love through sheer force of SuckinessIsPainful. The most memorable (and funniest) include:
78	** ''Film/TheWildWorldOfBatwoman", the prolonged ending causes Tom to scream "End! ENNNNNNNNNDDDDD!"
79	** ''Film/InvasionOfTheNeptuneMen'', in which Tom is so unnerved by the use of stock footage of World War II bombing runs (as indicated by the Hitler building) that he comes totally unglued.
80	** ''Film/ManosTheHandsOfFate'', which was so bad that Joel, the most laid-back riffer on the show, eventually cried out "Do something!"
81	** ''Film/{{Starcrash}}'' leads to Jonah and the Bots recreating the climactic fight scene with such craziness that Kinga and Max are forced to consider if this counts as breaking them.
82	** Although Dr. Forrester is established as a mad scientist from the beginning, and mentions performing acts such as blowing up or burning down the convention center when he loses the mad scientist competition, he seems to slowly get more insane as the series progresses (possibly as a result of his test subjects retaining their sanity no matter which films he shows them). This change is most noticeable when the Mike era begins, while in Season 4 he gets a crazier hairstyle which seems to reflect this.
83	** Mike Nelson is probably one of the few hosts to suffer such moments a lot, though his slippage tends to lead to him crossdressing. In ''Film/RedZoneCuba'', he believed himself to be Carol Channing and in ''Film/{{Laserblast}}'', he dresses up as [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Captain Janeway]].
84	* Near the end of ''Series/TheNanny'', C.C. Babcock grows increasingly unhinged after Fran and Maxwell [[spoiler:finally admit they love each other and plan to get married]] as C.C. clings to her desperate and deluded belief that she will get Maxwell. C.C. eventually has a nervous breakdown and has to spend several weeks in a mental hospital.
85	* ''Series/{{Newhart}}'': Dick suffers a variant on this in one episode thanks to sleep-deprivation.
86	* ''Series/OddSquad'': This is a common odd medical condition known as "descending into mathness". Those afflicted have vivid math-related hallucinations which can lead to {{Fainting}} in some instances. Although the cause is generally unknown, many of these examples don't involve an agent "descending into mathness", instead being the result of poor mental health in general.
87	** "Agent Obfusco" has Olive, [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold of]] [[OnlySaneMan all]] [[LittleMissBadass people]], having a meltdown over the eponymous agent becoming [[TeleporterAccident trapped in a portal of his own creation.]] To her merit, however, this occurs right after he tells her and Otto that they failed their test due to not completing it within an allotted time limit (which they had no idea of until he told them). Otto, naturally, helps her to get her sanity back in check so they can free Obfusco.
88	** The Season 2 episode "Olympia's Day" has perhaps the most realistic version of this trope in the entire show. Olympia's sanity continuously slips away over wanting to make every one of her co-workers happy (as per her [[ForHappiness modus operandi]]) by granting all sixteen of them access to a tiny interrogation room that was originally meant for her and the Noisemaker, and Ms. O showing her a huge stack of letters from people who ''don't even work at Odd Squad'' wanting the room sends her over the edge. It's only when she wakes up in Dr. O's office after blacking out that she admits to Ms. O her FatalFlaw: her inability to say "no".
89	** Oona is known as being CuteAndPsycho for being a little off her rocker at times and is easily the poster child for this trope when concerning this series. "The Cherry-on-Top-inator", however, shows just how psychotic she can get, from her bloodlust of smashing gadgets to pieces with her personal mallet to her dancing on the edge of sanity with each story she hears of how the titular gadget helped her co-workers. It makes one wonder if she would have gone after said co-workers with the mallet if the show weren't kid-friendly.
90	** Ms. O even suffers from this in "Xs and Os" when she is forced to cut back on juice due to budget cuts imposed on her and her precinct by Xavier and Xena. Since she is TheAlcoholic, she begins to experience severe withdrawal symptoms such as agitation and restlessness, and by the climax of the episode, she becomes a TechnicallyLivingZombie who grows weaker and weaker with every minute. When Otis and Olympia decide to take action, the latter passes by the Director and conjures up a juice box from her {{Hammerspace}} spine for her to drink. She sips it happily and immediately returns back to normal.
