10 TV Show Twists Absolutely EVERYONE Hated
Freshening up the plot is all well and good, but these were big mistakes.
The goal of long form telly will always be the same: keep those eyeballs glued to the screens. TV is a numbers game, and with more options than ever to divert a potential viewer’s attention, the task is ever more difficult.
There’s not much better to increase engagement than a twist. A good bit of sudden movement gets people talking, theorising, and most importantly, tuning in next week.
The problem: the twist has proven to be so effective that writers and show runners have a propensity to throw one in at any given opportunity, whether or not it’s any good. Some twists have been great, reshaping a character or a show before fans’ very eyes.
Some have been disastrous. Whether they’re used to change tact, to cap off an entire series, to correct a mistake, or just for the sheer fun of it, a badly used twist can aggrieve a show’s most loyal viewers, and turn a carefully crafted story into a puddle of nonsense.
The twist will never go away, but perhaps creators could stand to think a little more carefully about how, why, where, and when they employ them.
Warning: spoilers throughout!
10. Glenn Lives! (The Walking Dead)
The season six death of Glenn, one of the show’s most prominent figures, was a genuinely shocking moment. Tumbling into a crowd of zombies, it seemed Glenn’s number was truly up as we watched him disappear into the flesh eating mass. Except, of course, he wasn’t dead. A few episodes later we were treated to the less than thrilling reveal that he had, in fact, secreted himself beneath a dumpster.
In retrospect, that Glenn had survived was quite obvious. The final moments weren’t seen onscreen, usually an indicator that they’re going to pull through. But fans were annoyed all the same, because this was simply such a lame twist, a dire attempt to have their cake and eat it.
They didn’t even concoct a clever explanation as to how he escaped. He just hid, right by the horde of ravenous zombies, who gave up on hunting him down as quickly as the writers did thinking of a clever way out of this scene.
More bizarrely still, Glenn was killed for real a few episodes later at the start of season seven. What could have been a shocking, brutal, and effective moment was completely ruined by the mess they made the last time Glenn died.