Episodes you hate from shows you like

This isn't limited to any specific show but I dislike watching episodes that end at a character's expense. Two examples are 'Miracle on Evergreen Terrace' from the Simpsons and from what I've seen, most of the recent Spongebob episodes.

Yeah, any show with endings like that, especially GOOD ones usually leave me enraged. Violently enraged.

For example,that's why I've grown to dislike Kick Buttowski so much, especially its first episodes and a majority of its second season -whose focus is making the main character suffer for laughs that don't materialize and die a thousand deaths (Meh, my example isn't even that good to begin with, anyway - unlike your examples (which were good at one time, but still actually good!)).

I dislike instances where they make the victimized character's abuse come off as unwarranted, or at least make it so the character who comes out on top as a result of it is unsympathetic, thus making the schadenfreude the most cruel outcome. There's nothing I hate worse than a lovable loser vs a hate able winner.

The Dreamstone always wavered for me because of this since they almost always managed to implement the manner the heroes beat the Urpneys as being unfair, "Blob's Incredible Plan" however is one of the rare instances I outright thought the heroes were complete pricks who genuinely deserved to lose instead.

Lots of later Spongebob episodes tend to lean into this as well. They tend to keep making a point of letting the trouble instigating prick almost always come out on top at a sympathetic loser's expense. In cases such as the aforementioned "Little Yellow Book" episode where the loser is genuinely being a jerk, they even make the opposition a similar (albeit much more hypocritical) jerkass about it just to make the point it isn't karmic.

I don't mind a character getting a Downer Ending when done well and not in excess. A character can get a lot of humanization by ending up the "loser" of a situation, especially if they usually come out on top (eg. the odd times Bugs Bunny or Jerry is a Butt-Monkey).

edited 2nd Apr '13 8:31:54 PM by Psi001

One Million Bucks, B.C. from Total Drama Action. It was just so...useless. That episode was one of the most forgettable of the entire series, nothing really interesting happened, and where do I begin with the whole "Heather wants Courtney's hair" thing? God...

There are quite a few episodes from the first GOOD Disney Afternoon shows that were not very strong in the writing department. If only Di$ney had better quality control back then...

From what I remember the shows had a very Depending on the Writer consistency to them, so it makes sense the quality wavers (not to mention the sheer corniness of them that is either part of the charm or cringe inducing). I know that there are episodes of Duck Tales and Tale Spin that are hit and miss.

edited 6th Apr '13 6:07:40 PM by Psi001

• "Miracle on Evergreen Terrace" and "Donnie Fatso" from The Simpsons. Both endings really seemed like cop-outs; I really think that both of these episodes could have been great if not for their endings.
• "Equal Fights" from The Powerpuff Girls. I think Lauren Faust is right about feminism being too complex to properly discuss on a kid's show, and I'm glad to hear that she regrets co-writing it.

Um.... that's all I can think of right now.

The hatred of the episode, "Equal Fights, is overblown, really. Fans forget the fact that the episode is supposed to be a Take That! at "feminists" claiiming that they are real feminists, but only try to get special treatment. I hate the episode too, though, but still...

I liked the anti-Positive Discrimination message, but I admit it was very clunky and Anvilicious in execution.

edited 15th Apr '13 1:31:54 PM by Psi001

Same here. I honestly don't like the episode because of the girls' behavior, but I give the show credit for at least succeeding in delivering the intended aesop.

Adventure Time's a good show, but I really didn't enjoy sitting through the recent Dungeon episode. It moved really slow, and honestly I saw Finn's behaviour towards that skeleton at the start completely unneccesary. They backtracked a bit, Finn talked a bit - the episode was just very tedious. The goo-shooters were cool, but I disliked the resolution to Finn's kidnapping to be honest - generally due to FP's voice actor overdoing it a little and coming off as Narmish.

Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Great Divide. The radically different sides feuding is mainly why I dislike the episode, but I also dislike how Sokka and Katara act. I can imagine 2 green Water Tribe travellers being unversed in ways of the world and succumbing to peer pressure, but the pair seemed a lot more savvy in earlier episodes - The Great Divide seemed to unravel that to a degree.