91	** Another Oona-related example occurs in "Dr. O No", where the Scientist is forced to mentor New Dr. O (who is, quite obviously, the new Odd Squad Doctor of Precinct 13579) under [[CluelessBoss Ms. O's]] orders and stretches herself thin with how clueless her "apprentice" is. It gets to such a point that Oona ''snaps at Ms. O herself'' about how she's trying hard to help, but not only is she not an Odd Squad Doctor, but New Dr. O refuses to listen to her. Of course, New Dr. O [[IResembleThatRemark has the outrage fly right over her head as she leaves to go buy mayonnaise for making flatbread sandwiches,]] causing Oona's sanity to descend even further up until Oro shows up and helps her out, at which point he is promoted to the position of Precinct 13579's new Doctor. Of course, it doesn't please the Scientist any when she finds out that Ms. O merely demoted New Dr. O to the department of Food and Beverage instead of firing her at the end of the episode.
92	** Olympia gets another turn in "Other Olympia" when the Olympia from "Assistant's Creed" comes back with her partner, Ozric, after a year-long mission fighting a villain known as The Sandman and, upon meeting main-character Olympia, gives her the designation of "[[TitleDrop Other Olympia]]". Otis immediately knows that Olympia's sanity is going to topple just from looking at her [[TheUnSmile unnerving smile]], and he's right on the money -- her sanity does indeed begin to crumble the more she's referred to as "Other Olympia" (and even as "Other Other Olympia" at one point) and the more she has to clear up the name confusion with her co-workers. By the time she is denied cake from an agent's retirement party, she can't take it anymore and declares a "name-off" with the "Assistant's Creed" Olympia, where she ends up winning.
93	** "The Scientist" has yet another Oona-related example with her being trapped in AnotherDimension where there are no other humans and where things are inverted, up to and including gadget numbers and functions. She ends up staying in the dimension for nearly ''half a year'', with only a [[LeaveTheCameraRunning video camera recording her day-to-day logs for whomever may find it in the future]]. While she initially enjoys being alone in the alternate-version Precinct 13579, she eventually gets bored and ends up [[TalkingToThemself talking to herself]] quite a lot, with the camera switching back and forth as though there are two Oona clones speaking to each other. Once she returns to the real world and excitedly tells Olympia and Otis about her experience, she comments that while she did battle a giant plant she inadvertently made grow to enormous proportions, [[EnemyWithout the real thing she battled was herself, and she won,]] implying that the "clone" she spoke to is possibly an inverted version of her.
94	** In "Who is Agent Otis?", Oona gets a rare subtle example, with her continuously offering Olympia beans when the two girls hide in what was formerly Oscar's bunker. As Olympia begins to leave to track down and confront [[PunnyName Brad Hatter]], the only villain left in town who wears a hat, Oona tells her that she must take some beans before she goes and comments about how it feels like they're crowding all around her. She's not wrong -- many unopened cans of beans litter the bunker and block a pathway -- but considering Oona doesn't really have her mental health in check, it can come off as her sanity teetering off the edge.
95	** Opal suffers from this in "Mr. Unpredictable", as she becomes adamant that she can find a pattern in how the eponymous villain commits his crimes. Omar is well-aware that her sanity will go out the window before the two of them even ''begin their portion of the mission,'' but while Opal shockingly [[LampshadeHanging lampshades the trope]] by acknowledging it, she does so at the cost of repeatedly ignoring her partner, who becomes the OnlySaneMan in contrast to his usual ditzy personality and keeps bringing up the idea of using a hundreds chart to track Mr. Unpredictable down. Eventually she becomes deranged enough that she becomes a ConspiracyTheorist, rattling off patterns that don't even make sense, and her BloodKnight personality begins to show as she screams at a recording of Mr. Unpredictable that is contained in a snake-in-a-can, which she wrestles with.
96	* ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack'': Implied; we still have no idea whether the chicken or the voice Piper heard in SHU are real. In the Season 2 premiere, Piper starts talking about her painting made of rotten egg yolks, Thirsty Bird, among various other incidents during Season 2. Vaults straight into NightmareFuel. Though, it is shown in Season 3 that the chicken is real and gets in and out of the prison through a hole in the fence.
97	* ''Series/{{Oz}}'': Many a character undergoes this.
