Do you have storylines or episodes that you wish had been written differently? I've often thought that certain plots didn't ring true, and certain characters were sometimes written in ways that were totally out of character. It always irks me when a normally well-written and well-established character suddenly does something completely out of left field, only to serve a particular storyline. I also find it irritating when a character, old or new, is written in such an uneven way, that you can't get a grip on who that person is supposed to be.

One of the storylines I wish could be rewritten at many points is the saga of Carrie and Big on Sex and The City. The writers were all over the place with that story, and I think some of the things they had the characters do caused irreparable damage to the credibility of those characters. Then they wrapped up the story in a rush with a neat, fairytale ending that IMO, didn't come close to mining the story for all it was worth.

I'm curious what storylines or characters other people would change if they could.

Oh dear, I think this thread will be owned forever by anyone who watches soap operas. The number of storylines, past, present and future, that I wish to change are uncountable and involve pretty much everyone on the show. And that's just General Hospital.

Outside of soaps, I would love to change the super soldier storyline on the last season of X-Files. It was such a tacked on piece of crap. Why the whole thing couldn't have been about searching for Scully's baby or searching for I don't know, proof of aliens, I don't know. But fighting metal alien soldier thingies? Who have really nasty skin showers? And Doggett? And Monica Reyes? Sure, the show was on it's last legs, but when you're petering out, you try harder, damnit.

Footballers' Wives: Noah's I-hate-that-I'm-gay storyline supersucked. It was fine when he went to a Christianity-based de-gayifying group therapy, but then to start 'dating' the group leader's daughter and somehow manage to get himself engaged? No. He should have 'dated' the girl for a while, attempted to have sex with her, realized that no, he's doesn't care for seafood, and then run straight for the bathhouse. Season 4's ending found Noah in such a bathhouse along with his 'girlfriend''s dad. End scene.

Footballers' Wives: OR, Noah's eyeing of Seb piques Seb's sociopathic tendencies. Seb makes some thought-provoking comments to Noah in the locker-room post match, which in turn makes Noah rise to the occasion and come on to young Seb. Seb can be like Conrad and go both ways, Conrad walks in on it and just has to lend a hand while taping it, which Amber discovers and tries to hide but Hazel uses it against her, only to have the tape go missing, and thus about another scandal is brought upon beleagured Earl's Park. Except, didn't Tanya already do something similar the season before when she broadcast Noah's buttpirating habits at the press event? Whatever, I just really hate the real storyline.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Finale. Anya gets a proper send-off instead of lying undiscovered under a pile of rubble. Dawn dies. Yay!

Grey's Anatomy: Instead of McDreamy choosing Addison over Meredith, he doesn't choose either, instead explaining to Meredith: "...nor do I choose you. You drink too much." Meredith consequently kills herself, and the show is renamed "Bailey's Vajayjay."

BtVS: Buffy comes back from the dead in season 6 as merely human (only the ressurection spell helped her dig herself out). Dawn/The Key is the living embodiment of the energy used to create the line of slayers way back when. When she finds out at the end of season 7 that she's been doing such amazing things all along as just a human, Buffy chooses to fight The First as a human (remember Joyce saying "she won't choose you [Dawn]"). By overcoming her fear of loving her friends and being loved by them, she weakens The First (The opposite of Evil/Fear is Love), and Dawn makes the choice to disperse her energies to the other potential slayers to finally end the threat. Kennedy is killed the most horrific way possible, and Giles and Willow seal all the Hellmouths in the world after first pulling Tara out and restoring her to life.

Easy.

I would agree with Split Ends on soap operas. Like for instance, on Y&R Cricket actually considers the man that sexually harrased her. I mean come on.

Rex dying on DH. I gave the show up b/c of that.

Jackie ending up with Fez on That 70s Show. It was bad enough when she ended up with Hyde (I hate her) but to have her go with Fez was just insane.

Joey liking Rachel and then Rachel liking Joey on Friends. Just out of nowhere and completely unbelievable. Another thing about a storyline on that show was the resolution or lack there of regarding the "we were on a break." I always thought they should have a conversation about what happened. Him always screaming it and her being so upset about it even years later rang false.

