Nowadays, you probably know Kristen Bell as Eleanor Shellstrop from The Good Place, Anna from Frozen, or perhaps Joanne from her new hit rom-com series on Netflix, Nobody Wants This. But it would be remiss to completely forget about her CW roots. The Forgetting Sarah Marshall actress had a nearly decade-long stint on the popular teen drama network in the 2000s, all because she was able to use the cancellation of Veronica Mars to land Gossip Girl.

The CW in the 2000s and 2010s was primetime viewing for anyone ages 12-18, with some of the most rewatchable shows to come from that era, including One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries, Gilmore Girls, and Veronica Mars. Veronica Mars was Bell’s big break in 2004, where she played the titular teenage private eye for three seasons before the show was canceled due to ratings. Thankfully, the Queenpins actress is a quick thinker like Veronica, telling Vanity Fair how she turned the Veronica Mars cancellation into her next opportunity:

I can’t even imagine someone other than Bell being the voice of Gossip Girl, so it’s crazy to learn she got this role on a whim. Had she never reached out to the powers that be at the CW, we would have never gotten to hear the iconic, sassy “xoxo, gossip girl.”

Bell revealed that Veronica Mars had taught her to harness her snarkier side in her acting, something she asked to try out in the recording booth while narrating Gossip Girl. According to the Bad Moms actress, Gossip Girl’s creators had no notes, and she continued to address Upper Eastsiders the same way for all six seasons of the original show.

Bell even returned to narrate HBO’s Gossip Girl reboot for two seasons before it was swiftly canceled. It just wasn’t the same without S, B and the original cast, even with Bell narrating. However, fans did get to witness a crazy Veronica Mars/Gossip Girl crossover, with Leighton Meester guest-starring in Nobody Wants This Season 2. Although real marshmallows know this is a true Veronica Mars reunion through and through, as Meester played Carrie Bishop in the original VMars series, long before she made her debut as Blair.

As much as I would like these two to return to either Neptune, California or Manhattan's Upper East Side, the chances of another Veronica Mars or Gossip Girl reboot are slim. Bell has previously said she would play her #1 character, Veronica Mars, until the day she dies, but after Hulu’s revival killed off a fan-favorite, even the show’s cult following has sadly lost interest. I’ll never say never, though, cause clearly Kristen Bell makes her own destiny.

Nobody Wants This, on the other hand, has already been renewed for Season 3, and after fans freaked out over seeing Blair Waldorf and Seth Cohen from The O.C. onscreen together, we can hope that Leighton Meester will reprise her role as Joanne’s childhood nemesis. You can see both Gossip Girl alums in Nobody Wants This Season 2, now streaming with a Netflix subscription, and keep an eye out for Season 3 on the 2026 TV schedule.

Like many people who grew up in the early 2000s, I was obsessed with Gossip Girl at one point. Taylor Momsen’s Jenny Humphrey was a standout character in the Gossip Girl cast for me because she was more around my age than the other characters on the show. But then out of the blue in the middle of Season 4, she was suddenly no longer on the show. The actress has now shared what happened behind the scenes.

Momsen, who is currently 32, has spent most of her adult years as the frontwoman of the rock band The Pretty Reckless (one time she got bitten by a bat during one of her concerts). When she was on the Call Her Daddy podcast, she said this of her departure from Gossip Girl:

Momsen formed her band in 2009 during Gossip Girl's run, and as she explained, she decided to exit the series in order to take her band on the road. However, as Momsen revealed in the interview, she didn’t even tell her cast mates about leaving, she just “Irish dipped.” She continued:

As Call Her Daddy host Alex Cooper pointed out, the rest of the actors like Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Chace Crawford and others must have been curious where Taylor was at first since she never said a proper goodbye. To be fair, she was just 16.

There wasn’t really any social media back in 2009, so it’s not like they could see she was on the road on their smartphones. Even so, someone must have let them know of Momsen’s new endeavors. She did end up returning as a guest star for the Gossip Girl ending episode in 2012.

In the interview, Taylor Momsen also shared that leaving the show was a “long battle” because she had penned a contract with Warner Bros. Apparently another reason the actress wanted out of Gossip Girl was because she didn’t want to be an actress. She told the podcast it was “killing” her and there was “something else” she wanted to do with her life.

Of course, Momsen started acting as a child, famously starring in How The Grinch Stole Christmas as Cindy Lou Who. Momsen has opened up about being “teased relentlessly” for the role. Momsen and Jim Carrey reunited 25 years after the movie’s release earlier this month.

Since starting her band, The Pretty Reckless has made four albums together, headlined five tours and won a number of awards. A lot of people certainly must have started listening to the rock band because Jenny Humphrey was in it, too, even though it meant the end of the character!

There are a lot of things I love about Christmas movies — the festive beverages, the male strippers (you know the one), and the nostalgia of seeing actors from my favorite shows of past decades show up to star in them. There’s plenty of that on the 2025 Christmas movie schedule, and it looks like we have something to look forward to next year, because Gilmore Girls star Jared Padalecki and Gossip Girl’s Leighton Meester just signed on for a Christmas movie to hit the Netflix schedule, presumably in 2026.

This year’s Hallmark calendar may feature Aaron Samuels, Superman and Sue Heck coming together for the super cute A Keller Family Christmas, but Millennials everywhere will be counting the sleeps until next Christmas when the book-to-screen adaptation of Katherine Center’s The Bodyguard comes to Netflix. Leighton Meester and Jared Padalecki made the announcement on Thursday with the help of the author:

OK, my young adulthood was spent obsessing over Blair Waldorf and those iconic Gossip Girl outfits, as well as going through relationship ups and downs with Rory and her first boyfriend Dean Forester on Gilmore Girls, so this news definitely has my blood pumping.

The Bodyguard, published in 2022, is centered around a “no-nonsense bodyguard” (Meester) who is assigned to protect “a charming action star” (Padalecki) over the holidays, per THR. Sparks will fly, things will get complicated, and while I have not yet read Katherine Center’s book, I think we all know how these things tend to go.

Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum is set to direct, and if that name sounds familiar, you might remember the way she emotionally wrecked viewers with her Purple Hearts adaptation back in 2022.

Hopefully no such wreckage is on the agenda this time around, though we already know some changes will be made to the source material. For one thing, the novel is not set around Christmas, whereas the Netflix film will be. Secondly, the movie can obviously not be called The Bodyguard, given that Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner laid claim to that title back in 1992, and it’s kind of well-known.

Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum expressed excitement for the project and for the actors who have signed on, saying in a statement:

I, for one, am pretty excited about it. Leighton Meester has already given fans an A+ reunion, as she shared the screen with her real-life husband Adam Brody in Nobody Wants This Season 2. Fans couldn’t get enough of Blair Waldorf and Seth Cohen together, and this upcoming Christmas movie should provide a lot of that same nostalgia.

Jared Padalecki, for his part, not only recently reunited with Gilmore Girls co-star Matt Czuchry (sans Milo Ventimiglia), but he’ll also appear on The Boys Season 5 alongside his former Supernatural co-stars Jensen Ackles and Misha Collins.

As Millennials, we love to see that kind of thing, and I’m just glad there’s plenty to look forward to as we wait for this fun Netflix movie to come out next Christmas. Stay tuned for updates, including other cast members and what title is chosen for the adaptation.

If you grew up loving teen dramas and watching The CW, odds are, you watched and adoredThe O.C. and Gossip Girl (I know I did). So, when I learned that those projects’ stars, Adam Brody and Leighton Meester, were a couple in real life, I swooned. Now, I’m properly freaking out, because they’re sharing the screen in a project on the 2025 TV schedule, and I’m not the only one. Yeah, fans of Seth Cohen and Blair Waldorf are also making it clear that they very much wanted all of this on Season 2 of Nobody Wants This.

Long before Season 2 of Nobody Wants This premiered on Netflix’s schedule, it was announced that Meester would be guest-starring on her husband’s show, which also stars the voice of Gossip Girl, Kristen Bell. Now, the project is out, and people have had a chance to see the Gossip Girl vet's character, Abby, interact with Brody’s Noah and Bell’s Joanne in Episode 5 of Season 2. Let’s just say the nostalgia is hitting hard on social media, as @cloiskryptonite posted:

In response to that iconic post that called out the fact that both Meester and Bell were on Gossip Girl, and Brody is an equally iconic early 2000s icon from The O.C., @TheNuGeekz had a hilarious reply. Writing in the voice of Gossip Girl, they posted:

First of all, as a Chuck and Blair shipper, this is hilarious. Secondly, as a fan of Adam Brody and Leighton Meester as a real-life couple, I’m so here for this.

What also got me laughing was the fact that in the show (which you can stream with a Netflix subscription), Noah actually says that Abby, Meester’s character who is Joanne’s childhood nemesis, is “not my type.” That’s truly hilarious considering Brody has been married to her since 2014. And audiences clearly got a kick out of it as @caitlingilbs reacted to that moment with the following statement:

Over in the comments of Nobody Wants This Instagram post about the scene Brody and Meester share, the gushing continued. This whole moment really had everything to make a child of the early 2000s melt, as @piccalilli_la wrote:

Many hearts were melting over seeing Meester and Brody interact on Nobody Wants This. That was proven by @aakankshaaa_a's post about the show, as they wrote the day Season 2 premiered:

There really is something about this whole situation that brings back all the nostalgia. To think that Seth Cohen from The O.C. and Blair Waldorf from Gossip Girl got married in real life was already incredible. Now, the fact that they’re sharing the screen in a show that stars Kristen Bell, who is not just the star of another early 2000s hit, Veronica Mars, but also the voice of Gossip Girl, makes it even better.

Now, to feel all the nostalgic feels the fans and I were feeling here, you can stream Season 2 of Nobody Wants This on Netflix now.

It has often been said that a story, typically of the thriller variety, can live or die by the strength of its villain. However, there are many films and TV shows that like to keep the suspense high by keeping the antagonist a secret until later.

Unfortunately, this does not always result in the most satisfying or logical outcome, as the following examples will show. Also, keep in mind that there will be SPOILERS.

Aldrich Killian (Iron Man 3)

A key reason why many fans do not like Iron Man 3 is that the apparent main antagonist, The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley), is revealed to be a scapegoat imposter named Trevor Slattery. However, there are also many people, myself included, who feel the disappointing twist pales in comparison to the pitifully petty motivations of the true villain, Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), who invents a terrorist persona to get back at Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) for ignoring him at a New Year's Eve party once. I mean, is that not the plot of The Incredibles?

The Final Five Cylons (Battlestar Galactica)

Ronald D. Moore's SyFy original version of Battlestar Galactica is considered one of the most refreshing TV reboots of all time, in spite of its lackluster finale. The sci-fi drama's long-awaited reveal that the Final Five Cylons are Saul (Michael Hogan) and Ellen Tigh (Kate Vernon), Galen Tyrol (Aaron Douglas), Samuel Anders (Michael Trucco), and Tory Foster (Rekha Sharma), who also had no recollection of their origins, left many fans disheartened.

Blofeld (Spectre)

Director Sam Mendes' second 007 adventure, 2015's Spectre, was already slightly tainted by the reveal that the events of the previous Daniel Craig-led James Bond movies were quietly orchestrated by the character's historical archenemy, Blofeld (Christoph Waltz). The absurdity only grew when the villain unveils a twist right out of the spy movie spoof, Austin Powers in Goldmember: he and Bond are half-brothers.

Colleen Wing (Iron Fist)

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe-canon series, Iron Fist, it is revealed that Danny Rand's (Finn Jones) ally, Colleen Wing (Jessica Henwick), is associated with the evil organization, The Hand. However, this twist was largely ignored very shortly afterward, making it ultimately underwhelming.

Roman Bridger (Scream 3)

Scream 3 is widely considered to be the weakest of the self-aware slasher movie franchise, and much of the concern is tied to the person behind the Ghostface mask this time, Roman Bridger (Scott Foley). Not only does the director of Stab 3 turn out to be the unknown half-brother of Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), but he claims to have been orchestrating the kills in the first two installments out of revenge against their mother, who rejected him years earlier.

Flint Marko (Spider-Man 3)

Just like in the comics, Sam Raimi's first Spider-Man movie establishes a random burglar as the one who killed Peter Parker's (Tobey Maguire) uncle, Ben (Cliff Robertson). However, Spider-Man 3 lazily retcons the incident as the fault of the otherwise sympathetic superhero movie villain, Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church), who also happens to get thrown in a particle accelerator that turns him into Sandman.

John Connor (Terminator Genisys)

The idea of humanity's destined defender, John Connor (Jason Clarke), being turned into a cyborg was widely deemed a cheap stunt that was stupidly given away in the marketing for 2015's Terminator Genisys. However, what really makes this an objectively dumb movie twist is that, early on in the film, John's biological parents, Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) and Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney), irreversibly transport themselves from 1984 to 2017, meaning that, based on the Terminator movies' rules of time travel, John should have never been born.

Khan (Star Trek Into Darkness)

Admittedly, the reveal in 2013's Star Trek Into Darkness that Commander John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) is really Khan (the iconic villain originated by Ricardo Montalban) is not exactly nonsensical. However, fans of the franchise saw it coming from a mile away, so it wound up being deeply unsatisfying.

Walter Sparrow (The Number 23)

In Joel Schumacher's 2007 psychological thriller, The Number 23, family man Walter Sparrow (Jim Carrey) becomes obsessed with a disturbing book about a killer that turns out to be his own memoir, which he wrote and forgot all about after a stint in a mental institution. That is already a little far-fetched, but the most flabbergasting aspect of the twist is that his wife, Agatha (Virginia Madsen), who is fully aware of his past, is the one who buys him the book in the first place. Why would she want to conjure up those kinds of memories?

Dylan Rhodes-Shrike (Now You See Me)

One of the most notoriously illogical "the hero was the bad guy the whole time" twists comes from 2013's Now You See Me, which stars Mark Ruffalo as FBI agent Dylan Rhodes, who obsessively pursues a group of illusionist thieves who call themselves The Four Horsemen. By the end, it is revealed that he is actually part of their group and orchestrated the entire ordeal to avenge the death of his father, a magician named Lionel Shrike.

The Plants (The Happening)

Considered one of the weakest M. Night Shyamalan movie twists is the reveal that the mysterious, deadly event at the center of 2008's The Happening is being caused by a hypnotic pheromone vengefully released by the Earth's vegetation. Then again, the ridiculous plot point is among the key reasons the thriller is considered a classic of so-bad-it's-good cinema.

Alchemy (The Flash)

Tom Felton was cast as Dr. Julian Albert on The Flash at the same time the mysterious Alchemy was introduced on the Arrow-verse series. Considering the actor's reputation for villainous roles, especially Draco Malfoy from the Harry Potter movies, it quickly became apparent to viewers that the historian and the masked villain (an avatar for the evil Speedster, Savitar) were one in the same.

Will Benson (I Still Know What You Did Last Summer)

In I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, Julie James' (Jennifer Love Hewitt) classmate, calling himself Will Benson (Matthew Settle), confesses that he is "Ben's son" and orchestrated this Bahamian bloodbath with his father, Ben Willis, who targeted her and her friends just a year earlier. This punny twist is exactly why I can't help but enjoy the absurd 1998 slasher sequel.

Olly (Game Of Thrones)

While the determination to avenge his parents' death was cited as a motivation, Olly's (Brenock O'Connor) villainous turn ultimately feels forced, especially when you consider how loyal and good-natured he was when first introduced on Game of Thrones.

Mac (Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull)

In 2008's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Mac (Ray Winstone), reveals himself to be a collaborator with the bad guys, then claims to be a double agent really on the side of Indy (Harrison Ford), and then, at the end, says he actually lied about being a double agent. I am honestly more disappointed by this lazy double-twist than any of the other reasons most fans don't care for the fourth Indiana Jones film.

Gabriel (Malignant)

I think the crazy twist from the Malignant ending –Gabriel is Madison's (Annabelle Wallis) parasitic twin and has been possessing her body to commit vengeful murders – is actually pretty awesome. However, one thing I have never understood about James Wan's 2021 Giallo tribute is how Gabriel can control electricity or make telepathic phone calls.

Marie (High Tension)

With heart-stopping suspense and some unforgettable kills, High Tension is a great breakout feature from writer and director Alexandre Aja... up until the end. The 2003 French-language horror flick stabs itself in the foot by revealing that the crazed killer (Philippe Nahon) whom Marie (Cécile de France) has been trying to save her friend, Alexia (Maïwenn), from is her own dissociative identity, which feels lazily tacked on and contradictory to the entire plot.

Christina Scofield (Prison Break)

In Season 4 of Prison Break, it is revealed that Michael Scofield's (Wentworth Miller) mother, Christina (Kathleen Quinlan), is a high-ranking member of the conspiratorial society called "The Company." This entire subplot actually left critics and fans underwhelmed, believing it was a desperate attempt to keep the show going after the eponymous escape had already been achieved.

William Schenk (Spiral)

The key to a great Saw movie is not how cool the torturous traps are, but a suspenseful aura that keeps audiences on their toes, complemented by a killer twist ending. Unfortunately, most viewers were able to guess that the mysterious main villain from the franchise's ninth installment, Spiral, was the seemingly slain Det. William Schenk (Max Minghella) pretty early on.

Silas (The Vampire Diaries)

On The Vampire Diaries, when the shapeshifting Silas reveals that his true face is identical to Stefan's (Paul Wesley), fans of the CW series were not too amused.

Dr. David Callaway (Hide And Seek)

In 2005's Hide and Seek, widowed psychologist David Callaway (Robert De Niro) comes to the horrifying realization that a series of murders that his daughter, Emily (Dakota Fanning), claims are the work of her imaginary friend, Charlie, were actually committed by his own dissociative identity. No matter how well this thriller may have attempted to cover its tracks, the whole Fight Club-style, "I had no idea it was me the whole time" reveal had grown into a tired cliché by then.

Dan Humphrey (Gossip Girl)

I have a theory that the people behind Gossip Girl never had any idea what the true identity of the eponymous blogger (voiced by Kristen Bell) was going to be. So, they just said, "You know what would be crazy? What if it was Dan Humphrey?" because that would be the biggest surprise. Indeed, it was, but only because it makes absolutely no sense, given how shocked and angry Penn Badgley's character was by many of Gossip Girl's posts about him.

Yuri Komarov (A Good Day To Die Hard)

I could go on and on about why fans and critics alike despise 2013's A Good Day to Die Hard, but let's just focus on one reason for now. In a cheap plot twist, John McClane (Bruce Willis) and his CIA operative son, Jack (Jai Courtney), discover that the man they have been protecting, Yuri Komarov (Sebastian Koch), is the true enemy.

Nathan Shelley (Ted Lasso)

In the Apple TV+ original series, Ted Lasso, reporter Trent Crimm (James Lance) tells the titular character (played by Jason Sudeikis) that it was Nate Shelley (Nick Mohammed) who shared confidential information about his panic attack with him. Apparently, Nate sells Ted out and goes on to coach the rival team because he felt like Richmond's head coach abandoned him, for reasons that still feel vague and inexplicable to me.

