Line #1 DamselInDistress/LiveActionTV


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6	[[DamselInDistress Distressed Damsels]] in live-action TV.
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9	* ''Series/{{The 100}}'' has almost every character need rescuing at one point or another, but the most notable example is when 48 of the delinquents are held captive inside Mount Weather. Clarke escapes on her own, but [[RescueArc rescuing the other 47 is the main focus of Season 2.]]
10	* Mrs. Peel from the original ''Series/TheAvengers1960s'' series. Almost all of the episodes feature her in some kind of predicament, generally clad in tight fitting (not to say clinging...) apparel and bound in a weird situation. Examples are: tied in aluminium foil to act as an electric conductor to electrocute Steed when he touches her, tied to train tracks (classical but effective), bound to a Mad Scientist patented reclining table to act as guinea pig for his super strong laser, tied, scantily clad in a harem outfit...
11	** The episode where she's locked in a gilded cage wearing a ''very'' skimpy feathered costume.
12	* Topanga plays with this trope in the second season's Halloween episode of ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld'':
13	-->'''Cory:''' ''[seeing Topanga in a long gauzy dress]'' Why'd you have to wear that?\
14	'''Topanga:''' I'm a damsel. But not the distressed kind, one who's totally calm and in complete control of her own destiny.
15	* ''Franchise/{{Buffyverse}}'':
16	** ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
17	*** Everybody is distressed sooner or later. There's even episodes where Buffy takes this role. In the first few seasons, Willow is the main Damsel in Distress. In second two, she and Xander share the role. As Willow grows in power in seasons three and four, Xander, Giles, and Spike end up in this position more often than the others. In seasons 5 and 6, it's Dawn. In season 7, it's the potentials.
18	----> '''Buffy:''' Dawn's in trouble. Must be Tuesday.
19	*** Buffy was this in the Season 2 episode "[[{{Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS2E6Halloween}} Halloween]]", when an enchanted costume causes her to become a very helpless 18th century noblewoman.
20	*** Subverted by the show itself, however, as Buffy appears to be the stereotypical petite, blonde girl who is constantly in need of rescue, which she almost never is and on the rare times that she is captured, she almost always gets herself out of trouble.
21	*** Also the Season Three episode "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E19Choices Choices]]" plays with this trope as Willow gets captured by The Mayor and does eventually need rescuing but only because her attempts to liberate herself fell through when she got distracted gathering intelligence about The Mayor's plan which was arguably good trade off since she knew Buffy would get her out anyway.
22	*** Cordelia was this when she was in her time on ''Buffy''.
23	*** Anne was this twice. She appears again on ''Angel'', a good deal tougher.
24	** ''Series/{{Angel}}''
25	*** Cordelia in "[[Recap/AngelS01E01CityOf City of...]]", though amusingly she realizes she's in danger only seconds before it happens, being alone in a house with a man whose [[ObviouslyEvil obviously a vampire]]. Most of season 1 and 2 she's not really combative though she gradually becomes more and more ''action girly'', finishing off three respective villains when they push her BerserkButton. By the time season 3 she is half demon and is the most magically powerful member of the group leaving her damsel status in the dust. [[spoiler: This a tragic subversion as Cordelia's power is actually coming from [[EldritchAbomination Jasmine]] who is possessing her. Her last appearance in season 5 she back to action girl status then she dies]].
26	*** Fred aka Winifred is the Damsel more frequently than Cordelia, first she's trapped as a slave in a Pylea the demon dimension and then she's nearly executed before being saved by Angel causing her to fall in unrequited love with him. Fred does gets a bit better throughout the episodes and becomes a crack shot with a gun like Wesley. In "[[Recap/AngelS05E15AHoleInTheWorld A Hole in the World]]", Fred tries to fight her status as {{damsel in distress}}:
27	---->'''Wesley:''' You have to lie down.\
28	'''Fred:''' I am not -- I am not the damsel in distress. I am not some case. I have to work this. I lived in a cave for 5 years in a world where they killed my kind like cattle. I am not going to be cut down by some monster flu. I am better than that!