I am loving My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic so far, but I don't enjoy the episode "Luna Eclipsed" because of Pinkie Pie's behavior. She was more irritating than usual and kept ruining things for Luna, yet Luna gets the lesson. The episode would have been better if Pinkie Pie got the lesson. It should have been "when you have fun, think of the the feelings of others."

I love Fillmore but Test of the Tested, the episode with the standardized test is not a favorite of mine. I've got mixed feelings about it because when I saw the episode I never saw a problem with those sorts of tests. I'd been taking them for years and scoring high on them with very little difficulty. Now though I see the problems but hate the way the kids who wanted to take the test were portrayed. it was a pretty heavy handed aesop I didn't care for much.

I know this reply is 5 months (almost) late (I've been busy), but a big problem I had with "Equal Fights" was a problem I have with most Straw Feminist portrayals in the media. Yes, Femme Fatale was nuts, but she did bring up some legitimate points. Why don't we have more women represented on our currency in America? And why do superheroines get less attention than male superheroes in pop culture (this is changing a bit, but still). Don't mean to go Soapbox Sadie here, but that was my big thing.

I really liked that episode... it might have been my favorite.

Earlier in the conversation someone mentioned The Disney Afternoon. You might not believe there are episodes of Goof Troop I didn't care for (not because the show's an undisputed masterpiece but because I constantly gush about it), but there were. Five episodes didn't float my boat.

Ironically, one of them, "Leader of the Pack", is one of the more popular episodes. I just found it bland, especially the antagonist, found the main conflict too minor, and thought it focused too much on one-shot characters (the main cast of the episode has 3 regulars to 2 one-shots, with the other 3 regulars not appearing at all).

I didn't like "Queasy Rider" because PJ was uncharacteristically mean. Other than that it was okay, and I did like Eddie Deezen playing a guest voice.

"Goofs of a Feather"... well, generally Pete episodes are good for one of two reasons. Either he's a Manipulative Bastard or The Chew Toy. In this episode he's not really either, nor is this one of the rare occasions he's a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. Plus everyone seemed way too melodramatic, and there was no Donald cameo despite the duck theme.

The other two episodes I'm not even sure I should count, but they were part of the "ancestors episodes." For those who haven't seen much of the show, they're kind of like Treehouse of Horror episodes where the characters are "playing a role" in some adaptation parody, and are not canon—the main difference is that they're 22 minute episodes as normal rather than a Three Shorts format. Overall I thought there were too many (five!), and that they would have been better if they were shorter. I did, however, quite enjoy three of them.

The ones I didn't were "The Ungoofables", which I just found kind of boring and unmemorable. The other was "Goofin' Hood and His Melancholy Men", which admittedly might not have been a bad episode in its own right. I was just very disappointed when I realized that not only would my favorite character not be front-and-center, he wouldn't appear at all.

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On The Simpsons I used to hate "One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish", but over time I've learned to accept it as a supreme example of Characterization Marches On. One episode I still don't like is "Bart-Mangled Banner." It was too political and resorted to low tactics I normally don't see on The Simpsons.

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On Total Drama, I really didn't care for "The Brunch of Disgustingness." Too many Vomit Indiscretion Shots.

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Long post is long. But hey, just imagine what this would look like if I was talking about episodes I like from shows I like.

While there are several otherwise enjoyable episodes Stan seems like a Designated Villain in American Dad, "The Kidney Stays In The Picture" seemed like a completely ludicrous case of The Unfair Sex, with Stan finding out Francine had an affair and still being treated as the bad guy for resenting it, to the point he has to go back in time and justify it personally. To me this just punctuated the whole "Stan must be wrong" treatment to the point of establishing Francine as a Jerk Sue. I don't remember there being a lot of exceptional gags either, par maybe the ending gag ("Hip to be square...").

Also "Buried Pleasure" of The Cleveland Show. While it was nice to see them subvert Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male, like the Powerpuff Girls example, it seemed very clunky with not much valid humor, even with the sub plot. Is it just me or do cartoons really have to force themselves in avoiding a Double Standard?

