Times where it's noted that Both Sides Have a Point in Live-Action TV.
- The 100: This is the basis for the conflict between the Grounders and the Sky People, as both sides have good reasons to distrust and dislike the other and both sides are guilty of committing terrible acts against the other, both intentionally and unintentionally.
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: In the season 3 episode, "The Inside Man", Daisy and Lincoln have a heated argument over the potential benefits and drawbacks of a hypothetical vaccination against terrigenesis changes. Daisy, herself an inhuman who's successfully had her powers activated by such a change, argues that governments would be all too tempted to make such a vaccination mandatory to receive, which would effectively doom inhumans to a guaranteed eventual extinction, effectively be treating terrigenesis and status as an inhuman as if it were a disease, and deny preexisting inhumans who haven't already activated their powers the right to choose to embrace who they are and have powers. Lincoln, himself an inhuman with successfully activated powers just like Daisy, rebuts that how, since circumstances have changed so that terrigenesis is happening at random instead of only to prepared, screened, and entirely willing preselected candidates, people are already getting transformed and receiving powers (or even outright killed in the case of any luckless ordinary humans to be unwittingly subjected to terrigenesis) without any warning or choice in the matter, and even brings up a fellow inhuman they both mutually know who received a particularly unpleasant power after receiving an accidental terrigenesis and would have greatly preferred to have been able to stay normal.
- Black Lightning: In the show's fourth and final season, Jefferson and Lynn's relationship begins to break down to the point they've begun taking couple's therapy (both separate and together) over his self-destructive behavior and her drug issues respectively. Each time they go at it, they both make several valid points. In Lynn's case, Jefferson may have every right to be grieving over the death of his best friend and brother-in-arms Detective Henderson, but he's letting his grief drive him to drinking, hang-up being Black Lightning, put a strain on his relationship with her and his daughters, and eventually be driven into underground fight clubs. As for Jefferson, he is right that Lynn has essentially traded one drug (Greenlight) for another (in this case, deliberately injecting herself with metahuman powers and testing them on herself), has been lying about it for months, and ended up having a meeting with Tobias Whale that she hasn't told Jefferson (who accidentally witnessed it thanks to him) about. Both are unequivocally right about one another, but it takes a few episodes before they both come to acknowledge their problems.
- Brooklyn Nine-Nine:
- In the Season 4 episode, "Moo Moo", Terry is profiled and arrested by a racist police officer. Terry wants to file an official complaint against the officer. However, Holt, also a black man, tells Terry to let it go. Terry wants to file the complaint not only because he wants justice, but also because he doesn't want the officer who arrested him to get away with it and could potentially go on to do it again. Holt advises Terry to let it go because it could be seen as "rocking the boat," and could seriously harm Terry's ability to advance his career and that he may be better off in the long run by getting into a position of power so he can address the systemic racism within the NYPD in a more profound way. In the end, Terry goes ahead and files the complaint. While the officer does receive an official reprimand, Terry is passed over for a community liaison position he applied for.
- In the Season 6 episode, "He Said She Said," a woman who was the victim of an attempted sexual assault by her boss is offered a large cash settlement if she agrees to sign a Nondisclosure Agreement. Amy convinces her to not take the case and to press charges against her boss, something that Rosa disagrees with. Amy's argument is that no one should be allowed to get away with committing a crime just because they have a lot of money, and that when women come forward with their stories, it empowers more women to do so. Rosa's argument is that because they have no physical evidence that the assault took place, and that a jury is unlikely to believe her; the victim may very well end up losing the money, losing her job, losing her reputation, and may even be blacklisted from ever getting a job in finance ever again.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: In "Dead Man's Party", while both sides in the tension between Buffy and her friends and family act like jerks to each other, both also have valid reasons to be upset. While the Scoobies and Joyce weren't wrong to be angry and hurt that Buffy abandoned them without a word, Buffy also had valid reasons to feel isolated and overly-pressured, and that the other Scoobies and Joyce weren't entirely helpful in supporting her with them.
