10 TV Episodes Where People Didn’t Get What They Wished For

10. Goosebumps: ‘Be Careful What You Wish For’ (S2 E1)

This cautionary tale introduces Samantha Byrd, who struggles on the school basketball team and is bullied by classmate Judith. After finding an amulet, she meets a strange lady called Clarissa who offers to grant her three wishes.

Her wishes backfire, when after wanting to be the best player on the basketball team, the other players are just made worse and the team loses their game horrendously. Judith and her friends make fun of her again and she shouts that she wishes everyone would ‘buzz off’, causing everyone in the world (apart from her and Clarissa) to turn into flies.

For her final wish she asks for everything to go back to how it was but for Judith to really like her. This has the consequence of Judith becoming obsessed with her, including breaking into her bedroom at night. Samantha finds Clarissa, who agrees for her to re-do her final wish, and she asks that Judith be the one who found the amulet in the first place.

Clarissa takes pity on Samantha after watching Judith bullying her again, and when Judith wishes to be so beautiful that everyone would gather around to admire her, she turns her into a statue. The book has a different ending, with Judith wishing Samantha would fly away and turning her into a bird, but the TV episode shows that everything will work out in the end if you act with good intentions.