@Luna 87: I think it stems largely from the recurring problem above of representing people for their personality and actions rather than their gender or race for significance. I can't say much for the coins, but truth be told, how many notable comic book heroines have they actually bothered creating and developing well outside "look it's a GIRL hero, isn't that awesome?" Be it negatively or positively, discrimination and making exception to their minority status becomes more important than actually making them an interesting character to sit through in their own right, to the point that when they actually try to subvert this it ends up as ridiculously clunky and blatant as the episode in question.

edited 15th Sep '13 5:07:19 PM by Psi001

I didn't like either of the bully episodes of American Dad. Stelio Kontos gets away with bullying both of the male Smiths. And worse, Steve also gets it from the new bully.

My disliked episode of American Dad is "Daddy Queerest" as i mentioned in the thread, also for problems with "stan must be wrong," namely in how Greg and Terry (forget which is which) insist on covering up the one's homosexuality to his father, involving an elaborate farce that, of course, blows up in their faces and gets the son outed to the dad anyway, and everyone is mad at Stan just because he outed the son, even though they should have known that such a stupid plan wouldn't work.

Most disliked Simpsons episode has to be "On a Clear Day I Can't See My Sister." Disproportionate Retribution and "Lisa is always right" symptoms ran way out of control, and while i am a leftist that agrees with the message of the episode, "Bart Mangled Banner" does come off as too political, a reaction to Bush-era America that now feels out of place in a show that otherwise works with plots and themes that transcend the year the episode was made. For the same reason, the Lady Gaga episode is going to feel very dated when people look back on it in 10 years.

I find it ironic that Stan's homophobic attitude is about the one lesson that permanently stuck, despite Greg and Terry being Designated Heroes in most of their starring episodes ("Surro-Gate" having the same problem, and probably added to my list here since it wasn't funny enough to compensate either) not to mention being as unflattering cliche gay as possible. Add to that Francine's involvement in most of them, she's bordering on being as insufferable as Lois.

This is just another reason Positive Discrimination is bullshit.

edited 15th Sep '13 12:59:24 PM by Psi001

I like Adventure Time, but I can't stand some of the older episodes- ironic, since their weirdness got me into the show and only now puts me off.

As for a newer episode I don't like, "BMO Lost". I'm sure tons of people liked the episode, but I didn't. And, oddly, I kind of liked it up until the baby left their group. And after that, in particular and especially, Jake popping Bubble makes me dislike the episode. I've noticed that Jake zigzags between a bunch of different characteristics, from flat-out Jerkass (albeit, rarely) to a truly good guy that watches out for his brother/best friend. He's also sometimes smart, and sometimes SANDWICH.

Maybe I just dislike the ending, I'm not sure.

See, I did like Surro-Gate. Stan's conduct as a kidnapper was just ridiculous enough to pass muster, like when he ate the base of the baby's umbilical cord and asked if he was going to die or be stronger than ever.

Francine is just as flawed as Stan though, ultimately, and the show makes frequent mention of it, which helps keep her from becoming more of a "Always Right" like Lois.

Enter The Madkat from SWAT Kats. It really feels out-of-place compared to the in-universe mythology and sci fi that's established elsewhere, and too surrealist for an otherwise relatively grounded action cartoon.

(edit) it would have been objectionable, except that "popping" the bubble set him free, so it worked out in the end.

edited 15th Sep '13 8:38:10 PM by Ogodei

Francine isn't quite as bad as Lois, however, while they do give her a Not So Above It All moment every once in a while, when the situation comes down to one of them having to have superiority over the other, it's pretty much always her (or whoever else he's arguing with) regardless of the situation, given Stan is the Bumbling Dad and the main character. The only times she can be wrong is if Stan stoops down with her and has the same Aesop, which I think takes away the 'karma works all ways' approach. Stan was at least granted the odd moment of clarity in early episodes to make him a tad more depthful than Peter, but now he seems almost a carbon copy, even suffering Badass Decay to mirror his brainless loser image.

Granted the two or three exceptions for Francine ironically were pretty broken too. In "Iced Iced Babies" and "Tears of a Clooney" Stan lies to Francine himself and she has a very creepy Ignored Epiphany and gets what she wants anyway, while in the Ladybugs episode, she seems to just submit to Stan's Control Freak ways despite the fact he shown little to no redeeming functions throughout the episode.