- This is a driving point of the series Cobra Kai, which examines Daniel and Johnny's tumultuous past and explores how Johnny's not as bad as Daniel thought and that Daniel isn't the innocent victim he thought he was. It extends to their styles of karate too, where neither Daniel's "only fight as a last resort" or Johnny's "strike first and be aggressive" methods are right or wrong, but rather it's all about knowing when to be proactive and when to be reactive, and as the show goes on Daniel learns there truly are times you need to take the offense and fight, and Johnny learns there are times you need to back down and be pacifistic. It ultimately shows both men as decent sympathetic people with demons to battle and who actually aren't so different from one another... and it's not until they both reunite with Ali Mills that they finally make peace with each other, bury the hatchet, and unite their dojos to stand against the real threat: the psychotic John Kreese.Ali: Okay! You guys really like fighting each other!
Daniel: He's instigating! I'm just defending myself! As usual!
Johnny: She knows firsthand that's bullshit!
Ali: This is exactly the problem! You say one thing and then you say the opposite! You think there's only one side to the story!
Johnny: Yeah... I know. There's two.
Ali: No, there's three! There's your side, and your side, and then there is the truth! And the truth is you guys are more alike then you want to admit. Maybe you recognize parts of yourselves in each other, and maybe you don't always like what you see.- In Seasons 3 and 4, part of Robby's defection to Cobra Kai is motivated by how both they and Kreese (among others) are so stubborn in doing things their way that in can prove to be a detriment to the people around them, giving Daniel a small "The Reason You Suck" Speech over it. Of course, while this does get Daniel to realize it, he's still able to respond that Robby is going about it all in a way that can,,and does ultimately backfire:Daniel: You wanted to beat Miyagi-Do so badly, you gave Cobra Kai all of our secrets.
Robby: The goal is to win. I did what I had to do.
Daniel: If all you care about is winning, then you really didn't learn anything that I taught you.
Robby: You know, everyone thinks that their way is the only way. You, My dad, Cobra Kai, the truth is, it doesn't matter which way you fight as long as it works, and I'll use whatever it takes to win.
Daniel: Why? To get back at your dad? Me? Miyagi-Do? Sam? The world? if that's the case, I have another Miyagi-Do secret that you can slip to your friends; Never put passion over principle, because even if you win, you lose.
- In Seasons 3 and 4, part of Robby's defection to Cobra Kai is motivated by how both they and Kreese (among others) are so stubborn in doing things their way that in can prove to be a detriment to the people around them, giving Daniel a small "The Reason You Suck" Speech over it. Of course, while this does get Daniel to realize it, he's still able to respond that Robby is going about it all in a way that can,,and does ultimately backfire:
- The Crown: When Margaret Thatcher and her husband visit the royal family at their Scottish manor, both sides find each other insufferable. The Thatchers see the royals as frivolous, condescending bumkins. The royals see the Thatchers as stuffy, rigid bores. Both sides are basically correct.
- In the pilot episode of Danger Force, Ray points out the kids aren't ready to fight crime yet, which Mika counters with by pointing out they're being taught basic skills like how to lie and not how to control their powers.
- Equal Justice: Both sides in the contentious cases make fair points in favor of their position, no matter who the jury (or the audience) ends up siding with.
- The First Lady: Michelle Obama understandably expresses frustration over being asked to support Hillary Clinton, but many white women don't reciprocate, saying things involving black women are a "black issue". Her mom points out though that if Trump wins, it won't just affect white women. Michelle silently accepts that she's right.
- For the People is built on this from a courtroom standpoint. In general, the series makes clear the importance of due process and how important it is to have the prosecution and the defence both trying their hardest for their clients, because if they make exceptions for one client they can make exceptions for any of them.
- The Frasier episode "Dinner At Eight". On the one hand, Martin is right that Frasier and Niles need to relax and enjoy "normal" things sometimes; but seeing as how their hostess just cut off their (presumably expensive) ties, they have a right to be angry. Or at least very, very annoyed.