Tom Watson (The Girl On The Train)

At first, The Girl on the Train convinces you to suspect that the main character, Rachel (Emily Blunt), accidentally murdered Megan (Haley Bennett) while under the influence. As it turns out, in a twist ripped from an episode of Dateline, the true culprit was Rachel's abusive, gaslighting former husband, Tom (Justin Theroux).

Brahms (Brahms: The Boy II)

The 2016 thriller The Boy leads you to believe that a porcelain doll is possessed by the spirit of a deceased child named Brahms, only to show that the strange happenings were done by the real Brahms, who is alive, grown-up, and living in the walls of his parents' estate. However, the sequel, Brahms: The Boy II, retcons that ending, revealing that the doll is, indeed, sentient and has been manipulating children, including the real Brahms, into committing horrific acts for years.

Ares (Wonder Woman)

While widely considered to be one of the better DCEU movies, many also feel that Wonder Woman suffers from a lackluster ending, in which it is revealed that Sir Patrick (David Thewlis) is Ares in disguise. Let alone the underwhelming execution of the twist, the emergence of the true God of War deprives the comic book film of a more potent message about humanity's flaws and contradicts the motivations of Gal Gadot's Amazonian warrior in other films.

Ian Buckells (Line Of Duty)

When the British cop drama, Line of Duty, ended with the reveal that "H" is Ian Buckells (Nigel Boyle), fans theorized this was a red herring that would be resolved in a subsequent season. That is the only way they could reconcile with such a foolish character being identified as the corrupt criminal mastermind.

Detective David "Rooster" Fisk (Righteous Kill)

The 2008 cop thriller Righteous Kill is widely considered to be a low point in both Robert De Niro and Al Pacino's careers, especially because of the twist. It turns out that Pacino's character, Rooster, is the vigilante killer whom he and his partner, Turk (De Niro), have been pursuing all along.

Owen Carver (Fountain Of Youth)

By the end of Apple TV+'s Fountain of Youth, archaeologist Luke Purdue (John Krasinski) discovers his wealthy financier, Owen Carver (Domhnall Gleeson), is actually a corrupt liar who greedily wants the titular mystical artifact all for himself. While quite nonsensical, this deeply uninspired twist is just one of many ways the adventure film's ending rips off Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Aliens (The Forgotten)

In the 2004 thriller, The Forgotten, Julianne Moore's character, Telly, just kind of randomly assumes that the mysteriously lost memory of her deceased son, among other children, could be the work of extraterrestrials. She just so happens to be right.

Ray Bronson And Stevie Ward (I Know What You Did Last Summer)

In the 2025 legacyquel, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Stevie (Sara Pidgeon) decides to kill her friends, believing they are responsible for the accidental death of her boyfriend, even though they tried to save his life. However, her murder streak also includes people who had nothing to do with the incident. Even more absurd is that original survivor Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze Jr) helps with the scheme, believing the world forgot about what happened to him and his friends in 1997. However, this begs the question of why he decided to kill a popular true crime podcast host who was preparing to do an episode on that very ordeal.

Blake Lively just made Upper East Siders—and anyone with WiFi and a craving for her Betty Booze brand—lose their minds. As seemingly endless legal battles continue to play out in the press, the Gossip Girl alum pulled off a nostalgic masterstroke for those itching to return to the teen drama. In her latest ad for Betty Booze’s vodka iced teas, she brings back fan-favorite Zuzanna Szadkowski (a.k.a. Dorota) for a cheeky reunion.

The spot, which you can see below, was posted to the official Betty Booze YouTube channel, opening with a wink to the original series: a blurry paparazzi snap of Lively on a park bench, channeling Serena van der Woodsen energy. Enter Szadkowski, dropping the Dorota accent (at first) and sitting down for what quickly becomes a hilarious back-and-forth. The Shallows star breaks the ice with “You sound different,” and Szadkowski deadpans, “Oh, well, allergies.” Then comes the big reveal: a can of vodka iced tea.

Cue the toast. “Balanced, crisp, nothing artificial,” says Szadkowski as she pours the cocktail into a teacup, while Lively nods: “Which is hard to find around these parts.” Somewhere, Blair Waldorf is surely slow-clapping from the steps of the Met.

Let’s be real: this could’ve easily been a throwaway nostalgia grab. Instead, it plays like a love letter to OG fans, complete with inside jokes, layered references, and that final Dorota accent drop—“Oh, Miss Betty, you’re gonna get us in trouble”—that’ll leave millennials grinning into their cocktail cans.

This isn’t the first Gossip Girl callback Szadkowski’s had in recent years. She snapped a sweet reunion selfie with Chace Crawford, Ed Westwick, and the gang back in 2022.

If you don’t understand all the hype around the series, no worries, as all six seasons are available to stream with an HBO Max subscription. Time to get caught up on all the gossip.

The Savages actress launched Betty Buzz mixers in 2021, followed by Betty Booze canned cocktails in 2023. The timing couldn’t be more strategic, either. The Green Lantern star and her It Ends With Us costar Justin Baldoni are still embroiled in lawsuits against each other, with both stars laying out pointed allegations. And more recently, Lively’s involvement with yet another lawsuit, as her company has been weathering press from an ongoing lawsuit involving her business partners.

The 37-year-old A-lister and her company, Family Hive LLC—parent to her Blake Brown brand—are now taking legal action against entrepreneur Kimberlie Hamner. According to a report by Daily Mail.com, Hamner, 27, operates her business from Utah and holds the trademark for "Beauty by Blake," which she registered in September 2024 for her line of cosmetic oils. Lively’s team, however, is challenging her right to that trademark.

With this legal drama continuing to bubble in the background, this Gossip Girl-style drop feels like a power move, and a reminder that The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants veteran still knows how to grab a headline, with style, and doesn’t involve the court system.

Blake Lively put a fun spin on the Serena and Dorota vibe that really hits the nostalgia sweet spot for fans of the CW show. It’s upbeat and bubbly, making you want to mix a little vodka tea in your favorite cup and reach out to your best friend from high school.

If there’s something I know about Leighton Meester, it’s that she’s great at playing a nemesis. During her time as one of the leads of the Gossip Girl cast, she made a name for herself doing just that as she played the ever iconic Blair Waldorf. Now, she’s about to play another adversary in Season 2 of Nobody Wants This, and I have a hope about this new character that’s related to the early 2000s teen drama.

Leighton Meester Shared A Bit Of Insight Into Her Nobody Wants This Character

Not long after Nobody Wants This was renewed for Season 2, it was announced that Leighton Meester would be joining the cast. As both the wife of this show’s co-lead, Adam Brody, and an excellent television actress, this was a thrilling development. Things got even more exciting when it was revealed that she’d be playing Kristen Bell’s middle school nemesis, Abby.

Now, she’s opened up a bit about her new character and specifically her relationship with Bell’s Joanne while speaking to Flaunt, saying:

So far, we know Meester’s character is “an Instagram mommy influencer” who is the “middle school nemesis” of Bell’s Joanne. We currently don’t know why their paths cross. However, the idea of sassy teenage drama coming into the picture excites me to no end, especially because both actresses were involved with Gossip Girl, a classic series about teenage drama.

I Need Leighton Meester To Bring Her Blair Waldorf Energy To Nobody Wants This

When I watch Gossip Girl (which you can do with a Max subscription), the element I always love the most is the catty drama. A lot of the time, Blair is at the center of it, and seeing her go toe-to-toe with her friends and foes of the Upper East Side is always delightful. From her on-again-off-again friendship/rivalry with Blake Lively’s Serena to her ongoing and deeply dramatic relationship with Ed Westwick’s Cuck, the way Meester’s character handled it all brought me an immense amount of joy.

The sass she always exuded, mixed with her hyper intelligence and high fashion, made for a fascinating and wildly entertaining character that Meester commanded the screen with.

This is the kind of energy I need her to bring to Nobody Wants This, especially since she’ll be going up against Kristen Bell, who is ironically the voice of Gossip Girl.

Plus, Bell’s podcast host, Joanne, is a sassy gal, and she’s not afraid to call someone out. So, I just know she has the fire in her to reignite a feud with someone from her past. The fact that Meester’s Abby will be on the presumed other side of it is brilliant.

These two both have what it takes to bring the extra drama of Gossip Girl back to the screen, and that’s exactly what I want from them in this new season of Nobody Wants This.

We know them, we love them, and most of the time, we love to hate them. Regardless of how any of us feel about the iconic, troublesome teens that round out the fabric of Hollywood’s youth-centric media, they’ve left their signature messy marks. This list covers the big hitters, the unmistakable part-of-pop-culture adolescents who derailed monumentally (dependent on their character and world, not all misguided minors are created equal). Each calling card of these chaotic characters has a few things in common–they’re lost and faced with conflict–but how they solve their issues leads to many more issues than solutions. Buckle up and grab your favorite nostalgic mix tape/playlist; we’re in for a bumpy ride.

Jim Stark and Buzz Gunderson - Rebel Without a Cause

This is by far one of the most influential movies that jumpstarted the teen genre and it’s big thanks to Jim Stark (James Dean) and Buzz Gunderson (Corey Allen). When gang leader Buzz and new-in-town Jim agree to a “chickie race,” that’s when things go up in smoke. Jim is left to face the fallout.

Marissa Cooper - The O.C.

You could probably make a case for most of The O.C. kids, but Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton) undoubtedly tops them all. Coop’s undoing was a monolith and started on the wings of her parents' divorce. It led to underage drinking, tumultuous relationships, petty theft, and eventually to her passing away after a car crash at the end of Season 3.

Danny Zuko - Grease

Like many other ensembles, you could make a pick mostly anyone from the Grease cast, but Danny Zuko's (John Travolta) issues bled into everyone else’s. Not to mention, he strung Sandy Olsson (Olivia Newton-John) along until the very end of the movie.

Serena van der Woodsen - Gossip Girl

Gossip Girl is another show where you could argue a good case for any of the characters being the biggest saboteur. But like Marissa Cooper, Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively) just can’t shake off trouble in most things she does. The thought of old her and Georgina Sparks together really sounds like they’d top the list together.

Veronica Sawyer - Heathers

Heathers and Veronica Sawyer (Winona Ryder) were ahead of the curve. When awkward loner Veronica gets invited to join the school’s most popular group, she quickly realizes it’s not the place for her. After befriending new kid Jason Dean (Christian Slater), they accidentally kill one of the Heathers. This sets off an entire killing spree that wreaks havoc on Westerburg High School.

Dawson Leery - Dawson’s Creek

Even though he may have been seen more as a golden boy during his reign, Dawson (James Van Der Beek) caused some major damage in his day. We literally have a separate list showcasing all the times Leery was the worst character for his loved ones to be around. If he'd only been supportive of Joey Potter (Katie Holmes) going to Paris, who knows what could've been?

Cady Heron - Mean Girls

Tina Fey’s wildly quotable Mean Girls needs no introduction or explanation. With Cady (Lindsay Lohan) coming to terms with attending a public high school in the US after growing up in Africa, she is a poster child for this list. As she explores her new reality, she gets lost for a moment amid girl world drama, which leads to multiple friend, family, and relationship troubles.

Rue Bennet - Euphoria

The Max ‘teen’ jewel-encrusted drama juggernaut holds another ensemble of lost and morose students. However, Rue Bennet (Zendaya) and her substance abuse issues are the focal point. It's upended friendships, caused familial stresses, multiple times over, causing Rue to lie, steal and hurt everyone in the East Highlanders.

Chris Hargensen - Carrie

Stephen King’s Carrie is another classic high school staple that helped push the envelope on what fictional teen worlds could hold. Popular girl and bully, Chris Hargensen (Nancy Allen) makes Carrie’s (Sissy Spacek) life a living nightmare. Hargensen continues down a downward spiral that leads to the bone-chilling but iconic prank that happens at the dance (which has some truly grim consequences).

Tim Riggins - Friday Night Lights

If you know anything about this NBC network TV classic, you either love or hate Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch). While he was a regular womanizer, heavy partier, not to mention that he sabotaged himself and the team with some regularity, he straightened up.

Dallas ‘Dally’ Winston - The Outsiders

Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation of The Outsiders is a quintessential coming-of-age story. Even though the whole gang is rough and tumble, along with any of the ‘Socs,’ Dally (Matt Dillon) is the most troubled. With an already tumultuous background, Johnny’s death sends him on to make poor decisions for himself and his friends.

Cory Matthews - Boy Meets World

Surprising, I know. The more classic choice from Boy Meets World may be Shawn Hunter, but Cory Matthews (Ben Savage) sparked plenty of trouble in his time (like fellow do-gooder, Dawson Leery). Throughout the 7 seasons, he caused more rifts between his family, friends and Topanga than anyone else.

Billy Loomis & Stu Macher - Scream

Naturally, any teen in any scary movie generally has some baggage that leads to strife in one way or another. Youths like Billy (Skeet Ulrich) and Stu (Matthew Lillard) are different, though, they are intentionally motivated to terrify and harm their fellow classmates and the people of Woodsboro. Unfortunately for them, their plans backfire on them gravely.

Lucas Scott - One Tree Hill

Like the aforementioned teen network drama shows of the mid and late ‘00s, any character is up for debate. Lucas Scott (Chad Michael Murray), the main protagonist, puts on a good show of commotion for everyone in his life. Being a serial heartbreaker while being unloyal and manipulative to others lands him this particular title.

Jennifer Check - Jennifer’s Body

Jennifer’s Body, again, isn’t filled with average adolescents, and especially not Jennifer (Megan Fox). While she and longtime friend Needy (Amanda Seyfried) head out for a semi-average night of Jennifer-approved fun, all goes awry. We find out that Jennifer has turned into a demon feasting on the male teens of Devil’s Kettle, WY. After the friends face off, Needy gets pinned for the murders and gets taken to an insane asylum.

Rachel Berry - Glee

The destined-for-greatness Rachel Berry (Lea Michele) typically stopped at nothing to get what she wanted, regardless of the consequences. While the fictional NYADA darling had moments of hope and promise, her ego and ambition always seemed to cause more harm than good. (Any Ryan Murphy-created teen could do, though.)

Seth - Superbad

The 2007 classic was the first Seth Rogen-Evan Goldberg project, and it immediately put them on the map. The semi-biographical Superbad revolves around characters with the same names and pretty typical senior tropes. Of the fictional duo Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera), and their pal, Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), the first of the trio creates the most trouble for their celebratory evening. While the trio make up, along with the girls (Emma Stone, Martha MacIsaac), before graduation.

Rory Gilmore - Gilmore Girls

“Why did you drop out of Yale?” Even though Rory Gilmore (Alexis Bledel) is one of the more unusual fictional high schoolers on the list, her dropping out was monumental for the world of Gilmore Girls. Even Lauren Graham didn’t like the storyline because of the turmoil it created between Lorelai and Rory. Not to mention, her sleeping with Dean, missing Lorelai's graduation and later on, being more lost than ever in her 30s.

Donnie - Donnie Darko

Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) isn’t your typical troublesome, drama-filled teen, even though his choices in one reality lead to serious consequences. His present ED signifiers (Emotional Disturbance) present Donnie as something else, but we eventually come to realize he's an anti-hero of sorts. As he comes to realize that there are multiple timelines at play, he chooses to fix it to save Gretchen Ross' (Jena Malone) life. And with his developed powers, he returns to the day when it all went awry, which leads to his destiny--death.

Archie Andrews - Riverdale

Archie of The CW’s Riverdale was one of the many, much darker TV reboots out there. And though all the drama has always hinged on the red-headed football hero regardless of genre, the TV show really packs Archie with a punch. To be fair, he also found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time quite frequently–it’s how he reacted to them that gives him the top spot for the searching students of Riverdale High.

Kathryn Merteuil & Sebastian Valmont - Cruel Intentions

Another young and terrifying twosome is Kathryn Merteuil (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Sebastian Valmont (Ryan Philippe). The oddball step-siblings wager a bet that involves innocent and new Annette Hargrove (Reese Witherspoon). Through the scheme, the group of students is faced with continuing drama until a very sad end.

Valerie Malone - Beverly Hills, 90210

Though there was plenty of actual drama on the set of Beverly Hills, 90210, Valerie Malone (Tiffani Thiessen) wasted no time sowing seeds of chaos. Arriving in Season 5 with a lot of baggage in the form of family trauma, Malone was immediately set up to be in trouble. She dated many of the guys and regularly feuded with the girls.

Max Fischer - Rushmore

As one of the many stylized Wes Anderson films, Rushmore was one of his earliest. Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman) is a love-drunk student determined to date his teacher and will stop at nothing to achieve it. After an array of mishaps and his fellow acquaintance, Blume (Bill Murray), hitting it off with her, Max loses it. He leaked the affair publicly and temporarily burned bridges with both of them.

Willow Rosenberg - Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Willow’s (Alyson Hannigan) rise to raising hell for Buffy and co. may be a slow burn, but once she hits it, things get wild. While her use of telepathy, manipulation and struggling to keep her magic in check kick off the season, Tara’s death sets Willow into overdrive in trying to destroy the world.

PJ & Josie - Bottoms

Gen Z coming-of-age comedies come in all shapes and sizes, including Emma Seligman’s Bottoms. The satirical take on the high school experience is wild, especially with PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri). The BFF’s hatch a fight club for girls so they can talk to cheerleaders they have crushes on. Needless to say, a lot of drama goes down, including a car blowing up.

Mona Vanderwaal - Pretty Little Liars

Honestly, most characters from the 2010 series have a fair shot here. But Mona (Janel Parrish) is the reason for all of the mystery and torment. She is who sparks the series because of her grudge against the main friend group. Eventually, she becomes one of them, and even more trouble ensues.

Laura Palmer - Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me

In my opinion, there’s no list about misguided high schoolers complete without Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). The character was cemented into pop culture in David Lynch’s cult show, Twin Peaks, but the less popular prequel movie shows her tragic undoing. Her last days are filled with traumas relating to her drug addiction, web of lies and darker spirits. Warning, this movie isn't for the faint of heart.

DeGrassi: The Next Generation

DeGrassi: The Next Generation is maybe the only title on the list in which each character is as chaotic and troubled as the last. The iconic Canadian teen soap has multiple iterations, but the 2002-2015 series takes the cake. Between the students, they have every classic dramatic HS storyline in the book, and alumni Drake’s “I’m Upset” reunion-filled music video summarizes some key points.

Nancy Downs - The Craft

The quartet of girls in The Craft start as lost as the next, but Nancy’s (Fairuza Balk) power-hungry ways destroy what they have together. After quiet Sarah Bailey (Robin Tunney) moves to town and gets wronged, Downs and her pals take her in. All four hatch a scheme to cast a spell on the wrongdoer, and when it succeeds, that’s when Nancy starts sabotaging everything.

