Sometimes, TV shows introduce characters who seem fundamental to the story, but it becomes clear that the writers aren’t sure what to do with them after their initial storyline. The result is often that the TV show will repeat the same story many times, focusing on one character. Maybe said character will eventually be written out of the show when the actor or writers have had enough, but they may be needed for one particular future storyline.
Some TV show love interests that were suddenly dropped and great female TV characters that deserved better ended up in these circumstances because creativity had run out concerning their arcs. Great TV shows should effectively use all their characters, at least providing a reason for them to be shelved for a while if screen time is limited. However, it is hard to feel like some shows did not waste characters when they are included in the story for flimsy reasons.
10 Walter “Flynn” White Jr. (RJ Mitte)
Breaking Bad (2008-2013)
Walter Jr./Flynn’s storyline in Breaking Bad is commonly complained about, the main argument being that he was simply there, occasionally causing additional friction between his parents. Flynn’s main contribution to the drama is to take his dad’s side when his mother refuses to tell him why she is mad at Walt when it actually might have been more interesting if Flynn had also become suspicious of their sudden wealth. However, Breaking Bad covers a lot of ground without feeling too bloated, so it chose to keep Flynn’s story simple.
The defining moment in Breaking Bad for Flynn’s character is when he defends his mother and calls the police on his father in the final episodes. Ultimately, part of the function of Flynn’s character is just to be there, being a teenager who will contribute to the depiction of the breakdown of Walt’s family in the end, even if there isn’t much else to do with him in the meantime. Some of his fights with his mother are repetitive, but the story isn’t too focused on him to begin with.
9 Mary Margaret/Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin)
Once Upon A Time (2011-2018)
Once Upon a Time got a lot more mileage out of Snow White and Prince Charming in the first season, when they were tragically separated by the curse blocking out their memories of each other. Once the show covered this ground, it found a less effective but still solid storyline with them figuring out their relationship with the adult daughter they missed out on raising and deciding to have another child. However, around the time of season 4, Once Upon a Time starts to repeat itself with Snow.
Snow has a couple of different episodes that are almost identical as far as the point they are making about her rediscovering her street-smart bandit identity alongside her soft-spoken schoolteacher persona. The show reveals some more backstory stuff that makes no sense in the context of the earlier seasons to create more tension with Emma, while Snow and Charming’s dialogue is no longer pleasantly goofy because they have said the same things a million times before. It was a relief for Snow to be demoted to cameo status when it was clear that her actual arc was long over.
8 Theon Grejoy (Alfie Allen)
Game Of Thrones (2011-2019)
Theon had a strong arc for most of Game of Thrones, going from the unlikable, unofficially adopted Stark sibling to a submissive prisoner to his sister’s right-hand man. Theon’s trauma after being tortured by Ramsay Bolton affects his character in believable ways, causing him to flee conflict even when his sister needs him. However, after he rallies his remaining men and accomplishes a fast rescue, Game of Thrones has no purpose for Theon in the final season.
Theon returns to Winterfell to aid the Starks in fighting the White Walkers, something that wasn’t completely necessary when he had already made his peace with them. It is mainly a segue into his death, which only really has an emotional impact on Sansa. Theon’s storyline was already trailing off in seasons 6 and 7 when he is trying to find some sense of security and purpose by helping Yara, but his unceremonious death in the final season is merely an attempt to imbue some emotion into the battle by killing a long-term character.
7 Jeremy Gilbert (Steven R. McQueen)
The Vampire Diaries (2009-2017)
Jeremy leaving town (and the show) is the most independent thing he does in the whole series.
Elena has a younger sister in the Vampire Diaries books who plays a much smaller role than her brother Jeremy in the show, who is also closer in age to her. The idea of making Elena’s sibling old enough to be involved in the action provides the story with another character while swapping their gender showcases a different relationship when Elena already has sisterly dynamics with Bonnie and Caroline. However, Jeremy’s arc is always by his relationship with other characters, after getting past his initial “troubled teenager” storyline.
Jeremy’s storyline repeats itself in how Elena steps in and forces him out of town because she wants him to be safe. He is also linked to Bonnie as a love interest before cheating on her with his ghost ex-girlfriend, only to prompt more drama. Jeremy gets some of his own plot with the Brotherhood of the Five storyline, but it seems like this was only a setup for his death to throw another wrench in Elena’s arc. Jeremy leaving town (and the show) is the most independent thing he does in the whole series.
6 Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh)
Hawkeye (2021)
Yelena’s best scenes in Hawkeye are easily her ones with Kate, which are more about casual interactions between the characters driven by the ease and experience of both actresses than substantial plot. No character needs Hawkeye season 2 more than Yelena, as additional story and development of her relationships with Kate and Clint would justify her needing to be in the show at all. Yelena’s role in this show feels more like a contractual crossover obligation than almost anything else in the MCU.