- Game of Thrones:
- In "The Wars to Come", Jon urges Mance to bend the knee to Stannis to save his people by earning them a place south of the Wall, but Mance argues his authority comes from a respect that would evaporate the moment they see him kneel and any leader that gives a damn about his people wouldn't ask them to die for a foreigner.
- In "Dragonstone", Jon and Sansa differ in opinions on how to handle Houses Umber and Karstark, who had joined forces with the Boltons and been subsequently defeated. Sansa wishes to punish the remainder of the Houses and give their lands as a reward to more loyal families, which is the normal and expected practice of the time; failure to do so could encourage other families to abandon the Starks when things get tough. But Jon counters that it's cruel and unfair to punish the Houses' children for actions that they had no part in (the perpetrators having died in battle) and showing mercy when harshness is expected could buy loyalty in the future. Jon only wins the argument by pulling rank as King in the North.
- In "The Dragon and the Wolf", Jaime is furious with Cersei when he learns she lied to Jon and Danaerys when she said she would send troops to help them fight the Night King. Cersei justifies this by saying that following the devastating loss the Lannister army suffered to Danaerys at the Battle of Blackwater Run, they need to keep whatever troops they still have until the Golden Company arrive, to defend King's Landing against either winner up North. But Jaime points out, equally correctly, that once Dany and Jon learn she was lying to them, they will have no reason to refrain from attacking her should they winnote , and if the Army of the Dead wins their numbers will be increased by all those they kill in the North, making it less likely they will be able to defend King's Landing even with the Golden Company.
- After the former outcome, indeed, in "The Last of the Starks", as Jaime warned, Dany wants to attack Cersei immediately before she has any more time to bolster their defenses. But Sansa objects, noting that the surviving armies of the North are exhausted and should be allowed to rest before beginning another campaign.
- House of the Dragon:
- During Viserys and Daemon's confrontation in the pilot, Daemon is right that Viserys is a weak king who needs someone at his side who can get stuff done, and also that Otto Hightower is likely using his indecisiveness to further his own position. Viserys, meanwhile, correctly points out that he's been the one person to take Daemon's side while everyone else has wanted to get rid of him, and that Daemon has rewarded this brotherly loyalty by publically gloating over the death of Viserys' wife and son.
- Rhaenyra and Alicent both make good points during their argument at the small council meeting in Episode 6 of Season 1. Rhaenyra says that after defeating the Crabfeeder in the Stepstones a decade ago the Seven Kingdoms should have put garrisons and fortifications in place, and now their laxity has allowed the Triarchy to rear its ugly head again. Alicent points out that the funds for those things need to come from somewhere and their people would suffer from increased taxes. Rhaenyra counters that the people would suffer even more from an invasion.
- In the Girls episode "Close-Up", Mimi-Rose blithely reveals to Adam that she aborted a pregnancy by him the day before. She asks him if he had wanted a child, and he says "Maybe". She points out that they have only been living together for seven weeks, which doesn't seem like a long enough time to have made that decision together. He responds that his parents got married after only having known each other for a week, however.
- Hacks: Deborah and Ava disagree about feminism and the purpose of comedy. The show validates both points of view.
- Homicide: Life on the Street: In "The Last of the Watermen", Howard returns to her family home in the Chesapeake Bay to find that the local oysterman industry has been essentially destroyed when a conservationist had restrictions placed on how many oysters they could fish. However, the conservationist points out that he's a former oysterman himself who's seen how a community like their's can be destroyed by overfishing, and points out that the restrictions are necessary to prevent the oystermen from wiping out the local oyster population.
- How I Met Your Mother: In the episode "How Lily Stole Christmas," Ted and Lily get into a major spat when Lily finds out that Ted called her a "Grinch" for calling off her engagement to Marshall in order to pursue an art fellowship in San Francisco. While Lily is justifiably angry for Ted calling her that, as well as for him secretly holding a grudge against her for her actions and refusing to apologize, Ted is also right to be angry, since Lily's abrupt departure and lack of contact also hurt him and the other people in Marshall's life, and she never apologized to him for leaving.