John B - Outer Banks

Netflix’s Outer Banks is one wild ride with wayward John B (Chase Stokes) at the helm. Sure, other characters may be outwardly more troubled (JJ, Sarah or Rafe), but everyone’s lives intensified because of John B’s initial treasure hunt.

Christine ‘Lady Bird’ McPherson - Lady Bird

As one of the more subtle teenage pot stirrers, Ladybird (Saoirse Ronan) still makes her presence and opinions unmistakably clear. Her main sources of conflict reside within her relationship with her hardworking mom (Laurie Metcalf) and nerdy best friend (Beanie Feldstein). While Lady Bird temporarily burns bridges with both in pursuit of greater life expectations and new friends, she mends things with both.

Effy Stonem - Skins UK

A cult classic that ran from 2007-2013 and largely featured the rebellious but lost Effy Stonem (Kaya Scodelario). From the jump, we see 14-year-old her sneaking home in the early morning after being out all night at a rave. Needless to say, Effy’s journey was a bumpy one filled with substance abuse, mental health crises, and a web of lies.

When you think about the Fast & Furious movies, I’d be willing to bet money you’ve never thought about Gossip Girl at the same time. Even though I’m a massive fan of both, I know I haven’t. However, that all changed when I watched the English-language remake of Prime Video’s Culpa Mia, My Fault: London, because it’s legitimately a wonderfully chaotic mix of the Vin Diesel-led fast car franchise and the edgy, soapy series.

Now, before you click away because of that wild comparison, hear me out because I promise this makes sense. My Fault: London, which recently premiered on the 2025 movie schedule for those with an Amazon Prime subscription, is a dramatic, edgy, steamy romance that is centered around the world of really fast cars. Are you starting to pick up what I’m putting down?

Well, if you’re not, here’s a more in-depth explanation about why the action romance film My Fault: London is, in fact, what you get when you mix Fast & Furious with Gossip Girl.

Why My Fault: London Gives Fast & Furious Energy

I can’t believe I’m writing this, but My Fault: London has big Fast & Furious vibes.

The film is a romance about two step-siblings (more on that later) who fall for each other while they navigate the violent and dramatic world of underground car racing.

Both Noah and Nick are accomplished drivers, and they bond over their love for cars, so that is giving F&F.

However, it's the big (and occasionally absurd) action that really made this comparison click. Between the big action set piece at the end and the honestly epic races throughout the film, I was having flashbacks to the first time I watched The Fast & The Furious. And I say that as a compliment.

So, yeah, that’s where the Fast & Furious energy comes from.

My Fault: London Is Gossip Girl Coded In One Way I Love And Another Way I Hate

Now, onto the XOXO of it all. My Fault: London features two major elements that give Gossip Girl, and one of them I despise while the other I adore.

Let’s start with the bad. I’m sorry, but why is this romance centered around step-siblings?

While I adore Gossip Girl, and I think its hype is warranted, it featured a dismal plotline like this. As you likely remember, Dan and Serena were a key couple on the show. However, their parents, Rufus and Lily, were, too. Obviously, that caused drama because it’s frowned upon for kids to date while their parents are also dating.

Well, My Fault: London takes that terrible trope a step further. Noah and Nick’s parents are engaged when they meet, and then the kids fall in love. And I have to say, that’s not a good look. It wasn’t on Gossip Girl, and it still isn’t now.

However, like Gossip Girl, I can overlook this plot point in My Fault: London. That’s because the absolutely electric chemistry between the film’s two leads and the steamy romance is irresistible.

I’m not kidding; Matthew Broome and Asha Banks’ chemistry as Nick and Noah is off the charts! While the way they got together is not great, I believe in their feelings for each other. Do you know who that reminds me of? Chuck and Blair. They are an honestly toxic couple, but I can’t deny their chemistry, and it’s romances like theirs that kept me invested in Gossip Girl.

That’s what kept me in My Fault: London too, and like with Gossip Girl, even though it made me cringe at times, the electric romance made up for it.

Now, speaking holistically about all three properties here, I also think they’re just genuinely fun times. If you are looking to be entertained and thrilled by some bonkers and high drama and/or action, go stream Gossip Girl with a Max subscription or some of the Fast & Furious films with a Peacock subscription. And if you want the best of both worlds, watch My Fault: London on Prime Video.

Celebrity deaths are a unique thing, as they have a way of affecting both the people who actually knew the late star, as well as the generations of fans who were moved by their work. Case in point: Michelle Trachtenberg's death at 39, which definitely took the public by surprise. Celebrity tributes to Trachtenberg have been rolling in, and her Gossip Girl stars like Blake Lively and Chace Crawford (among others) have shared their love for her on social media.

Gossip Girl (which is streaming with a Netflix subscription) was a wildly popular show on The CW, and is also regularly re-watched via streaming services. Trachtenberg appeared as Regina Sparks in 28 episodes throughout its original run, so she got to work with the Gossip Girl cast quite a bit. Blake Lively posted a lengthy tribute on Instagram Story, check it out below:

How sweet is that? While Lively's legal battle with Justin Baldoni is raging on, she still took the time to honor Trachtenberg's talent and character through this post. And it sounds like she wish she could have gotten to reunite with her one more time before she passed.

Of course, Lively isn't the only Star of the original Gossip Girl that took to social media following Trachtenberg's surprise passing. Chace Crawford posted a carousel of photos on his Instagram, as well as a message from the heart. Check it out:

While Crawford has stayed busy as a scene-stealing member of The Boys (which is streaming with an Amazon Prime subscription) he definitely became a household name in Gossip Girl. And his post shows how much fun eh had connecting with the late Buffy actress on set.

Taylor Momsen played Jenny Humphrey in the original Gossip Girl series, and also took to social media after learning about Michelle Trachtenberg's death. She posted a photo of the late actress on IG Story with a short and sweet caption which reads:

Actor Ed Westwick is perhaps best known for his tenure playing Chuck Bass on Gossip Girl. Like so many of his co-stars, he also posted on Instagram Stories about the loss of Trachtenberg. You can see his post below:

Clearly Trachtenberg was respected and well-liked by her Gossip Girl co-stars. While she wasn't a series regular, she made an impact by her time on set, both for her talent as well as the strength of her character.

The same can also be said by her Buffy the Vampire Slayer collaborators, as they similarly took to social media to honor and mourn the late actress. And that's saying noting of her many fans who also posted tributes to Michelle Trachtenberg. Millennials grew up alongside her, starting from Harriet the Spy up until her adult projects. Clearly we've lost a genuine talent and lovely individual.

From Downton Abbey to the Red Keep to 742 Evergreen Terrace, there are so many cool houses I'd love to explore from television shows. Some have even gotten quite famous for their use on these shows. Obviously I understand these are mostly sets on a soundstage with an exterior of a completely different house, but let's take a moment to use our imagination and talk about how fun and cool these houses I've always wanted to explore would be.

The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air

Of course with have to include Uncle Phil and Aunt Bev's house on The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air. Most of the show pretty much takes place in two rooms, the kitchen and the living room, with other scenes in various bedrooms and occasionally other spots. There must be so much more to see!

The Addams Family

Who doesn't want to explore a house like that of the Addams family? It's creepy and kooky, mysterious and spooky! It's got a dismembered hand running around, a cousin covered in hair, and an uncle who can light up a light bulb in his mouth! This is the kind of house I want to learn a whole lot more about!

Friends

Much has been made about the apartments on Friends and how unrealistic they are. Sure, that may be true, but that doesn't mean they aren't cool, especially where Monica and Rachel live. As someone who lived in a shoebox in the East Village for years, this is the kind of place I'd love to explore and dream about how I could have been living... in a fever dream.

Full House

The Painted Ladies in San Francisco are some of the most iconic houses in the entire United States Of America. For that reason alone it's worth it to explore the Tanner home on Full House. I might not have a chance to explore one otherwise (not that would in this fictional scenario anyway!)

Succession

Let's be honest, I can't stand the Roy family and it makes it hard for me to love the show Succession, because I need someone to root for and there is no one on this show worthy of that. Except maybe the houses and locations, those all look amazing. So that's decides it, I'm rooting for fictional houses.

Game Of Thrones

I've included the Red Keep here from Game of Thrones, but really it's a stand-in for basically every castle, keep, and ancestral home on the show. They all look really cool and I love old European castles, so an architectural tour of Westeros is right in my wheelhouse. Winterfell, Dragonstone, the Eyrie, Sunspear... they are all amazing. Even the ruins of Harrenhal would be awesome to hang out in for a bit.

Gossip Girl

I lived a very different life in my shoebox in the East Village when I lived in New York than the families in Gossip Girl lived. Frankly, every location looks incredible in its own way and I want to see them all and the well-dressed people who live in them.

Frasier

Frasier Crane doesn't live in the most extravagant condo in TV history, but it still seems like a really cool place. Seattle is a beautiful city and the view they had would make a quick tour very worthwhile. Plus, who doesn't want to have a good sit in Martin's chair?

Diff'rent Strokes

The 1980s was filled with over-the-top residences, and the Drummonds apartment in Diff'rent Strokes is close to the top of the list. We really only got to see a little bit of the two-story New York apartment, as almost every scene was in the living room, kitchen, or Willis and Arnold's bedroom. I want to see more! There must be a cozy study in there somewhere with a fireplace filled with many old books and rich mahogany!

Downton Abbey

Downton Abbey is one of the few fictional houses on this list that one can actually spend some time in. The house, which is known as Highclere Castle in real life, is open for tours to the public, and not only can you explore the grounds, but many of the rooms from the show as well. I've not done it yet, but I'd love to do the tour at some point.

Silver Spoons

As a kid of the '80s, the Stratton's mansion on Silver Spoons is close to the top of my list of houses I wished I lived in. There was a train running through the living room, multiple arcade games, and a racing car bed! It's everything I ever wanted and more. Plus, we never got to see much other than a couple of rooms, there has to be so much to explore!

Dynasty

The 1980s were a time when incredibly rich families stirred up melodrama among themselves on shows like Dynasty. Set in Denver, the show's family, the Carringtons, lived in an amazing home. The exteriors of the home were actually a palatial home in Pasadena called Arden Villa.

Modern Family

Jay and Gloria Prichett's house on Modern Family fits the name of the show well. It's...well... modern and it's the kind of house I like to stalk on Zillow. It's not the most over-the-top, or biggest (nor the smallest, for sure), but it seems like a really awesome, realistic house that would be perfect for a week-long AirBnB rental.

Mork & Mindy

This is one of those homes on TV that actually seems like a place I could actually afford and live in. It's a simple house in Boulder, CO, where the show is set and while the prices all over Colorado for real estate are kind of insane, it's still a very cool looking, sensible house. Mork (Robin Williams) is the only thing that isn't sensible about it.

The Munsters

There are few houses in TV history as iconic as the Munster's mansion from The Munsters. Though I'm not a big fan of horror movies, even I can appreciate all the Easter eggs and tributes to old monster movies that must be hidden all over the house. It's the kind of place that is a museum of the weird as much as it is a home.

The Brady Bunch

I love Mid-Century Modern architecture, especially houses. There is no better example of a cool Mid-Century Modern house in TV history than the house designed by Mike Brady on The Brady Bunch. It's also one of the rare shows where we basically see every room in the house in almost every episode. The one part we never see is where Alice lives, so that's something new to explore.

The Golden Girls

I'm a total sucker for those weird Florida gated communities like the one in The Golden Girls and for that reason, I'd love to check the house shared by the four retired roommates in the classic NBC sitcom. It's not the most extravagant, nor the most interesting, but it's still the kind of realistic house I love.

The Sopranos

This is a little bit of an outlier because really, the house in The Sopranos is everything I kinda hate in a house. It's pretty much a standard suburban McMansion, so that means my exploration would really be to make fun of it. I get that it's not a great idea to criticize Carmela's decorating or Tony's house in general, but it's a risk I'd be willing to take.

Mad Men

Don Draper's apartment in Mad Men looks amazing. It's not the biggest home on this list, but it's so perfectly set in its time, it would be amazing to spend a few hours in listening to some jazz and smoking cigarettes.

Dallas

Southfork Ranch is a real place. It's a popular spot in Dallas to hold weddings and other events. That means that exploring the house, which is home to the Ewing clan in Dallas is possible, but I'd want to go back in time and see it as it was when the Ewings lived there (on the show anyway). There would be so much to see across all of the property.

The Simpsons

There are few addresses as famous as 742 Evergreen Terrace. It's not the grandest house on this list, obviously, but still, it's just so iconic. I can just see myself having a Duff on the back patio while Homer relaxes in his hammock, or lying on the floor with Lisa and Bart watching the latest episode of Itchy & Scratchy. Maybe even helping Marge in the kitchen cooking pork chops for dinner.

Dexter

Okay, I'll admit, this one is the most depraved choice on this list. Checking out Dexter's apartment from Dexter is sure to be disturbing and morbid, so it's the kind of place where it's good to keep in mind this is all fictional! Demented and sad, but fictional!

Seinfeld

Jerry's apartment on Seinfeld is probably the smallest home on this list. It's really just the kitchen and living room open-plan space (that doesn't actually make sense) and Jerry's bedroom, but there is always some cool stuff in the background, like Superman memorabilia and cereal boxes. Those are worth exploring, right? Maybe not, but Kramer may have the hot tub open in his apartment.

Charmed

Like a few others on this lit, visiting nd exploring the house on Charmed is less about the house - though it does look stunning - and more about learning about what is really going with these three witches. It has to be fascinating to see how they live when they aren't fighting demons and the like.

The Nanny

I'll admit I'm pretty fascinated by huge New York City apartments. It's just so different from how most people live in the city. The opulence and ease of living in multi-story dwellings in the city must be amazing, and the home on The Nanny certainly fits the bill like others on this list.

Desperate Housewives

This entry isn't about one house, it's about all the house and the neighborhood that makes up Wisteria Lane on Desperate Housewives. There isn't anything particularly special about any one house, but wow what a subdivision to live in! My suburban street was nothing like this... or maybe it was and I was just ignorant of it. Probably not.

The Crown

There are a lot of palaces and castles in Netflix's The Crown and all of them are real places, though none of the show was actually filmed in them, of course. Of all the castles and palaces that Queen Elizabeth is seen in on the show, the coolest and most interesting has to be Balmoral, her castle in Scotland where she ultimately died in real life. That's the castle and grounds I want to explore.

Billions

Even by TV show standards, Bobby Axelrod (Damien Lewis) on Showtime's Billions has a ridiculous beach house in the Hamptons. I mean, it looks like a country club clubhouse or a hotel, it's insane. It feels like you could spend a month there and never hang out in the same room twice.

Ozark

I've been to the Lake of the Ozarks a bunch of times in my life and while it's a super fun place, you don't really think of it as having interesting houses. On the show Ozark, the Byrdes definitely live in one that you wouldn't ever expect to see there, and it's based on a real place there. It's exactly the kind of house I love. It's also one of the few places that is actually based on a real thing at Lake of the Ozarks, as the show was primarily shot in Georgia.

Beverly Hills, 90210

As someone who grew up watching Beverly Hills, 90210 every week, this is definitely a very personal choice. I just always thought the house was really nice looking and I'd love to spend some time hanging out with the Walshes.

Arrested Development

Yes, it's only a model house, and yes, it's basically cheap construction of plywood and chewing gum, but still, the house in Arrested Development would be a wild place to hang out for a while. You could look for George in the attic, or count the number of blue handprints on the wall... there's just so much. I wouldn't mess around with the cornballer though.

Falcon Crest

One of the wildest wealthy fictional families on TV in the '80s was the Channing/Gioberti clan on Falcon Crest. It's a show that no one talks about anymore, but the house, set in a fictionalized version of Napa Valley is amazing and really, we should be talking about it as the star of the show, though Jane Wyman is pretty fantastic on the show too.

For every heartfelt, sweeping, inspirational storybook romance story, you can find plenty of violent and traumatizing nightmare couplings, too. In both fiction and reality alike, too many innocent victims wanting nothing more than to receive a person's love and support end up suffering a life of abuse and neglect from the person they, unfortunately, chose to spend it with. The following are some of the most essential examples of movie and TV characters you should never get into a relationship with.

Caledon Hockley (Titanic)

Some might call Rose (Kate Winslet) a bad girlfriend, let alone the worst character from the movie Titanic for some of her own childish behaviors and, especially, her affair with Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio). However, nothing she does in James Cameron's Best Picture Oscar winner justifies the way her arrogant, elitist, industrialist fiancé, Cal Hockley (Billy Zane), treats her, ranging from his possessive dominance to his nearly murderous reaction to Rose's relationship with Jack.

Sarah Marshall (Forgetting Sarah Marshall)

In the uproarious, 2008 romantic-comedy movie favorite, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Peter Bretter (writer Jason Segel) fails to realize how little support his eponymous girlfriend (played by Kristen Bell) shows him until after she dumps him for rock star Aldous Snow (Russell Brand), whom we discover she was cheating with. The cop TV show actor may even be a worse ex-girlfriend from how she enviously sabotages Peter's newfound happiness with Rachel (Mila Kunis) by making a move on him when they accidentally book a vacation on the same Hawaiian island.

Ross Gellar (Friends)

For every reason a Friends fan may have had to root for Ross Gellar (David Schwimmer) and Rachel Green's (Jennifer Aniston) on-and-off romance, there are even more reasons why Ross is just the worst. He reveals himself to be extremely possessive when Rachel meets a handsome coworker at Bloomingdale's, refuses to take responsibility for cheating on her ("We were on a break" is still no excuse), and even continues to obsess over her while in relationships with other women.

Rose Armitage (Get Out)

In 2017, Get Out introduced one of modern cinema's scariest female horror movie villains in the form of Rose Armitage (Allison Williams), whose relationship with Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) was a ruse to coerce him into falling prey to her family's racist procedure that would cause him to lose control of his body to a white host. He was only one of several Black people she pulled this horrific con on, as we discover in Jordan Peele's terrifying, Oscar-winning directorial debut.

Billy Loomis (Scream)

While easily one of the most iconic examples of the classic slasher movie trope of the killer boyfriend, Skeet Ulrich's Billy Loomis is an undeserving partner even before the big reveal in 1996's Scream. He constantly pressures Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) into having relations, flirts with other women behind her back, and even belittles her for not fully recovering from her mother's murder only a year afterward.

Melissa (The Hangover)

Rachael Harris' character in 2009's The Hangover belittles and manipulates Stu (Ed Harris) to the point that he becomes helplessly defensive of her controlling nature and, even worse, her adultery. Luckily, after meeting and marrying an exotic dancer named Jade (Heather Graham) in a stupor during Doug's disastrous Las Vegas bachelor party, he gains the courage to stand up to Melissa and call her out as a "bad person all the way through to [her] core."

Michael Kelso (That '70s Show)

To be fair, Jackie Burkhart (Mila Kunis) is certainly not without her shortcomings, showing extreme evidence of vanity and narcissism especially in the earlier seasons of That '70s Show. However, she ultimately deserved better than her on-and-off boyfriend, Michael Kelso (Ashton Kutcher, who went on to marry Kunis in real life), who shares those same toxic traits in addition to being a helplessly absent-minded serial womanizer.

