History SanitySlippage / LiveActionTV

-->'''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 has a '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!

-->'''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 has a '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!

-->'''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 has a '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!

-->'''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 Parcel Proust has a '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!

-->'''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? Furthermo0re, 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 Parcel Proust has a '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!

-->'''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 llony, would you? Furthermo0re, 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 Parcel Proust has a '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!

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Several examples. Faith, portrayed as not the most stable of individuals to begin with, begins by trying to rape 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.]]

* In ''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.

* ''Series/TeenWolf'': Lydia begins hallucinating after being attacked by Peter, culminating in her escaping from the hospital and running naked into the woods. 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.]]

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': [[spoiler:Walter White]] display this at the end of "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.

* ''Series/{{M*A*S*H}}'': Although it's never shown, 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.

* ''Series/{{Mash}}'': Although it's never shown, 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.

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': [[spoiler:Walter White]] display this at the end of "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:Heisenberg]] remained.

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': [[spoiler:Walter White]] display this at the end of "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.]]

** 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 defected]]. [[Recap/RevolutionS1E10NobodysFaultButMine episode 10]] is when this trope becomes obvious for Bass Monroe.

** 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]].

* ''Series/BlakesSeven'': 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.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': The Master has always been rather unstable, try as he might to hide it under his veneer of a MagnificentBastard. However, this takes a turn for the worse in [=NuWho=], when he complains of a 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.

* ''Series/{{Misfits}}'': 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.

** It's suggested by several characters involved in the militia that Monroe's been suffering from this somewhat ever since [[spoiler: Miles defected]].
** [[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]].

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': Antagonist [[MagnificentBastard Dukat]]. He starts off as a scheming, megalomaniac, yet charming villain, gets gradually worse, especially in season six, until it all finally boils down to [[MoralEventHorizon this]]: "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."

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Season seven does this to [[spoiler:Sam across most of the season,]] culminating in ''The Born-Again Identity''.

* ''Series/{{Survivor}}'': Has some contestants who seem to have gone a little nuts during their time in the wilderness:

* ''{{Taxi}}'': [[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"]].

* ''{{Taxi}}'': [[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"]].
** OnlySaneMan Alex fell into this whenever he ''really'' got over the edge. In an early episode, Alex was given some pills he thought that 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.
*** 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.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': The Master has always been rather unstable, try as he might to hide it under his veneer of a MagnificentBastard. However, this takes a turn for the worse in [=NuWho=], when he complains of a 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.
** Hell, the Doctor himself gets one - Waters of Mars, anyone? [[spoiler:[[AGodAmI Time Lord Victorious]]]]
* ''Series/BlakesSeven'': 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.
** 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.
* ''Series/TheWalkingDead'': Several survivors of the ZombieApocalypse begin experiencing this from SurvivorGuilt or just the stress of dealing with the PrimalFear day in and day out.
* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'': Major Zod of the 9th Season started out bad and only got worse from there.
* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': Antagonist [[MagnificentBastard Dukat]]. He starts off as a scheming, megalomaniac, yet charming villain, gets gradually worse, especially in season six, until it all finally boils down to [[MoralEventHorizon this]]: "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."
** Faked--''probably''--by Sisko in ''For the Uniform''. He even slips into the Joran [[TranquilFury voice]].
* ''Series/{{Degrassi}}'': [[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!

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': [[spoiler:Walter White]] display this at the end of "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.]]

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Several examples. Faith, portrayed as not the most stable of individuals to begin with, begins by trying to rape 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.]]

** ''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.
* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheatre3000'': More than a few experiments produce temporary insanity in the crew of the Satellite of Love through sheer force of SuckinessIsPainful.
* ''Series/{{Merlin}}'': 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]].

* Half the fun of ''Series/{{Farscape}}''.
* One of the tie-in bits of promotional material for the ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' 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).
* During Volume 4 of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', 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.
* Although it's never shown, during ''Series/{{Mash}}'''s 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.
* [[CloudCuckooLander Reverend Jim Ignatowski]] from ''{{Taxi}}'' 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"]].

* Simon Bellamy from the British sci-fi series ''Series/{{Misfits}}'' 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.

* The Master from ''Series/DoctorWho'' has always been rather unstable, try as he might to hide it under his veneer of a MagnificentBastard. However, this takes a turn for the worse in [=NuWho=], when he complains of a 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.

* Avon of ''Series/BlakesSeven'' fame, 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.

* Several survivors of the ZombieApocalypse in ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' begin experiencing this from SurvivorGuilt or just the stress of dealing with the PrimalFear day in and day out.
* Major Zod of ''Series/{{Smallville}}'''s 9th Season started out bad and only got worse from there.
* From ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', antagonist [[MagnificentBastard Dukat]]. He starts off as a scheming, megalomaniac, yet charming villain, gets gradually worse, especially in season six, until it all finally boils down to [[MoralEventHorizon this]]: "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."

* [[TroubledButCute Eli]] [[DarkAndTroubledPast Golds]][[EmoTeen worthy]] of ''Series/{{Degrassi}}'' 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!
* Many a character in ''Series/{{Oz}}'' undergoes this, especially Beecher in season 2 after taking a level in badass. He gets better.
* [[spoiler:Walter White]] from ''Series/BreakingBad'' display this at the end of "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.]]
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'''s season seven does this to [[spoiler:Sam across most of the season,]] culminating in ''The Born-Again Identity''.
* Several examples in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. Faith, portrayed as not the most stable of individuals to begin with, begins by trying to rape 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.]]
* ''Series/{{Survivor}}'' has some contestants who seem to have gone a little nuts during their time in the wilderness:

* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheatre3000'': more than a few experiments produce temporary insanity in the crew of the Satellite of Love through sheer force of SuckinessIsPainful.
* Morgana from ''{{Series/Merlin}}'' 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]].