Concerning "Surro-Gate", it wasn't Stan wasn't an asshole, but the fact that the moment he acted like one, the other side was completely "right" (in fact even before since he is shamed for merely taking offense to what they have done, with them showing no remorse whatsoever). Also as said, it's not just the plot but the fact I didn't think the execution was as funny as many other episodes (a reason I can stand "Daddy Queerest").

I think Seth's shows make the big mistake of being bent on Comedic Sociopathy yet still trying to take their Aesops very earnestly. I could argue even 'Not All Dog Go To Heaven' wasn't that bad until they tried to do so for the ending. I actually kinda like The Cleveland Show since it often hands out Aesops in a much more tongue in cheek fashion.

edited 16th Sep '13 7:11:42 AM by Psi001

I watched a crapload of animation shows that I liked so here are some episodes that I didn't really enjoyed. Reasons why I hate it are in parenthesis in certain episodes. Excuse me for the slight long post...

Amazing World of Gumball: The Debt (First time Gumball annoys me), The Kiss/The Picnic (meh especially the latter), and The Flower (no reason but worst season 2 episode ever)

American Dad: Homeland Insecurity (somewhat thanks to Stan's Peter Griffin-esque behavior throughout), Shallow Vows (a bland episode), Rapture's Delight (sorry fans, but it's overrated. I don't think it's awful though, Roger still cracks me here), The Worst Stan (Principal Lewis' slave was very annoying), Stan's Best Friend (I now understand to those who hated it why it was poor), and Blood Uneth Heaven (sans the Patrick Stewart parts, this episode was boring)

Bob's Burgers: Human Flesh, Bad Tina, and It Snakes a Village (my least favorite out of the three seasons)

Camp Lazlo: I can't recall one, but maybe a later episode (even though I hadn't seen it in years)

Dexter's Lab: Can't recall one either, since I hadn't seen enough Seasonal Rot era episodes to decide if they're bad.

Fairly Odd Parents: Some of the episodes during the Seasonal Rot era especially Temporary Fairy, Stupid Cupid, Crocker of Gold, and Love Triangle

Family Guy: I had quite several during my [[Seasonal Rot]] (seasons 7 and 8) like The Juice is Loose (same reason as critics are saying), Peter's Progress,Peter-assement, Brian & Stewie, andQuagmire's Dad (don't make me started with the ending). After the show Grew Back the Beard for me, I'll say Brian Writes a Bestseller, German Guy, Foregin Affairs,Turban Cowboy, and the season 11 finale are the top 5 worst imo.

King of the Hill: Hank's Dirty Laundry (I'm sorry, but this episode was awful)

Penguins of Madagascar: Roomies (it was obviously gross as heck)

Regular Show: Muscle Woman (meh) and Muscle Mentor (same reason; not that I hate Muscle Man but Benson is a [[Jerkass]]/[[Bad Boss]] for most parts)

Sanjay and Craig: Laugh Quake (Ugh, this episode made me feel like why I'm the [[Only Sane Man]] for most of the time)

Simpsons: A terrible episode from season 21 but I forgot the name.

Sponge Bob Square Pants: Out of all the bad episodes, I'm with Stupid (only bad episode b/4 the movie), Face Freeze, Little Yellow Book, All That Glitters, Squidward's School for Grownups, Whatever Happened to Sponge Bob?, Boating Buddies, Someone's with the Kitchen should be really avoid at all costs especially LYB and FF.

My Life As A Teenage Robot has plenty of episodes from the first and third seasons that really make me question ever revisiting this show ever again - I'd say names, but I need to make me a huge list... and I've got better things to do, now that I think long and hard about it.

"The Price of Money" for how it dumped on Sheldon in general however, is my number one choice - "Humiliation 101" takes a close second, alongside "Call Hating" for further making Jenny look more unlikable than Maggie Pesky in my eyes, which is unacceptable.

I'd name more, but just doing this is starting to make me hate this show more than Eliot Kid, now (and I fucking loathe that show!).

King Of The Hill : Apres Moi, Le Deluge. The amount of Karma Houdini in this boggles the mind. As to Bill, why is it that he and Patrick Star share the dubious distinction of becoming monsters whenever they have even the slightest advantage over the main character?