- The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Elrond and Galadriel argue about her abandoning her mission and going to live peacefully in Valinor. Galadriel has a good point about the Elves being blind to the possible return of Sauron, but so does Elrond when he tells Galadriel that seeking out Sauron won't bring her any peace, only leading to the death of more Elves on a mission about which she might be mistaken.
- In Season 2 of The Mandalorian, the titular character manages to track down a Jedi he intends to have his adoptive son, an infantile member of the same species as Master Yoda, be trained under in the ways of the Force. This Jedi, Ahsoka Tano, becomes impressed by the young child's powers, but fears his emotional attachment to his father makes him far too vulnerable to the dark side and refuses to train him, forcing Mando to make a deal to have Ahsoka train the Child in exchange for dealing with her problems on the planet Covrus. Once the crisis is over, Ahsoka still won't take him, which Mando reminds her they had a deal. Mando is right that a deal is a deal and that their bargain must be honored, and in spite of showing affection for his son, he is far from the ideal person to train or raise the boy seeing as he is not only constantly in the line of danger, but he's nowhere near proficient in the Force, and his son clearly needs someone who can help him in that way. On the other hand, Ahsoka's reasons for turning down his training are quite valid; after all, she witnessed firsthand with her own master that allowing one's attachments to grow too strong can be very disastrous, and fears that training the child (who's revealed to be named Grogu and happens to be a survivor of Order 66 could potentially create another Vader. Ultimately, a compromise is reached where Mando can take his charge to the planet Tython, where an old Jedi Temple resides. There, the boy can choose which path to follow, which Mando accepts as reasonable.
- In season 3 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, protagonist Midge spends the summer touring with a musician named Shy Baldwin as his opening act. She finds out that he’s gay. She doesn’t care but given that it’s set in 1960, it has to be kept a secret. In the finale when she’s getting ready to open for him in front of a black audience (Shy is black as well) in Harlem, her opening act’s manager yells at her and tells her she’s gonna bomb because a white girl doesn’t have anything in common with them. It spooks her and Shy’s manager, Reggie, tells her that Shy is what she and the audience have in common and tells her to talk about him and so she does. She starts making jokes about him being a diva and high maintenance that Reggie and Shy take to mean that she’s outing him. She genuinely didn’t mean it that way and the audience didn’t take it that way. The straw that broke the camel’s back was saying that he had “Judy Garland” shoes. Talking about Garland back in the day was a code for being gay. She doesn’t know this but the two of them do. Once again, the audience didn’t seem to understand it. Reggie meets her on the Tarmac when they’re supposed to be getting on a plane to Europe and fires her. On one hand, she was told to make jokes about him and it was an honest misunderstanding but on the other hand, he trusted her with his secret, she used a specific code word. Given the time period and him being a Twofer Token Minority, it’s understandable that he’s sensitive about anything that could remotely be construed as being about him being gay getting around.
- Midsomer Murders: It's what we eventually learn regarding Sebastian and Millie in "The Noble Art". While what he does is rude and disrespectful toward her to the point that his actions can be seen as abuse, and he cheated on her with Giles Braithwaite, by the end of the episode we learn how she as well cheated on him, and did it with none other than his own father.
- George spends one episode of Seinfeld arguing with another driver over a parking spot. While George was there first, the other driver states that he was sitting around instead of parking. George argues that the man is parallel parking front first which is unusual, but as the other driver points out its not actually illegal. By the end, the matter still hasn't been settled.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
- In "Hippocratic Oath", Dr. Bashir and Chief O'Brien end up being taken hostage by a legion of Jem'hadar soldiers, who force the former to find a way to cure their dependence on Ketracel White — the substance that's forcing them to remain dependent to The Founders. Bashir tries to give it his all, believing that freeing the Jem'hadar from Dominion servitude would give them the chance to make their own decisions and give the Federation a key advantage, but O'Brien believes it would just give the Dominion a glaring advantage over Starfleet now that their soldiers are no longer dependent on the drug. Neither is treated as right or wrong in the matter, but O'Brien forces the issue by destroying Bashir's attempted cure and hightailing back to Deep Space Nine, much to Bashir's frustration (even if understands why he did it).
