History CrapsackWorld / LiveActionTV

* The world of HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys and XenaWarriorPrincess is inhabited by warlords, bandits, mythological monsters and apathetic gods.

* The world of HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys and XenaWarriorPrincess is inhabited by warlords, bandits, mythological monsters and apathetic gods.

* The world of HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys and XenaWarriorPrincess is inhabited by warlords, bandits, mythological monsters and apathetic gods. ItGetsWorse in ''Xena'' season 5 when [[TheEmpire Rome]] takes over.

* The world of HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys and XenaWarriorPrincess is inhabited by warlords, bandits, mythological monsters and apathetic gods. TeGetsWorse in ''Xena'' season 5 when [[TheEmpire Rome]] takes over.

* The world of HerculesTheLegendaryJourmeys and XenaWarriorPrincess is inhabited by warlords, bandits and mythological monsters which are anything but mythical. The gods are apathetic at best. TeGetsWorse in ''Xena'' season 5 when [[TheEmpire Rome]] takes over.

* GameOfThrones. The nobility are squabbling over the throne of Westeros whilst hideous monsters are waking from their long sleep and will likely invade, and almost no-one is preparing for it. Also, most of the smallfolk (ordinary people) are treated horribly. Many nobles think nothing of raping or murdering them, and they also have to worry about dying of starvation. Winters can last for years, and if there isn't enough food set aside, everyone will die. And that's just season one. [[ItGotWorse It's going to get worse.]]

* Royston Vasey in the League of Gentlemen. There are incest serial killers, a ringmaster who kidnap women, a butcher who sells highly illegal and hideously immoral drugs, an OCD couple who praticlly worship toads, a paedophile German exchange student councillor and a psycotic lesbian job restart officer who bullies and insults her "dole scum". And that's just 7 characters.

* In the ''TheAdventuresOfSuperboy'' episode "Roads Not Taken, Part 2", the titular character visits an Earth on an alternate timeline, ruled by a dictator known as the Sovereign, [[spoiler: who is his duplicate in that timeline]].

* Speaking of the Whedonverse, what about ''{{Firefly}}''? The largest power is effectively [[ThoseWackyNazis space Nazis]] that have shown that the richest get the best, ''slavery'' still exists, many free worlds are hideously backwards, all the main heroes have a criminal past (One of which was due to a brother saving his sister from MindRape that made her AxCrazy). Oh, and lest we forget the Reavers...

* ''BlakesSeven''. If they're nice/happy, they stop being nice/happy or they die. If they're not, they get worse or they die. If they get worse, they die. If they don't die, ''run''.

* The ''{{Buffy|TheVampireSlayer}}'' episode "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E9TheWish The Wish]]" where Cordelia gets transported to an alternate universe where Buffy never came to Sunnydale. Arguably, the ''entire'' Buffyverse is one. Or at least Sunnydale and Los Angeles, since they're said to have a higher demonic population than other places.
** Plus, the Hellmouth seems pretty conducive to terminal conditions. We've had at least three people with serious cancer-conditions in people in the prime of their lives or near it, and at least one died of heart failure despite showing no outward signs.
** Not to mention sometimes the very laws of physics themselves conspire to kill your loved ones.

* Being a TV series about people traveling across parallel versions of Earth, ''{{Sliders}}'' has so many examples, starting with the Ice Age world in the pilot episode.

* ''MalcolmInTheMiddle'': Let's see, the main premise of the show involves a severely dysfunctional family that is implied to be abusive in every way except sexual abuse, the school is shown to be somewhat bad and at least one instance of it involved them not doing justice in regards to a horrible prank committed by four libbies (although the fact that the victim in question was the biggest school bully probably explains some things), one of their children (the oldest, more specifically) was implied to have done horrible things to his neighborhood just to spite his own mother, one of their neighbors has a strained marriage, with the wife eventually abandoning her husband and son causing the latter to fall into a deep sense of depression that left the already handicapped kid even more crippled to the point of even having to use a machine to speak. The military school that the oldest kid was sent to by his parents for his behavior was run by a guy who was not only extremely strict, but also a possible sadist who actually enjoys bullying people who are weaker than him (whom Francis eventually places in a retirement home as a caretaker so he could commit all the Elder Abuse that he ever wanted), and apparently the higher board did not catch on until after Francis quit school, false advertizing is shockingly very common, at least common enough for the eldest brother and his friend to be completely tricked by its statement of it being a lucrative job only for it to turn out to be a sweatshop, some cheerleaders at a cheerleading camp on a lake apparently frequently steal a motorboat so they could get guys to skinnydip with them, among other things? Oh, and a train managing to crash and poison most of the town due to the dad of the family leaving his couch on the railtracks, and the second eldest son, also the school bully, committing similar atrocities to his eldest brother? Sounds like a very sound case of a Crapsack World.

