Sometimes, showrunners make ridiculous decisions. Maybe they fear artistic stagnation, or they suffer from humanity’s entropic tendency to never make a good thing last. Maybe their decisions are born from pure idiocracy. But certainly, there have been a great number of characters who were constructed well, only to be ruined for vanity’s sake. The Michigan Daily Arts writers are here to break down the most head-scratching of these arcs. Is there another point to these decisions, or are they just bad? Let’s brush the dandruff of baffling television and find out.
— Ben Luu and Campbell Johns, Summer Managing Arts Editors
Andy Bernard – “The Office”
In the series finale of “The Office,” former Dunder Mifflin Scranton branch manager Andy Bernard (Ed Helms, “The Lorax”) said, “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.” While he says this with nostalgia, the same sentiment can be applied when analyzing his character arc: We didn’t know how good we had Bernard before his character took a nosedive in the later seasons.
Bernard was never supposed to be likable. When he was first introduced into the show, it was clear he was supposed to be a caricature of a trust fund Ivy League “frat bro.” Bernard arrived in season three as a regional sales director at the Stamford branch. After Stamford shut down, he transferred to the Scranton branch, where fighting for branch manager Michael Scott’s (Steve Carrell, “Crazy, Stupid, Love”) attention and annoying his coworkers with his constant acapella hallmarked his screen time. Eventually, after sales representative Jim Halpert (John Krasinski, “A Quiet Place”) pulls a prank on him, Bernard gets so frustrated that he punches a wall, resulting in the company sending him to anger management.
Fortunately, he doesn’t stay like this forever. After coming back from anger management, he starts developing friendships and relationships with the other office members, most notably receptionist Erin Hannon (Ellie Kemper, “Bridesmaids”) in season six. Despite being a terrible salesman, he joins in on his other coworker’s antics, becoming fully integrated into the show’s main cast.
By the beginning of season eight, he was well on the up in regards to his character development. After being promoted to regional branch manager, Bernard sticks up for his “loser” coworkers after discovering a list of CEO Robert California’s “winners” and “losers” of the Scranton branch. To inspire people to meet their sales goals, Bernard promises and follows through on getting a raunchy tattoo. Unfortunately, abandoning the office to chase after Hannon after their breakup results in Bernard losing his manager job in the middle of the season and having to fight to get it back.
In season nine, Bernard’s character development is undone. He is aggressive towards Nellie (the woman he lost his job to); he doesn’t communicate well with his girlfriend, who ends up breaking up with him because he abandoned her at sea for three months; and he loses all of his wealth. After a boat trip, he comes back a sad and broken man. For years, rumors floated around that the writers ruined his character because they were mad that he took a role in “The Hangover.” Whatever the real reason was, Bernard represents a tragic character who went back to square one.
Daily Arts Writer Liv Frey can be reached at livfrey@umich.edu.
Bran Stark – “Game of Thrones”
Right now, I am sitting in Dubrovnik, Croatia, which die-hard “Game of Thrones” fans might know as one of the many Croatian towns where the show was shot. Particularly, the city of King’s Landing found its home here, as well as some scenes from the land of Qarth. I’ve been walking around the city, taking in the views and searching for the film locations of the show. Yet I cannot shake the show’s ending, and the final character who, of all people, is crowned ruler of the Seven Kingdoms in this magnificent city: Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright, “Voyagers”).
When Bran was first pushed off a wall by two Lannisters committing incest, he became wrapped up in a very messy plotline. Bran’s memory of this incident becomes a crucial mystery for the first season, and flows well with his wise, intriguing character. Shifting the focus away from his physical body, the show soon revealed the unnatural powers he holds in his mind, transferring his consciousness into men and animals alike.
When this plot twist happened, things were looking up for Bran’s character. There were unlimited possibilities for this storyline. And while becoming the next three-eyed-raven wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, it seemed interesting — at first.
After eight seasons of a show (and five released books), I should be able to understand what a three-eyed raven actually is. Bran can see past, present and future memories, which is … cool, but this character arc ends up serving little purpose in the Seven Kingdoms. There was so much build-up to Bran’s three-eyed-raven persona, and when he finally achieves this status, his character becomes, frankly, insufferable.
Whether it was his cold reunion with his lost siblings or his withholding of Jon Snow’s (Kit Harington, “Eternals”) true birthright, Bran’s character arc becomes the worst in the show (which is not an easy feat). After the disaster that was the show’s ending, I wasn’t even surprised that he was crowned king. But after stepping foot into the real King’s Landing, a new anger has been ignited in me. All I can say is, Jon Snow, it should’ve been you.
Daily Arts Writer Abigail Weinberg can be reached at weinab@umich.edu.
Rory Gilmore – “Gilmore Girls”
Despite being one of the two main protagonists of “Gilmore Girls,” Rory Gilmore (Alexis Bledel, “The Handmaid’s Tale”) may be the most hated character in the entire show — articles upon articles have been written about how insufferable she becomes as the seasons progress, citing her tendency to sleep with married men, her disregard for others’ feelings, her spoiled attitude and about a million other downfalls. And I agree wholeheartedly: Rory sucks.
Rory’s character descent starts in the show’s very first episode, where she tries to back out of transferring to Chilton, a co-ed prep school, because she has a crush on a boy at her old school. Rory then lies to and fights with her mother about it. But still, throughout the early seasons, Rory isn’t that bad. A lot of her behavior can be attributed to her young age, and her issues don’t become truly glaring until her transition into college.