- In "The Begotten," Odo and his old "mentor" Mora Pel argue about how best to "raise" a newly-discovered 'infant' changeling now that Odo's been turned into a solid and can't just link with it to teach it; Odo wanting to encourage it as opposed to the probes and shock tests Mora used to experiment on him (although Mora argues that he didn't even know if Odo was sentient when he did most of those tests). Their experiments finally conclude with both parties proving correct; the infant changeling only starts making an effort when Mora uses his shock methods (albeit in a much more controlled and moderated way than he did with Odo), but because Odo had been trying to emotionally connect with it, the infant clearly recognizes Odo as a friend, where Odo had come to resent Mora, which Mora admits when the infant, unprompted, tries to imitate Odo's face, while the closest parallel for Odo had been him forming a tentacle to slap Mora's hand away from the control panel. In essence, the infant's first attempt to communicate was it trying to say "Hello," where Odo's was more akin to "Stop it."
- Played for Laughs in "You Are Cordially Invited" in a discussion between Quark, Bashir, and O'Brien. When Worf and Jadzia's wedding is called off because the latter pissed off Lady Sirella when she was supposed to be proving her worth to join the House of Martok, and the former insists on a traditional Klingon Wedding, the three men note that Jadiza is too free-spirited and unwilling to adhere to tradition, while Worf is too stubborn to deviate from Klingon tradition. O'Brien humorously notes they're both right. In the end, Worf does apologize, but Jadzia still refuses to budge and beg Sirella's forgiveness, so Sisko has to chew her out and remind her that she knew what she was getting into when she agreed to marry Worf.
- Star Trek: Picard:
- The series opens up in 2399, focusing on a retired Admiral Jean-Luc Picard, who had resigned in disgust from Starfleet in the wake of the destruction of Romulus. It turns out he quit because Starfleet had called off the evacuation efforts he was tasked with heading up when a terrorist attack destroyed their shipyards, and he felt that the organization he once served had become a shell of its former self for letting Romulus die — an opinion he expresses loudly during a televised interview. Yet, when he shows up at their doorstep asking for a ship and crew to help investigate a potential Romulan crime, Admiral Clancy chews him out for his "sheer, fucking hubris" for thinking he could just waltz in like nothing happened and shows him the door, further shaming him for leaving Starfleet in their time of need and refusing to accept that the situation behind them calling off the evacuation was bigger than himself. He solemnly realizes over the course of several episodes that Clancy was right; he had allowed perfect to become the enemy of good and let his hubris blind him from seeing that even he couldn't erase 200 years of hostilities overnight, which even his closest friends call him out on. However, Starfleet quickly realizes that the Admiral was spot on when it's revealed a cabal of Romulans called the Zhat Vash caused the attack to prevent an uprising of synthetic lifeforms, dooming their own people in the process, and that their knee-jerk reaction to the situation only made things worse (though this is only when he supplies evidence of this conspiracy).
- In "Seventeen Seconds", Picard and Riker are onboard the Titan-A, which they hijacked (much to the chagrin of its Captain, Liam Shaw) to rescue Beverly Crusher, resulting in them being pursued by the mysterious "Vadic" and her ship, the Shrike. During the pursuit, Captain Shaw is injured and transfers command to Riker, who makes Picard his right hand in the matter. However, both come to blows on the best approach, with Picard wanting a more aggressive approach, and Riker wanting to cut and run. Riker makes a valid point that the ship is stuck outside of Federation Space with 500 lives in danger, and even Picard himself agreed that stealing the ship was a bad call, so running is the best option. However, Picard points out that Vadic won't stop until she gets what she wants (that being Picard's own son), and they need to strike when they get the chance to get her off their backs, even diplomatically accusing Riker of letting the loss of his own son cloud his judgement (which Riker does not take kindly to). Both men are proven right at the end; Picard's more aggressive strategy sends the Titan plummeting to their doom when the Shrike uses stolen teleportation technology to send their attacker's fire right back at them, but it also proves that Riker couldn't simply take the ship and run. The next episode, "No Win Scenario", has Riker then admit Picard was right to pursue the aggressive strategy, and his hesitation did come from the fact his son's death had greatly affected him and his marriage.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation:
- In "Half a Life", Lwaxana Troi falls in love with Dr. Timicin, whose people commit ritual suicide upon their sixtieth birthday, which he is weeks away from. Lwaxana and Timicin debate the merits of mid-life euthanasia as compared to growing old and dying naturally, and the episode paints neither him nor Lwaxana as explicitly right or wrong. He ends up wanting to stay alive long enough to see his very important research finished, but the pressure of his society overwhelms him, he decides to go through with the euthanasia. As sad as this makes Lwaxana, she ultimately accepts his decision.
