fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2254 ]

[ SECRET POST #2254 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2254 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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[family guy (?), warning for cartoon rape]

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 058 secrets from Secret Submission Post #322.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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I'm trying to think of shows where I thought pregnancies ruined either the character or the show, and I'm coming up blank.

I know a lot of people cite Bones, but I haven't seen that show.

What are other shows y'all think a baby ruined? Just curious.

Truth is, there are a lot of pregnancies that people THINK ruined the characters. In reality, it's more like Character A had a baby and became a parent and the audience didn't like that. ...Even though that's just what life is. Being a parent changes you. That's a fact.

The shows I can think of that included pregnancy, I pretty much liked. I liked the whole Kira/Miles/Keiko pregnancy storyline on DS9, and I liked B'Elanna and Tom having a kid on Voyager, and I even liked Evil!Cordelia and the pregnancy of doom from Angel. LOL I always thought they should have had someone get pregnant on Buffy or at least have a pregnancy scare, but YMMV. I don't think every show I watch has to include a pregnancy or a family, but I do like watching shows that include them.

Bones is the most jarring example. I also really dislike that Gabby in Desperate Housewives ended up having kids despite her original stance/reluctance.
I'd offer House as another one, because that whole show just didn't need a child. I also really disliked the storyline of Queer as Folk where Mel and Lindsay have the whole custody battle going on with the second kid.

Edited 2013-03-06 01:15 (UTC)

I only watched the first season of Desperate Housewives and of Queer as Folk and I've only seen random eps of House at my parents, not enough to even get the character names straight. But you have reminded me how much I was enjoying Queer as Folk; I need to buy that series. :)

Yeah, me too. It's one of those things I should own but I don't...

Bones? What's wrong with Bones?

And Gabby? Just because someone is reluctant to have kids doesn't mean she doesn't want kids. I thought that when she got pregnant with the gardner's baby and then had the miscarriage, that was when she realized it was something she wanted in the future.

Bones to me was all about the NON-romance. Yeah, Brennan and Booth had tension/chemistry, but they elected not to act on it for personal and professional reasons, and I found that dynamic utterly fascinating [and, if I'm honest, refreshing]. Their personalities were also so entirely different that I could see the relationship eventually going south due to it, although that's entirely speculation.
But when they ran out of ideas, they decided to turn the Bones/Booth dynamic a full 180 and had them become romantically involved. Which ruined half the show for me, because Bones' cool, logical, possibly ASD mindset got taken completely out of character by shoehorning romance in. There was a good way to have done it, but it wasn't that.

And then... Bones got pregnant, and suddenly the show wasn't Bones anymore but "As the World Turns" or something. It became all about the babies and romance. The show focused less and less on the actual plot of the episodes, and more and more on interpersonal relationships, until it was like, why are they even bothering to include a case in these anymore? They clearly don't care at all about anything that isn't love and babies. Siiiiigh.
And there went one of the only half-decent TV shows I watched.

Re: Pregnancies that ruined a character/show?

(Anonymous) - 2013-03-06 01:37 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Pregnancies that ruined a character/show?

kallanda_lee - 2013-03-06 01:48 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Pregnancies that ruined a character/show?

kittenmommy - 2013-03-06 05:31 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Pregnancies that ruined a character/show?

kallanda_lee - 2013-03-06 12:22 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Pregnancies that ruined a character/show?

kittenmommy - 2013-03-06 19:44 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Pregnancies that ruined a character/show?

(Anonymous) - 2013-03-06 08:00 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Pregnancies that ruined a character/show?

kittenmommy - 2013-03-06 05:29 (UTC) - Expand

See, with Gabby I saw that miscarriage completely differently.

I saw her as not wanting kids still - but acknowledging the loss she had suffered. Those two things are not mutually exclusive. Even women who have had abortions often go through a mourning process. That doesn't mean they wanted the child - but they might still need to heal.

The fact that Carlos tampered with her birth control was absolutely disgusting, and it sickens me she ended up having kids with that man.

As for Bones, see my longer answer upthread.

Edited 2013-03-06 01:42 (UTC)

Re: Pregnancies that ruined a character/show?

habilelapin - 2013-03-06 01:50 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Pregnancies that ruined a character/show?

kallanda_lee - 2013-03-06 01:57 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Pregnancies that ruined a character/show?

habilelapin - 2013-03-06 01:59 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Pregnancies that ruined a character/show?

kallanda_lee - 2013-03-06 02:02 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Pregnancies that ruined a character/show?

(Anonymous) - 2013-03-08 04:58 (UTC) - Expand

I have to agree with you about House. Rachael was one of the many ways they drastically changed the show in a short time and it just wasn't fun to watch anymore.

Silk Stalkings, back in the day. It was like SVU before there was SVU. They tried to hide it with plants and desks for too long, then suddenly the character is heavily pregnant for her partner, then partner gets shot up by some mob boss, and the next week, the leads have been completely replaced.

