10 Completely Insulting TV Plot Twists

Anybody remember St. Elsewhere? The medical drama/black comedy combination ran for six seasons in the 1980s. Of course, what it's really remembered for is its ending. The whole series actually happened entirely within the imagination of an autistic child, essentially slapping the faces of every devoted viewer in one fell swoop with a horrible and completely unnecessary plot twist.

It likely wasn't the first TV show to feature a moment designed to shock the audience but instead enrage them, and it certainly wasn't the last. The rise of the "golden era" of television has meant that shows have, in many cases, reached the same level of quality as the highly revered film industry.

Obviously filling up anywhere between ten to twenty five hours of air time is no easy feat. So it's certainly understandable that creators and writers might resort to a shocking twist in order to hold their viewer's attention.

Of course, for every awesome plot twist, there's a dozen that just aren't all that shocking. And then there's the select few that straight up insult the fans.

Whether it be through underestimating their intelligence, an unsatisfying payoff, or a complete subversion of the entire show, the entries on this list never should have made it past the brainstorming phase.

Also, massive spoilers are incoming. You have been warned.

BBC's Sherlock managed to sidestep one controversial twist ending by revealing the world's second most iconic detective (Hey, Batman!) was alive at the end of the same episode where he "commits suicide" by jumping off a building.

Obviously, the main character that the show was named after isn't going to actually bite the bullet at the end of the second series, so at least there was minimal attempt to get us to actually believe it. However, this actually fed into a new problem.

For the two years between series 2 and 3, the main focus was on a single question: just how did Sherlock manage to survive his fall and fool an actual doctor into believing he was dead at the scene?

The answer? It doesn't matter.

No, seriously, that's the answer we were given.

Truthfully, it stinks of painfully lazy writing. Sure, there is some truth to the fact that no matter how he survived, it wouldn't really live up to the wild expectations that fans had. But you can't really ignore the fact that the show wrote itself into a corner with zero strategy on how to get out.

No, it isn't the show "being clever," and no, people that focus on how Sherlock survived are not "missing the point." It's laziness, pure and simple.

We're still waiting, BBC.