When Good Writing Goes Bad: The Worst Episodes of TV
When it comes to television, especially the long running series we grew up with and loyally followed every week, it stands to reason that many categories of classification are born from this. The 'best' episodes, the 'saddest' episodes, the 'scariest' episodes, and so on. But whether we like it or not, whether anyone intended to or not, there's another category that no one typically likes talking about; the one that no series can ever seem to escape from: the 'crap' episode.
However, I believe this to be THE most fascinating phenomenon because obviously, no one in their right mind purposely sets out to write a bad story (unless it's purely for a joke). Yet somehow, be it brand new writers, or natural disasters, or illness, lack of money, or any number of factors, an unintentional stain is left behind on an otherwise great show. And when you're in a position like mine, where you're trying to be the best writer you can be, I feel it's just as important to analyze bad stories as much as the good ones. It's often from failure that we find out WHY something didn't work, and how to avoid those same mistakes again. Bad stories can teach us what NOT to do, as much as good stories show us what DOES work.
So as long as I was on the subject of television for my past three blogs, I thought I'd stay on the TV train and quickly highlight three terrible episodes of shows I grew up with, and figure out why they turned out as bad as they did. I'll save bad movies and bad books for another time, but for now, here's three noteworthy examples (that I could immediately think of, anyway) of how a story can fly off the rails and make the audience want to never revisit it again.
(NOTE: There's obviously going to be some spoilers ahead. If you have yet to watch these shows and want to go in as blind as possible, read on at your own risk.....although, in this case, maybe you'll WANT to read this so you know which episodes won't be worth your time.)
"Everyone Knows it's Bendy"
"Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends" is a Cartoon Network classic, created by Craig McCracken: the same fella who made "The Powerpuff Girls". In a universe where imaginary friends are real, living beings, the adventures of a young boy, Mac, and his wacky ensemble of friends was something I tuned in to watch all the time. But for as delightful as this show was, there's one infamous episode that everyone (me included) avoids like the plague. In this story, a new imaginary friend named Bendy arrives at the foster home and causes all sorts of trouble, framing everyone else for his actions. It's a classic, overused, annoying trope that I've ALWAYS hated, because nine times out of ten, it makes your characters look like idiots. (Another variant of this is when a character sees something fantastical, but it conveniently disappears whenever other people show up.) Bloo, Wilt, Coco, and all the other established main characters are normally well liked and trusted by everyone in the house.....yet in this one inexplicable instance, all the authority figures suddenly take Bendy's side and refuse to listen to the people they've known for years versus this new guy they barely know anything about. It's so grossly out of character, and an example of what happens when you bend over backwards to make a joke or plot point work to the detriment of your established lore. Take note: do NOT change your characters' core traits to make a plot work! Let the plot be driven by your characters! (Or, if your character HAS to do something out of the norm, ask yourself what the circumstances would have to be to make them act unusual.) Let's just say you know it's bad when one of the show's head writers publicly apologized for writing it to begin with.
"Shades of Gray"
If you poke around any of my social media, then you'll quickly figure out that I've been a massive Trekkie from the time I could crawl. The original series is dearest to my heart, but a very close second is 'Next Generation'. With seven seasons at 20-ish episodes a piece, it means it had tons of opportunity for greatness....AND awfulness. Most fans cite the first two seasons as being extremely clunky as the show found its footing, but I'd argue there ARE a few bright spots in its early days here and there......but this ain't one of them. While exploring a planet, Commander Riker is poisoned by some alien plant, and, no joke, they put him into some machine that will artificially stimulate his brain neurons, keeping them active and resisting the virus. (Sure....) This causes Riker to have flashbacks to his past adventures aboard the Enterprise. If you couldn't tell by now, this is all one big excuse to enact the easiest, but laziest cost-saving measure ever: the dreaded clip show. Out of ideas? Just play a ton of footage from past episodes and call it a day. Supposedly, this all came about because the show had run over-budget and needed at least one more episode to fill their quota for the season. So the writers slapped this together in a hurry. To this day, every fan (and even the writers themselves) cite this as the worst episode of the show, and maybe even in all of "Trek" history. And I'm in total agreement. I can't fault the writers for doing what they could under the pressure of keeping their jobs, but it just goes to show what happens when you put something out in a rush. A classic case of quantity vs. quality. If you can't allocate the time or money or means to produce a great product, it's probably best to not make it at all.
"Jack and the Labyrinth"
Finally, we have the show I gushed over back in my reflections on Cartoon Network, which you can read HERE. "Samurai Jack" is easily one of the greatest animated shows ever produced, with each episode feeling more like a series of short films. It's one of the hardest series to make a "Top 10" list for, because pretty much EVERY story knocks it out of the park....but even this shiny diamond couldn't escape the "at least one crappy episode" curse. In this adventure, Jack finds a booby-trapped labyrinth in a pyramid housing a diamond that could send him home. A cunning thief with a multipurpose briefcase also enters the maze, and the two compete to claim the diamond while helping each other escape robot guardians......and that's it. This is a unique case of asking the question: what happens when you have a series that seems to hit home run after home run? What's considered the worst of the best? Well, you get what's probably the worst sin a story can commit---being boring. It's not funny like the time Jack's shoes were ruined or his clothes got stolen. It's not epic or dramatic like when he remembers his past, teams up with the Spartans, or Aku's origin story. It's just....a thirty minute heist film, and a very unmemorable one at that. Seriously, every time I think back on or re-watch this show, I ALWAYS forget about this story until it pops up. (Though thankfully, even the worst of "Samurai Jack" is leagues better than what other shows have given us.) It's a stark lesson in making sure you give your stories SOME kind of punch or memorable quotes or set pieces, or else you end up with mediocrity like this.
......aaaand these are lessons I should've taken to heart when producing "Jamie Jupiter", because sadly, even I fell victim to the "crap episode" phenomena (at least in my opinion), and I'm not afraid to admit it.
My major error came in Season One Episode Seven; the one where Jamie's stuck in detention, leaving Tyler to fight a monster in the science lab all on his own. Up until that point, Jamie had been bailing out Clara and Tyler from one dangerous situation after another. So, I wanted to switch things up and present a situation where Jamie was out of action, leaving her two friends to save the day by themselves. Sounds good on paper, but in execution, it came out a bit wonky (read it for yourself and see what I mean). I blame most of it on the fact that, at the time, I was fighting the flu for over a week, and was working in a haze half the time. But dummy me decided to try and power through and get the work done so people wouldn't be left waiting a long time for the next story. (I actually fell asleep at my desk at one point.) And well.....the end result was less-than-desirable, at least to me. Learn from my experience: if you're sick in any capacity, let your body rest. Do NOT try to force a story out when you're running on fumes. You WILL regret it later. (And thankfully, the rest of the series, thus far, has been free of any similar mishaps since then. I'm proud of how far I've come since the early days of figuring out how to make a comic.)
Of course, there's hundreds of examples of "the crap episode curse". These were just the three that immediately came to my mind. But it's still interesting how something that's the worst can give us valuable info on how to be the best. And above all, it shows that none of us are perfect. All we can do is strive to make our next piece of work even better than what came before. Feel free to share what YOU think are stories that were offensively or laughably bad, and let's learn together!
Stuff I got done this week
--continued drawing the next "Jamie Jupiter" episode
--continued writing the next "Rini Boe" book
Do you want to see behind-the-scenes photos and commentary on all these projects? All of this is available in my totally free newsletter! The next one comes out September 16th!
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