Oh wow. that sounds like a hot mess. :(

Pretty much. I don't know how the show scraped on as long as wikipedia says it did because after that, nobody cared.

Silk Stalkings, back in the day.

OMG yes! I remember that!

Well, I can think of a few shows that handled not writing in the pregnancies very poorly. Frasier and The Nanny come pretty immediately to mind.

But, let's see, shows a baby ruined... okay, maybe not ruined - I guess on Night Court I wasn't really happy with Christine's storyline. The last season of Fringe kind of, sort of had issues relating to this (in a roundabout sort of way).

Fringe is another one of those shows I keep meaning to watch at some point. My flist is pretty ga-ga over the show.

The show is awesome... mostly - the last season was kind of, hmm, not sure how to describe it, it wasn't bad, but it was weird (and for this show that's saying something) and not really the same show.

Re: Pregnancies that ruined a character/show?

lunabee34 - 2013-03-06 02:27 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Pregnancies that ruined a character/show?

(Anonymous) - 2013-03-06 03:09 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Pregnancies that ruined a character/show?

lunabee34 - 2013-03-06 03:34 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Pregnancies that ruined a character/show?

(Anonymous) - 2013-03-06 08:07 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Pregnancies that ruined a character/show?

(Anonymous) - 2013-03-06 08:09 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Pregnancies that ruined a character/show?

(Anonymous) - 2013-03-06 08:10 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Pregnancies that ruined a character/show?

lunabee34 - 2013-03-06 16:55 (UTC) - Expand

Do see it. The first few episodes are a bit poor, but it gets more awesome as it progressed. And they really make an effort to round up their storylines.

Fringe takes a while to find its voice. I think it picks up a lot after 1x07 ("In Which We Meet Mr. Jones"), but if you want to get a taste of the Fringe experience without starting at the very beginning, I would suggest trying "Ability" (1x14). It works quite well if you're unfamiliar with the characters, and introduces a lot of important series mythology information about Olivia and Walter's history. Jared Harris as David Robert Jones is a highlight of season 1 (he's particularly prominent in the two episodes I mentioned), and "Ability" is also a great body-horror story which is typical for Fringe.

It's also a show that rewards loyalty, because there's a lot of callbacks and important thematic connections- for example, "The Same Old Story", "Night of Desirable Objects", "Of Human Action", and "Os" are all father/son stories.

Re: Pregnancies that ruined a character/show?

lunabee34 - 2013-03-06 04:17 (UTC) - Expand

See, funny thing I didn't mind it on Fringe so much.

They still managed to tell the story and (without giving lunabee too much spoilers) to me it made sense for the characters to progress to wanting a child. As far as kids go, I was far more disturbed about Fauxlivia's storyline.

Awwww. Thank you for the courtesy (although if anybody wants to spoil away, go ahead). :)

Hmm...I wouldn't say ruined, exactly, but when I think of kids being added to casts, the first thing that comes to mind is how a lot of family-centered sitcoms, at least up until the recent past, would add a new kid when the existing children started getting older. Like Cousin Oliver on The Brady Bunch. Or Jesse and Becky's twins on Full House. At this point, it's become a cliche, and it usually fails to bring back the show's earlier charm.

I haven't seen as many non-sitcoms where I felt like the introduction of a did was awkward.

I was a kid when Full House was airing; I don't know how I'd feel about it as an adult. :) At the time, I had the hugest crush on John Stamos. That episode where he does the black and white music video with the twins--if we'd had Youtube back then, I'd have watched it on repeat ad nauseum. LOL

Angel. They handled the first baby storyline pretty well (though I disliked what happened to one character as a direct result), but when one of the actresses became pregnant, the writers took the show into such deeply unfortunate directions to get around it and destroyed at least...two characters? Definitely Cordelia's, but I didn't like adult!Connor to begin with, I just liked him even less later.

It wasn't until I saw a show where they wrote in a simple reason for the actress to take a break from the main cast and filled her spot with an interesting character until she could return (Leverage) that I realized that mess didn't have to happen like that.

My feelings about season 3-4 Angel have changed considerably since I first watched it (kinda like my season 4 Buffy feelings LOL). The first time I watched, I hated it. hated hate hated. But on subsequent rewatches, I find more and more to like about the whole story-arc. I have always thought that Darla's death scene is one of the finest things ever on that show, and I agree with the person upthread who thought the team made a cute family with baby Connor. I loved Wesley struggling with doing what was right by his friend and protecting this child he also loves. With Cordelia's pregnancy, I loved the dirty!bad wrong nature of the whole thing, and I think Jasmine is pretty much an amazing villain. I loved the father-son angst between Connor and Angel as well as the competition for Cordelia's affection. She made a very silly, over-the-top kinda villain (which I agree could have been better done except that she really seemed to be having such a blast playing the character; I'm a sucker for that kinda thing). I wish we hadn't lost Cordelia for good. Her dying is just about the only thing I truly regret about that story arc.

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