That's all I got for now.

Things I would like to change:

BTVS: S7 would never have happened. Spuffy would never have happened. Dawn would be dead and Anya (though I didn't like her) would not have been left dead like that.

Angel: No working with Wolfram & Hart. Most of S5 would never have happened.

Smallville: Clark would be the same in S1 and Lana would never have a big role. In fact she would have died mid-S2 and Chlark scoobying would start. Pete would never have left and Lex wouldn't have been lightswitched.

I know I'd have given just about anything to have John Spencer/Leo McGarry not die.

And Backstagebear? Excellent work on the BtVS rewrite!

Grey's Anatomy: The Denny Duquette/Izzy Stephens storyline should have never happened. At first it was cute and charming. Then it became annoying. The events leading up to his death and the aftermath - outside of Alex's cradling and carrying Izzy - were just overdramatic and did not reflect well on everyone involved (the interns for participating, the attending and resident for not removing Izzy from the case as soon as they suspected/knew she was too personally involved, Izzy parading out of the hospital like a prom queen after jeopardizing hers and others careers). I can't wait to see how the writers get out of this one.


Desperate Housewives: The Applewhite storyline was a mess. They got an outstanding actress - Alfre Woodard - to join the cast and wasted her talents with a jumbled, poorly executed plot that at one time had great potential.

Smallville: Lex hiring HypnoHo to seduce and spy on Clark in order to learn his secret and break up Clark/Lana was tacky. The plan makes Lex look less than intelligent when he gets double crossed by HypnoHo and a female mindwhammying and nearly raping Clark is cringeworthy (although I don't mind drooling over a nearly nude TW).

ER: Sam Taggert and her ex-husband. Honestly, does anyone care anymore?

quietone, I totally forgot about ER until you mentioned it. I would completely rewrite Abby/Carter. Re-write it into non-existence.

Wasn't that heartbreaking? That was too much of life imitating art. John Spencer was so great on that show, and I just wish his real life hadn't so closely mirrored his storyline.

Split Ends, there's a few ER storylines I would rewrite or blow up:

Pairings I would have kept:Benton/Corday, Chen/Carter
Pairings that started out interesting then...zzzzzz: Benton/Finch, Carter/Kem (can't remember her last name), Green/Corday ( I did like 'On the Beach'), Weaver/Legaspi
Pairings that should have never happened: Abby/Carter, Hathaway/Shep, Green/Hooper, Chen/Pratt

Events that should have never happened:
Romano versus the chopper part 2 (just wrong...I mean what did he ever do to a helicopter?)
The bitch nurse manager from hell cameo (added nothing to the show)
Adding Dr. Clemente (see above)

This may be unpopular, but I would like to change everything that happened after the third season of Degrassi: The Next Generation.

Couples that should have happened: Spinner/Terri (after Spinner and Paige break up, which could still happen), Craig/Manny (happened in Season 5), Jimmy/Ashley (who really should have gotten together again after Holiday, although I liked Jimmy/Hazel), and Sean and Emma should have gotten back together.

Couples that shouldn't have happened: Emma/Peter, Craig/Ashley, Paige/Mr. Oleander, Sean/Ellie.

Wouldn't have happened: Rick coming back and shooting the school (really, would the school allow Rick back (especially since he in real life would likely be going to juvenile hall)?)
Kevin Smith (what did that do except break up Joey/Caitlin, one of the more popular pairings on that show)
Paige and Mr. Oleander having an affair (that made no sense at all)
Snake and Mrs. H (WTF?!)

Seconded! In fact, she is continually resurrected and killed, each death more horrific than the last. It becomes a running gag and season seven quickly becomes a fan favourite.

Word on Dr. Clemente. Which is a shame because I like John Leguzamo.

For Star Trek:TNG

I would have had Tasha Yar die a more dignified death(The first time around).
No Troi and Worf paring.
I never was happy that they killed off Worf's love K'Ehleyr. She was so cool.
I would not have made Wesley so much of a Mary Sue or Marty Stu.