29	*** The gang takes off to save her anyway,[[spoiler: this turns out to be tragic as they [[KillTheCutie cannot save Fred]] without killing thousands]].
30	*** Darla and Nina when they were or are Humans and not being a Vampire/Werewolf respectively.
31	* ''Series/{{Castle\|2009}}'': As the one on the show who puts himself in situations he's not equipped for, Rick Castle is usually the one in distress, but in the fifth season episode "Target", [[spoiler:his daughter gets kidnapped.]]
32	* ''Series/DesperateHousewives'' uses Susan like this ''constantly'', whether that's being held at gunpoint by Zach, getting lost in the mountains because she idiotically stormed off by herself when the trail guide called her out on her DramaQueen tendencies, nearly killed by Dave in Season Five, etc. It's so recurring that none of the other characters bat an eye when they hear Susan is in trouble yet again. Edie tears her a new one over this tendency.
33	* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
34	** The stereotypical depiction of female companions, especially in the classic series, was of a screaming damsel in distress who constantly needed rescue. No female companion has ever ''consistently'' been depicted as such.
35	** Barbara Wright alternately played this trope straight and subverted it. The most memorable straight example would be in the very first ''Who'' serial, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E1AnUnearthlyChild "An Unearthly Child"]], where she spends most of the last two episodes screaming and crying. She seems to have gotten it out of her system by the next serial, where she's perfectly happy to go on a commando raid into the Dalek city. Her most memorable subversion is probably [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E6TheCrusade "The Crusade"]], where she does get kidnapped, but rescues herself and is on her way back to rescue everyone else by the time Ian shows up to save her.
36	** Subverted a bit with Jo Grant (UNIT assistant to the Third Doctor) who was a trained spy/escapologist, and thus was the one who freed the Doctor when they were captured. Jo Grant was originally conceived as an [[Series/TheAvengers1960s Emma Peel-type]] ActionGirl, but they cast Katy Manning after her somewhat ditzy audition, a classic example of the difference between what the producers say they want and [[TheDitz what they actually want]].
37	** Lampshaded by Sarah Jane Smith when she rescues the Doctor from a cell in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E4TheAndroidInvasion "The Android Invasion"]] and quips: "This time I'm saving you!" She'd also done it in the first episode she was in, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E1TheTimeWarrior "The Time Warrior"]].
38	** Creator/MaryTamm was initially leery of taking a companion role in the series for this very reason, but she was assured that her character, Romana, would be an intellectual equal to the Doctor and a competent woman to boot. Supposedly, she left the role later on because she felt it had reverted to this trope (although possibly she left because she was having a baby — the internet is not very clear on the matter).
39	** On a whole, the companions in the new series seem to swing between playing this trope straight and subverting it. In the event that the companions ''are'' captured and can't save themselves, they at least ''try'' to, or find information, or help the Doctor, or at least sass their captors.
40	*** It at least makes sense why this would happen. To create tension you ''need'' someone to be captured, and since the Doctor's companions are 90% female, it unfortunately becomes this trope.
41	** Lampshaded in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E9TheEmptyChild "The Empty Child"]], when the Doctor learns that Rose was hanging from a barrage balloon during a Nazi Blitz attack. "I've travelled with a number of people, but you're setting new standards for jeopardy-friendly."
42	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E1PartnersInCrime "Partners in Crime"]]: Reporter Penny Carter is captured and tied up by the villains twice, the second time after ignoring the Doctor's advice to GetOut
43	** Think what you will about Creator/StevenMoffat, but River Song almost never needs rescuing. The few times she does it's typically because she's flung herself off of a building or into the vacuum of space in an attempt to evade capture, specifically because she knows the Doctor will come show up in his handy time machine.
44	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E4TheTimeOfAngels "The Time of Angels"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E5FleshAndStone "Flesh and Stone"]]: Relatively new companion Amy Pond drives a fair amount of the plot's conflict, especially in the latter episode, due to having the Weeping Angels infect her mind, requiring the other characters to protect and save her since she's [[TemporaryBlindness blind]] as a result.