Given Florence Pugh’s status as a rising star and the cliffhanger of Black Widow‘s post-credits scene, Yelena being in Hawkeye was a big deal. However, it takes more than half of the show for her to even appear, and her storyline is a series of obligatory filler (what happened to her during the blip, her meeting Clint, etc.). Hawkeye didn’t know what to do with Yelena because it barely had the time to do anything with her; if they had committed to two seasons, the first could have been about Maya and Kingpin, and the second about Yelena.
5 Nikki & Paulo (Kiele Sanchez & Rodrigo Santoro)
Lost (2004-2010)
Nikki and Paulo are typically remembered as a single unit, regarded as the two most infamously pointless characters in Lost, if not all of TV. The two join the cast in season 3 as survivors of the plane crash who have not been highlighted as major characters before. This is not an inherently flawed premise, as the group has always included some unnamed people in the background. However, with multiple other storylines surrounding already-established characters going on, Nikki and Paulo proved to be an unwelcome distraction.
Namely, Nikki and Paulo were seen as a waste of time, worrying about their pre-island problems while other characters were carrying the main story. The showrunners quickly realized that they had made a mistake with these characters, who were doing essentially nothing, and that there was nothing they could do with them to salvage the situation. Nikki and Paulo were soon killed off in Lost after everyone took them as a sign that the writers didn’t know what they were doing.
4 The Terminator (Yasuhiro Mamiya/Timothy Olyphant)
Terminator Zero (2024)
The Terminator pursuing the human targets in 1997 is essential to Terminator Zero‘s action and ending, but it is surprisingly easy to forget he is there. After an initial confrontation with Malcolm Lee and the human soldier sent back in time, the Terminator is lost in a chain of sequences of chasing Malcolm’s children. The kids and their caretakers are split up and brought back together multiple times and the Terminator constantly shifts to focusing on a different target child.
Yet the Terminator becomes a less poignant threat as the season goes on when the AI Kokoro takes control of all the service robots in the city and the audience is tasked with following multiple timelines and philosophical debates. It becomes a game of keeping the Terminator busy enough until he comes back for a final twist. He is technically always doing something but is given little characterization in the context of what is revealed about him at the end. The story ultimately doesn’t do much with him when he is more of a traditional plot device for this franchise.
3 Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone)
Grey’s Anatomy (2005-Present)
No one has been more of a victim of Grey’s Anatomy‘s endless cycle of new romances and breakups than Amelia. Amelia arrives at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital with a reputation for being flighty and impulsive, having already gone through multiple tragic storylines in the spinoff Private Practice. Her first couple of seasons as part of the main cast of Grey’s Anatomy are decent, focusing on her coping with her brother’s death, undergoing surgery to remove a tumor, patching up her relationships with Meredith and her mother, and divorcing Owen.
However, Amelia then gets caught up in a cycle of ending relationships she was initially committed to. She decides she and Link want different things, while Kai moves to London for a new job opportunity. The crux of Amelia’s character is that she is always growing, and Grey’s Anatomy keeps contriving drama to fuel this when Amelia should be settled by now. Because the one thing that would be worse for the character is to have her relapse into drug use, they keep turning to new, doomed-to-fail relationship storylines.
2 Grant Ward (Brett Dalton)
Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013-2020)
Agent Ward’s betrayal of the rest of Agent Coulson’s team is a great plot twist that fits into the context of HYDRA being hidden within S.H.I.E.L.D. However, it leaves Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. with the problem of what to do with this character who has been established as a core part of the main cast, but none of the other main characters want anything to do with him. Ward is imprisoned in the team’s base for a while in season 2 and floats around doing some of his own missions in seasons 2 and 3 before his ultimate death.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. finds excuses for Ward to come with semi-resurrections and alternate realities. However, the show missed several natural moments for him to have the most impactful death, with everything he did to the main team at the forefront. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. apparently realized a little too late that there was no future for the character with the show when the rest of the cast so passionately wanted him dead.
1 Stuart Bloom (Kevin Sussman)
The Big Bang Theory (2007-2019)
Stuart started out as a recurring character in The Big Bang Theory, whose role expanded in the later seasons. However, it seems like the showrunners wanted to include Stuart more in theory but stumbled over how to do this. His storyline repeats itself with him crashing at Howard and Bernadette’s house and coming up with reasons not to leave, even when his business picks up. Stuart’s ultimate ending of finding someone who shares his interests and moving out could have happened a lot sooner.
This happens alongside an awkward conversation within the story about whether Stuart is a true member of the group or one of their fringe friends. Stuart was never as natural of an addition to the regular cast as Amy and Bernadette, and it feels like the show was forcing it to happen with storylines that made him a less likable and self-sufficient character. Stuart’s unsure storyline specifically comes from a failed transition from recurring to regular status, as opposed to main characters whose storylines ran out.