I am with nicepebbles. Rex shoud still be alive. I, too, gave up on the show after that. Hell, let's just rename the show to "The Van Der Kamps." They were the only part of that show that I cared about.

Toby as the leak on the West Wing. I'm still bitter about that. I know that Richard Schiff wanted to leave, but I still wish that Toby went out on a blaze of glory.

On Grey's Anatomy: I wished that when Derek chose to give his marriage a chance he actually, you know, tried. I would have loved to see some backstory on their marriage and see them trying to work things out even while Derek still has feelings for Meredith. An actual triangle, not this crappy storyline that made me hate him.

And finally, the whole Alias finale. I don't think there's one thing that I would leave as it was. Jack should still be alive being the kick-ass grandpa that he would be. Irina would somehow get a pardon and they'd come to an agreement. I always wanted those two to work things out. And Syd should stay with the agency, not at the end of the world with Vaughn. But she can still chase Sark. I liked that. ;)

One more thing: the whole Romano/Corday thing on ER. I always tought that they would eventually hook-up, especially after he lost his arm. They seemed to be growing closer and then... nothing. His storyline became a mess and Romano became a caricature. I hate what TPTB did to him.

Roswell season 1 ending, no Tess and no Destiny.

Amy again on the West Wing!
Josh screaming at buildings on the West Wing!
Toby as the leak on the West Wing!
CJ’s Chief of staff on the West Wing!
Helicopter attack I and II on ER!
Africa stories on ER!
Everything that John Wells has produced/wrote in the last five years.

John "I love you. I only want the best for you. Now go follow these coordinates into life-threatening situations and don't expect me to return your phone calls even if one of you is dying, K?" Winchester. One of the least sympathetic characters I've ever come across, and I don't think that was intentional on the writers' part. It takes some extreme fanwanking to even slightly understand where he's coming from. John, if you wanted to give your sons a good life, to protect them from the evil of the world, you had every chance to do so! Either admit that you royally messed up your chance at fatherhood or STFU!

BtVS: Spike stays evil. I loved him as a bad guy, hated the defanged version. I'm convinced that one change would solve about 90% of the problems I had with the later seasons.

WORD! I gave up Smallville after last season. I couldn't take it anymore and I had only watched the show for that season. I saw a few episodes of the first season and comparing the two just made it all that easier to give the show up.

Wordy McWord WORD WORD, alexj! Wells is an excellent show runner (someone has to get the trains running on time, after all), but should never be allowed anywhere near story meetings or the writers' room.

On The O.C., Oliver never should have existed.

Marilyn never should have died on Prison Break.

And I know it's not "scripted" (airquotes) per se, but I would love to travel back in time to last summer and make Kaysar ignore Jennifer.

Joan of Arcadia actually succeeded in its first season despite my constant irritation with the main character. Still, in addition to eliminating the Adam's-infidelity plot and writing the Duffs out altogether (which could be done with ease), I would have been happy to see just one of the following:

Joan becomes intrigued with the strategies of chess, decides to finish reading the book on the game, and decides to stick with the Club and learn more about it.

OR

Joan decides that she likes the piano better than she thought, enjoys the music she can make with it, wants to learn more about it, and sticks with it.

OR

Joan decides that where photography is concerned, even though at first she didn't succeed, she's going to try, try again.

I would have been happy to see her take an actual sustained interest in one, just one of the areas that God led her into. Instead, in each new episode, while relationships moved forward, as far as the non-relationship learning was concerned (chess, chemistry, piano, history, the drums, photography, debate team, economics, mock trial, etc.), it might just as well never have happened. Each new adventure prompted emotional growth in Joan, but intellectual growth? Ambition? Actual curiosity that sticks? Never. The writers were so determined to keep her "ordinary" that only at the very end, when the show was about to be cancelled, did she seem to make actual progress in the brain area. I would love to have seen it just a little differently.