* The entire Milky Way Galaxy as depicted in ''StargateSG1'' is like this. As depicted in the series, the galaxy's population is primarily enslaved humanity duped into worshipping a bunch of evil aliens who get a kick out of posing as gods (never nice benelovent Judeo-Christian GOD, more like "Kneel Before Zod" gods), taking over the bodies of unwilling people, and ruling their planetary systems through a mode of governing best described as Unapologetic Dog Kicking (i.e. one System Lord basically nuked an entire populated star system rather than let it fall to another). In fact, part of the reason these evil aliens so despise Earth, is because it is one of the precious few relatively happy and free worlds in the galaxy. On top of this, when the evil aliens are defeated they are ALWAYS replaced by even more AxCrazy foes (i.e. crazy religious fundamentalists with indestructible apostles and ships, robots bent on consuming whole planets, etc.) And if that's not good enough, our good guys have to basically twist the arms of the galaxy's other good guys to actually help (example, one race of pretty beneficient aliens were willing to let an innocent society be destroyed rather than intervene, and the members of the same doomed society actually tried to kill our heroes rather than avert their "intended" fate.

* ''[[ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia]]''. Played with in one episode where the "heroes" are tearfully united with their real father -- a kindly, warm-hearted, selfless individual who is pretty much their complete opposite. After only a short period of time in their company the father is so horrified he ends up kicking them out.

* The ''[[BuffyTheVampireSlayer Buffy]]'' episode "The Wish" where Cordelia gets transported to an alternate universe where Buffy never came to Sunnydale. Arguably, the ''entire'' Buffyverse is one. Or at least Sunnydale and Los Angeles, since they're said to have a higher demonic population than other places.

* Speaking of the Whedonverse, what about {{Firefly}}? The largest power is effectively [[ThoseWackyNazis space Nazis]] that have shown that the richest get the best, ''slavery'' still exists, many free worlds are hideously backwards, all the main heroes have a criminal past (One of which was due to a brother saving his sister from MindRape that made her AxCrazy). Oh, and lest we forget the Reavers...
* Talking about Whedon and nobody's mentioned {{Dollhouse}}? Even before the mind-control technology apocalypse, apparently the great big amoral slavery corporation was to some degree controlling the government. And then there's the whole dystopian burned out planet afterwards with technology lying around that can randomly wipe or reprogram your brain anywhere at any time.
* Charming in ''{{Sons of Anarchy}}'' where the most positive characters are a Type IV AntiHero (or is Jax an AntiVillain? Hard to tell.) and a KnightInSourArmor.

** According to the vision showed to Dean by Zachariah, in five years time it's going to be even worse, as [[spoiler: Dean is a homicidal, JerkAss soldier, Sam is possessed by Lucifer, and the only angel to give a damn about the human race is a hippie stoner/love guru who uses drink, drugs and orgies to cover up his new NietzsceWannabe attitude. Life sucks in 'The End']]. By season five's ending, however [[spoiler:Sam has managed to seal both Michael and Lucifer in Hell]]
* ''{{The Book of the New Sun}}'' by GeneWolfe.
* The Universe in ''Series/DoctorWho'' is [[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E7Logopolis canonically worn out and should have collapsed long ago]], is full to bursting with [[OmnicidalManiac omnicidal maniacs]] who invade Earth at least twice a year, and when you get killed by the MonsterOfTheWeek you end up [[TheNothingAfterDeath spending eternity in a black, empty void]]. "[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E11TurnLeft Turn Left]]" shows how quickly things would deteriorate without the Doctor.

* ''[[BlakesSeven Blake's 7]]''. If they're nice/happy, they stop being nice/happy or they die. If they're not, they get worse or they die. If they get worse, they die. If they don't die, ''run''.
* ''DarkAngel'' is set in the crapsack world of the US Pacific Northwest after an {{EMP}} takes out a lot of the infrastructure for the USA (and presumably elsewhere). The series is set in a chaotic world where thugs and criminals are in control and so on. Paragraph 2 of the definition of this trop is a perfect description of the ''Dark Angel'' setting.
* The wizarding world of ''WizardsofWaverlyPlace.'' For utterly arbitrary reasons (seriously, we've never been actually told why) there can only be one wizard per family. Children grow up with powers and train for the wizard competition in which they will battle their siblings(s). One wins, the others lose their powers forever. We've seen at least one planned uprising by a large group of thwarted siblings, and one can assume that the earlier generation of the Russo's isn't the first - or the last - wizarding family to be torn apart by asinine rules.
* Barry Allen in the 1990s ''TheFlash'' TV series was accidentally thrust 10 years into a future where Central City has been taken over by his brother's killer, Nicholas Pike, and where an underground group of citizens were waiting for [[SecondComing the Flash to return]] in order to set things right.