98	** Being horrifically abused, humiliated, and repeatedly raped by Schillinger results in Beecher getting addicted to drugs, which eventually results in him having a mental breakdown and [[TheDogBitesBack assaulting Schillinger in front of the entire prison.]] [[FromNobodyToNightmare He proceeds to spend the next season as a deranged, vengeful berserker feared by the other prisoners.]]
99	** Alvarez has severe depression, which results in him being prone to self-harm and erratic behavior whenever it gets really bad. A particularly nasty case happens when his antidepressants are cut off, which results in him experiencing hallucinations and trying to commit suicide.
100	** Carlo Ricardo becomes increasingly aggressive and unhinged as his beloved family slowly abandons him after he's sent to Oz.
101	** Clayton Hughes starts off as a NaiveNewcomer, but due to both a series of personal humiliations and Adebisi's manipulation, he becomes a rabid black militant. After he's fired, he slips further into radicalism and attempts to assassinate Governor Devlin, resulting in him being sent back to Oz as a prisoner. His violent outbursts and his murder of [[spoiler:Johnny Basil]] results in him being placed in solitary confinement, where Hughes finally descends completely into delusional madness.
102	** Dave Brass becomes increasingly bitter and cruel after having his burgeoning basketball career ruined when Morales has his Achilles tendon cut, which isn't helped by a series of other humiliations. [[spoiler:In the GrandFinale, he attempts to kill Jackson Vahue in a desperate attempt to be remembered; the final shot of him implies he just snapped.]]
103	* ''Series/PersonOfInterest'': In mid-season four, after a season and a half of SanityStrengthening, Root was, while still a bit of a lunatic, ''much'' more stable and caring about people's lives. After [[spoiler: Shaw's UncertainDoom]], however, she slowly loses it, reverting to her more psychopathic tendencies and being more than willing to brutally torture people for information. She even decides to [[spoiler: ''kill an innocent woman'']] in order to protect Finch when there were ''several'' other options available to her.
104	* The highly respected owner of Soonyang Group, Yang-cheol from ''Series/RebornRich'' gets diagnosed with a terminal brain illness that causes delirium and forgetfulness among other symptoms. He goes from being completely sane to losing his sanity little by little, and it reaches a point where he mistakenly believes that his innocent youngest grandson is trying to harm him [[spoiler:like his other family actually members did]] when his grandson was the one staying by his side during his illness.
105	* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'':
106	** Since this is a post-apocalyptic setting, it's a given that a lot of characters have experienced this.
107	** It's suggested by several characters involved in the militia (like Jeremy Baker in [[Recap/RevolutionS1E3NoQuarter episode 3]]) that Monroe's been suffering from this somewhat ever since [[spoiler: Miles left him]]. [[Recap/RevolutionS1E10NobodysFaultButMine episode 10]] is when this trope becomes obvious for Bass Monroe. In [[Recap/RevolutionS1E15Home episode 15]], [[spoiler: Emma Bennett, Monroe's high-school girlfriend, dies before she could tell him where to find their son]], and that had to have added to his insanity. The [[Recap/RevolutionS1E20TheDarkTower first season finale]] reveals that it wasn't just [[spoiler: Miles leaving him. It was also the fact that Miles tried to kill him while he was sleeping and leaving without an explanation. The fact that Monroe has a borderline erotic fixation on Miles did not help matters]].
108	** Ray Kinsey in [[Recap/RevolutionS1E4ThePlagueDogs episode 4]] fell victim to this as a result of watching his daughter die.
109	** Drexel in [[Recap/RevolutionS1E6SexAndDrugs episode 6]] has this going on, but he is a sociopathic drug lord who has likely become addicted to his own heroin.
110	** In [[Recap/RevolutionS1E12Ghosts episode 12]], [[spoiler: Randall may have undergone one triggered by the death of his son, resulting in him co-opting the Mathesons' research to produce a superweapon--initially to end the war in Afghanistan but ultimately to destroy the world order and start anew]].
111	** Rachel Matheson has been undergoing this since the blackout, as revealed in a flashback in [[Recap/RevolutionS1E19ChildrenOfMen episode 19]]. It only got worse after [[spoiler: the death of her son Danny]] in [[Recap/RevolutionS1E11TheStand episode 11]].