And I would have rewritten the infamous "You should have been crippled instead of me!" storyline so that Kevin actually apologizes to Luke -- actually verbally acknowledges that Luke's feelings matter and that he was a stone cold jerk. I always found Luke the most decent person on the show (among the younger characters, at least) and was annoyed more than once at how Kevin and Joan, the "average" ones, seemed to bond and double-team against him. I don't think anyone, even Grace, really cared about Luke as he deserved to be cared about. I'd have changed that, too.
And I would have given sweet, awkward science nerd Glynis some sort of happy ending.

The storyline I would have liked to see changed was the whole serial killer plotline on Days.

Angel finale- NOT killing Lindsey. He let Harmony live but killed a Lindsey, a human with a soul? AFTER Lindsey had helped? Real nice, Angel. I would have preferred him to at least let Lindsey help out in the final fight.

The Dana and Casey romance on Sports Night- How about having them go out on a few dates and come to the conclusion that it didn't work like normal adults instead of the ridiculous dating plan?

Battlestar Galactica- None of the events of Black Market happened. In fact, that's what I like to pretend anyway.

I agree. I thought she and Kelso were meant to be from the beginning. They were awesome.

Another thing, I wish on The O.C. they actually worked with Taylor banging the dean. That had such awesome potential. I was expecting a huge OC moment where the whole thing was revealed, but it was wrapped up way too cleanly.

ITA with Unknown about all the Degrassi stuff after Season Three!
Speaking of unpopular, I'd have changed 'The Practice' ending to having James Spader's character losing his lawsuit, getting disbarred since he'd constantly violated both the law and ethics whenever it suited him instead of having his character consume the show. That way, we'd never have had that spin off or Shat happen(yeah, unpopular). Oh, and I'd have liked for everyone in that firm to have really dissed Eleanor for having nada bat sense in choosing and keeping friends.

Great thread idea! Here's some of mine:

ER: Abby's Alcoholism. An unnecessary plot device seemingly created out of thin air to make her appear inferior to Carter. Never mind that (unlike some of the other doctors who aren't labeled alcoholics) she never showed up to work drunk or even with a hangover, never indulged in alcohol during work hours, or even drank very much when she did fall off the wagon. She's a drunk! Carter (who used to inject himself with drugs at work) must rescue her and drag her off to an AA meeting! Whatever. Abby had plenty of baggage (having to drop out of med school because her ex-husband wouldn't pay the tuition, a dysfunctional relationship with Luka, and her psycho family) without piling alcoholism onto the heap.

Friends: Phoebe and Mike. He was just a big ol' dud who had maybe three or four funny lines in his entire two years on the show. Phoebe should have ended up with someone far more quirky and less bland.

Frasier: Frasier and Lilith don't get back together. After eleven years of watching Frasier chase after an endless stream of forgettable girlfriends, it would have been fitting that he get together with Lilith (the only woman who really understood him) in the end. While we're on the subject, Sam and Diane should have gone through with their wedding in the Cheers finale, too.

The Charlotte SL could have benefited from that as well. Both had the potential to really shake things up, and instead they quickly bottomed out. The third season would have had a much better response if those plots had gone somewhere exciting.

For Buffy I would not have made Willow gay. She never convinced me she was gay.

RE: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

I wish Joss Whedon, if he wanted to have a gay character, had just: 1) introduced a new character, or 2) had Willow explain that she was bisexual, or explain that maybe she always had feelings for women. The "Willow's gay now" thing was so sudden.

Word to that. After the dating plan (which was just a silly and kind of unconvincing way, IMO, to keep them apart longer) and when the show ended, I was like 'that's all I get? Really?' I realize that Sorkin may have had them dating if he had decided to move SN to cable, but, if not for the silly dating plan, he would've gotten to it earlier and we would have actually been able to see it.

Another relationship that would've been interesting to actually explore and then have the two people decide it wouldn't work out: J.D. and Elliot on Scrubs. They did that whole thing in the first season where they dated, decided that they weren't right for each other, and broke up, but if the writers are going to try to put them together again, why not have them in a mature relationship, at least for a few episodes, before JD decides that he's not in love with her- instead of, oh, approximately two seconds? I felt like the rug was pulled out from under me when I watched that episode.

