Discussion Series / HillStreetBlues

I've removed the example of Heel–Face Turn that describes Joyce chaning jobs from a public defender to working for the DA. I don't think this trope applies, since it's about an evil person becoming a good guy. Joyce is never depicted as evil; as a PD she's sometimes an antagonist to the police, but that doesn't make her a Heel. Conversely, the DA's people are not always "good" since they sometimes have to make the policework harder by insisting on following all the rules.

I can't find a better trope for changing sides in a non-good/evil way like this. Turncoat is a bit too negative since it implies treachery (not even her colleagues seem to take it like that).

I've removed the example for now. If anyone can find a better trope, please put it back in, but I don't really see a need for shoehorning. We don't need to describe everything that happens in the show, but just interesting trope uses.

I just removed the example for Sacrificial Lamb which just said "Poor Renko...".

Apart from this being a ZCE, my edit reason was basically that Renko doesn't "exist to die" (in the words of the trope description), but lives through the entire series.

I now see that the Sacrificial Lamb doesn't have to die, but can just "exist to suffer". Perhaps this was what the original poster had in mind? It still doesn't fit, since Renko is one of the protagonists, and wasn't just written in to have bad things happen to him.

But there is a point: he seems to attract misfortune. I'm thinking that perhaps this makes him the Butt-Monkey instead, so he should be added to that example?