112	* ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'': After inadvertently ruining his own career, Lloyd Braun has a mental breakdown and goes from a smarmy but perfectly sane {{Jerkass}} to a pathetic lunatic. By the time of his final appearance, he's spent time in a mental institution for butchering a family and keeping their bodies in his freezer.
113	* ''Series/StElsewhere'': Peter White suffers from this during his three seasons on the show, culminating in his wife throwing him out and his subsequent spiraling into drug and alcohol abuse, sex addiction, a DUI arrest, and ultimately [[spoiler:his rape of several nurses, one of whom eventually shoots and kills him.]]
114	* ''Series/TheSiflAndOllyShow'': Olly is an odd case in that his sanity is only shown to ever slip during the "[[HonestJohnsDealership Precious Roy]]" segments, which his psychiatrist describes as "manic-compulsive salesmanship". Olly goes further and further off the rails each time the segment comes around, but as soon as the next segment comes, he's back to normal.
115	* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'': Major Zod of the 9th Season started out bad and only got worse from there.
116	* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
117	** ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'':
118	*** To [[TheSpock Spock,]] of all people, in "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E1AmokTime Amok Time]]" when the [[MateOrDie Pon Farr]] Blood Fever hits him. He begins by just [[ForgetsToEat going off food]] and being a bit more reclusive than usual. He manages to hide his condition well enough that [[TheNotLoveInterest Kirk]] doesn't even realise there's anything wrong. Then he threatens to snap [[VitriolicBestBuds Dr Mc Coy's]] neck when the latter gets worried about him and tries to give him a medical checkup. He begins to lose his temper - quite violently, at times, alarming his crewmates. Then Jim finds out that Spock has been giving orders to redirect the ship to Vulcan, and doesn't even remember doing it. Things begin to go rapidly downhill from there, culminating in a DuelToTheDeath with Kirk where the stoic, pacifist, loyal Vulcan is reduced to the state of a wild animal, fully willing to murder his dearest friend. Fortunately, Kirk's apparent 'death' at his hands shocked him out of the Blood Fever, and by the end of the episode, he seems to be returning to normal (though not quite all the way there.)
119	*** In "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E23TheOmegaGlory The Omega Glory]]," after Tracey learns all his evil deeds are AllForNothing, you can see him snap at the news and proceeds to threaten Kirk for weapons for a pointless fight on a planet they by now can leave any time.
120	*** The ''very next episode'', "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E24TheUltimateComputer The Ultimate Computer]]", when Richard Daystrom attempts to convince the M-5 Computer to stand down after it has killed numerous crewmen on various ships, the fact that his creation, and by extension him, has done this weighs so heavily on him that he snaps, first ranting about how his colleagues laughed at him and took his work to make their own careers, then snapping at Kirk and declaring the two of them invincible at how powerful it becomes. Spock is forced to Nerve Pinch him before he brings harm to Kirk.
121	** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E23Sarek Sarek]]", Vulcan ambassador Sarek is struggling with Bendii syndrome, the Vulcan version of Alzheimer's disease, which makes it practically impossible for him to suppress his emotions at his advanced age, and after it starts affecting the ''Enterprise'' crew, Picard finally confronts him about it and Sarek's attempts at denying Picard's assertions have him [[{{Angrish}} devolving into furious ranting]].
122	** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'':
123	*** Antagonist [[Characters/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineGulDukat Dukat]]. He starts off as a scheming, megalomaniac, yet charming villain, gets gradually worse, especially in season six, until "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E11Waltz Waltz]]", when it all finally boils down to a deranged MotiveRant that is declared in-universe to be a MoralEventHorizon: "I should've killed every last one of them! I should've turned their planet into a graveyard the likes of which the galaxy had never seen! I should've killed them all."
124	*** Faked -- ''probably'' -- by Sisko in "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E13ForTheUniform For the Uniform]]". He even slips into the Joran [[TranquilFury voice]].
125	** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'':
126	*** In "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS6E9TheVoyagerConspiracy The Voyager Conspiracy]]," as Seven's cortical node degrades, she slips further into her delusions that everything around her is part of a giant conspiracy.
127	*** Captain Janeway is usually at her best when she's under pressure. The episodes "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS4E8YearOfHell Year of Hell]]" and "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS5E25S6E1Equinox Equinox]]," however, show us what she becomes when she's pushed past her limit, and the result is more than a little unsettling.