If shows want to do the 'will they/won't they' thing, they need to strike a balance between not sucking the sexual tension out of the show, thus making it less interesting for some of the audience, and satisfying the audience's need to see at least a little of what a relationship between the two characters that they have invested their time and emotions in would look like. I say this as a viewer- but I'm sure it's incredibly difficult to gauge at what point the audience will get bored when you put two characters together. Hint though: 2 seconds is not enough time to get bored.

I'm not sure if it's true or not but romour has it that willow was supposed to be corrupted by magic and turn evil halfway through season and lead the trio. (yeah I know joss has done the good guy turing evil at the half way before more than once, one of the reason i find while he can be brilliant he is also one of the more overrated showrunners out there) but anything would have been better then the totally mangled Magic=Drugs plotline.

In fact that's the one thing that makes me believe the rumour is that that analogy came from fucking nowhere even in the episodes preceding Wrecked like Tabula Rasa it looks more like Willow is just using and abusing the power as opposed to "getting high" from it.

How did we make it three pages into this without any mention of Enterprise?

Change #1: Whever made the stupid comment to Jolene Blalock about her weight should have STFU. In the first season, she was HOTTTT. Then somebody gave her bad ideas about her weight, and starting late in Season 2, she becomes this emaciated scarecrow with overemphasized dinners, bob-bob-bobbin' along on the screen.

Change #2: Someone should have pulled the stick out of Archer's ass. Bakula is a much better actor than that!

Change #3: Drop the whole Space Crack storyline from Season 3. It was stupid, it went nowhere, and if you wanted to let T'Pol be openly emotional, well, the groundwork for that was laid back before the Xindi Incident, when they established she had Mind AIDS from unprotected melding. (Oh, and the whole "mind rape" thing in that ep? Trash it. Pointless and sensationalistic.)

Change #4: "These Are the Voyages" never happened. The last episode of Enterprise was "Terra Prime". (That's how things went in my little world anyway...)

There are too many unfortunate storylines in Smallville to list. Suffice it to say that if I was in charge, even the word "Krypton" would not have appeared on the show yet, let alone any Kryptonians.

Re: Smallville

How about no Krypton, Kryptonians, or Lois Lane. For the life of me I can't figure out how she wouldn't recognize Superman in Metropolis when she's seen him everyday for the last 2-3 years.

While on the subject, I want to state my (lone) opinion that it was a dumb idea for Clark and Lex to be childhood buddies, when once grown up they will A) Be mortal enemies, and B) Never have seen each other before. This idea threw me off the series from its very beginning.

The way they handled him not loving her turned me off from the show completely. I got weak and watched one episode last year and the show had lost it's magic for me b/c I was still pissed about what happened. ITA that they should have had him find out he really doesn't love her in time not 2 second after they get back together. That was just so wrong.

In response to The Librarian'spost about Clark's and Lex's relationship on Smallville, there have been two occasions (the early Silver Age) and the recent Birthright series from DC Comics where the two were friends as teenagers, before Lex lost his hair and blamed Clark/Superboy for it.

I'd like to add that Birthrightwas created after Smallville and reflected in many ways the latter's continuity (the Kents resembling the TV actors, for one).

Rory stealing a yacht on Gilmore Girls because Mitchem said said didn't have the chops to be a reporter. If they wanted a story line about Rory dropping out of school, it could have revolved around a too heavy class schedule coupled with her grades slipping due to too much partying. Plus, her and Lorelai's reconciliation could have included some actual discussion about what happened.
Luke's long lost daughter. If Amy wanted to drive yet another wedge between Luke and Lorelai (which...why, in the first place), she could have done a story line with the two of them having difficulty merging their lives and forming a healthy, adult relationship. It could have been comedy and dramatic gold.

Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy. The only thing better than her not being there at all is this:


I'd wear out a tape watching that.
Killing off Tara. There has to have been a better way to make Willow homicidal, if they felt they had to do that story line - maybe Amy casting a spell. I don't know. Anything. Just no dead Tara.

