24 Turning Points When TV Shows Became Better Than You Could Ever Imagine
We asked the BuzzFeed Community for moments when a good TV show became a true masterpiece. Here are the results:
🚨Warning: Spoilers ahead! 🚨
1.When Lisa on The Simpsons got a substitute teacher for an episode who finally understood her, only for him to leave shortly after.
"It was done with such tenderness and showed how much more the show could be."
2.When Buffy found out on Buffy the Vampire Slayer that a prophecy predicted the slayer would die soon and she refused to be the slayer anymore.
"Buffy’s speech was a huge turning point for the show. It had nuggets of great stuff that implied how amazing the show would get, but that scene, and the finale as a whole, was the first real indication."
3.On The West Wing, when President Bartlet ranted against God after Mrs. Landingham died.
4.On WandaVision, when Wanda suddenly became pregnant, a mysterious beekeeper arrived, Wanda rewound time, and the world filled with color all in a matter of minutes.
5.When Patrick was introduced on Schitt's Creek.
"I mean, the show was already past its first season low point and getting stronger and funnier by the episode, but the introduction of Patrick totally changed the game and made it the masterpiece it is. And what a way to introduce him too; right off the bat, he and David have great chemistry, and you can't help but love Patrick."
6.When we learned the identity of the Bent-Neck Lady in The Haunting of Hill House as she dropped through all her "past" hauntings from a new perspective.
—nora
7.When we learned that Hannibal had kept Miriam alive for years on Hannibal.
"It showed just how much of a long game Hannibal was playing and just how patient he was. Waiting that long for a payoff to his plans elevated him to a whole new breed of psychopath."
8.On The Office episode "The Injury," when Michael burned his foot and tried to get the whole office's sympathy.
"Absolutely hilarious and helped set it apart from the British version."
—KWo
9.In Money Heist, when they put a microphone into Angel’s glasses.
"Everything works so beautifully after that, and it changes the dynamic of the show completely! That moment set the pace for the episodes to come and transformed it from a bank robbery to something much more, and showed the levels of strategy that the professor had set in place."
10.In the Scrubs episode "My Old Lady," when J.D., Turk, and Eliot each had a patient in critical condition, and J.D. gave the statistic that one in three patients admitted to the hospital dies. In the end, though, all three patients died.
"It's a really good episode and showed that, yes, Scrubs is mainly a comedy, but it told the audience early on that there would be some heavy stuff in there too. (And that balance of comedy and more serious topics is done flawlessly throughout the show's run.)"
11.When Ned Stark was beheaded on Game of Thrones, revealing that no one was safe.
—nora
12.When the Community episode "Contemporary American Poultry" told the story of a chicken-tender smuggling operation as a mobster movie.
"It was one of the earlier experimental episodes that elevated it beyond just a funny sitcom with a good cast."
13.When Jerome from Gotham transformed from a scared, crying kid into a precursor of the Joker in one moment.
14.On Derry Girls, when the girls claimed they saw a statue of the Virgin Mary crying to get out of a test and then had to keep up the lie even when they realized it wasn't true.
15.When Fleabag's Season 2 premiered with the introduction of the Priest, an engagement, a miscarriage, and the iconic line telling the audience we'd be getting a love story.
16.On Killing Eve, when Villanelle showed up to her psychiatric assessment in a poufy pink dress and flippantly denied that she'd felt any stress lately, despite the fact that she was a working assassin.
"Jodie Comer brought so much depth and intrigue to her character in this seemingly banal scene. It’s absolutely genius."
17.When Omni-Man took out all of the Guardians of the Globe at the end of the first episode of Invincible.
"It went from being a show about a goofy teenager discovering his powers to a murder mystery at the same time."
18.On Breaking Bad, when Skyler tried to get Walter to call the police for his own safety, but he insisted that he was the dangerous one.
—nora
19.When Gravity Falls finally revealed the author of the journals.
20.When Addison showed up at the end of Season 1 of Grey's Anatomy.
21.When we found out that Katherine was pretending to be Elena in the first season finale of The Vampire Diaries.
22.On Star Trek: The Next Generation, when Riker had to make the decision to forsake Picard to protect everyone else.
23.When Betty confronted Don on Mad Men about his former life.
"Most shows would have milked that for all it's worth and dragged it out for the whole series."
—KWo
24.And when Dale Cooper had his first dream on Twin Peaks.
"Meeting the man from another place — such a strange and surreal moment."
Did we miss the moment when your favorite show became great? Let us know in the comments!
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
