Warning: As this trope deals with attempted Heel-Face Turns - more specifically with those meeting resistance and the natural consequences thereof - spoilers naturally abound.
Characters who struggle to be accepted while making a sincere effort to reform in Live-Action TV series.
- This forms the main arc of the first season of Better Call Saul. Jimmy McGill, a former con artist, earns a law degree and tries to earn a respectable living protecting the elderly from exploitation. He becomes an unethical defense attorney only after learning that several mysterious setbacks in his career were caused by his brother, because he believes that Jimmy isn't truly reformed and shouldn't be a lawyer.
- The Deep in The Boys (2019). He had a history of being a womanizer and forced himself on Starlight after she joined the Seven. After she exposes him to the media he's Reassigned to Antarctica and goes into a downward spiral before eventually realizing the error of his ways. With the help of the local Church of Happyology he manages to get the public to warm up to him again but when he tries to rejoin the Seven Starlight and Stormfront, a literal Nazi, refuse to hear him out and Queen Maeve tells him she'll help him in exchange for favors but she still considers him to be "a piece of shit".
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- Even after his attempts at redemption, Spike is almost never really trusted by the Scoobies, who continually hound him with abuse and scorn. On the other hand, 120 years of him killing for fun.
- When he was originally forced to beg for their help, he spent a lot of time telling them how much he hated them and how he was going to kill them all, first chance he got. The abuse and scorn weren't exactly one-sided. Even when he started trying to be what Buffy wanted, some of his attempts were... off, and the gang knew quite well that he was motivated by feelings for Buffy rather than a genuine desire for redemption. There's a difference. Even if he was planning not to repeat his past evil actions, he didn't actually feel remorse for them.
- Even after Spike gets his soul, Xander remains wary of him (the years of antagonism between the two of them not going away that simply) while Giles spends a good amount of Season 7 dismissive of his capacity for change and instead criticizes Buffy for leaning so closely on Spike as an ally. It gets to the point where Giles, worried about the consequences of the First Evil's brainwashing effect on Spike (and annoyed that Buffy removed the chip in Spike's head after it started malfunctioning instead of installing a new one), decided to help Robin Wood in his attempt to kill Spike rather than trust that the vampire had the capacity to overcome the trigger.
- Also, there's a lot of confusion about just how responsible vampires are for their actions. When soulless Angel kills Ms. Calendar, it's made arguably clear that Angel wasn't responsible, his evil counterpart Angelus was. This line gets a lot more blurred around Spike, because he doesn't even get a soul until the seventh season, by which point he's insane and being manipulated by the Big Bad anyway, so there's even less reason to trust him.
- Faith is an interesting case in that she seems to have genuinely reformed post coma, being genuinely nice to Buffy in a dream sequence and telling her how to stop the ascension. However after recovering, being haunted by Buffy coming after her and traumatized by her father figure being killed causes her to Freak Out. Her reaction, to swap bodies with Buffy and act like a complete Jerkass and sleep with Buffy's boyfriend, is treated as the worst thing that she had ever done. After Faith gets her own body back, she runs to LA, where she goes on a rampage and tortures Wesley in a bid to be killed by Angel. He instead sees it as a cry for help and tries to put her on the path of redemption, however Buffy is having none of that and comes to town, still holding a grudge and intent on killing her.
- Andrew in the 7th season possibly fits this trope, though most of the heroes just find him really annoying.
- Even after his attempts at redemption, Spike is almost never really trusted by the Scoobies, who continually hound him with abuse and scorn. On the other hand, 120 years of him killing for fun.
- Cole from Charmed, to the point that he was eventually driven back to The Dark Side by his attempts to get back into the good guys' good graces. Probably didn't help that blasted witches couldn't decide whether they wanted to help him or vanquish him.
- Days of Our Lives:
- The residents of Salem had a really hard time believing Jack Deveraux's Heel–Face Turn after falling in love with Jennifer Horton. It didn't help matters that Jack had been a manipulative, sleazy politician, and that he'd committed marital rape against his ex-wife Kayla.