Any seasons long love triangle. Spare me, please.

Grey's Anatomy: No George/Meredith almost sex. It made me hate George (he knew she was still in love with McDreamy) and Meredith (how do you ignore someone who is schmoopy over you for a year?). Also, it brought about self-righteous George which was just too much to bare.

If I were to change anything about Gilmore Girls, I would find a way to make Rory actually good at what she does, as opposed to having other characters tell me, repeatedly, how "brilliant" she is. There aren't enough genuinely brilliant girls on TV; the most (lately, at least) GG has been able to offer in Rory is a pseudo-achiever.

I would change the ending to Everwood in one of two ways:
Either actually have Nina take charge of her own life and her own desires, and tell Jake that she is leaving him for Andy -- and thus take decisive action for a change;
Or have Andy decide he has lost patience with Nina's wimpiness, and decide that, after all is said and done, Linda is the woman for him.
The way it turned out (Andy still loves Nina, Nina's still a wimp) was the weakest aspect of that series finale. I can't root for a couple when I can't escape the feeling that one of them isn't good enough for the other.

I would rid the world of the Carver storyline on Nip/Tuck.

I'd write a better exit for Doug Ross from ER.
Yes, I'm still bitter, what are you going to do about it?
In fact, I'd re-write that whole damn Season 5. It was the first truly godawful one in the show's history and despite a reasonably good Season 6, it never fully recovered.

See I don't mind that Lex and Clark were/are childhood friends. What I do have a problem with is Clark and Lex claiming they're best friends when we are never shown them as friends (we get glimpses). And for me one does not need to be friends in order to be mortal enemies but wasn't that kind of the point with the premise (one of two premise) of the show, that Clark and Lex were friends something happened and then they were mortal enemies later. Of course the whole thing was bungled from the beginning so for the storyline I would actually make them friends and their "drift" would actually be caused by something more important then a pink squirrel.

I would defnitely not give up her relationship with Tara (“Can’t we just skip it? Can’t you just be kissing me now?” *swoon*), l but I wish to the Great Spaghetti Monster they had let Willow be bi. Everytime she said “Gay now!” like it was some kind of choice she made like a college major, I wanted to slap faces and box ears. Not only did it make being gay seem to be a choice, it completely retconned everything the show ever said about Oz and Xander. (I always found Tara/Willow to be not about labels anyway. Hope that doesn’t undercut my whole argument. :-) She would NEVER have gotten together with Kennedy. Maybe kissed her and moved on, to show that the Powers that Be and Write the Show were not necessarily selling out, but please. (I wouldn’t have had her hook up with guys right away either. Shouldn’t she have been allowed some mourning time? I can’t believe that freaking “Degrassi” handled the end of a lesbian relationship better.)

I liked Dawn, I love Michelle Trachtenburg and thought the whininess was appropriate for a kid sister, but I would have given her less mopey screen time and/or made use of her in some dramatic way. She spent a whole season and a half doing nothing but mope, when she ought to have been useful to the fight somehow. I always thought her being a Key, basically called into existence, gave her a sort of malleability in terms of her reality, and I really thought her story arc was going to wind up with her having to choose to be an embodiment of good or evil in a major way. Maybe an anti-The First, who knows. As a teen she’s just a kid-sister-type pain, but those who created her called her out of nothing — she ought to have been way powerful, less mundane. Her Key nature was just dropped.

Which brings me to “Angel” — I was never so pissed as when Conner stopped acting like a Nemesis and started acting like a typical teen-soap whiney a$$. The reasons he gave for being bitchy to Angel were too realistic, after Angel was sunk and recovered. Conner should have never been a bitch, he should have been a FORCE. It’s one thing when Ephram from “Everwood” does it: he’s got the closeup experience of being let down by his father for years, plus the mundane-human (not to mention teenage minor) powerlessness that makes the bitchiness appropriate and, in truth, all he can really do. Conner had no live-in father to resent — he had a story, a quasi-religious myth to fulfill. He should not have been an angsty teen — he was a warrior. It was a little better when Jasmine showed up. I liked when he revealed that he could see her as she/it really was.