Judith Fessbeggler (Saving Silverman)

Dr. Judith Fessbeggler (Amanda Peet) is a psychiatrist in great need of psychotherapy, as evidenced by the way she treats Darren (Jason Biggs), the title character of the 2001 comedy, Saving Silverman. She ruthlessly controls everything in his life, from his wardrobe to the music he listens to, even forcing him to receive cosmetic surgery on his behind, which prompts his lifelong friends, Wayne (Steve Zahn) and J.D. (Jack Black), to stop their impending nuptials.

Martin Burney (Sleeping With The Enemy)

In director Joseph Ruben's 1991 adaptation of Nancy Price's novel, Sleeping with the Enemy, a constant pattern of abuse from her husband, Martin (Patrick Bergin), leads Laura Burney (Academy Award winner Julia Roberts) to fake her death and escape the marriage. Unfortunately, after donning a new identity and settling down in Iowa, where she strikes up a romance with a local named Ben (Kevin Anderson), she discovers that Martin has managed to track her down, not willing to let her go.

Amy Dunne (Gone Girl)

Early on in Gone Girl, director David Fincher's 2014 adaptation of Gillian Flynn's bestselling mystery, it seems obvious to suspect the adulterous and emotionally distant Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) of foul play when his wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike), suddenly goes missing. The truth is, however, that the woman left on her own accord and strategically planted evidence to incriminate her husband, which is in no way a healthy method for dealing with marital woes.

Jack Torrance (The Shining)

In Stanley Kubrick's 1980 adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining, Jack (Jack Nicholson) and Wendy Torrance (Shelley Duvall) do not seem to have a particularly perfect marriage before they become caretakers at the Overlook Hotel. Things grow infinitely worse when the malevolent spirits of the Colorado resort drive Jack to become a vicious, deranged monster.

Rory Gilmore (Gilmore Girls)

Some Gilmore Girls fans believe that the show was ruined by the "will they, won't they" dynamic between Rory Gilmore (Alexis Bledel) and Jess Mariano (Milo Ventimiglia), and not just because it killed her relationship with Dean (Jared Padalecki). The ill-fated romance was merely the first of many selfish mistakes that Rory would make against her significant others that would ultimately cause some fans of the dramedy to completely turn on the character.

Christian (Midsommar)

Ari Aster told Birth.Movies.Death that he wanted to make his sophomore feature, 2019's Midsommar, a break-up movie based on a previous relationship of his, which makes a lot of sense when you consider the volatility of the relationship at the center of the folk horror story. You almost cannot help but feel happy for Dani (Florence Pugh) as she watches the selfish, emotionally stunted, and gaslighting Christian (Jack Reynor) burn to death before her very eyes at the end of the shocking A24 horror movie classic.

Ginger McKenna (Casino)

Sharon Stone's character from the 1995 Martin Scorsese movie, Casino, has just about all the most essential criteria for an unfavorable wife, from her hustling schemes, her greedy motivations, and her adulterous habits. Of course, in addition to being a bad spouse, Ginger is an even worse mother, having tied her daughter to a bed so she could have a night out clubbing on her own.

David McCall (Fear)

While there are quite a few romance movies that try to discredit the fatherly character's disapproval of his daughter's suitor, 1996's Fear is the movie that would teach audiences dad might know what he is talking about. Steven Walker (William Peterson) is the first to suspect that something is off about his daughter, Nicole's (Reese Witherspoon), new boyfriend, David (Mark Wahlberg) and, boy, do his instincts prove correct when he leaves a bloody trail that culminates in a terrifying attack on Nicole's family all for the sake of having her to himself.

Jan Levinson (The Office)

One of the best episodes of NBC's The Office, "Dinner Party," offers an inside look at the torrid relationship between Michael Scott (Steve Carell) and Jan Levinson (Melora Hardin), who invite their Dunder Mifflin coworkers into their condo for a memorable night. The couple's heated dispute over Michael's multiple vasectomies, Jan's obsession with her assistant (an aspiring musician), and more discords ultimately get the cops involved.

Nate Cooper (The Devil Wears Prada)

A good partner supports their significant other's professional career – a concept lost on Nate Cooper (Adrian Grenier) from 2006's The Devil Wears Prada. Grenier would even agree, in a 2021 oral history by Entertainment Weekly, that his character was a "fragile, wounded boy" who was not as grown-up as Andy (Anne Hathaway) and, thus, selfishly criticized her career decisions. Not to mention, reacting to her getting hired at a fashion magazine by asking if it was a phone interview is unforgivably rude.

Asami Yamazaki (Audition)

The premise of Takashi Miike's acclaimed Japanese horror movie, 1999's Audition – in which a widower holds a fake movie casting session to find a new wife – seems to paint Ryo Ishibashi's character as the villain. However, one might agree that his actions, which did come from a place of sincerity, are not worthy of the sadistic, demented punishment that his new lover, Asami (Eihi Shiina), performs on him.

Josh (Companion)

Including Jack Quaid's character from the 2025 sci-fi movie, Companion, might be a bit of a stretch, considering Iris (Sophie Thatcher) is not really Josh's girlfriend but a highly advanced machine he purchased – er, rented. Discovering this helps her realize that the man she thought she loved is a pathetic, selfish, controlling, and violent loser, making this friendly robot the hero of the story.

Lisa (The Room)

In 2003's The Room, Lisa (Juliette Danielle) decides, completely out of the blue, that she no longer loves her "future husband," Johnny (writer, producer, and director Tommy Wiseau), and engages in an affair with his best friend, Mark (Greg Sestero), which ultimately drives Johnny to take his own life. Regardless of the cult favorite's reputation for its thoroughly nonsensical storyline, if there is one earnest analysis we can make about this awesomely cheesy movie, it is that Lisa was wrong to tear Johnny apart like that.

Nate Jacobs (Euphoria)

One of the strongest aspects of HBO's acclaimed coming-of-age drama, Euphoria, is the grounded ways it depicts certain archetypes that are commonly found in the modern high school environment. For instance, Nate Jacobs (Jacob Elordi) – the former boyfriend of Maddy Perez (Alexa Demie) and Cassie Howard (Sydney Sweeney) – is, practically, the teenage poster child for toxic masculinity and internalized homophobia.

Lila West (Dexter)

Sometimes it is crazy to think that one of the worst major villains on Dexter was, at one time, a love interest of Michael C. Hall's titular homicidal vigilante. When his relationship with Rita hits a rough patch in Season 2, Dexter indulges in a relationship with his rehab sponsor, Lila West (Jaime Murray), who proves to be a worse sociopath than he is.

Alex Le Domas (Ready Or Not)

In 2019's Ready or Not, instant classic horror movie final girl Grace (Samara Weaving) discovers she is the target of her in-laws' deadly game of Hide-and-Seek, which her husband, Alex Le Domas (Mark O'Brien), initially tries to help her escape. However, when she rejects him as a result of the trauma his murderous, Satanic family caused (and which he failed to properly warn her about before tying the knot), he betrays her and submits to the ritual to sacrifice her which, thankfully, gloriously backfires on them.

Stacey (American History X)

Derek Vinyard's (Edward Fulong) relationship with his girlfriend, Stacey (Fairuza Balk), in 1998's American History X, seemed to be at its best before his three-year stint in prison when they both were on the same page about white supremacy. After he returns and tries to convince her to leave the neo-Nazi movement with him, she thinks he is nuts to abandon that kind of life, which is an automatic dealbreaker. Good on him.

Jeffrey Fecalman (Family Guy)

In a rare dramatic moment from Family Guy, the animated series addressed the topic of domestic abuse by introducing Quagmire's (creator Seth MacFarlane) sister, Brenda (Kaitlin Olson), and her vile, deadbeat boyfriend, Jeff (Ralph Garman). After suffering to see her submit to Jeff's verbally and physically cruel treatment, Quagmire conspires with Peter (MacFarlane) and Joe (Patrick Warburton) to actually murder him.

Mrs. Griffith (Easy A)

Not only does high school guidance counselor Mrs. Griffith (Friends cast member Lisa Kudrow) cheat on her dear husband and coworker (played by Thomas Haden Church) but she does so with a student. This makes her one of the least likable characters in 2010's Easy A by a landslide.

Jason "J.D." Dean (Heathers)

In 1988's darkly comic high school movie favorite, Heathers, Veronica Sawyer (Winona Ryder) falls for J.D. (Christian Slater). Of course, their relationship is ruined when she discovers he is a homicidal sociopath.

Meredith Blake (The Parent Trap)

In the 1998 remake of The Parent Trap, Elaine Hendrix plays the elitist, materialistic, and, ultimately, evil potential stepmother to Lindsay Lohan's dual roles as estranged twin sisters, Annie and Hallie, who torture her with a series of increasingly brutal pranks. This drives Meredith to force Nick (Dennis Quaid) to choose between her or the siblings and, much to his credit, he promptly ends the relationship by choosing his daughters.

Chuck Bass (Gossip Girl)

There is a case to be made that Ed Westwick's Chuck Bass was one of the more charming characters in the Gossip Girl cast. Of course, this was a façade to downplay his unbelievably toxic and misogynistic behavior, especially at the expense of his girlfriend-turned-wife, Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester).

Jenny “G-Girl” Johnson (My Super Ex-Girlfriend)

In almost any other case, finding out that your significant other is a superhero would be pretty cool. However, in the case of Matt Saunders (Luke Wilson) from director Ivan Reitman's My Super Ex-Girlfriend, it's a nightmare because Jenny Johnson (Uma Thurman), who fights crime as G-Girl, is a needy, jealous, manipulative woman who uses her powers as revenge on Matt after he dumps her.

Adrian Griffin (The Invisible Man)

Writer and director Leigh Whannell brilliantly reimagined H.G. Wells' seminal story, The Invisible Man, into something of a sci-fi version of Sleeping with the Enemy with his 2020 hit. It follows Cecilia Kass (Elisabeth Moss) who, after escaping her marriage to abusive optics engineer Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), becomes convinced that he has found a way to continue stalking her and controlling her every move without being seen.

Lori (Total Recall)

Imagine finding out everything you thought you knew about your life was a lie, including your marriage. That is what happens to Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) in the 1992 sci-fi thriller, Total Recall, who eventually shoots and kills the secret agent he thought was his wife, Lori (Sharon Stone), before quipping, "Consider that a divorce."

What’s up, Upper East Siders? I’m here with an update on everybody’s favorite “it” couple, Queen B and her main man, Hot Rabbi. OK, OK, I’ll drop the Gossip Girl schtick, but the Kristen Bell of it all just made it too hard to pass up. Seriously, though, I do want to talk about Adam Brody and his wife Leighton Meester, because the two were spotted sneaking quite the intimate moment at the Critics Choice Awards after he won for his role on one of the best shows to binge on Netflix. XOXO indeed!

Adam Brody — who starred in Nobody Wants This with Kristen Bell — won the Critics Choice Award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series when the ceremony aired on the 2025 TV schedule February 7. EW caught him sharing a sweet kiss and long hug with Leighton Meester (who starred as Blair Waldorf on Gossip Girl, where Bell voiced the titular gossip-monger) at the ceremony, which you can see below:

The O.C. alum has been enjoying quite the Brodyssance since returning to TV — a move Millennials are definitely in support of, even if Nobody Wants This did give us some Gilmore Girls-related FOMO. In the romantic comedy series (available to stream with a Netflix subscription), Adam Brody plays Rabbi Noah Roklov, who engages in a relationship with the agnostic sex-and-relationship podcaster Joanne. Hilarity ensues.

I mean that literally; the series is absolutely laugh-out-loud funny, and it’s easy to see that Leighton Meester was happy that her husband was being recognized for the role. He beat out some stiff competition, too, in Brian Jordan Alvarez (English Teacher), David Alan Grier (St. Denis Medical), Steve Martin and Martin Short (Only Murders in the Building), and Kayvan Novak (What We Do in the Shadows).

The series was such a hit amongst viewers that Nobody Wants This Season 2 was ordered, and while it’s been a few months since we’ve gotten an update on when we’ll see Adam Brody and Kristen Bell’s characters again, the plan had been for Noah and Joanne’s story to continue possibly in September on the 2025 Netflix schedule.

Adam Brody and Leighton Meester met in 2010 on the set of the movie Oranges and ultimately got married in 2014. The stars of two of the best teen dramas share two children together. However, even though Brody has been enjoying professional success lately, it’s been a pretty tough time for their family.

Like so many celebrities who have been impacted by the Los Angeles wildfires, it was a month ago that Adam Brody’s home in the Pacific Palisades burned to the ground. He and Leighton Meester purchased the $6.5 million mansion in 2019, and the fact that they lost their family's home really gives some context to the emotions behind that long hug and passionate kiss that they shared at the awards ceremony.

Congratulations are definitely in order for the Hot Rabbi, and we love seeing him celebrate his win with our Queen B. Until next time, you know you love me. XOXO

There are so many types of films and TV shows out there where one of the main focuses is romance, whether it's the best rom-com movie out there or it's a dramatic, neverending tale of love. But today, we'll be focusing on films and TV shows that focus on young love – teenagers and the like, obviously. Let's get into it.

To All The Boys I've Loved Before Trilogy (2018 – 2021)

This To All The Boys I've Loved Before trilogy defined a generation of young women like me who dream of having someone like Peter Kavinsky sweep them off their feet. We all agreed that Noah Centineo was the internet's boyfriend for years after this—indeed, a culture shift.

Teen Wolf (2011 – 2017)

While Teen Wolf certainly ranks high on our list of supernatural teen dramas because that is the basis of this show, a lot of people focus on love. And I mean a lot. The romances that happen are mainly what drives this series about a high schooler turning into a werewolf. You can't really get much better than that.

Grease (1978)

Okay, while literally, not a single person in the Grease cast was of high school age, the movie itself is about young romance. While I sometimes think Grease can be overrated, the movie musical does a good job of showing how young romance can affect a teenager – in an enjoyable musical form.

One Tree Hill (2003 – 2012)

When literally anyone thinks of teen romance, they think of One Tree Hill. Running for a total of nine seasons, the series tells the story of two half-brothers who compete for the same position on their school's basketball team, but of course, their love lives get entwined and tangled as well. This is drama to the max.

Easy A (2010)

When I think of Emma Stone's best movies, Easy A is always up there. While she's excellent in her dramatic roles, there is just something about seeing her in this comedic romance movie, which takes the cake every time. It takes young romance and makes it a joke, and honestly, it makes the relationship that her character forms with someone else even better.

Gilmore Girls (2000 – 2007)

Yes, I know I'll have some people say that Gilmore Girls isn't really based on young romance because it's more about the relationship between mother and daughter, but you tell me that you haven't spent time wondering who Rory was going to end up with in this series. Before there was Team Edward and Team Jacob, there was Team Dean and Team Jess (and Jess was the better option, BTW).

X.O. Kitty (2023 – Present)

A spinoff of To All The Boys I've Loved Before, this series, X.O. Kitty, is all about Lara Jean's younger sister, Kitty, and her adventures across the world in South Korea and honestly, I love it. While romance is a main aspect of the series, it's also a fun little coming-of-age comedy that anyone can get behind.

Dawson's Creek (1998 – 2003)

Running for six seasons, Dawson's Creek is another essential teen romance TV series that has been talked about for years. The series is like most teen romances out there, where it follows a close group of friends in high school and their lives together, as well as the relationships that follow, but man, it was huge and shot the stars to fame.

She's All That (1999)

Nah, we are not talking about He's All That. We are bringing up the original She's All That. The movie, starring Freddie Prinze Jr. and Rachael Leigh Cook, is all about a high schooler who says he can make any girl popular and takes a bet to turn a random woman into a prom queen in six weeks. Romance ensues, and it's just a fun teen rom-com from there on.

Twilight (2008)

They are about romance when you think about it. The Twilight films are primarily all about the romance between Bella and Edward. And Bella is a teenager – and Edward is trapped in a young person's body, so technically, it is a teen romance…even if he is hundreds of years old, but THAT'S BESIDES THE POINT, OKAY? It's a teen romance.

Glee (2009 – 2015)

When I was coming up with ideas for this article, Glee was one of the first I knew I had to include here. Sure, we all love the Glee covers, but man, we ate up these romances when the show was out. Blaine and Kurt, Santana and Brittany, Rachel and Finn – it was endless, y'all. This may be about a Glee club, but we are all here for the love.

Gossip Girl (2007 – 2012)

The Gossip Girl cast undoubtedly reached a point while filming this show when they were no longer teenagers, but we all loved this series for its romances—no matter how absolutely messy they got. And they got messsssssy.

My So-Called Life (1994 – 1995)

While My So-Called Life only ran for one season, it certainly cemented itself into pop history. It was very realistic in its portrayal of teenagers and took a natural examination of romance in young love. Sure, it wasn't as dramatic as the others, but it's still a great show – and now a cult classic.

She's The Man (2006)

For a time, it felt like Amanda Bynes was the queen of teen romance comedies, and She's The Man was undoubtedly her best. Telling the story of a female soccer player who goes undercover as a man to join the men's soccer team in order to play, the movie is hysterical and creates a comedic young romance that is just too good.

Never Have I Ever (2020 – 2023)

Running for four seasons, Never Have I Ever is a great teen romance show. It's reportedly loosely based on Mindy Kaling's (the co-creator) life and her life in Boston. It follows the story of a teenager in high school and how she deals with her personal and school life in the aftermath of her father's passing. The romance is just as great as everything else.

Ginny & Georgia (2021 – Present)

While you could make the same argument for Ginny & Georgia as you could with Gilmore Girls – where it's essentially about a mother and a daughter – the Netflix series takes a hard stance on romance and really makes it a primary part of the story. Sometimes, you'll love these relationships. Other times, you'll want to pull your hair out. But hey, it's a fun time.

The O.C. (2003 – 2007)

Taking place over four seasons, The O.C. is another excellent teen drama that puts romance at its front most of the time. The series follows the life of a teenager who is adopted into a wealthy home, how he deals with his new life, and the relationships around him. It's one of the best teen series out there, so you should check it out if you haven't.

Crush (2022)

Starring Rowan Blanchard, this Hulu original film is a fun one. Crush is all about a high schooler who joins the track team in order to get close to her crush – but, in a plot twist, she ends up falling for her crush's twin sister instead and causes a whole mess of problems.

The Vampire Diaries (2009 – 2017)

Don't even get me started on this show. The Vampire Diaries may be about mythical creatures, but the romance is the plot. The show is all about a normal girl falling for a vampire that she thinks is a human, but then his brother ends up falling for her too, and she does as well as it's this whole love triangle – god, it was everywhere at the time. It's a young romance show despite the vampires being hundreds of years old.