45	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E8TheHungryEarth "The Hungry Earth"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E9ColdBlood "Cold Blood"]] has Amy dragged underground and captured by the Silurians. So she ends up stealing the controls that release her and her fellow captive Mo, before the two try to escape through the city of sleeping reptilians.
46	%%** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E4TheKrotons "The Krotons"]], Vara -- and later Zoe, when she too is chosen for a "companion".
47	* ''Series/TheDukesOfHazzard'': Several times, the eye-candy of the series Daisy Duke was kidnapped by the bad guys, hoping to draw out her cousins Bo and Luke to attempt rescue. Rarely was Daisy in serious trouble (as Bo and Luke often easily got the upper hand), but "Daisy's Shotgun Wedding" was a notable exception; a band of mountain brothers can more than hold their own against Bo and Luke, and they are more than capable of brutally beating Daisy into bloody submission [[MaritalRapeLicense if she wouldn't cooperate]], but thankfully, the Duke boys were able to defeat these massive threats and send them to prison.
48	* ''Series/EyeCandy'': Lindy's best friend Sophia is kidnapped and held in a DeathTrap she has to rescue her from.
49	* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' put every character, male and female, hero and villain, into such a situation--notably John, who is captured and [[ColdBloodedTorture tortured]] at the end of the first season and is rescued by Aeryn (with help), and Aeryn, who is captured and tortured at the end of the final season and is rescued by John (with help). This makes sense, as she is the ActionGirl at the start of the show, and while he's not quite an action hero by the end he has [[TookALevelInBadass gotten badass enough]] to return the favor.
50	* In ''Series/{{Firefly}}'', it seems that every episode that centers on River has her in serious danger, needing some BigDamnHeroes to save the day... except for "Objects in Space", where she hits the villain with a {{plan}}.
51	** The ironic part is that by ''Film/{{Serenity}}'', she's activated hidden WaifFu powers that would have let her handily deal with ''every one'' of the bad guys gunning for her in the series.
52	*** River in the series got so smart and powerful that Serenity's own crew starts to worry about whether she's safe to keep around.
53	*** It makes sense, given that ''Film/{{Serenity}}'' was used to tie up loose ends in the story. Given how "Objects in Space" went, it seems that the next season would have had River slowly regain her former fierce intellect and use it far more often.
54	** She showed some signs of her impending badassery earlier on in the episode "War Stories" when she gunned down three of Niska's men with her eyes closed in order to save Kaylee, who would have shared Damsel in Distress duty had the series actually continued. Joss Whedon has said something to the tune of, "Whenever we wanted to up the suspense, we just put the [[WrenchWench cute engineer]] in danger."
55	** And it's been similarly commented that anytime a man infiltrates the ship he does so by befriending Kaylee, flirting with her and then threatening her at gunpoint. (This happens twice, with Simon in the pilot and then Tracy in "The Message", and probably would've been a continuing trend.)
56	* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
57	** Lyanna was kidnapped by Rhaegar. At least that's the accepted story. It turns out that [[spoiler: Lyanna never loved Robert and actually eloped with Rhaegar, meaning that Robert's Rebellion was based on a ''lie''.]]
58	** Sansa Stark gets into peril a few times over the course of the series, such as in Season Two where she is separated from the Royal Guard and is almost gang-raped during a riot. Luckily, [[BigDamnHeroes Sandor arrives in the nick of time]], slaughters all the rapists and rescues his Little Bird. With Sansa it's a fully justified trope, as she is a pre-teen girl at the start of the story with absolutely no combat experience and constantly surrounded by people wishing to use her as a means for their own ends. She takes several levels in badass as the series goes on, though she isn't a physical fighter like her sister Arya, she more than makes up for it in guile, courtly manners and intelligence.
59	** Gilly is also an example of this trope, as when we first meet her she is one of Craster's wives, who regularly rapes them to produce more daughters, whom he then rapes when they come of age. Quite a bit of Sam's CharacterDevelopment in Season Three is fuelled by a desire to protect Gilly, to the point he becomes the first man in a thousand years to ''kill a White Walker'', because it was coming for Gilly and Baby Sam.