- In "Ethics", Worf is paralyzed after a piece of unsecured cargo falls on him and breaks his spine. Worf wants to commit ritual suicide, as Klingons consider it a major dishonor to be disabled such that one cannot fight. Riker and Dr. Crusher point out that it's possible to live a full life with a disability, but Picard explains that humans and Klingons have very different standards for what qualifies as a "full life" - for Worf, accepting life in his condition would mean utterly throwing away his Klingon identity. A visiting neurologist, Dr. Russell, offers an experimental treatment which would fully cure Worf, but it is still in the very early stages of research (the success rate on holographic patients was only 37%, and Russell had been denied permission to test it on live patients three times). Crusher calls out Russell for taking advantage of Worf's desperation to use him as a guinea pig, but Russell explains that she only offered her treatment after Worf rejected conventional treatments which would have restored some of his mobility (feeling that being even moderately crippled was not a life worth living). No one involved is portrayed as entirely right or wrong. It appears that the episode was not meant to send a specific message one way or another, but simply to encourage the viewer to think.
- In "I, Borg", the Enterprise crew considers introducing a Logic Bomb to the Borg, with both Crusher and Riker bringing up legitimate points in opposing and supporting its use. Crusher hammers the point that using it would tantamount to genocide, while Riker notes that the Borg are such a huge, existential threat that it would be justifiable.
- Stranger Things: In Season 3, after Nancy's Intrepid Reporter shenanigans get both her and Jonathan fired from their internships at the Hawkins local newspaper, they have a massive fight stemming from the fact that while she has a father who makes six figures, Jonathan needed this job to help support his family. Jonathan reminds her that they were interns who had no business acting as investigative reporters and that her actions opened the paper up to a lot of potentially dire legal consequences. He accuses her of being an entitled, spoiled brat who expects success to be handed to her on a silver platter. Nancy, on the other hand, points out that while Jonathan was treated fairly well, she was subject to humiliation and extremely misogynistic treatment by the other employees, and that nothing short of proving herself as a reporter was ever going to make them treat her with even the smallest modicum of respect and that he shouldn't just brush that aside.
- That's My Bush! did it multiple times during its eight-episode run. Trey Parker and Matt Stone were clearly less interested in making political points than just Parodying sitcoms in a political setting.
- The Wheel of Time: Moiraine rebukes Nynaeve for not letting her know about Mat's illness, as it prevented her from finding out that the evil of the Shadar Logoth dagger was consuming him, and she might have been too late to save him. But at the same time Rand and Nynaeve believe Mat is a channeler, they know full well what the Aes Sedai do to male channelers, and they naturally didn't want to let Moiraine get near him.
- Ted Lasso: Ted and Coach Beard get into an argument when their leadership styles clash. Ted argues that his less harsh and results-focused leadership style did what Beard never did, and got Rojas out of his funk and playing to potential. Beard argues that while the softer touch and laissez-faire approach to results might have done well in this situation, the fact is that they aren't coaching a bottom-tier college team anymore, they are leading professionals whose livelihood depends on them winning games. They eventually reconcile, with Ted taking results a little more seriously, and Beard being a little less Drill Sergeant Nasty.
