When one character ruins a storyline

[DRW50]

I know you can't really blame one character, or one actor, for tanking a whole story devised by many hands, but there are times when I'm very tempted. 

My main case of this would be with the 1840 story on Dark Shadows, which, in its early months, was, other than the usual generic figures of Barnabas and Julia, full of very jagged, complex characters, throwing venom at each other but also still having their moments of sympathy and heart. The triangle between back-from-the-dead Quentin, embittered wife Samantha, and her new man/his old friend, Gerard Stiles (then a fake psychic, on his way to being taken over by a malevolent force) was extremely dramatic and very entertaining to watch, especially with the other side characters like Quentin's nasty brother Gabriel and his scheming wife Edith, ditzy Flora, Gerard's partner-in-con Leticia Faye, inventor Desmond, and last but never least, Angelique, returning to Collinsport after hearing her "beloved" husband had returned. 

And then we get...Daphne.

Kate Jackson would go on to have her share of primetime success, but that was never when cast in ingenue roles. And every DS part she had was pure ingenue. She had, in setting up the 1840 plot, already recreated the Beth and Quentin storyline from several years earlier, but at heart she was basically a Maggie replacement, who had been a Victoria replacement - very generic women who were there to be victimized, kidnapped, and fall hopelessly in love. This part had grown steadily duller as the show progressed (to the point where in the show's very last storyline, they all but did away with this trope - better late than never).

Making matters worse, Kate and David Selby had little chemistry, so when this wan character not only took a major role on the canvas, but essentially took Samantha's place in the triangle (with Samantha appearing less and less, finally just returning to be abruptly killed off), it took me right out of the storyline. And around the same time most of the 1840 plot hit the skids, although it still had its moments. 

[Vee]

I did really enjoy the early period of 1840, and adored Samantha/Virginia Vestoff and that triangle. But I blame the show's usual failings with plotting and character management for what became of her and that story - I actually loved Kate Jackson in the 1970 storyline, where I thought Daphne was a great replacement for Vicki/Alexandra Moltke. (She probably should've been a Vicki recast, as they had her wearing Vicki's literal wardrobe as stated in the story.) But yes, it's hard to argue that the original very strong story does not goes south when various elements appear.

Edited July 8, 2023 by Vee

[Pine Charles]

Would this count???....

When AMC made the original Silver Kane an imposter named Connie Wilkes.

That development, for me, ruined an otherwise very entertaining story.

I'm still confused as to why the writers (Wisner Washam?) made Silver #1 an imposter. 

Edited July 8, 2023 by Pine Charles

[SteelCity]

Daniel Jonas (DAYS) Making him the best thing to happen in Salem ruined every character that he interacted with.

[DRW50]

Sure.

I never understood many of the choices they made with Silver, like killing her off just after making her a schemer, one who could have been a part of Erica's stories for years.

[Pine Charles]

Faux-Silver was so much better than Real-Silver (both actresses).

That said, Deborah Goodrich was "Sterling".  Haha

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Edited July 9, 2023 by Pine Charles

[Soapsuds]

Everytime!!

 

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[DRW50]

I was going to say you can't ruin [!@#$%^&*], but then I remembered Ron trashing the Nancy/Craig relationship to prop him up.

Edited July 9, 2023 by DRW50

[Soaplovers]

And the twist was that Daphne's long dead sister Joanna was more interesting...and we had a few episodes where we wondered if she were truly dead or not.  The Samantha/Joanna element was short lived..imho.

 

Guiding Light: basically most of 1998 to 2000...if there was a story ..Reva would be involved and become the focus.  

 

Edited July 10, 2023 by Soaplovers