10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

Starring Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger, 10 Things I Hate About You is one of the best adaptations of a William Shakespeare piece because it is so fun. The movie is about a student who wants to date someone, so he enlists the help of the local bad boy to date the sister of the person he wishes to date—I mean, it's a recipe for success.

Dash & Lily (2020)

It's a shame because Dash & Lily came out during a time when it wasn't properly appreciated. The Netflix series stars Austin Abrams and Midori Francis and tells the story of two teenagers who fall in love while trading messages and dares in a notebook across various locations in NYC. I mean, that's adorable. Please watch it if you haven't.

Warm Bodies (2013)

I had to get one fun pick on here. Warm Bodies is one of Nicholas Hoult's best movies, and it's so funny. It's literally about a zombie teenager and a human teenager falling in love. Like, come on. That's freaking adorable.

The Secret Life Of The American Teenager (2008 – 2013)

With five seasons, The Secret Life of the American Teenager was a massive hit for ABC Family when it was released. The central premise of the first season is about a teenager who gets pregnant after her time at band camp and a one-night stand, but of course, the series takes plenty of twists and turns that will have you on the edge of your seat the entire time, especially with the romance.

The Summer I Turned Pretty (2022 – Present)

Now, this is a tremendous young romance pick. The Summer I Turned Pretty is based on the novels of the same name and tells the story of a teenager and the love triangle that she develops between two brothers. Yes, it is about as dramatic as you can expect it to be, and I eat it up each time.

Euphoria (2019 – Present)

Is Euphoria a lot more mature than any other picks on this list? You betcha, but that's what you get when you do a young romance show on HBO. The series mainly follows Rue and her time with drugs, but the romance aspect is a massive part of the show, mainly between other characters, but also between Rue and Jules.

Love, Victor (2020 – 2022)

A spinoff of the movie Love, Simon, this series is honestly a great one, and I wish it had more seasons. Love, Victor is all about the titular character, Victor, who comes to terms with his sexuality and learns to love himself and others over the course of its three seasons. It's a great LGBTQ+ TV show that I personally love.

The Kissing Booth (2018)

Okay, so The Kissing Booth in itself is a meme because there are so many moments that make you scratch your head and wonder how these relationships even work. But that doesn't change the fact that the first movie is entertaining as heck and certainly makes for a fun young romance.

A Cinderella Story (2004)

There are so many adaptations of Cinderella out there, but personally, A Cinderella Story is one of my favorites. It's about two teenagers who are online penpals who plan to meet up for the first time at a school's Halloween event. It's so sweet and adorable—ugh, I love it.

Sex Education (2019 – 2023)

I mean, this show is all about romance, love, and sex, thrown into a pretty bow. The series mainly follows a teenager and his experiences at school when everyone finds out that his mother is a sex therapist, but there are some excellent portrayals of young love on this show that really take the cake – ones I genuinely adore.

Love, Simon (2018)

This teen romance movie is one of the best out there. The film, starring Nick Robinson, follows the story of a closeted high schooler who is being blackmailed by someone at school while also trying to find out who the person is that he has fallen in love with online and dealing with his personal life as well. The movie does a great job of showing young love, and I love it.

Heartstopper (2022 – Present)

Based on the graphic novels of the same name, Heartstopper has three seasons and mainly follows the love story between Charlie and his feelings for Nick, a schoolboy with whom he shares a class. But as the series progresses, you get more and more relationships that make it so much more fun.

Literally, Any Romeo & Juliet Adaptation

Do I have to explain why? Whether you're talking about the one from the 1960s, Leonardo DiCaprio's Romeo + Juliet, or any of the others, it's all about teen romance and what it does to us.

These are just some of the great picks I can think of, but there are so many others. I think these will be perfect for a little date night or a long weekend binge.

Is there a single TV show that, for the entirety of its run, managed to keep its story going without any retcons? For one reason or another, it is common to see a popular series amend or completely disregard a pre-established story or character detail, often leading fans to wonder if they are losing their minds. Don't worry: you're not crazy but merely a victim of some confusing or even just annoying TV retcons like the following.

Cory And Topanga's Origins (Boy Meets World)

The romance between Cory Matthews (Ben Savage) and Topanga Lawrence (Danielle Fishel) could have been the perfect sitcom love story if the classic TGIF comedy could keep the details of their relationship straight. When Fishel first joined the Boy Meets World cast, she was initially introduced as the weird student in Cory's elementary school class but, when she is later reinvented as his love interest, the show tries to play them off as sweethearts since childhood.

Dan Is Alive (Roseanne)

Not only is Season 9 of Roseanne, in which the Conners' lives change when they win the lottery, revealed to be a fantasy in the series finale but we also learn that Dan (John Goodman) was dead the entire time, having suffered a heart attack. This controversial plot twist was ignored in 2018 when the sitcom was revived for a tenth season before it was rebranded as The Conners.

The Fate Of Frasier's Father (Cheers/Frasier)

On one episode of Cheers, Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) tells his friends at the bar that his late father was a research scientist. However, in Frasier's self-titled and equally beloved TV show spin-off, we see Martin Crane (John Mahoney) is alive and well and a retired cop. In an episode where Ted Danson appears as Sam Malone, the show tries to explain that Frasier's dad was "dead to him" at the time after a bitter argument.

Sara Was Not Dead After All (Prison Break)

In the third season of Prison Break, Michael (Wentworth Miller) learns that Sara (Sarah Wayne Callies) was kidnapped and beheaded, only to see her come back in Season 4, which reveals it was never actually her head. In reality, the reason for the character's demise was due to a dispute involving Callies' contract but, when she was able to work out a deal to return to the series, her earlier death was rewritten as a head fake.

Jimmy Olsen Was Not Who We Thought He Was (Smallville)

In its sixth season, the acclaimed DC TV show Smallville introduced the iconic character of photographer Jimmy Olsen (Aaron Ashmore), only to kill him off three years later. It is at his funeral that we learn that his real name is Henry James Olsen and that the real Jimmy Olsen was his never-before-seen little brother the whole time.

Kramer Was Originally Named Kessler (Seinfeld)

In the pilot episode of Seinfeld, Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) calls his next-door neighbor by the name Kessler but, from the next episode on, Michael Richards' character is referred to as Kramer, after Larry David's real-life friend on whom the role is based. The series tries to explain this in Season 9's "The Betrayal" with a flashback to the characters' first meeting when Kramer tells Jerry that the name on his buzzer is incorrect.

Bobby's Death Was All A Dream (Dallas)

When Patrick Duffy decided to quit the CBS primetime soap opera, Dallas, his character, Bobby Ewing, was written off the show in Season 8 when he was run over by his sister-in-law, Katherine Wentworth (Morgan Brittany), and was buried after succumbing to his injuries in the Season 9 premiere. However, after the writers urged the actor to come back to the cast, the Season 10 opener revealed everything that happened in the previous season was imagined by his wife, Pamela Barnes Ewing (Victoria Principal), in her sleep.

Gossip Girl's True Identity Does Not Make Sense (Gossip Girl)

As revealed in the series finale of Gossip Girl, Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley) was the mysterious blogger the entire time but, if that's true, why does he act surprised by several posts about him, his friends, and his relatives in earlier episodes? Furthermore, Gossip Girl publicizes the fact that Dan and his girlfriend, Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively), share a half-sibling, which he adamantly wants kept secret. So, why on Earth would he make that public, even anonymously?

What Ever Happened To Judy Winslow (Family Matters)

YouTuber Vee Infuso debunked an urban legend believing that the youngest Winslow child, Judy, once walked up the stairs in a Season 4 episode never to be seen again. While Jaimee Foxworth's actual final appearance in the Family Matter cast came later that season in "Mama's Wedding," her subsequent absence (due to the writers having nothing interesting to come up with for her) was never explained nor acknowledged for the remainder of the series.

The First Time Chandler Said "I Love You" To Monica (Friends)

In one of the most ridiculous Friends episodes, "The One Where Everyone Finds Out," Chandler (Matthew Perry) is coerced by Phoebe's (Lisa Kudrow) feigned seduction into admitting that he is in love with Monica (Courteney Cox) to everyone's surprise, including her own. However, the otherwise touching moment seems to forget about an earlier Friends Thanksgiving episode, "The One With All The Thanksgivings," in which Chandler lets his feelings for Monica slip when she surprises him with a turkey on her head.

A Time Lord's Maximum Number Of Regenerations Changes (Doctor Who)

Early on in the long-running, classic sci-fi TV show's history, it is established that the title character of Doctor Who, like all Time Lords, can only regenerate a total of 13 times. However, that rule has since been negated as the 13th Doctor actor, Jodie Whitaker, was later replaced by Ncuti Gatwa.

The History Of Superheroes Dates Back Longer Than We Thought (Arrowverse)

After adopting his vigilante alter ego at the beginning of the hit series, Arrow, Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) is said to have become the first superhero. Yet, later down the road as the Arrowverse franchise would continue to evolve with its multiple spin-offs, it was discovered that superhero teams have existed as early as World War II.

Kimmy Gibbler's Sibling Count (Full House/Fuller House)

When Kimmy Gibbler is first mentioned in the 1987 pilot for Full House, D.J. Tanner (Candace Cameron Bure) says she has three sisters but the character (played by Andrea Barber) says in Season 3 that her parents stopped having kids after her. This could imply she is merely the youngest in her family but she was also known to mention having an unseen older brother named Garth. Furthermore, in Netflix's revival, Fuller House, we are introduced to her younger brother, Jimmy (Adam Hagenbuch).

Dean Loses His Urban Philosophy (Gilmore Girls)

When Jared Padalecki first joined the Gilmore Girls cast as Dean, the character was introduced as a Chicago native who had moved to Stars Hollow fairly recently and loves obscure books and movies. However, when New York transplant and obscure book and movie lover Jess (Milo Ventimiglia) is brought into the mix, Dean is suddenly reinvented as a more rural individual who has lost his cultural interests and thinks of Stars Hollow as his true home after living "most of his life" there.

The Disappearance Of Donna's Sister (That '70s Show)

We are willing to bet that, even if you considered yourself a huge That '70s Show fan, you had absolutely no recollection that Donna (Laura Prepon) had a sister. Tina Pinciotti (Amanda Fuller) makes one appearance in Season 1 and is subsequently mentioned only once more in a throwaway joke from Season 2's "Vanstock" but, from that point on, Donna is referred to as an only child.

Daenerys Goes Bad (Game Of Thrones)

Here is an example of something that is not so much a retcon but a deeply confusing and quite maddening TV character evolution that suddenly comes out of nowhere. One of the most heavily criticized aspects of the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones sees the normally level-headed and fair Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) become a coldhearted tyrant who commits unimaginably brutal crimes without a second's hesitation.

Are Jason And Cheryl Really Twins? (Riverdale)

There are a number of notable inconsistencies regarding the characters in the Riverdale cast, but one of the more glaring involves Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch) and her brother, Jason (Trevor Stines). While initially established as fraternal twins, later episodes of the Archie Comics-inspired dramedy imply that they are in two different grade levels at school.

Who Made Spike A Vampire? (Buffy The Vampire Slayer)

A lot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans like to count the sudden appearance of Buffy's never-before-seen younger sister Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg) as a retcon. However, the sentient form of power's inclusion is explained by fake memories implanted into the characters' minds after she is sent to Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) to protect, so we are not counting that. Instead, we will mention how Spike (James Marsters) refers to Angel (David Boreanaz) as the vampire who turned him until it is later revealed that Drusilla is his true sire.

Why Sheldon Knocks Multiple Times (The Big Bang Theory)

One of the most iconic running gags on The Big Bang Theory is Sheldon Cooper's (Jim Parsons) compulsion to knock on people's doors three times, which was only first introduced in Season 2. However, in Season 10, he explains that he formed the habit after accidentally walking in on his father having an affair and wants to give people enough time to "get their pants on" with his courteous and incessant signal.

When Claire Gets Her Powers (Heroes)

In the first season of Heroes, it is established that Claire Bennet (Hayden Panettiere) developed her rapid healing ability later in life when she hit puberty. However, in a later episode when she meets her birth mother, it is revealed that she was indestructible even when she was an infant.

The Rules Of Being A Vessel Are Inconsistent (Supernatural)

At one point in the 15-season run of Supernatural, it is established that being a vessel for a spiritual entity will result in the host's death once the entity no longer requires their physical form. However, Sam (Jared Padalecki), Dean (Jensen Ackles), and even the Lucifer-possessed President Jefferson Rooney (David Chisum) end up just fine after their time as a vessel ends.

Tina Admits She Was Faking Her Stutter (Glee)

When Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz) is first introduced in the first season of Glee, she speaks with a stutter that suddenly disappears after she joins the glee club. She eventually reveals she faked it hoping that it would make Artie Abrams (Kevin McHale) like her more.

Randy Suddenly Gains An Uncle (Monk)

Even a detective show as clever as Monk has been known to make a few logical errors from time to time. For instance, Lt. Randy Disher (Jason Gray-Stanford) says at one point that he has two aunts but no uncles but, in the Season 5 episode "Mr. Monk Visits a Farm," he inherits land from a recently deceased family member... his uncle, Harvey (Jack Kehler).

President Barlett's Death Tax Repeal Veto Is A Surprise (The West Wing)

In Season 2 of creator Aaron Sorkin's The West Wing, it is mentioned by political commentator Mark Gottfried (Ted McGinley) that President Josiah Bartlett (Martin Sheen) vetoed a Republican-backed education package. However, in the following season when he vetoes a repeal of the "death tax," it causes an uproar as people claim he had never used the veto before.

Barney Suddenly Knows How To Drive (How I Met Your Mother)

In Season 2 of How I Met Your Mother, we discover that Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) not only does not know how to drive a car but is absolutely terrified to get behind the wheel. Yet, two seasons later, in one of the best HIMYM episodes, "As Fast as She Can," he makes multiple attempts to get a speeding ticket to prove he can talk his way out of one and is also seen driving plenty of times afterward. Perhaps he could have worked up the courage to finally learn how to drive by then but there is absolutely no mention of it, making his sudden acquirement of this skill a bit sudden.

Fans Still Missed Moriarty (Sherlock)

At the end of Sherlock's third season, a message from the detective's archnemesis, Moriarty (Andrew Scott) suggested the criminal mastermind would play a pivotal role in the following season. Unfortunately, fans would discover that he had no involvement in Season 4, which is less of a retcon and more of an infuriating cop-out.

Walker Blood Is Not A Source Of Infection (The Walking Dead)

Early seasons of The Walking Dead established that getting blood from one of the undead in your eyes or mouth or in a wound would prove fatal, yet later seasons ignore this rule almost completely. This retcon goes further than just the TV series as it is an acknowledged and important detail in the Robert Kirkman-penned comic book series that inspired the AMC hit.

Al Dreamt Peg's Pregnancy (Married…. With Children)

By the end of Married… with Children's first season, half of which saw Peg (Katey Sagal) pregnant, it is revealed to have been all Al's (Ed O'Neill) dream but there is actually a dark truth to this retcon. As the actor explains in her memoir, Grace Notes, Sagal's real-life pregnancy at this time was written into the show but when she suffered a miscarriage, it was decided that the show would not bring another child into the cast.

SpongeBob Knew Sandy As A Child (SpongeBob SquarePants/Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years)

In the second-ever episode of SpongeBob Squarepants, "Tea at the Treedome," we see the title character (voiced by Tom Kenny) meet Sandy Cheeks (Carolyn Lawrence) for the very first time. However, the prequel spin-off, Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years, suggests that the sea sponge and the squirrel knew each other when they stayed at the eponymous camp as children.

Peggy's Mom Keeps Changing (King Of The Hill)

The first time King of the Hill introduces Peggy's mother, she is depicted as a suburban homemaker but is later reinvented almost completely as the wife of a bitter old rancher. That is not even counting the fact that, in an episode when Bobby's secret admirer turns out to be his grandmother playing a trick, the elderly woman in question is neither Hank's nor Peggy's mother.

Andy's Father's Name Changes (The Office)

In NBC's The Office, after proposing to Angela (Angela Kinsey), Andy (Ed Helms) refers to his mother and father as Andrew and Ellen Bernard, implying that he is Andy Bernard Jr. However, when we meet his parents in "The Garden Party," the father is identified as Walter Bernard Sr. (Stephen Collins) and Andy explains that he used to be named Walter Jr. before his younger brother (played by Josh Groban) was deemed more worthy of the moniker.

The Rules For Transferring Powers (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers)

In Season 2 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, when Jason (Austin St. John), Trini (Thuy Trang), and Zack (Walter Emanuel Jones) are forced to leave, the team needs to acquire a special sword to transfer their powers to Rocky (Steve Cardenas), Aisha (Karan Ashley), and Adam (Johnny Yong Bosch). However, in the following season, when Kimberly (Amy Jo Johnson) needed to give her powers to Kat (Catherine Sutherland), she just handed over her power coin.

Some of the best TV characters are the ones that drive us crazy. Whether it's because they are villains, or simply just because they are obnoxious, we can't wait to see what they do next. Here is our list of all the characters we just love to hate.

Brenda Walsh - Beverly Hills, 90210

Brandon and Brenda Walsh may have been twins on Beverly Hills, 90210, but really, they couldn't have been any more different. Brandon was seemingly loved by everyone, including the audience, while Brenda was the ultimate teenage villain. It probably didn't help that the late Shannen Doherty was also controversial behind the scenes of the show, eventually leaving after Season 4.

Sheldon Cooper - The Big Bang Theory

Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) on The Big Bang Theory was an incredibly funny character. He was also an incredibly annoying and obnoxious character that fans of the show just loved to hate. He was laughed at and with through the show and was so popular (and despised), that the character got his own spinoff, Young Sheldon.

Cersei Lannister - Game Of Thrones

Without a doubt, Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) in Game of Thrones is one of the greatest TV villains of all time. She was universally hated by fans, which is the biggest compliment you can give Headey as the one portraying her. She was so hated that even her death by getting crushed by thousands of pounds of rocks wasn't satisfying enough to fans of the show.

J.R. Ewing - Dallas

"Who shot J.R.?" is arguably the best TV cliffhanger of all time. It wasn't just that fans wanted to know who shot him, but if he survived the shooting. Plenty of people would have been satisfied had the villain on Dallas not made it. Of course, he did make it, and he was only more hated for it - in the best way.

Rebecca - Cheers

Kirstie Alley, who played Rebecca on Cheers walked into a pretty difficult assignment when she joined the show in Season 6. She was essentially replacing another character fans loved to hate, Diane, played by Shelly Long. Still, both the actress and the character slipped right into the sometimes villain, sometimes friend role and fans loved to hate her for it.

Dennis Reynolds - It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia

The gang in It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia are all pretty terrible people. It's why we watch them, to see just how awful they can be. There is little redeeming about any of them, but the worst has to be Dennis Reynolds (Glenn Howerton). There's no way anyone would ever be friends with a person like that, and that's why we love him... and hate him.