128	* ''Series/StrangersFromHell'': Jong-woo descends further and further into insanity as living in Eden takes a toll on him. [[spoiler: He's completely insane by the end.]]
129	* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'':
130	** Season seven does this to [[spoiler:Sam across most of the season,]] culminating in "[[Recap/SupernaturalS07E17TheBornAgainIdentity The Born-Again Identity]]".
131	** Also happens, during season seven, to [[spoiler:Cas, when he absorbs all of the souls of Purgatory]] and later on, when he [[spoiler: is possessed by the Leviathan]].
132	** After getting the Mark of Cain, Dean has become unstable and enjoys killing versus before when he would show remorse about it, and feels absolutely no regret about it. He even tells Sam that they do things his way and it's not a team anymore but a dictatorship. Culminates in him attacking Gadreel while growling at the end of "[[Recap/SupernaturalS09E22StairwayToHeaven Stairway to Heaven]]".
133	* ''Series/{{Survivor}}'':
134	** Has some contestants who seem to have gone a little nuts during their time in the wilderness:
135	** ''Survivor: Amazon'' had Matthew who freaked out his teammates by beginning to very meticulously sharpening the machete every day while staring creepily out into space, and Butch who suddenly gained a firewood fetish and forced his teammates to stockpile all the wood they could find which ended up burning their camp down when said massive woodpile caught fire. Even Matt thought that was a little messed up.
136	** ''Panama'' had Shane who made the genius decision to quit a 3-pack smoking habit literally hours before getting on ''Survivor''. Cue him yelling at his tribemates every single opportunity he got, treating a hunk of wood as a Blackberry, and looking more and more like a crazed animal the longer he stayed out there.
137	** ''Heroes vs. Villains'' saw Russell get hit hard with this trope. Parvati [[ItSeemedLikeAGoodIdeaAtTheTime thought it would be just peachy]] to keep a hidden immunity idol from him just to see him squirm. Once she handed them to Jerri and Sandra to nullify all of the Heroes' votes for the former, the DisasterDominoes began. For ''both'' sides.
138	* ''Series/{{Taxi}}'':
139	** [[CloudCuckooLander Reverend Jim Ignatowski]] was actually a Harvard freshman and ExtremeDoormat called James Caldwell, but after he ate a "funny brownie" (at his girlfriend Heather's insistence) and his life totally changed, starting from [[NoodleIncident using finger-paint on his term papers]], while he thought that "Ignatowski" spelled backwards was "Star Child" [[spoiler: when it was "Ikswotangi"]].
140	** OnlySaneMan Alex fell into this whenever he ''really'' got over the edge. In an early episode, Alex was given some pills he thought were aspirin, but these were actually "uppers". Their effects are practically immediate, with Alex talking ''very'' fast and singing "Bye-Bye, Love" after waving goodbye to the rest of the gang when he goes to see Mr. [=McKenzie=]. Later he ripped Louie's cage with his bare hands and threatened Louie because of his refusal to listen to him about re-hiring Bobby.
141	*** This was once PlayedForDrama in a late episode when Alex was informed by his doctor that [[HeroicBSOD his dog didn't have too much time left]]. He then got stuck between the "denial" and the "anger" stages of the FiveStagesOfGrief for most of the episode.
142	* ''Series/TeenWolf'': In season 2 Lydia begins hallucinating after being attacked by Peter, and in the first episode escapes from the hospital and runs naked into the woods. However, it's ambiguous how much of her 'insanity' is actually her going crazy and how much is Peter's ghost gaslighting her. It seems to be more the latter, as Peter is shown to be able to turn her hallucinations on and off, as well as having some degree of MindControl over her.
143	** Later comes up in season 3: [[spoiler: after sacrificing themselves to the nemeton, Scott, Allison, and Stiles all begin exhibiting this. Scott can't control his werewolf transformations, Allison hallucinates her dead aunt, and Stiles is experiencing dreams and hallucinations so vivid (along with occasionally losing the ability to read) that he's no longer able to tell when he's awake.]]
144	* ''Series/TheWalkingDead2010'': Several survivors of the ZombieApocalypse begin experiencing this from SurvivorGuilt or just the stress of dealing with the PrimalFear day in and day out.
145

Context SanitySlippage / LiveActionTV