Giles’s reasons for leaving were terribly contrived. I get it, for the actor, but for the show’s plot it blew.

Degrassi — I think I would have let Ellie have Craig, at least for a little while. Ellie and Manny are my favorite characters on the show, for reasons I can’t fully explain, but Manny behaved really badly through that particular arc. Not that my way is realistic or anything. :-) I just want some wish fulfillment!! (And Marco would not have re-hooked up with Dylan. I hate Dylan. Why is it always portrayed that Marco is the one to strive, to impress, to be “good enough” for Dylan? Screw Dylan and his snakelike posture and his floppy 70s hair. Marco’s a cutie and a lovely person could pull any guy he wanted.)

(Wow, Anthrophile, bitter much?? Of course, it’s because I adore these shows that I’m even bothering to complain. If I didn’t care, I just wouldn’t watch. Or buy multiple copies of the DVDs. Or force my friends and colleagues to watch with me.)

Back to "Buffy" -- I wish Faith had been given a real chance to shine and prove herself in season seven, rather than just being wrong while Bufffy Is Always Right Yet AGAIN.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand...

I wish “Firefly” had never ended. I would miss the musical, and I have no beef with any incarnations of Spike; but I’d gladly sacrifice seasons 6 and 7 of “Buffy”on an altar of pain to have more “Firefly.”

(I’d add some tears for “Everwood” here, but at least we got some closure and the hope of some DVDs, if we bug Time Warner enough.)

Oh boy... a quarter-century as a soap fan and you ask me this question? Where the hell do I START?

Okay, let's start with one that still grates even though the show's been off the air for years... Kevin Collins and Eve Lambert on Port Charles. This just never should have happened at all. I thought it was completely out of character for him to fall into a physical relationship so quickly after he and Lucy broke up, plus the fact that the two actors, both of whom I liked, just didn't have much chemistry between them. Everything seemed forced.

We won't start discussing vampires; I do need to get some work done today.

South Park--Mr. Garrison never becomes a woman. His character has never been as good since that happened and he's not as interesting. Matt and Trey have a way of restoring order every several seasons, though, so maybe he will change back somehow.

Law and Order SVU--Kathy never leaves Staebler, no divorce. The family was what gave him heart and a reason for kicking ass. Now he's just. . .UnStaebler.

7th Heaven--Apart from torching the entire cast and crew before the first episode, I'd keep Mary from trashing the school gym. The show was never that good, but it was always cute and enjoyable until that moment. Then Mary became the victim of the biggest character assassination in TV history and the entire show went downhill. I would have either not had that happen and have some other way of getting her out of the house later on (I don't know, maybe college??), or actually have her do something really bad that would warrant that kind of downward spiral. Tossing toilet paper, while stupid, isn't the horrible irredeemable act they made it out to me. Maybe she could have had a drug problem or a baby out of wedlock. Also, I would make sure that once the show was cancelled, it stayed cancelled.

And he was one when he first showed up. His first few episodes, up until the end of the season, were pretty fucking awesome. In fact, I'll give him the season premier too - the combination of hiding what he'd done, pretending to help search for Angel, and starting to feel the slightest stirrings of guilt was pretty damn effective, and his scene with Angel at the end should have been a good catalyst for slow, painful change. Instead, it's like the writers just flipped a switch, and he went from righteously angry fighter to whiny teen whose father didn't love him. This kid showed up as the Destroyer, and maybe seven episodes later he's just an ordinary teenage boy? No way. Especially not when he ended up being manipulated all season, driven back away from Angel, and ultimately becoming a warrior again when he met Jasmine. That could have been an absolutely brutal decision to watch, turning away from the lessons he was slowly learning and back to what he'd always known, and I have no doubt the actor could have done a hell of a job - but instead, it looked like a rebellious teenager lashing out. His intro and his exit were both awesome, but they should have been connected so differently.

In other words, I agree.