Dr. Robert Romano - ER

Dr. Robert "Rocket" Romano was one of the great TV villains of the 1990s in ER. He was brash, obnoxious, demanding, and mean. Audiences really hated him on a level that few TV villains are. It was a visceral hatred. That made his ridiculous death all the more satisfying, even though it was pretty over-the-top and somewhat silly.

Gemma Morrow - Sons Of Anarchy

Katey Sagal's portrayal of Gemma Morrow in Sons Of Anarchy was one of the highlights of the whole show. She was wonderful throughout the whole thing. And her character was simply a terrible, self-centered, shockingly sociopathic person. She was great.

Sue Sylvester - Glee

Even shows like Glee can have the most epic villains that audiences can't get enough of. Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) fits the bill better than most on this list, too. She's brilliantly funny and shockingly mean all at the same time.

Dwight Schrute - The Office

Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) is the kind of work frenemy we all are grateful we don't have to deal with. He is obnoxious and overbearing and just simply annoying. Worse, he can be destructive. Of course, that only makes us love him more as a character. We may root for Jim, but secretly, we want to see what Dwight says next.

The Governor - The Walking Dead

Over its 11 seasons, there were a lot of great villains on The Walking Dead and while Negan may be the most notorious, he was pretty much just hated in every way (at least until the end). The Governor (David Morrissey) in Seasons 3 and 4 was the first villain we all truly loved to hate.

Livia Soprano - The Sopranos

Livia Soprano, played by the late Nancy Marchand on The Sopranos, was the worst mother imaginable. The way she dealt with her kids, and the rest of the world, was simply despicable. Had it not been for Marchand's untimely death after Season 3, who knows just how much more she would have been hated by fans of the show. One thing is for sure though, we all loved the late Marchand for her work as Livia.

Gus Fring - Breaking Bad

There aren't a lot of heroes in Breaking Bad. At best Walter White is an anti-hero. Gus Fring, however, is a truly great villain. Giancarlo Esposito's portrayal of Walter's rival is unparalleled in TV history. Fans simply could not get enough of the villain and he'll long be remembered as one of the best parts of one of the most rewatchable shows of all time.

The Entire Roy Family - Succession

When it comes to the HBO hit Succession, it's impossible to pick the worst member of the Roy family. They are all so terrible, and seemingly in competition with each other as to who can worse, that we just have to nominate them all for this list. They are all just awful.

Homelander - The Boys

Of all the shows on streaming, there may not be a bigger concentration of terrible people than the characters on The Boys. There are only one or two redeemable characters on the whole show, and the worst are all completely awful. At the top of the list of characters we love to hate though, is Homelander. How could it not be?

Francis Underwood - House Of Cards

Even setting aside the camera controversies of Kevin Spacey, Frank Underwood on House Of Cards was a shockingly terrible person. His quest for power was unrivaled in television history and his willingness to do anything, including commit murders, made him so easy to hate. Yet we couldn't stop watching, could we?

Joffrey Baratheon - Game Of Thrones

Joffrey Baratheon on Game Of Thrones was such a hated character that a rumor once started that it actually affected actor Jack Gleeson's career negatively (it didn't). That not only says something about the character and how much we loved to hate him, but it also says something great about Gleeson who played the evil tyrant so well, that some people can't separate the actor from the character.

Louie De Palma - Taxi

Danny DeVito may be most famous today for playing another terrible person, Frank on It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, but he got his big break in television playing the awful Louie De Palma on the classic '70s sitcom Taxi. Louie was the worst kind of tyrant boss.

Steve Urkel - Family Matters

Steve Urkel, played by Jaleel White, is hated for a very different reason than many on this list. He's just the most annoying TV character ever created. Fans who loved Family Matters also loved how obnoxious he was. People who weren't fans of the show just found him unbearable. A tribute to White's portrayal of the annoying neighbor.

Mr. Burns - The Simpsons

If there is one character on The Simpsons who does his best to be purely evil, it's C. Montgomery Burns. This is a guy who even tried to block out the sun from shining on Springfield. Of course, on any list of the best Simpsons characters, he'd be near the top, too.

Sawyer - Lost

Make no mistake that by the end of Lost, Sawyer (Josh Holloway) would become a hero. It takes him a long time to get there and in the early seasons, he's a pretty terrible person. That doesn't stop us from laughing at the creative nicknames he comes with or some of the snarky lines he has.

Eric Cartman - South Park

Eric Cartman is the worst kid in South Park. He's also the funniest character on the show (except for maybe Randy). Just about everything Cartman does is awful. He's one of the most self-serving and selfish people on TV, ever, yet, we can't stop coming back for more. We can't wait to see what obnoxious thing he will do next.

Ross Geller - Friends

Even the most die-hard Friends fan will admit that Ross Geller is a pretty awful person. Actor David Schwimmer was so good as Ross that it's hard to separate him from the character and that's too bad because Schwimmer seems like a great guy, while Ross is usually very much the opposite. It makes the "great" love story between him and Rachael (Jennifer Aniston) all the more confusing for fans.

Screetch - Saved By The Bell

The late Dustin Diamond played one of the most annoying nerds ever on Saved By The Bell. Screetch did basically nothing right and why anyone ever stayed friends with him is a complete mystery. Still, he was one of the reasons - if not the main reason - we laughed so hard at the show.

Sylar - Heroes

NBC's Heroes started off so strong before it sadly faded almost as quickly as it came out of the gate. However, throughout the show's short run, the one consistently great character was the one we all hated the most, the villain Sylar (Zachary Quinto).

Frank Burns - MASH

Everyone loved Hawkeye, Trapper John, and BJ Honeycutt on MASH. Everyone equally hated Major Frank Burns (Larry Linville) who did everything he could to ruin everyone else's fun. It made it a critical character in the early seasons of the show, and his replacement after Linville left the show, Charles Winchester (David Ogden Stiers) was equally loved and hated.

Glenn Quagmire - The Family Guy

Quagmire on The Family Guy is just a horrible, horrible person. He's obnoxious and gross. Why the rest of the gang stays friends with just a terrible person is a mystery, though it might be because his awfulness makes him completely hilarious. That must be the reason, actually. It's a character we simply love for being so gross.

Gob Bluth - Arrested Development

Gob Bluth, played by Will Arnett, is the funniest character on Arrested Development. The screwup son and magician is also just awful in every way. He's selfish, rude, and honestly, not very smart. He's also occasionally racist. But again - he's the funniest character on the show and it's not because fans are laughing with him, they are laughing at him. Will Arnett deserves all the praise for that too, because it's not easy to be both.

Scrappy Doo - Scooby Doo, Where Are You?

Scrappy Doo is just the worst. We don't love to hate him because he's a great character, like so many others on this list. No, we love to hate because everything about the character, from his introduction to everything he does just sucks. We love to be angry at him, for real.

Janice Soprano - The Sopranos

There are a lot of characters with awful motivations in The Sopranos and among the worst of those is Tony's sister Janice Soprano. Aida Turturro plays the unlikable character so well that there is really very little redeeming about her. There are moments when we feel sorry for her, sure. She goes through some terrible stuff, but none of it makes her actually likable. In fact, anytime we start to like her, she does something to remind us how much we hate her.

Ben Linus - Lost

Ben Linus, played by the great Michael Emerson, on Lost, is a bit of an enigma. There are times when we almost start to like him, or at least feel empathy towards him, but inevitably he ruins that pretty quickly and fans are reminded that he's not a likable person, like, at all.

Georgina Sparks - Gossip Girl

Georgina Sparks (Michelle Trachtenberg) is the classic high-society mean girl in Gossip Girl. She is so unlikable for her manipulative ways and awful attitude that fans can't wait for her to do something that they can be mad about. The perfect kind of villain.

For every unnecessary reboot of a beloved movie, there seem to be just as many unnecessary reboots of a beloved TV series. While some would prove to be a welcome improvement on what came before, there are even more (including some successful ones) that we still feel we could have done without, given our continued enjoyment of what came before. We had almost too many examples to choose from while compiling this of TV shows that did not need to be rebooted.

Knight Rider (1982-1986)

Despite its cheesy moments, Knight Rider was one of the best '80s sci-fi TV shows, boasting one of David Hasselhoff's best performances in the role of Michael Knight – a government agent whose partner in fighting crime is an indestructible car powered by a sentient artificial intelligence called KITT (voice by William Daniels). In 2008, NBC aired a soft reboot, set in the same world but following a new protagonist (Justin Bruening as Mick Traceur) and a new KITT (voiced by Val Kilmer), which lacked the charisma, the fun, and much semblance of a brain, leading to its premature cancellation.

Charmed (1998-2006)

One of the best Shannen Doherty TV shows was Charmed, which starred her, Holly Marie Combs, and Alyssa Milano as three sisters who discover they are descended from witches. After The WB became The CW, despite no real demand, the network developed a reimagining starring Melonie Diaz, Madeleine Mantock, and Sarah Jeffery that managed to last four seasons, despite criticism for its one-dimensional characters and uninspired plotlines.

The Twilight Zone (1959-1964)

Creator and narrator Rod Serling's landmark horror anthology TV show, The Twilight Zone has been resurrected numerous times. However, neither the late '80s revival, nor the early 2000s version with Forest Whitaker, or even producer and narrator Jordan Peele's iteration achieved the same acclaim as as the chilling and thought-provoking classic.

Full House (1987-1995)

What made Full House successful despite its unimpressive critical reputation was a healthy dose of wholesomeness amidst its generic family comedy antics. Netflix's revival, Fuller House – which recycled the plot but made DJ (Candace Cameron Bure), Stephanie (Jodie Sweetin), and Kimmy (Andrea Barber) the leads – had a decent five-season run, despite being criticized for the same things, in addition to relying mostly on nostalgia.

The Bionic Woman (1976-1978)

Even with Battlestar Galactica producer David Eick involved, NBC's 2007 reboot of The Bionic Woman did not manage to be better, faster, or stronger, especially in the ratings. One would hope its cancellation after eight episodes teaches executives to avoid rebooting the series that star Lindsey Wagner's original sci-fi series was spun-off from The Six Million Dollar Man.

Jersey Shore (2009-2012)

For a while, it seemed like the entire world was talking about the cast of Jersey Shore, even if most of the discussions surrounding their boisterous behavior and debaucherous shenanigans were mocking and disdainful. Years after it seemed like the world had finally forgotten about this uproarious reality show, MTV debuted Jersey Shore Family Vacation in 2018.

That '70s Show (1998-2006)

A That '70s Show spin-off was first attempted in 2002 with That '80s Show, which had little to no connection to the original, potentially costing it a longer life and better reception. At least Netflix's That '90s Show – which sees Red (Kurtwood Smith) and Kitty's (Debra Jo Rupp) home overrun with a new batch of teens, including their granddaughter – can say it earned a decent following but not enough to last more than two seasons.

Gossip Girl (2007-2012)

If there was any reason to bring back Gossip Girl, it might have been to correct the widely disappointing series finale reveal that Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley) was the eponymous blogger the entire time. Instead, Max's short-lived retread of the hit CW drama, running between 2021 and 2023, introduced a whole new cast and attempted to freshen up the material with the overcooked theme of teens' relationship with social media.

Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990-2000)

The CW's 90210 was developed as a continuation of producer Aaron Spelling's primetime soap opera and even featured a few returning Beverly Hills, 90210 cast members to keep its promise. However, despite the fan service, the 2008-2013 series essentially recycled the plot of the original with a new ensemble of good-looking youths.

Roseanne (1988-1997)

While the series finale of Roseanne may have left some viewers disappointed, we wonder if that was really any reason to try again with a modern revival. Not to mention, the sitcom's 2018 reboot took a rough turn in its premiere run when its star, Roseanne Barr, was fired for a controversial tweet, leading ABC to kill off her character and rebrand the show as The Conners.

Charlie's Angels (1976-1981)

Originally starring Farrah Fawcett, Kate Jackson, and Jaclyn Smith, Charlie's Angels would find success in the early 2000s on the big screen with two feature-length adaptations starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu. However, ABC's series reboot from 2011 with Annie Ilonzeh, Minka Kelly, and Rachael Taylor received universal disdain and lasted only eight episodes.

That's So Raven (2003-2007)

Years after launching her career on The Cosby Show, Raven-Symoné became the star of her own sitcom, That's So Raven, as a teen who can occasionally see the future. However, no one could predicted that, in 2017, Disney Channel would come out with Raven's Home – following the adult Raven Baxter as a single parent – which was a surprising success despite its unnecessary existence.

MacGyver (1985-1992)

CBS would produce a long list of reboots of its most popular crime dramas from yesteryear, including MacGyver, which would last a decent five seasons from 2016 to 2021. However, most would agree that the modern version with Lucas Till as a younger Mac does not quite hold a candle to the fun of the original, starring Richard Dean Anderson as an unimaginably resourceful secret agent.

Saved By The Bell (1989-1992)

Peacock's 2020 revival of NBC's hit coming-of-age sitcom, Saved By the Bell, while certainly unnecessary, was pretty well received during the short time it lasted. While The College Years could have been better, though, what really overstayed its welcome was The New Class, which replaced the entire cast, save Dennis Haskins as Mr. Belding and Dustin Diamond as Screech.

V (1984-1985)

The V franchise – an alien invasion story told over the course of two miniseries and one traditional series that lasted a season on NBC – would be reinterpreted for modern audiences on ABC in 2009. Of course, by then, the extraterrestrial visitors' true, malevolent intentions were no secret, leaving little room for suspense in the reboot.

Beauty And The Beast (1987-1990)

The classic French fairy tale by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, Beauty and the Beast, was reimagined as a romantic contemporary drama in the late 1980s starring Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton, the former of which won a Golden Globe for his performance. The CW's 2012 iteration with Kristin Kreuk and Jay Ryan would last a good while but did not capture the same magic as developer Ron Koslow's vision and, not to mention, did not bother to make the male lead particularly "beastly."

Roswell (1999-2002)

Based on Melinda Metz's book series, The WB's Roswell follows three young human/alien hybrids with special gifts living in the eponymous New Mexico town where an alleged UFO crash took place. A reimagining of the story, Roswell, New Mexico, ran for four seasons on The CW and was admired for its commentary on immigration, only to be overshadowed by criticism for being a retread of what came before.

Dallas (1978-1991)

In its prime, there were few series nearly as popular as Dallas, which is famous for having one of the most iconic cliffhangers in TV history by leaving viewers obsessed with the mystery of who shot J.R. Ewing for a summer. We cannot quite say the same about TNT's revival, which was canceled after 40 episodes in 2014.

Magnum P.I. (1980-1988)

The Jay Hernandez-led reboot of Magnum P.I. lasted an impressive five seasons (originally on CBS before moving to NBC). However, even critics and audiences who enjoyed it agree it was mostly a watered-down carbon copy of Donald P. Bellisario and Glen A. Larson's '80s classic starring Tom Selleck as the titular Hawaii-based private investigator.

Melrose Place (1992-1999)

The 2009 reboot of Melrose Place, which followed the dramatic lives of the eponymous L.A. apartment complex's residents, only lasted 18 episodes. We imagine this might be because it premiered in such close proximity to another CW drama based on a hit '90s show about young people with problems: the 90210 reboot.

Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? (1991-1996)

Starting off as an educational computer game in the mid-1980s, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? was later adapted into a hit game show and an animated series featuring Rita Moreno as the titular thief. With all due respect to the developers of Netflix's animated reboot, Carmen Sandiego, and Gina Rodriguez, who is great in the title role, we cannot help but feel that the property was already past its prime by this point.

24 (2001-2010)

The unique, real-time narrative structure of 24 and Kiefer Sutherland's engaging performance as Jack Bauer kept the drama going for eight seasons before bringing the reckless counter-terrorism agent back for the 2014 miniseries, 24: Live Another Day. Just two years later, Fox tried to continue the series as 24: Legacy, led by Corey Hawkins in a new role, which only lasted "12 hours."

DuckTales (1987-1990)

Perhaps we can understand wanting to introduce Huey, Dewey, and Louie to a new generation of viewers with a reboot of DuckTales, which aired on Disney XD from 2017 to 2021. However, we still prefer their triplets' original adventures with Uncle Scrooge, especially for its superior animation style.

Fantasy Island (1977-1984)

If we had a fantasy we would like to see come true, it would be that all reboots of Fantasy Island – set on a paradisiacal getaway where dreams magically come true – did not exist. Neither the 1998 series reimagining with Malcolm McDowell, nor Fox's sequel series with Roselyn Sánchez as Elena Roarke, or, especially, Blumhouse's darker feature adaptation managed to enchant critics and fans of the ABC original with Ricardo Montalbán as Mr. Roarke and Hervé Villechaize's Tattoo.

Boy Meets World (1993-2000)

We would actually be willing to call Girl Meets World, which ran from 2014 to 2017, the best show that Disney Channel produced in years. Yet, when you really think about it, the sequel to Boy Meets World is mostly a reiteration of a lot of the same lessons we already learned in the original TGIF sitcom.

Heroes (2006-2010)

Despite a strong start and a relatively loyal following for much of its run, NBC's Heroes would quickly begin to lose steam as critics noted a steady decline in quality over time. The 2015 reboot Heroes: Reborn did not do much to help resurrect the franchise as it was not very well received and did not last more than one season.

The Odd Couple (1970-1975)

Inspired by the film based on Neil Simon's hilarious play, The Odd Couple, Garry Marshall and Jerry Belson's sitcom adaptation with Jack Klugman and Tony Randall worked quite well. However, after enough mismatched roommate/friend stories, CBS' reboot with Matthew Perry and Thomas Lennon, despite lasting three seasons, felt a bit stale.

Dynasty (1981-1989)

Perhaps the most successful of The CW's string of primetime soap opera reboots was a reimagining of Esther and Richard Alan Shapiro's Dyanasty. Lasting five seasons and featuring a strong performance by Elizabeth Gillies as Fallon Carrington, the old "wealthy families fighting to retain power" schtick was not enough to win critics over.

The Magic School Bus (1994-1997)

In 2017, Netflix released The Magic School Bus Rides Again – a new take on the popular, educational animated show based on a series of books following an elementary school class on some epic field trips. SNL's Kate McKinnon is certainly an inspired choice to voice the new Ms. Frizzle but even she might agree she is no Lily Tomlin.

iCarly (2007-2012)

Considering how much the world of internet blogging had evolved since iCarly's original Nickelodeon run ended, we can understand why there was interest in bringing it back. Yet, we would argue that Paramount+'s reboot, which lasted from 2021 to 2023, suffered from hinging on Carly (Miranda Cosgrove) and Freddy's (Nathan Kress) romance following years of "will they, won't they" and the absence of Jennette McCurdy as Sam and Noah Munck's Gibby.

The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air (1990-1996)

When a short film reimagining NBC's hit sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as a serious drama dropped in 2019, we can't deny we were intrigued. However, we never expected star Will Smith to actually help get a series adaptation off the ground, becoming Peacock's Bel-Air, which barely offers anything particularly new to the coming-of-age genre.

