"You've Just Gotta Push Through It" — People Are Sharing The 16 TV Shows That They Almost Stopped Watching Because Of One Episode

    "Got to the end of the episode, looked at my wife and said, 'yeah I think I'm done'."

    Elizabeth Cotton
    by Elizabeth Cotton

    BuzzFeed Staff

    Even some of our most beloved TV series' have that one episode that almost made us stop watching...

    Comedy Central

    So, when u/theinnocenthostage asked "what episode nearly destroyed the whole series?" we decided to round up the best answers:

    🚨 Warning: This post will contain spoilers, so read on at your own risk! 🚨

    1. "An episode of Pretty Little Liars when a guy tripped and fell onto an axe, accidentally beheading himself."

    Freeform

    u/5ft8lady

    "If you watch it from the perspective of wanting to see how ridiculously the plot tries to one-up itself with OTT nonsense twists, it's the greatest show ever made."  

    u/badgersprite

    2. "Stranger Things episode where Eleven went to the city and met the other girl with powers could have destroyed the series if they didn't back off quickly."

    Netflix

    u/theyusedthelamppost

    "I bet they were doing what Supernatural did and were testing spinoff potential. I for one did not need a Stranger Things/X-Men crossover."

    u/Mad_Juju  

    3. "The Walking Dead when they kill Glenn and Abraham. Most of the people I knew and many people online claimed that was the last episode they watched."

    AMC

    u/MileHighElement

    "Literally got to the end of the episode, looked at my wife, and said 'Yeah I think I'm done', and she agreed."  

    u/namesaremptynoise

    4. "The sexual assault episode in Downton Abbey made me give up on the show until I got pestered to keep going by family. It was just such an upsetting tonal difference I didn’t want in the show I was enjoying."

    ITV

    u/MunkyMastr

    "I hated everything to do with Anna and Bates. They were tortured the entire show's run." 

    u/crimewavedd

    5. "Michael Scott leaving The Office (US) could have ended the whole series, but they made it work. It didn’t have the exact same magic, but it found its own rhythm and was fun and endearing."

    NBC

    u/dumbinternetstuff

    "They made it work, and I enjoyed it for what it was. But if you for whatever reason watched Season 1-2 next to Season 8-9 back to back, you can easily tell how far the writers strayed from the original vision of the show." 

    u/NawfSideNative

    6. "How I Met Your Mother finale. The show and the fans have already moved on from Ted and Robin's relationship for the better, and after we became invested in the Barney-Robin and Ted-Tracy pairing throughout the final season, we watched both developments torn down in minutes for a finale where Ted and Robin got back together (again)."

    CBS

    u/twelvetwelveio

    "They also spent so long showing why Ted and Robin weren’t meant for each other."  

    u/Aggrivating_Lawyer

    7. "Instead of an episode, maybe the whole first season of Parks and Recreation. It's the most generic season, not the worst of all time, but it showed none of the potential of future seasons."

    NBC

    u/didijxk

    8. "Letterkenny season one, episode three. It's a great show, but this episode is bad. Whenever I recommend it to someone, I warn them about this episode and say 'you've just gotta push through it'."

    Crave

    u/Based_Beanz

    9. "Modern Family when Haley got pregnant with twins."

    ABC

    "Every other character had growth in the show and yet they stuck her with the 'typical teen mom who fails at school and can't do college and ends up pregnant' trope. She deserved a lot better and there were so many different plots where they could have made her a bad ass like Claire or her grandpa Jay."

    u/TheDragonNidhoggr 

    10. "The first few episodes of Bojack Horseman where it's just a generic animated sitcom. I know a lot of people who stopped watching before it got good and had to be convinced to give the series another try."

    Netflix

    u/Hopesick_2231

    11. "How to Get Away with Murder where they killed off Wes."

    ABC

    "The death seemed so random and unexpected that I was literally expecting it to be a dream or whatever. My girlfriend at the time and I quit watching a couple episodes later." 

    u/Fwenhy

    "Don't worry, the rest of the series ranged from pretty meh to pretty bad. It had some good moments but not enough to string together a fully entertaining show."  

    u/lilmidjumper

    12. "The Hillary Clinton episode of Broad City is so cringe-inducing that it retroactively taints the series' best moments."

    Comedy Central

    u/splendid_ssbm

    13. "The Lost episodes with Nikki and Paulo. They were so badly written it nearly made people stop watching."

    ABC

    u/poseidonofmyapt

    "It was definitely bizarre, and an obvious filler episode, but I actually enjoyed it. It was almost a bit refreshing to take a break from the main plot with it, and I surprised myself by wishing there were more small stories like that in the series."  

    u/ElectricAsh010

    14. "The Timeless Children in Doctor Who. It wrecked the established canon so bad and was so mind-blowingly awful."

    BBC

    u/Dgemfer

    15. "First episode of Black Mirror. I gave up on the show for two years before coming back to it and realising it's awesome if you skip the first episode."

    Channel 4

    u/khanmo01

    16. "Happy Days where Fonzie jumped the shark."

    ABC

    u/poopBuccaneer

    "Not sure how they recovered enough to continue on for quite some time afterward." 

    u/geckotatgirl 

    H/T to u/theinnocenthostage and AskReddit for having this discussion!

    Note: All submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.

    Do you have any more to add? Let us know in the comments below.