As Rory becomes an adult, her childish actions don’t go away. Actually, they get worse. The fact that she’s fully grown makes her character completely insufferable. She continues to make selfish, stupid choices that hurt everyone around her and stop her from getting anywhere in life. Rory is stunted — but maybe her character arc is a direct reflection of her relationship with her mother.
Lorelai (Lauren Graham, “Parenthood”) and Rory are presented from the beginning of the show as best friends first, mother and daughter second. This is the source of Rory’s problems. She never had anyone to truly discipline her growing up — your best friend cannot tell you what to do. Whenever Lorelai tried to set a boundary, Rory would just run away from it. It’s exactly what Lorelai did herself: Her parents tried to control her, so she left and did what she wanted anyway. The difference between Lorelai and Rory was where they were running to, and who they were running from.
Rory was confronted by Lorelai on matters of responsible life choices and human decency. She told her not to sleep with Dean Forester (Jared Padalecki, “Walker”) when he was married and not to quit Yale University. After both of these confrontations, Rory fell back on her privilege instead of confronting her missteps, going straight to her rich grandparents for shelter from her own bad choices. In contrast, Lorelai did the opposite, running away from her parents’ frivolous, stiff lifestyle to work hard for a life she found genuine, real and worthwhile. But having a kid so young stunted her, too. That’s why she couldn’t establish proper boundaries with Rory.
Rory and Lorelai are two sides of the same coin, prime examples of how parental guidance can go too far either way — Lorelai was too soft on Rory and Lorelai’s parents were too hard on her. That’s what I think “Gilmore Girls” was meant to be: A cautionary tale of flawed upbringings, a vicious, generational cycle examining how polarized philosophies lead to disaster, no matter what side you’re on. Rory was doomed from the start — the plot demanded it.
Daily Arts Writer Audrey Hollenbaugh can be reached at aehollen@umich.edu.
Mike Wheeler – “Stranger Things”
Oh, “Stranger Things.” What could’ve been. I fell in love with the show because it was simple — an earnest, low-budget love letter to ’80s sci-fi flicks. It’s obvious that the Duffer Brothers (the show’s creators and writers) took a lot of care when decorating their show’s world; every corner of Hawkins, Indiana is populated with a host of incredibly endearing characters. Or at least that used to be the case. The most recent seasons of “Stranger Things” have begun to flatter their own previously well-written characters, prioritizing Marvel Cinematic Universe-esque spectacle over interpersonal nuance. No one exemplifies this downward trajectory more clearly than Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard, “When You Finish Saving the World”).
For the first two seasons of “Stranger Things,” Mike was the show’s de facto main character. When his best friend Will (Noah Schnapp, “The Tutor”) mysteriously disappears one night, Mike jumps into action, hoping to find his friend — and kickstarts the show’s central plot in the process. Mike’s determination to find Will motivates his small middle school friend group to evolve from anxious nerds into resourceful, unlikely heroes. It’s a super satisfying, feel-good storyline. We all love it when plucky kids band together to figure things out, and that’s exactly what Mike’s earnest determination allows for. Every story has to have one character who can mediate between others and actually makes things happen. That’s Mike. He’s more restrained than the pragmatic, fiery Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin, “Concrete Cowboy”), but he’s also more confident than the group’s sweetheart, Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo, “Honor Society”). Sure, Mike still gets annoyed at his big sister and lashes out at his mom, but at his core, he’s a steady kid devoted to his friends.
That all changes in season three, when, for some incomprehensible reason, Mike turns mean. It starts out as teenage angst (he wants to hang out with his girlfriend more, he’s tired of being bullied, etc.) but it morphs into actual cruelty by season four. Here, we see a version of Mike who is totally disillusioned by his friends. He’s disinterested in hanging out, bored by almost everything and rude even to the incredibly non-combative Will. When Will attempts to show any sort of emotion in season four, Mike rolls his eyes and shuts him down. He doesn’t even seem to be particularly interested in his girlfriend. Why? I have no idea. Teenage angst is real and can be interesting, but Mike’s descent into asshole-ery has no reasonable cause. We could infer reasons for his anger — trauma, insecurity, fear — but we are never given any actual insight into his emotions. It’s incredibly frustrating. If the Duffer Brothers wanted to show their characters exploring anger, then they could have built it into a character naturally. Instead, they introduce this brand-new, evil Mike entirely out of the blue in season three.
It’s detrimental not just to his character but to the entire show. Without Mike to act as a sort of emotional glue between his friends, the show’s earlier charm disappears. There is no longer any sort of friend group to root for — just a bunch of bitchy teenagers who sometimes band together to fight a bad guy. The original coming-of-age plot line that first endeared people to “Stranger Things” has now totally evaporated. As the show approaches its final season, it’s hard to envision any sort of reasonable conclusion to Mike’s story arc, or for his larger friend group.
Mike Wheeler is a real tragedy. He was a solid, almost unruinable character who somehow got steamrolled. It’s incredibly disappointing to watch characters warp into static caricatures of their worst qualities. I can only hope that he serves as a cautionary tale for future writers — don’t pull a “Stranger Things,” and definitely don’t put spectacle over character.
Daily Arts Writer Lola D’Onofrio can be reached at lolad@umich.edu.