Frasier (1993-2004)

NBC's Frasier, starring Kelsey Grammer as his role from the Cheers cast, is a prime example of how to do a sitcom spin-off right. While Paramount+'s reboot would earn surprising critical acclaim, even its biggest fans might agree that we did not really need more than the 11 years we got of the eponymous psychiatrist's time in Seattle, especially without David Hyde Pierce and Jane Leeves.

There are some crazy popular TV shows out there. There are also some big characters from those TV shows that have gone on to become fan favorites. But there are also plenty of other characters as well that have fallen into a long hole of forgotten characters that we still can barely remember. So today, we'll get into some of the most obvious.

Heath (The Walking Dead)

It would be a crime if I didn't include Heath on this list. In all eleven seasons of The Walking Dead, I have never seen a character more forgotten than Heath. He seemed important, but then, after one bad zombie run, we literally never see him again and don't even know if he's alive or dead. There was some solution later, one where we found out Jadis traded him over to the Commonwealth, but that came years later.

Mark Brendanawicz (Parks And Recreation)

The Parks and Recreation cast is filled to the brim with talented stars and great characters, but one who was part of the main cast in Season 1 was Mark Brendanawicz. He was actually a love interest for Leslie and Ann, but he instantly left in Season 2 because he had an epiphany. And we never saw him again.

Sunshine Corazon (Glee)

There have been many characters on Glee who have come and gone from the limelight, but one I have to point out is Sunshine Corazon. She is a transfer student who dared threaten Rachel's spotlight in Season 2 of the show, so much so that Rachel tricked Corazon into going to a crack house. We saw Corazon one more time in the show before, but we never heard from her again despite her killer vocals.

John Bennett (Orange Is The New Black)

It felt like during the first few seasons of Orange Is The New Black, we would find a way for John Bennett to stick around. Eventually, he ends up leaving Daya and their baby alone when he has cold feet. And then we literally never hear about him again. I mean, the Orange Is The New Black cast was still stellar without him, but he just up and left.

Lincoln (The 100)

I really do love The 100 and think it's one of the best shows to binge if you want a series that you have no idea where it's going to go next. But sometimes, I forget the times when the series was grounded, and Octavia fell for a man named Lincoln, who taught her everything about being a Grounder – only for him to be executed a few seasons later and spurring her into the fighter she becomes. But I feel that we all forgot about him, right?

Nicole (Zoey 101)

It's really a sad story about what happened to the actress behind Nicole in Zoey 101, and I stand by her in what she has done standing up to the wrong situations behind the scenes at Nickelodeon. But that doesn't change the fact that her character, Nicole, was also completely forgotten in the show. Out of all the characters in the series, she didn't have much of a story and ended up getting written out entirely as the show went on.

Cathay Simms (The Office)

While Jim and Pam are certainly the most significant relationships in The Office, there have been plenty of other women in Jim's life. One of those was Cathay Simms, a young woman who tried to sleep with him on a business trip, but the trip itself fell apart. However, even when they get back to Scranton, she is literally never seen again.

Simon (The Walking Dead)

I might get some flack for this, but I swear, on my rewatch of The Walking Dead, I forgot Simon even existed until I saw him again. I think the main reason is that Negan became such a tremendous character that most of his followers felt like complete background people, even when some of them – like Simon – played essential roles in the plot. He was killed anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.

Jacqueline "Jackie" Ames (The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air)

While Tyra Banks has gone on to appear in plenty of movies and TV shows, she made her acting debut in Season 4 of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, where she played Jackie, a friend of Will's from childhood. Their romantic chemistry is off the charts. Still, after a bad night of partying and her fed up with Will's behavior, she leaves. From then on, Jackie is not a part of the show anymore.

Scott Rosson (Gossip Girl)

Yeah, what happened with this? It felt like the fact that Dan and Serena had a half-brother was such a massive part of Gossip Girl for a bit, and then he just vanished without a trace. They even had a family reunion, but it's pretty much never brought up again. Like, how do you forget about a half-brother?

Abby Day (New Girl)

Believe it or not, Jessica Day has a sister—Abby Day, who the lovely Linda Cardellini played. We saw her once, and then we legitimately never saw her again during the series, which is pretty surprising because New Girl has some good consistency with a lot of its characters.

Santiago Herrera (Friday Night Lights)

This is another case of someone just vanishing from a TV show. He was a major recurring character in Season 2 of Friday Night Lights and had a pretty good story, but then he just vanished the next season. Legit, no one knows what happened to his character.

Frank Jr. (Friends)

Remember when Phoebe from the Friends cast got pregnant for her half-brother, Frank Jr.? Yeah, I barely did, too, but that did happen. Frank Jr. seemed like he was going to be a bigger part of the overall story, but then, after she gave birth to the triplets in the one-hundredth episode, we really don't see him or his family that often again.

Olivia Burke (Gossip Girl)

There are a lot of random people I forgot guest-starred in Gossip Girl, and one of those was Hilary Duff, who played Olivia Burke. The character was only there for six episodes, which explains why we forgot about her so quickly, but when looking back, it really feels like she should have been part of a bigger Gossip Girl cast. She was a good addition.

Robin Sylvester (Glee)

Sue had a daughter.

Yeah, that's right, I'll tell you again – Sue Sylvestor had a daughter, whom she named after her deceased sister, and then we rarely ever see her again—a baby. Don't even try to pretend you remembered because I sure as heck didn't.

Detective Daniels (Brooklyn Nine-Nine)

Alright, while what happened to Detective Daniels isn't that surprising, it's still a good thing to point out. This character was introduced in the pilot of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, but we never see her again after. This isn't the first time a show has cut people out from the pilot, but still, a character that we totally forgot about.

Tara (The Walking Dead)

Out of any forgettable character on The Walking Dead, Tara is one that stuck around for several seasons, and I still needed to remember her. Maybe it was because her stories felt like they were pushed far in the background in comparison to what else we were all going through, but man, every time I've rewatched this show, I always forget that she becomes a decently big character.

Tori Scott (Saved By The Bell)

Tori was a new character introduced to Saved By The Bell in her later years. While she made friends with the group and even dated two boys, she was gone ten episodes later and is barely mentioned again.

Matt Rutherford (Glee)

The Glee cast is endless, and it feels like there are always new characters coming and going, but man, everyone forgets about Matt Rutherford. He was a background character in Glee in the first season, and there were so many other crazy characters there that it's honestly not that surprising he was just gone in Season 2. We will always remember to forget you, Matt.

Charles Miner (The Office)

I swear to God, every time I watch The Office, I always, always forget that Idris Elba guest-starred. He's a new VP for Dunder Mifflin, and he doesn't get along with Michael at all. While he was hilarious on the show, it wasn't enough for his character to last super long and be memorable.

Ben Geller (Friends)

I remember back in Friends Season 1, it was a big deal that Ross was going to have a baby with his ex-wife, but then we barely got to see him throughout the show. Thankfully, we did see him grow up a little when young Cole Sprouse played him, but before then, it was like Ben Geller never even happened.

Dani (Glee)

As a young bisexual woman, seeing Dani on Glee basically altered my state of mind. I wished she had stayed on the show forever because she and Santana seemed like a power couple with their voices. However, Dani (and Demi Lovato) ended up not staying on the show for long—and inevitably, Santana went back to Brittany anyway.

Isaac Lahey (Teen Wolf)

These teen supernatural dramas are filled to the brim with characters that just come and go all the time, and one to point out is Isaac Lahey, a student at the primary school of the franchise who was there and then just not the following season.

Ruby Lucas (Once Upon A Time)

Ruby is a character that seemed like she was going to have a big part in Once Upon a Time, but as any fan of this show knows, more and more storylines began to converge and push out other ones that could have been great, and Ruby's was sadly one of them. Eventually, she does get her happy ending, but no one ever really remembers her that much now.

Tina Pinacotti (That ‘70s Show)

Remember that Donna had a little sister? Yeah, I didn't either. We see Donna's supposed little sister, Tina, in an episode about a party, but then we never hear from her again after that episode. And then, we see Donna say several episodes later that she's an only child, so that got retconned.

Chuck Cunningham (Happy Days)

For those who have watched Happy Days, you might remember Chuck Cunningham, the brother of Richie and Joanie. However, he ended up becoming a background character and then vanishing altogether.

Morales (The Walking Dead)

We see Morales one other time in The Walking Dead besides Season 1 of the show, where we watch him leave the leading group with his family. And then, when he suddenly shows up as part of Negan's crew, he's killed by Daryl. Why bring him back to die? Ridiculous.

Mutt Schitt (Schitt's Creek)

Alexis from the Schitt's Creek cast has certainly had her fair share of love interests, and one of those was Mutt Schitt. That fling ended up fading away just as quickly as it began, and then soon, he was gone—which is honestly a shame because he was pretty funny.

Isla (Succession)

The Succession cast is so talented, and the characters have so much depth. One of those that continued to grow over the course of its four seasons is Roman Roy. But do you remember that in Season 1, he had both a wife and a daughter? Her name was Isla (the daughter), and yeah, we legit never heard about this little girl, like, ever.

Cooper Anderson (Glee)

Blaine had a brother who Matt Bomer played, and they actually had some sick duets on the show. But yet again, we legitimately never see him again. He was actually a great addition and really gave Blaine a kick in the butt to become better at singing (even though he already was), but we don't even see him in the finale or anything.

Otis (The Walking Dead)

There are plenty of The Walking Dead deaths that are pretty much forgotten about, and one of them, hands down, has to be Otis. One of the farmhands on Hershel's farm, Otis, is devoured by zombies thanks to Shane leaving him behind. We only saw him for a few episodes, and he was never mentioned again.

Ken Tanaka (Glee)

Ken Tanaka was the former coach of the football team at McKinley and was engaged to Emma. However, after suffering a nervous breakdown, he's gone from the show, and Coach Beiste takes his place. We never see him again after Season 1, despite him playing a big role in the first season.

Did any of these picks stir your memory? They certainly stirred mine—and now I have to rewatch all these shows to see them all again.

Blake Lively has done a lot in her acting career, starring in projects like A Simple Favor (which is getting a supposedly crazy sequel), as well as her appearances on the 2024 movie calendar in It Ends With Us and a surprise cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine. But for some of us, she’ll always be Serena van der Woodsen, “it girl” of Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Lively made an appearance at a charity event this weekend, and she was giving Gossip Girl in a gold minidress that Serena would approve of.

Gossip Girl was all scandal and opulence, featuring the most enviable of 2010s East Coast celebrity fashion pieces on characters rich enough to own them and beautiful enough to look like walking magazine covers. Serena van der Woodsen was responsible for more than her fair share of Gossip Girl outfits I still can’t get enough of, and it certainly seems like Blake Lively may have dipped into her character’s closet for her look at the LACMA Art+Film Gala.

Gold was, of course, a favorite of Serena’s on The CW teen drama, and to see how well Blake Lively wears it, there’s no mystery why. The actress chose a Tamara Ralph Fall 2023 Couture dress made of diamond-shaped chainmail, with each plate decorated with small crystals of different colors, including gold and pink.

The dress makes me miss Gossip Girl so much, and I yearn to know how Serena and her frenemies’ fashion choices would have evolved over the past decade-plus. My God, I’d die for a tour of Chuck Bass’ current closet.

At least Blake Lively seems to be giving a hint of what her character’s style would be, because even for a show as scandalous as Gossip Girl (which it was for CW’s audience back in 2007), I don’t think even Serena could have gotten away with that gold chainmail showing off so much skin. I have no doubt Blair Waldorf would have something to say about that.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants actress did, however, pair the minidress with quite an impressive cape to help provide some coverage. A silk taffeta wrap billowed all around her in a shade of pumpkin that felt very “fall in the city” to me. She wore her hair down, with the side part sending a cascade of curls over one shoulder, and her playful pink heels were a perfect mismatch of an exclamation point on the whole ensemble.

I didn’t expect to get such a Gossip Girl hit of nostalgia today, but seeing Blake Lively don such a Serena van der Woodsen-coded outfit did the trick. After months of behind-the-scenes drama involving her latest film It Ends With Us, this fun look seems to indicate she’s taking a note from her iconic character — and Lively’s BFF Taylor Swift — and shaking it off.

Now I may have to embark on a Gossip Girl rewatch, and thankfully, I can do that, with all six seasons available to stream with a Max subscription.

Watching Gilmore Girls on Netflix (one of the best streaming services to subscribe to) is a perfect way to spend the fall season, especially if you are not into horror TV shows on Netflix or elsewhere. Of course, if you have already watched creator Amy Sherman-Palladino's dramedy – which originally ran from 2000 to 2007 – enough times to recite the rapid-fire dialogue from memory, you could use your Netflix subscription to check out the four-part revival series, 2016's Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, if you have not already.

Then again, you might be seeking a trip beyond Stars Hollow, Connecticut, this time, but with a series that still bears the same themes of non-traditional families, quirky small-town culture and all-around comforting vibes. I might be able to help you find what you are looking for with the following recommendations for shows like Gilmore Girls and a tip on how to stream them.

Parenthood (2010-2015)

'The daily struggles of the extensive Braverman family.

Why it is a great TV show to check out if you are a fan of Gilmore Girls: Lead Gilmore Girls cast member Lauren Graham, who played Lorelai, later joined NBC's Parenthood cast to play another single mother named Sarah Braverman on yet another comforting dramedy dealing with the joys and pains of family.

• Stream Parenthood on Hulu
• Buy Parenthood on Amazon
• Buy Parenthood on Blu-ray on Amazon

Ginny & Georgia (2021-Present)

Fifteen-year-old Ginny (Antonia Gentry) has a complicated relationship, to say the least, with her 30-year-old mother, Georgia (Brianne Howey).

Why it is a great TV show to check out if you are a fan of Gilmore Girls: Creator Sarah Lampert's hit Netflix series, Ginny & Georgia (which has a Season 3 coming in 2025), immediately earned comparisons to Gilmore Girls as another dramedy about a young single mother and her teenage daughter, but would prove to be a far darker take on the topic.

• Stream Ginny & Georgia on Netflix

Felicity (1998-2002)

A high school graduate (played by Emmy nominee Keri Russell) changes her college destination in an effort to pursue her longtime crush (played by Scott Speedman).

Why it is a great TV show to check out if you are a fan of Gilmore Girls: From creators J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves, Felicity is another popular dramedy from the late '90, early 2000s WB era with some similar themes the same sort of cozy tone as Gilmore Girls.

• Stream Felicity on Hulu
• Buy Felicity on Amazon
• Buy Felicity on Blu-ray on Amazon

Hart Of Dixie (2011-2015)

New York-based doctor, Zoe Hart (former The OC cast member Rachel Bilson) suddenly becomes the inheritor of a modest medical practice in Bluebell, Alabama.

Why it is a great TV show to check out if you are a fan of Gilmore Girls: After The WB became The CW, the network aired Hart of Dixie – another dramedy with eccentric small-town locals and the same cozy tone, in part for the fact that the series used many of the same sets as Gilmore Girls.

• Stream Hart of Dixie on Freevee through Amazon

Virgin River (2019-Present)

Los Angeles-based nurse practitioner Melinda Monroe (Alexandra Breckenridge) moves to a remote town in Northern California, which proves to have a life-changing effect on her.

Why it is a great TV show to check out if you are a fan of Gilmore Girls: While creator Sue Tenney's Netflix hit is more in the vein of a soap opera than Gilmore Girls is, Virgin River (which has Season 6 premiering in 2025) is still a perfect destination if you're looking for another show with an eclectic character ensemble in a small town.

• Stream Virgin River on Netflix

Schitt's Creek (2015-2020)

After falling victim to fraud, a wealthy family (played by Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Dan Levy, and Annie Murphy) is forced to reside in their sole remaining asset: a small town with some quirky people.

Why it is a great TV show to check out if you are a fan of Gilmore Girls: While more overtly and uproariously comedic than Gilmore Girls is, Schitt's Creek (one of the funniest shows on Hulu) is still a perfect destination if you're looking for a series with dialogue-driven, feel-good comedy set in a rural area with eccentric locals.

• Stream Schitt's Creek on Hulu
• Stream Schitt's Creek on Freevee through Amazon
• Buy Schitt's Creek on DVD on Amazon

Freaks And Geeks (1999-2000)

The daily struggles of a group of nerdy freshmen and socially outcast upperclassmen in the early 1980s.

Why it is a great TV show to check out if you are a fan of Gilmore Girls: Gilmore Girls is part of an era of television that Freaks and Geeks (a great TV show cancelled after one season) is often credited with pioneering by offering a more honest depiction of teen life from a uniquely funny perspective.

• Stream Freaks and Geeks on Hulu
• Stream Freaks and Geeks on Paramount+
• Buy Freaks and Geeks on DVD on Amazon

Gossip Girl (2007-2012)

A nosy internet blogger keeps tabs on the private lives of a group of wealthy, troubled teens in New York City.

Why it is a great TV show to check out if you are a fan of Gilmore Girls: Creators Stephanie Savage and Josh Schwartz's scandalous CW hit follows the Gossip Girl cast as they navigate private high school, much like in Gilmore Girls when Rory (Alexis Bledel) goes to Chilton.

• Stream Gossip Girl on Max
• Stream Gossip Girl on Tubi
• Buy Gossip Girl on DVD on Amazon

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017-2023)

A recently divorced Jewish-American woman (played by Rachel Brosnahan) finds a new lease on life after an impromptu stand-up comedy performance inspires her to pursue a new career in the late 1950s.

Why it is a great TV show to check out if you are a fan of Gilmore Girls: For more of Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino's signature style of dialogue-driven comedy, you should definitely check out one of the best comedies on Amazon Prime, the multi-Emmy-winning The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

• Stream The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon Prime

If you're out on the road, feeling lonely and so cold, all you gotta do is stream these TV shows like Gilmore Girls and you should be set.

From the best sitcoms that are perfect for a comfort watch to intense dramas that you rewatch in an effort to dissect a juicy story even more, there’s something incredible about returning to a great show. It’s a pastime many enjoy, however, the choices of what to watch seem endless. With that in mind, here are some of the most rewatchable television shows. 

Parks And Recreation 

If you are like me, you’ve seen the best episodes of Parks and Recreation – like “Flu Season,” for example – so many times you can recite the majority of said episodes from memory. OK, maybe that’s an over-exaggeration, however, it highlights just how good and rewatchable this workplace mockumentary is. Led by Amy Poehler, the Parks and Rec cast was always firing on all cylinders, cracking viewers up with hilarious one-liners, fantastic inside jokes (like Treat Yo’ Self) and a heartfelt story about a dysfunctional parks department. 

The Office

From deeply funny office shenanigans to heartfelt relationships like Pam and Jim’s The Office captured folks’ hearts from 2005 to 2013, and it’s continued to in the years since. To this day, this workplace mockumentary is a favorite among many, and it’s a zeitgeist staple as viewers continue to watch it on repeat, quote it constantly and use iconic memes that have surfaced because of it. As it gets older, it just feels like The Office gets stronger, because not only is it finding new audiences all the time, but it’s also infinitely rewatchable. 