- Chelsea Brady ran into this same problem too. It didn't help that she'd accidentally killed her half-brother and then lied about it, and tried everything in her power to break up Bo and Hope (including emotionally manipulating her mom Billie). So when she finally realized the harm she'd caused and then tried to redeem herself by revealing that Claire Kiriakis was actually Shawn's daughter and not Philip's absolutely nobody believed she was doing it out of good-will.
- Degrassi High:
- High school student Rick had anger issues and pushed his girlfriend into a rock by accident, putting her in a coma. Came back a season later, having undergone anger management, but everyone hated him, to the extent that two students dumped a bucket of paint and feathers on him. Rick snapped, took a gun to school, paralyzed one of the students who bullied him previously, then died after a struggle with another student from his own gun. To be fair the hatred of Rick came mostly from the fact that he abused his girlfriend and started stalking her after she finally broke up with him. He wasn't completely rejected, either; he became friends with Toby, who actually came to his funeral.
- Spinner, who was one of Rick's main tormentors (though not without reason —his anger was justified, considering that Rick put his friend in a coma.) After coming clean about his involvement in the prank that caused Rick to snap in the first place, he was expelled and spent the next season trying to find his way back into his friends' good graces. Jimmy especially wasn't convinced that Spinner had changed, and it took him longer than anyone to forgive Spinner, but eventually the two did make amends.
- The Master in the Doctor Who special "The Five Doctors". Though his motives are more for personal gain than any kind of reformation, he does genuinely want to help the various Doctors in their current predicament, but none of them believe him. Ultimately, he decides it's easier just to be a villain. Five did admit his own fault and unlike the other Doctors, he showed remorse for disbelieving the Master on this occasion (of course, it's not like the Doctors had good reason to believe him in the first place).
- Frasier: Martin's subplot in "A Day In May" sees him attending the parole hearing of the man who shot him in the hip, an act that ended Martin's career as a police officer. During the hearing the man explains how he's worked hard to better himself and genuinely regrets the actions that led him to the shooting. The parole board asks Martin if he wants to say anything but Martin declines. The board ultimately decides that despite his record of good behavor, the man hasn't served enough of his sentence and deny him parole.
- Game of Thrones: Although far from totally reformed, Jaime knows nothing he can do will ever make some characters remember him as anything but The Oathbreaker.
- Gilmore Girls: A romantic rather than villanious version with Jess. He started as Jerkass (albeit Jerk with a Heart of Gold) who lied to Luke, flunked high school, ran away, and broke Rory's heart. Later he turns his life around, having published a book, paid Luke back for everything, and convinced Rory to fix her own situation. Despite this, Rory kisses him and then leaves him for Smug Snake Logan, who was partly responsible for her current screw ups. Neither Lorelai, Stars Hollow, or anyone who despised him acknowledge his efforts, and it's implied they still view him as the 'young hoodlum'.
- This happened twice to Heroes villain Sylar. His Face–Heel Turn presumably stuck the second time, though.
- Brody in Homeland, after he gets broken by the CIA in season 2. Sure he's working for them now, and he's useful, but that doesn't mean they're going to trust him.
- Boyd Crowder tries to go straight in the first part of S2 of Justified but Raylon thinks he's faking and other criminals try and get him to help them. Eventually he gives up on trying to reform.
- This is a recurring theme on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. As in Real Life, sex offenders on the show are often unable to leave their pasts behind, even after serving their time. Detective Eliot Stabler also exhibits distinct Javert-like tendencies toward many of the perps on the show.
- This forms a large part of the premise of Life, wherein Charlie Crews has been framed for murders he didn't commit, imprisoned for 12 years, and then cleared — but people either still think he did it or think he should just take his settlement money and go away. He's also trying to find out who actually committed the murders.
- The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Sauron wants to continue his penance by "healing" Middle-earth, if possible, with Galadriel's help, but she reminds him that no penance could erase the evil he has done. Galadriel almost considers his offer once Sauron shows their future together, but outright rejects him when she realizes that he sees no distinction between saving Middle-earth and ruling it as a god-king.
- Don Draper in the season six finale of Mad Men when he finally hits rock bottom. He's already burned too many bridges to make a difference.
- Levchenko (former war scout turned gangster) in the Russian mini-series The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed. Winds up doing a Suicide by Cop combined with Redemption Equals Death.
