27 Characters Who Started Out Great But Got Worse As The Show Progressed

    Such good potential, wasted.

    Jasmin Nahar
    by Jasmin Nahar

    BuzzFeed Staff

    We recently asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to tell us which TV characters started out great but got worse as the show went on. Here are some of their responses.

    1. Maggie Pierce from Grey’s Anatomy

    ABC

    "She started out interesting but as time went on she became obsessed with being in a relationship, but when she got in one she would push the man away. This relationship with Jackson is just awkward and uncomfortable."

    —jenniferm76

    2. Chandler Bing from Friends

    NBC

    "Up until him and Monica got together, he had perfected sarcasm. Then they get together and BAM he loses it. After that all his jokes were corny and predictable."

    —lzzs

    3. James Olsen from Supergirl

    The CW

    "He's really great in the first season, but the whole Guardian arc is kind of annoying and he's just gotten insufferable. And now this relationship with Lena is just ridiculous. One second he's telling Kara he doesn't trust her because she's a Luthor and that she's bad news, and the next he apparently has feelings for her? Please. He called her his 'co-pilot,' instead of, say, his partner. You know, an equal rather than basically a sidekick. I wish I could still like him, but the showrunners really fucked up his character."

    —eibhlinv

    4. Eric Matthews from Boy Meets World

    Bravo

    "He started out as the cool older brother but eventually his role was reduced to a delightfully stupid character. He was actually my favourite character through the whole show but when I went back to watch it again, it made me sad when I realised what he became."

    —amyp489bd158f

    5. Brandon Foster from The Fosters

    Freeform

    "In the first season he was an average kid just playing piano, being normal and then he kept trying to get with Callie which is absolutely DISGUSTING and just became a horrible character to watch. I just hate his character so much and then he just became irrelevant the last season or so."

    —alyssau318

    6. Toby Flenderson from The Office

    NBC

    "Originally I felt kinda bad when Michael made fun of him, but after Toby touched Pam’s knee and became obsessed with the Scranton Strangler and Nellie I realised Michael was right all along."

    —ktisdabestdereissss

    7. Jess Day from New Girl

    Fox

    "I used to love her but had to stop watching it because her character wasn't becoming more, but actually less confident."

    —kaitlynb442344ef5

    8. Nancy Botwin from Weeds

    Showtime

    "I was very pro-Nancy in season one while she was a low-key pot dealing mother trying to support her family as a widow and surviving suburban politics. I was totally invested in her journey rediscovering her inner wild child. However, as she progressed her narcissism and arrogance became more apparent. Her children suffered from the neglect and traumas they were exposed to the most. She virtually destroyed Andy (clearly an empath) by manipulating him with her sexuality, then gaslighting him about it. And every person she encountered along the way was used then discarded without a second thought.

    "She did redeem herself somewhat after being shot, but it didn't feel like she ever fully understood the gravity of her trail of destruction – like she was only capable of seeing things from her own perspective so her penance was hollow. Despite this, I also love her as one of the most compelling female characters I have come across!"

    —gemmad4bac2a9ec

    9. Sam Evans on Glee

    Fox

    "He started out as the lovable new kid who was a little bit ditzy but super-hot to make up for it. At the end of the show, they just made him so unbelievably stupid. It's hard to imagine the Sam at the end of the series dating Quinn Fabray in season two because she never would've liked someone who lacked common sense. They completely changed him after the original Glee kids graduated. He still had his moments, and he wasn't a super genius before, but he was no longer that young man who had to grow up really fast when his family became homeless. It's like they totally forgot that part of his story line and his character development through that."

    —jordanelaine49

    10. Fiona Gallagher from Shameless

    Showtime

    "I think that Fiona Gallagher from Shameless started off better than she is now. I think that her independence role was taken a little too far and she completely forgot about her 9-year-old brother, WHO SHE IS THE GUARDIAN OF!"

    —cords2

    11. Andy Bernard from The Office

    NBC

    "I started off being annoyed by him and then he went to anger management and came back this amazing guy. He was truly my favourite character, he was always positive, he was funny, he cared a lot about the other characters, and was always striving to do better AND THEN he started acting whack when he decided to take the boat and leave Erin. Then when he finally got back he acted like he did nothing wrong and started acting arrogant towards Erin by snooping through her phone and being rude to Pete. Really sad for me."

    —savannahs4e488f3dc

    12. Olivia Pope from Scandal

    ABC

    "Worst character progression I’ve ever seen. I watched the whole series because I was committed, but I came to loathe her."

    —ariettar

    13. Toby Cavanaugh from Pretty Little Liars

    Freeform

    "At first he was so sweet but something changed over the course of the series and he became unbearably annoying. Always trying to 'protect' the girls, becoming Tanner's puppy etc..."

    —k4764538fb

    14. Eric Forman from That '70s Show

    Fox

    "He started off super ambitious and intelligent and getting tired of his mom doting on him and treating him like a child. But then it all changed, and he became stupid and lazy and demanded his mom coddled him. And then the way they wrote him off, he taught someone one thing and then all of a sudden realised 'I wanna be a teacher'? He never once throughout the show had any sort of interest in it. I know he had other things to work on, which was why he was written off, but I'm just mad at how they ruined his character to write him off."

    —d440eb9345

    15. Gwen Pendragon from Merlin

    BBC One

    "She was so inspiring at the beginning of the series with her shy yet strong bravery and her loyalty to Morgana. Her sweet, charming character was ruined for me when she finally married Arthur and became queen because , even though I ship the two of them immensely, she won the king and in exchange lost the qualities that I loved her for from series one to four.