60	** Elia Martell was one in her backstory, as she was married to Rhaegar Targaryen and then left behind in the Red Keep with her children after Rhaegar abducted Lyanna Stark. Once Aerys was defeated, [[spoiler: The Mountain was ordered by Tywin to kill the Targaryen children as a show of fealty to the newly-crowned King Robert. But, as well as killing them, The Mountain took it upon himself to rape Elia, ''then'' murder her in a horrible, gruesome way and forever making the Lannisters an enemy of House Martell.]]
61	* ''Series/GossipGirl'' does it at least once per season, when characters put aside their problems to help Serena: in season 1, when the Nate/Blair/Chuck love triangle takes second place to Serena's confession that she (allegedly) killed somebody; in season 2, when again the aforementioned love triangle is paused when the three characters try to get her out of jail, and in season 3 when all pending matters (Chuck's grief over his father's death anniversary, Lily's postponed confession to Rufus about a night with her ex-husband, Eric's and Jenny's constant fighting, Dan's lingering feelings for Vanessa) are frozen (and then solved or exposed, one by one) when she's on a car accident and over half of the cast go to the hospital to be with her.
62	* ''Series/GuardianTheLonelyAndGreatGod'': Eun-tak on occasion (kidnapped by loan sharks, pursued by grim reapers, involved in weird accidents...). Partly justified by her status as a missing soul, which means the universe tries [[BalancingDeathsBooks to self-correct by killing her.]]
63	* ''Series/TheHardyBoysNancyDrewMysteries'': Nancy Drew was reduced to this in second season, once Janet Louise Johnson took over the character, in cross-over episodes with the Hardys. Nancy only existed to be placed in situations that required Frank Hardy to rescue her:
64	** ''Arson & Old Lace'': Nancy gets kidnapped and needs Frank to rescue her.
65	** ''Voodoo Doll'': Nancy wanders into the BigBad's lair, gets caught, and needs Frank and Joe to rescue her.
66	** ''Mystery on the Avalanche Express'': Nancy gets cornered on a train by two men -- a passenger train, in a hallway where there's plenty other passengers in compartments -- and can't simply push past them until Frank comes to her rescue.
67	* ''Series/LazyTown'' sometimes has Stephanie being kidnapped by the "evil dude".
68	* ''Series/MastersOfHorror'':
69	** "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road":
70	*** Subverted with Ellen. When the killer tries to hunt her down, she shows that she's a survival expert who lays several traps for him and outsmarts him several times.
71	*** Played straight with the Young Woman, who isn't able to defend herself and becomes easy prey for the psycho.
72	** "Valerie on the Stairs": Justified with Valerie, [[RefugeeFromTVLand who was created by the writers in the boarding house as a fictional character]] whose only reason for existing is to be saved from The Beast. [[spoiler:She vanishes completely after she's rescued, having finished playing her role.]]
73	* Used frequently with Gwen in ''Series/{{Merlin\|2008}}''. She often finds herself in a situation that requires Arthur to get her out of it (a la ''The Last Dragonlord''), and gets rescued successfully, only to end up needing saving all over again. She's the only main character in the show to lack either magic powers, or having been trained to be a KnightInShiningArmour since childhood. And, like ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', every character that's not Merlin ends up with the role in at least one episode, including the future Myth/KingArthur.
74	** As of ''Servant of Two Masters'' and ''Tears of Uther Pendragon Part One'', Merlin has joined the roster. The show is a WorldOfBadass [[BadassInDistress In Distress]].
75	* ''Series/TheMurders'': Kate is about to be killed in "Stereo", helpless to stop this. Nolan shoots the killer Just in Time however.
76	* Frequently subverted on ''Series/{{NCIS}}'', where Team Gibbs often race to rescue the damsel in question (usually Abby), only to find she's overcome the villain by her own efforts. That's a testimonial to team spirit.
77	* In ''Series/NightAndDay'', Jane Harper's mysterious disappearance forms the backbone of the show, although the irony is that her dysfunctional friends and family need saving just as much as she does.