* ''MalcolmInTheMiddle'': Let's see, the main premise of the show involves a severely dysfunctional family that is implied to be abusive in every way except sexual abuse, the school is shown to be somewhat bad and at least one instance of it involved them not doing justice in regards to a horrible prank committed by four libbies (although the fact that the victim in question was the biggest school bully probably explains some things), one of their children (the oldest, more specifically) was implied to have done horrible things to his neighborhood just to spite his own mother, one of their neighbors has a strained marriage, with the wife eventually abandoning her husband and son causing the latter to fall into a deep sense of depression that left the already handicapped kid even more crippled to the point of even having to use a machine to speak. The military school that the oldest kid was sent to by his parents for his behavior was run by a guy who was not only extremely strict, but also a possible sadist who actually enjoys bullying people who are weaker than him (whom Francis eventually places in a retirement home as a caretaker so he could commit all the Elder Abuse that he ever wanted), and apparently the higher board did not catch on until after Francis quit school, false advertizing is shockingly very common, at least common enough for the eldest brother and his friend to be completely tricked by its statement of it being a lucrative job only for it to turn out to be a sweatshop, some cheerleaders at a cheerleading camp on a lake apparently frequently steal a motorboat so they could get guys to skinnydip with them, among other things? Oh, and a train managing to crash and poison most of the town due to the dad of the family leaving his couch on the railtracks, and the second eldest son, also the school bully, commiting similar atrocities to his eldest brother? Sounds like a very sound case of a Crapsack World.

* The Universe in ''DoctorWho'' is [[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E7Logopolis canonically worn out and should have collapsed long ago]], is full to bursting with [[OmnicidalManiac omnicidal maniacs]] who invade Earth at least twice a year, and when you get killed by the MonsterOfTheWeek you end up [[TheNothingAfterDeath spending eternity in a black, empty void]]. "[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E11TurnLeft Turn Left]]" shows how quickly things would deteriorate without the Doctor.

* ''{{OZ}}'': The setting is a US prison, so it's TruthInTelevision.

** And in five years time it's going to be even worse, as [[spoiler: Dean is a homicidal, JerkAss soldier, Sam is possessed by Lucifer, and the only angel to give a damn about the human race is a hippie stoner/love guru who uses drink, drugs and orgies to cover up his new NietzsceWannabe attitude. Life sucks in 'The End']]

* ''MaxHeadroom'', the quintessential CyberPunk {{Dystopia}}. The destitute poor are the largest percentage of the population, mostly living in shantytowns where violent crime and drug abuse are rampant; and the only escape from the misery of it all is watching communal televisions, where all the programming is mindless fantasy and violent bloodsports. The middle class has shrunk, spends most of its time either working soul-destroying jobs, or glued to their televisions, where all the programming is mindless fantasy and violent bloodsports. The upper class is comfortable, but spends most of their time engaged in political scheming (up to and including assassination), and fighting to maintain their social status; when they're not glue to their televisions watching mindless fantasy and violent bloodsports. And if that's not bad enough, the advertisements on television can literally [[YourHeadAsplode make your head explode]].

* ''Dead Set'' a world where the only thing to watch is Big Brother.
** Screw the rest of the horrible worlds on this page, that one sounds like the worst.

* It's easy to forget, believe this troper, but the entire Milky Way Galaxy as depicted in ''StargateSG1'' is like this. As depicted in the series, the galaxy's population is primarily enslaved humanity duped into worshipping a bunch of evil aliens who get a kick out of posing as gods (never nice benelovent Judeo-Christian GOD, more like "Kneel Before Zod" gods), taking over the bodies of unwilling people, and ruling their planetary systems through a mode of governing best described as Unapologetic Dog Kicking (i.e. one System Lord basically nuked an entire populated star system rather than let it fall to another). In fact, part of the reason these evil aliens so despise Earth, is because it is one of the precious few relatively happy and free worlds in the galaxy. On top of this, when the evil aliens are defeated they are ALWAYS replaced by even more AxCrazy foes (i.e. crazy religious fundamentalists with indestructible apostles and ships, robots bent on consuming whole planets, etc.) And if that's not good enough, our good guys have to basically twist the arms of the galaxy's other good guys to actually help (example, one race of pretty beneficient aliens were willing to let an innocent society be destroyed rather than intervene, and the members of the same doomed society actually tried to kill our heroes rather than avert their "intended" fate.

* Barry Allen in the 1990s ''TheFlash'' TV series was accidentally thrust 10 years into a future where Central City has been taken over by his brother's killer, Nicholas Pike, and where an underground group of citizens were waiting for [[SecondComing the Flash to return]] in order to set things right.