    "I'm not saying that she lost all bravery because that was still evident through the final series but compared to the other seasons, her fierceness and integrity was diluted and it made me believe she almost gave up once getting the crown. In the final episode, she was nothing like the kind yet courageous character I fell in love with throughout the programme and it was disappointing to watch her fight for the right of Arthur’s heart and then to lose the foundations of her personality and just end up being his modest wife. "

    —dinasaursgorawr

    16. Alison DiLaurentis from Pretty Little Liars

    Freeform

    "She did really start off as an interesting character but once they brought her back from the dead, the show seemed to need her to be the fifth Liar and that couldn't include all the things that made her interesting in the first place, so she turned into this bland, boring good girl who played victim. She was more interesting when she was presumed dead."

    —desr2900

    17. Cordelia Chase from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.

    The WB

    "She had amazing character development in early seasons of Angel, then the whole heavenly being storyline, and Connor, and season four came along and it all went to shit. The writers destroyed her character to the point that they couldn't fix it so they stuck her in a frickin' coma."

    —pinksapphireowl

    18. Joey Tribbiani from Friends

    NBC

    "He started off charming where his innocent naïveté was amusing and cute. Then, it became ridiculous. Not knowing left from right when Ross tried to help him learn things about paintings from the Met? Not realising he wasn't saying what Phoebe was saying when he tried to learn French – especially since he also once proved he can learn difficult medical words for his job on Days of Our Lives? They made him stupid in the eye-rolling way to where it wasn't comedically foolish but rather embarrassingly idiotic and cringeworthy. Even worse? There are also moments where he shows he has sense, so it made no sense that he would be so simple-minded."

    —a40cae7684

    19. Jim Halpert from The Office

    NBC

    "I thought Jim Halpert from The Office started off as a really sweet guy. He was totally in love with Pam and his pranks on Dwight were always kind of funny and in jest. As the series went on and him and Pam got together, he started to go a bit downhill. He became condescending and rude. His treatment of Pam in the final series was pretty awful, especially agreeing to a job that moved them halfway across the country without even asking her!

    "He became consistently superior towards his colleagues and the scene where he leaves a conversation with Pam and Erin where Erin is upset and says ‘I’m sorry that just wasn’t interesting to me’ completely consolidates his new persona. He always had moments of cuteness and was often a great character but the mean streak they write into him in later series really damaged how he came across in the show."

    —madelinep44f00b9af

    20. Rory Gilmore from Gilmore Girls

    The CW

    "She went from being responsible and intelligent to reckless when she DROPPED OUT OF YALE (even though Lorelai worked so hard to get Rory to college), stole a boat, and had crappy relationships that normally involved cheating."

    —alie86

    21. Angela Moss from Mr Robot

    USA Network

    "She started off as a kind but badass woman who was determined in taking down E Corp for what they did to her mom. But come season three, she ended up getting worse. She became so self absorbed, unlikable and an overall shitty person. She basically made everything about herself and lied to herself that she is doing it for Elliot when he wanted none of this.

    "Throughout that season, she treated Elliot like garbage by gaslighting him without any remorse and had no regard for his wellbeing (unlike Darlene who despite being an FBI mole still was and is protective of Elliot) and later blamed him and Darlene for stage two when they were calling her out and they didn't even know what stage two even was. If she wanted to take down E Corp fine but becoming psychologically abusive towards Elliot for that, that's fucked up. Very fucked up."

    —tanyam44ab2253d

    22. Franky Fitzgerald from Skins

    E4

    "In the first season she was this unique, androgynous teen who had become confident in herself for who she was and then in the second season all of this was undone. The writers made her self absorbed, she used people and treated them like shit with absolutely no regards for their feelings and idec she was responsible for Grace’s death."

    —hannahbb99

    23. Barry Allen from The Flash

    The CW

    "He was awesome in the first two seasons, but once he went back in time and created flashpoint I was done. Everyone also just was cool with it after like five minutes. When Caitlin turned evil and called him out, she was right! Plus, after that he just kind of got cheesy and annoying."

    —liv2read

    24. John Watson from Sherlock

    BBC One

    "I loved him from the start (and the whole show) but ultimately the writers totally screwed his character over. That business in the morgue in season four was completely out of character and made him really unlikeable. The way he treated Sherlock and nearly all his friends near the end of the show was awful actually. I don’t know what Gatiss and Moffat were thinking."

    —kathryno42852841f

    25. Rose Quartz from Steven Universe

    Cartoon Network

    "Started out as a rebel leader who wanted to stop Pink Diamond from destroying life on Earth and free the gems who were enslaved by her...only for it to turn out that she WAS Pink Diamond all along and Rose Quartz was the persona she adopted to get out of work. Then when she decided she didn't want to kill the Earth, instead of telling the other Diamonds that or even just not telling them and doing it anyway, she started a war against...herself. And made her two armies fight each other for a thousand years when she could've just combined the two groups and stood up to her sisters. And then faked her own death because she thought the other Diamonds wouldn't care, even though they'd been helping her fight this stupid war she started.

    "Oh, and then she forced Pearl to keep her secret for thousands of years. And every time I think about how they turned Rose Quartz, a rebel gem who rose up against her oppressors into Pink Diamond, idiot brat and the actual oppressor, I want to scream. Because the worst bit is, the show thinks this is GREAT and that Rose Diamond did nothing wrong."

    –Beverley Carry via Facebook

    26. Britta Perry from Community

    NBC

    "She started out so relatable and sympathetic – she was a bit of a mess but working on getting her life together, and she was cool and savvy and had a good heart. Then in later seasons (after Donald Glover and Chevy Chase left) the writers turned her into this hopeless fuckup/the butt of all the meanest jokes. Gillian Jacobs is amazing and deserved better."

    –MaryKate Burnell via Facebook

    27. Cheryl Blossom from Riverdale

    The CW

    "Now she just has really weird lines, says very little, and only talks to Toni."

    —freyever

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

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