78	* The game show version of ''The Perils of Penelope Pitstop'' has Penelope in distress in the same manner as the cartoon, where H.C. wants her dead, missing & never found, etc.
79	* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': Laura/Jade in "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S3E4LastSupper Last Supper]]" when she's being tortured/experimented on in a military lab until Frank rescues her there from it.
80	* In ''Series/PowerRangersInSpace'', just try to count how many times ''the Rangers themselves'' get tied up, to either figure a way out in time for the big fight, or be rescued by the one Ranger who wasn't there at the time.
81	* ''Series/Preacher2016'': Lara gets attacked and kidnapped by a bunch of white-clad goons, but is rescued by Jesse. [[spoiler: It's revealed she {{invoked}} this, since she's with them and it was staged so he'd reveal information to her afterward.]]
82	* Though Veronica, Sarah, and Sofia all get this at one point or another in ''Series/PrisonBreak'', LJ is the epitome of this trope. Any time he's on screen he's either being used as a bargaining chip against his dad and uncle or being rescued by his dad and uncle; the kid spends most of the series tied to a chair. All of them though are justified, since they're average citizens stuck in a mass conspiracy against people trained to make them this.
83	* Ace Rimmer (What a guy!) rescues one of these from some Nazis at the start of the ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode "Stoke Me A Clipper".
84	* Possibly the only reason why [[DamselScrappy Kate]] exists on ''Series/RobinHood''. Partially justified in that she's just a simple peasant girl who has been thrown into a guerilla-style war, but which inevitably leads to FridgeLogic when one wonders [[TheSmurfettePrinciple why on earth]] the outlaws keep letting her [[TagalongKid tag along]] with them on dangerous missions that [[FauxActionGirl she's obviously not equipped to handle]].
85	* Often done in ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' about a patient's dying or miraculously recovering ending bickering about less important matters.
86	** One episode turns the plot of that episode into a medieval fantasy. In it, the patient becomes a damsel in distress that everyone works together to save.
87	* ''Series/Sense8'': After trying to kill Wolfgang, Lila invokes this by acting like she's the victim after the police arrive, using the bloody nose he gave her, plus all her men's bodies around.
88	* Lana Lang in ''Series/{{Smallville}}''. The whole first season was one big Lana capture-fest. And most of the second. Usually by [[GreenRock kryptonite]] mutants who [[StalkerWithACrush ''loved'' her]]. And once they had her, they often tried to kill her, for no better reason than to give Clark a chance to arrive [[JustInTime JUST IN TIME]]! One later-season character actually commented sardonically to his obsessed stalkermutant friend "Lana Lang? Gee, how original."
89	** Subverted with Chloe Sullivan. While she needs to be rescued now and then, as Clark puts it himself, she saved him more times than he could have ever saved her.
90	** Subverted with Lois Lane in more recent episodes; while she tends to need rescuing on a semi-regular basis, she often ends up saving her own skin, and will never be defined as "helpless". She also lampshaded this trope in the Season 10 episode "Harvest", when she ended up getting kidnapped by a rural community who wanted to sacrifice her in a harvest ritual, after wanting to prove to Clark that she didn't need protecting:
91	--->"I promise to eat a heaping helping of crow when we get back home, but right now, do your super-speedy thing because this fair lady needs some rescuing big time."
92	* Parodied in the [[ShowWithinAShow Captain Proton]] holoprogram in ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' with secretary Constance Goodheart, whose only function is to be captured by the villainous Dr Chaotica so Captain Proton can rescue her, and whose only dialogue is an ear-splitting scream. When Seven of Nine [[OffTheRails is roped in to play Constance]] she asks what her function is. Tom Paris (playing Proton) replies awkwardly that her job is to "tag along on all the missions".
93	* ''Series/StrangerThings'' does this with [[spoiler: Max]] in the Season 4 [[Recap/StrangerThingsS4E4ChapterFourDearBilly "Dear Billy"]], requiring all the Hawkins characters to focus on working out how to save her from [[spoiler: becoming Vecna's third victim. She ends up pretty distressed and ends up being tied up with tentacles before escaping with the help of Kate Bush.]]
