10 Exact Moments That Killed TV Shows

1. The Carver Reveal - Nip/Tuck

The second season of gloriously trashy drama series Nip/Tuck introduced The Carver, a masked rapist who disfigured his victims by slashing their faces.

He came to blows with plastic surgeon protagonists Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh) and Christian Troy (Julian McMahon) after they began fixing The Carver's victims' faces free of charge.

Seasons two and three did a fantastic job milking the mystery of The Carver's identity for every drop, before blowing it spectacularly in the season three finale.

In this episode it's revealed that the masked maniac was McNamara and Troy's rival surgeon, Dr. Quentin Costa (Bruno Campos), who had been working in league with his cop sister Kit McGraw (Rhona Mitra) all along.

It was a deeply unsatisfying reveal that didn't feel remotely logical or earned, predicated upon a number of silly plot twists, and was discovered by fans months prior when they ran The Carver's masked voice through a processing program.

Worse still, FX accidentally posted promotional images of Quentin as The Carver (pictured above) on their press site 24 hours before the season three finale, compounding the disappointment.

Subsequent seasons became increasingly ridiculous as if to try and compensate for The Carver debacle, but the series never regained its popularity despite limping on for three more seasons.