- One Tree Hill: Dan Scott killed his brother Keith and framed it on Jimmy Edwards, because he thought Keith tried to kill him. When Dan found out it was Deb, and a witness told Dan's son Luke that Dan killed Keith, he confessed and went to jail for five years before being released for good behavior. He went on to save his grandson Jamie from Nanny Carrie twice, saved his son Nathan's career from getting destroyed, and eventually dies saving him from Russian assassins. It wasn't until the last one that people finally forgave him. Except Keith, whose spirit tells him how proud he is of the man he became and guides him to heaven.
- In Going Straight, the sequel to Porridge. Fletcher is sincere in his efforts to "go straight", but no one really believes him. Additionally, as a middle-aged ex-convict, he is doomed to a life of low-paid menial work and finds the temptation to commit another crime pervasive. Ultimately averted as at the end of Going Straight, he rejects an offer to take part in a robbery. According to the follow-up mockumentary, Norman Stanley Fletcher: Life Beyond the Box, he stayed out of prison thereafter and ended up running a pub with his childhood sweetheart, before earning a £250,000 reward for helping the police recover some stolen jewelry.
- Scoundrels (2010): Despite Cheryl being serious about reforming herself and her family, she's still hounded by Sergent Mack who doesn't believe they can ever go straight, because of thievery in In the Blood for her family. "Once a West always a West". Once he sees that she really means it, he realizes how awful his attitude was and apologizes.
- Lionel Luthor in Season 4 and the start of Season 5 of Smallville. Eventually everyone gets over it.
- The Supernatural episode "Metamorphosis" has an unusual case with the character of Jack. Instead of reforming after evil acts, he has yet to do anything wrong when the boys and the Inspector Javert Travis are planning to, um, accuse him, other then slowly becoming a Rugaru against his will. After the boys tell Jack what's happening to him, he makes a genuine effort to fight it, but said Inspector eventually lures him into feeding by threatening his wife, forcing Sam to take care of him.
- The Walking Dead:
- The Saviors are a tyrannical empire who bully communities into providing for them, but are defeated by the end of Season 8. Negan is captured and sentenced to life in prison to torture him with the knowledge that society will go on without his rule, and the remaining Saviors accept their defeat and become allies of the other communities. However, much of the other communities who rebelled against their former rulers refuse to forgive the Saviors for their former actions. Season 9 has Oceanside hunting down Saviors to finally get revenge despite Rick’s desire to have everyone move on from their past. Ultimately, a select few Saviors do get forgiven and become loyal members of the Coalition such as Laura, Alden, and DJ.
- Dwight accepts that he deserves to die for his atrocities but says he’s okay with it since he helped engineer the defeat of Negan. Daryl, who was tortured by him for a prolonged period of time, accepts that his Heel–Face Turn is legitimate, but is unwilling to forgive him and exiles him from the communities.
- Negan himself eventually realizes that his days of rule are over and begins working on earning the group’s trust so he can become a normal member of society again. When he accidentally kills a Highwayman who was going to kill Lydia, he realizes that the Alexandrians believe he’s gone back to his old ways and thus accepts Carol’s mission to assassinate Alpha to try to buy his way back to life. When Daryl and the others realize what Negan did, they allow him to roam freely and work alongside them, but only a few people actually befriend him. Realizing the community will never forgive him, Negan decides to Take a Third Option and leave since it’s the only way for anybody to move on. He joins another group and events force him back into an alliance with the Coalition. It’s in this conflict that Negan finally begins putting his ass on the line out of genuine altruism instead of self-interest, and this is what finally convinces the Coalition he can be trusted.
- Maggie is a whole other story, though. He sadistically and slowly killed her husband Glenn in front of her, leaving her child Hershel fatherless. Season 11 has most of her arc being her relationship with Negan. Upon learning he helped defeat the Whisperers, Maggie reluctantly accepts him as a neighbor but doesn’t deny plotting to kill him when she gets the chance. Negan’s help in the Reaper conflict and the Commonwealth Revolution eventually convinces her that he is genuinely trying to do better. In the Grand Finale, when he finally sincerely apologizes for taking Glenn from her, Maggie sits him down to tell him that she has accepted him as an ally and that he is welcome to stay with the group - but that she will never forgive him for the horrible, cruel way he gleefully took Glenn from her.