94	* ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'' had Maddie (and later Carey), tied up (and later kidnapped) by their captors, hoping that Zack (and later Cody) rescue them both (because they are really twin brothers).
95	* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' tends to apply this trope so much it gets annoying after a while. The Victim Of The Week (usually female) is either being threatened and can't help herself out or Sam is pinned to something and helpless against the MOTW or Dean is doing something stupid/going off on his own, getting nabbed and needing Sam to save his arse.
96	** They've subverted it twice with Sam, though. In ''Bloodlust'', the vampires capture him but let him go after they've given him a good talking to and in ''The Benders'', he manages to get out of his cage without Dean's help and Dean ends up being the tied up one in need of saving.
97	* ''Series/TenMilesOfPeachBlossoms'': Bai Qian, when she's captured by Yao Guang and chained up in a water dungeon, and later when she's kidnapped and taken to the Celestial Palace.
98	* Jeremy Clarkson tried to take advantage of this on ''Series/TopGearUK'' when he drove his Toyota into a ditch and then called emergency services, claiming to be a pregnant woman about to be eaten by dogs (rather than a fat, old man who can't judge terrain). This works if you're not Jeremy Clarkson -- the AA prioritises "lone woman" calls, as well as some other categories like disabled drivers.
99	* ''Series/TheTwilightZone2019'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone2019S2E1MeetInTheMiddle Meet In The Middle]]" Annie pretends she's one, claiming a man kidnapped her then leading Phil to her rescue. It turns out that the "kidnapper" is her husband, and she is in their house. It was a setup for Phil to get rid of him so she'd and their daughter would be free.
100	* ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'':
101	** Elena, at least early in the series where she is constantly being threatened and/or kidnapped to enrage Stefan or sometimes Damon. Justified as she is the only main character who doesn't have any sort of magic ability. She gradually becomes more of an ActionSurvivor as the series goes on [[spoiler:especially after turning into a vampire]], but she still occasionally has her moments in peril.
102	** Caroline also filled this role, especially in early Season 1, but since she TookALevelInBadass, not so much...
103	* ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'': Alex Cahill is kidnapped in almost every other episode of the show, but whether or not she is the DesignatedVictim, there are plenty of others who fulfill this role.
104	* ''Series/{{Willow}}'':
105	** Dove gets kidnapped by Ballantine. She escapes briefly, but is recaptured. She's rescued later by the others.
106	** Dove later frees herself and Kit through a spell when they're captured by the Bone Reavers. Then, while they're coming to rescue her (but instead get captured again) Jade manages to slip out of her bonds.
107	** Dove rescues Kit when she's sucked down inside a strange liquid in the mines.
108	* ''[[Series/WonderWoman1975 Wonder Woman]]'': Diana was frequently captured both as Wonder Woman and as [[SecretIdentity Diana Prince]]. During World War II, bad guys would [[InstantSedation use chloroform]]. During TheSeventies, it was Diana Prince who would be in distress. Very rarely would she need anyone's help to escape, however.
109	** In "Fausta, the Nazi Wonder Woman", Wonder Woman was gassed and kidnapped to Nazi, Germany. [[spoiler: She proved far too dangerous for the [[IdiotBall idiot Colonel Kesselman]] to hold for long]].
110	** In "Anschluss '77", Diana Prince was captured and tied to a post with dynamite lit and the fuse burning. [[spoiler: She escaped and kept her secret identity secret]].
111	* AgentScully from ''Series/TheXFiles'' spends a worrying amount of time (especially in seasons 1 to 4) being kidnapped, tied up and drooled over by freaks and fruitcakes. Her partner AgentMulder does get captured/injured/drugged/whatever in a fair share episodes as well (the show was one of the earliest to divvy up the proportion of DamselInDistress and DistressedDude pretty equally between the male and female protagonists), but ultimately it's Scully who gets BoundAndGagged more often than Mulder, Doggett, or any of the other main characters.
112	* ''Series/Zero2021'': Anna gets kidnapped in the series finale and Omar has to rescue her.

Context DamselInDistress / LiveActionTV