New Girl

While workplace comedies are great, there's nothing quite like simply hanging out with friends, and that’s what New Girl is. Filled with a cast of quirky characters, New Girl follows Jess (Zooey Deschanel) as she moves in with three random guys, and what ensues is a hilarious and lovably chaotic story about found family. It’s because of silly inside jokes and bits, like True American, deeply complex and romantic storylines like Nick and Jess’s and the adorable friendship that’s formed between these roommates that makes this Fox comedy something folks always return to. 

The Good Place

The Good Place is one of those projects that you’ll have a different experience with every time you view it. The first time, you’re simply trying to figure out what in the afterlife is going on, and once you have the epiphany with Kristen Bell’s Eleanor and yell “Holy mother-forking shirtballs” your entire perspective on the show changes. However, it’s not just the plot twists that make this philosophical comedy rewatchable; its cast, led by Bell and Ted Danson, is beyond lovable and hilarious, and The Good Place’s heart is so big, all you’ll want to do is spend more time in this afterlife. 

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Led by Saturday Night Live legend Andy Samberg, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a delightful comedy all about a group of detectives working together in New York City. While whodunnits and crimes of the week are involved, what makes this show rewatchable is Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s silly cast of characters who are played by incredible comedic actors like Samberg, Andre Braugher, Stephanie Beatriz, Terry Crews and so many more. 

Gilmore Girls

These days, Gilmore Girls is considered the perfect autumnal comfort show, and many go back to it over and over again because of its cozy vibes. On top of the lovely energy that radiates out of Stars Hallow, the Gilmore Girls cast is also staked with an incredible crew of regulars and a revolving door of iconic recurring characters. Plus, how could you not want to rewatch the love story of Luke and Lorelai, Rory’s messy romantic drama with Dean, Jess and Logan as well as the incredible tale of a mother and daughter that lies at the heart of this beloved show? 

Gossip Girl

You know, sometimes you just need a good drama that will make you want to scream at the TV, and Gossip Girl is just that. The 2000s CW drama was a teen staple back in the day as it followed a group of high schoolers whose lives were always on blast because of the titular gossip site. It was praised and criticized at the time for how scandalous it was, and to this day people come back to Gossip Girl for the relationships, fashion, characters and, of course, the gossip, because as the titular writer says, “you know you love me…”

Arrested Development

Dysfunctional comedy is always fun, however, it’s hard to think of a show that does it better than Arrested Development. Of course, the series is rewatchable for its hilarious storylines and quippy dialogue, however, it’s the incredible ensemble that really makes it, as actors like Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, Will Arnett, Tony Hale, Alia Shawkat and more brought the funny all the time.  

Futurama

While it’s been canceled, renewed and moved networks numerous times, Futurama remains one of the most rewatchable shows, and that’s why these attempted cancellations and moves haven’t sent it to its ultimate end yet. The animated series has been around since 1999, and for over two decades, it has been a fun animated comfort show that many have turned to when they need a good laugh and some fun sci-fi. 

Friends

Whether you tuned in live during the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, caught chunks of episodes on Nick at Night when it was in syndication or streamed all ten seasons on Netflix (back in the day) or Max (now), Friends has been a seminal show for many. Watching the shenanigans of Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Joey, Phoebe and Monica was not only hilarious but relatable. It’s simply a show about six friends living their lives, and I think it's that relatability mixed with an incredibly special cast that has kept people coming back to it for decades. 

Breaking Bad

The story of Walter White almost feels like a legend now. Widely considered one of the best television shows of all time, Breaking Bad tells the story of a down-on-his-luck man who turns into a drug lord. Led by Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, this series made an unforgettable mark on television history when it was released in 2008, and it’s something worth studying and watching over and over again. 

Bob’s Burgers

Can I apply a few personal anecdotes here? When I was in high school, I had a friend who would watch Bob’s Burgers every night before going to bed. As an adult, I have another friend who just completed another rewatch of the series. So many adore this wonderful animated series about a family who owns a burger joint, and it is so easy to rewatch and fall in love with. So, it rightfully deserves a place on this list. 

Dexter

The world loves an anti-hero, and it doesn’t get much better than Dexter. The series follows a blood splatter expert, played by Michael C. Hall, however, the thing is, he’s also a serial killer. Going on this journey with the titular character, and getting into his mind to figure out why he goes about life in the way he does is fascinating. It’s also one of many reasons why people keep coming back to Dexter. 

Fleabag

If you need a short, sweet and perfect two seasons of television, Fleabag is the show for you. The series was created by and stars Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and it follows her titular character as she goes about life in London while handling grief. On top of that, Season 2 introduces Andrew Scott’s Priest – a.k.a. The Hot Priest, as the internet likes to call him – and the incredible love story between him and Fleabag. 

Scrubs

Bill Lawrence has made a lot of terrific shows, however, Scrubs is his classic. The series, starring Zach Braff, is a fun workplace comedy about a hospital, and its irresistible ensemble and heartfelt friendships are what keep many coming back to it. 

Ted Lasso

Ted Lasso started out as an ad for NBC Sports, and then by some miracle it turned into one of the best comedies in recent memory. The titular coach of AFC Richmond is played by the mastermind behind the show, Jason Sudeikis. And he and his creative team brought together Ted Lasso’s epic cast that made names like Hannah Waddingham, Brett Goldstein and Phil Dunster those of the household variety.

Overall, this show about an American football coach in the UK coaching soccer (I know, I know...it’s actually football) is heartfelt and thoughtful, and it’ll have you smiling from ear to ear from beginning to end. You know what they say, “We’re Richmond ‘til we die!”

The X-Files

What makes a supernatural case of the week show even better? Having David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson lead it as the beloved crime-solving duo of Mulder and Scully. 

Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Vampires, action, romance and high school drama. Honestly, this show has everything. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a seminal early 2000s teen drama about Sarah Michelle Gellar’s titular vampire slayer, and it was impossible not to fall in love with her and her friends. 

The West Wing

If you are in need of a fast-talking, snappy and fun drama, The West Wing is your show. It follows Martin Sheen’s President Bartlet and his incredible staff who are played by fantastic actors like Bradley Whitford, Allison Janney, Richard Schiff and Rob Lowe. From the mind of Aaron Sorkin, this show all about what it’s like to be the president is a quippy yet thoughtful series about running a country and it’s irresistible and infinitely rewatchable. 

Yellowstone

Between the deep family story at the center of this show and the intense moments in Yellowstone, this modern Western was born to rewatch. It’s filled to the brim with compelling stories about the Dutton family that will have you hitting the next episode button immediately. While the show’s primary conflict has always been the same – they’re always battling to save their ranch – the new threats and long-lasting deep relationships are what make it so great.  

Seinfeld

Seinfeld is famously “a show about nothing,” and that might be the primary reason why it’s so easy to view over and over again. The series, starring Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander and Michael Richards, works because of these four and their chemistry, and watching them simply live life and make jokes is something so many can do over and over again.

Sherlock

It’s elementary my dear Watson, the Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman-led Sherlock is a fantastic modern adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s work, and with each viewing new details emerge that make it even better. The series was comprised of 15 episodes across four seasons, and each mystery Sherlock and Watson solved was dense with detail and intrigue.

There’s a reason the story of the great detective keeps getting told, and you’ll understand why when you realize that you can watch Sherlock over and over again. 

Supernatural

I realize 15 seasons – or 327 episodes – is overwhelming, however, it also proves just how beloved Supernatural is. The series about Jared Padalecki’s Sam Winchester and Jensen Ackles’ Dean Winchester is beloved by many, and watching the two of them fight off evil over and over again is something so many fans can do on repeat, as proven by its 15 seasons. 

That ‘70s Show

That ‘70s Show is all about a group of teens growing up in the suburbs of Wisconsin who all gather in a basement to hang out. It’s a simple and relatable concept, and between that and its stellar ensemble, it’s no wonder everyone loves to say “Hello Wisconsin!” more than once. 

Psych

A silly case-of-the-week show about a guy who is pretending to be a psychic is obviously made for comfort viewing, and fans have been doing just that since 2006. 

Avatar: The Last Airbender

No matter what age you are, it’s always a good time to watch Avatar: The Last Airbender. As someone who watched the show for the first time in elementary school, and has seen it many times since, I can attest to this. Seeing Aang master the elements and work to defeat the Fire Lord and his evil plan is a masterful work of animation that is action-packed, deep, silly and heartfelt. 

Its handling of hard themes like prejudice and colonization are poignant and accessible, and its morals about love and acceptance are something everyone needs. So, yeah, this is 100% a show you should see multiple times throughout your life. 

Schitt’s Creek

How can you not want to watch David and Alexis bicker, Johnny aimlessly try to wrangle his family and Moira be Moira over and over again? The beloved comedy from Dan and Eugene Levy about a rich family who loses their money and has to move to a small town is quirky and unique while also fitting right in with the best comedies. Also, how can you not rewatch it simply to try and nail Moira’s ambiguous accent?

Community

Between the silly classes, paintball battles and Troy and Abed’s end credits, Community is a quirky comedy that’s one for the ages. It’s so fun to go back and remember all the silly inside jokes and ridiculous moments that happened at Greendale Community College. 

Cheers

Sometimes, you just want to go where everybody knows your name. Need I say more? No. But I will, because returning to that bar to see Sam, Carla, Cliff, Norm, Frasier, Woody and more is always a wonderful time. 

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

This fast-talking period piece about a woman making her way in the world as a stand-up comedian in the 1950s is a wonderful romp. Created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, this series has the quick-witted silliness Gilmore Girls has, and it’s chock full of incredible and high-octane performances from Rachel Brosnahan, Alex Borstein, Tony Shalhoub and more. 

The Simpsons

Talk about an all-time classic. The Simpsons has been around since 1989, and it’s still going strong. The animated comedy is so easy to watch, and the characters – like Homer, Marge, Bart and Lisa – are so iconic that this show is one that fans want to come back to over and over again. 

Grey’s Anatomy

Medical drama, romance, McDreamy; Grey’s Anatomy has it all. Between its heart-pounding medical cases and simultaneously heartwarming and heartwrenching romance, it’s easy to understand why this show has been on for over two decades and why folks keep coming back to see what’s going on at Grey Sloan Memorial. 

What all these shows have in common is they’re all deeply loved by their fans, which is why they keep returning to them time and time again. 

While it might not be the case these days, there was a time when heels reigned supreme, when headbands were en vogue when necklaces were large and dresses and skirts were preppy. That time is encapsulated in the looks from Gossip Girl, the svelte Upper East Side of New York-set drama that aired on the CW between 2007 and 2012.

While Leighton Meester’s Blair Waldorf was the most popular dresser of the bunch, over the course of six seasons, a lot of the celebrity fashion worn in the show were outfits that were way ahead of their time or timeless and it was devastating when Gossip Girl ended and we had to say goodbye to the looks. Without further ado, here’s some great ones that still hold up.

Blair Waldorf’s Black Opening Episode Dress (Season 1, Episode 1)

Gossip Girl first introduces us to Blair at a party with her mother. She’s allegedly wearing one of Eleanor’s designs, but it's actually a sweet Ann Sui look that was ahead of its time. Plus, black has always and will always hold up. You know you love it.

Serena’s Very Best Gold Dress (Season 5, Episode 9)

While Serena van der Woodsen wears a lot of gold and yellow throughout Gossip Girl, hands down her best number was in Season 5, Episode 9 when she rocks a gold, vintage-looking Diane Von Furstenberg dress. Her teased hair really amps her look up even more.

Chuck Bass' Bejeweled Formal Look (Season 2, Episode 12)

While the ladies of Gossip Girl get most of the notice, we'd be remiss if Chuck Bass didn't make this list at least a few times. Of all the men on the show, Bass has a personal sense of style that is memorable without being tacky. This jacket from Season 2 is probably the best example of how standout his formalwear really was.

Vanessa's Gorgeous Twist Front Dress (Season 3, Episode 5)

There was no shortage of gorgeous ball gowns worn during Gossip Girl's six-season run, but my favorite of all of them was the ballgown worn by Jessica Szohr in Season 3 during an Old Hollywood dream sequence Blair has. Wildly, Vanessa is one of my least favorite dressers on the series, but this Reem Acra look is still fire and would fit so many body types.

Serena Van Der Woodsen's Flared Pink Pants (Season 4, Episode 1)

A tailored pant is a girl's best friend, and this lovely look from Serena van der Woodsen combines my two favorite things: comfort and Barbiecore fashion. Pants like these have made a resurgence, but they'll never not be a classic look.

Blair Waldorf's First Wedding Dress (Season 5, Episode 13) 

Of all the iconic outfits from the series, the most standout and memorable seemingly has to go to Blair's white wedding dress. The lace overlay and pretty bow in front give the dress an extra edge, but it's certainly a situation where the real party is in the back. This storyline didn't end so hot, but the dress is still a stunner.

Serena Van Der Woodsen's Caged Dress (Season 4, Episode 1) 

There are a slew of outfits shown from Blair and Serena's time in France thanks to a killer montage at the beginning of Season 4, and all of them are top notch. I still want this cage corset dress from George Chakra couture that's covered in Swarovski crystals. Because Swarovski crystals will always make everything better.

Blair's Floral Dress (Season 4, Episode 1) 

Want to know what to wear to a museum? Try a floral chiffon number like the one Blair Waldorf rocks that is flowy and ahead of its time. Particularly given she wore it with a notable and gorgeous pearl choker that will always be a work of art.

Jenny Humphrey's Goth Girl Meets Prep (Season 2, Episode 14)

Part of the fun of early episodes of Gossip Girl happens when the ladies level up the school uniform look. Jenny's got her crossover tie on with a black peacoat here, but the really chic look is the pink tulle under her plaid skirt coupled with a pair of timeless boots. It's school girl up top and punk rock on bottom.

Redemption For Vanessa’s Snowflake Ball Dress (Season 2, Episode 12)

I love the rope detailing in the shoulder of Vanessa’s dress from Season 2's Snowflake Ball. If you’ve seen the series, you know the dress would ultimately be ridiculed by pretty much everyone after a light revealed it to be made of thinner material than expected, but as we all know, Vanessa's sheer take on fashion would be right on trend years later. It helps the simple silhouette could fit in any time and place, too.

Chuck Bass In His Gordon Gekko Era (Season 3, Episode 1)

Chuck Bass never shied away from color during Gossip Girl, but his suspendered Gordon Gekko era in Season 3 is really when his fashion takes a step forward. Intriguingly the '80s vibes may have come from Mr. Bass wanting to emanate his dad when he took over his company, but it's certainly a look he owns.

Blair's Famous Photoshoot Dress (Season 1, Episode 4) 

Serena and Blair frequently have a friendship rife with tension, but in Season 1 things are particularly awkward. You can see the foundations of the friendship during Episode 4, in which Serena pitches Blair for a photoshoot for her mom Eleanor's fashion brand, then helps Blair to have fun in the gorgeous black and yellow floral dress so the pictures come out great.

Nate Archibald Untucked, Untied And A Little Askew (All Seasons)

Outside of Nate Archibald wearing fine quality clothing, there isn't a ton to remark about his look. Except he nearly always wears it a bit askew. Tie undone, shirt untucked, a couple of buttons loose at the top. The look's a keeper, but perhaps none is better than the loose tie with the school uniform.

Lily's Strong-Shouldered Black Dress (Season 4, Episode 18)  

An RM by Roland Mouret special, this gorgeous black look worn by Serena's mother is one of many black dresses she wore during the run of the show. They're all elegant, but the way this dress is tailored makes it standout no matter what year we're living in.

Serena's Sparkly Mini Skirt And Sweater Combo (Season 5, Episode 12)

One thing Serena does well that not everyone can pull off is mix patterns and prints. Some of her outfits are really out there, and some of them stand out in the perfect way, like her sequined mini skirt and sequined sweater paired with a neutral black coat and brown bag in Season 5. I'd still wear this (though maybe with a flat shoe).

Blair's Sparkly Dress And Headband (Season 6, Episode 5)

There's no dearth of beautiful ballgowns in Gossip Girl, but this sparkly floor-length look kicks things up a notch via its bold accessories. That headband! Those startling earrings! This was the era of extra, and Blair wears it well.

Lily Dives Into Prints! (Season 5, Episode 4)

Satins and the color black are what Lily favors the majority of the time, but every now and again she'll dive into print and color in a satisfying way and this is one of my favorite examples. The white earrings with the yellow pop add the perfect extra touch.

Blair's Colored Tights (Many Eps, But This One's Season 1, Episode 15)

Rocking red tights with a bright yellow coat from Ralph Lauren should not work, but pairing it with a cute, preppy collared blouse and a neutral bag really made Blair Waldorf pop. Colored tights should always be a wardrobe staple, though I recognize they come in and out.

Jenny Embraces The Dark Side (Season 3, Episode 4)

Jenny wears a lot of black when she starts coming into her own at Constance Billiard in Season 3, but this bubble skirt and black jacket combo is among my favorites. If she'd thrown in her signature fishnets it would have been perfect.

Georgina Rocks A Purple Dress (Season 2, Episode 23)

Georgina was typically seen in signature black and other dark tones, but appearing in Season 2, she wore a sweet textured purple dress with a chain at her belly. The hardware is a nice touch and helps the dress to stand out as something a little different.

Serena's Grey Coat And Cashmere Gloves (Season 3, Episode 13)

Early on, most of the coats we see Serena in are leather, but by Season 3 she's playing around with her look a bit more. This is one of the rare times we see Serena in more of a neutral, pastel palette and it looks great on her.

Dan And Serena At Blair's Wedding (Season 5, Episode 13)

This one's really a two-fer and it's mostly because this gossamer look is perfect for Serena and one of the rare occasions Dan is fully dressed to the nines. A three-piece suit for Dan! Headwear for Serena! The best part for me though is that you could see either of these looks at a wedding today and they'd still be posh.

Jenny's Goth Formalwear (Season 3, Episode 9) 

I know people love early seasons, but I'm kind of starting to feel like Season 3 may have been peak Gossip Girl fashion, as this formalwear look from Jenny with the puffed out skirt and red lip is so pretty and edgy at the same time. It helps she has Nate Archibald as an accessory too.

Blair's Finale Wedding Dress (Season 6, Episode 10)

A lot of fans are partial to Serena's gold dress in the Gossip Girl finale, but I've always loved Blair's ice queen dress more. And the headband! It's sort of giving Downton Abbey and I'll forever love that Leighton Meester's character ended on this note.

Juliet Goes Gossamer (Season 4, Episode 8)

Most of the best looks on Gossip Girl decidedly don't go to the b-tier characters, but this look from Juliet trumps both Blair and Serena's look in the same scene. (Blair has a kind of cool backless halter dress on, but it's nothing special, and Serena's beaded number feels like it ages her up quite a bit.) Katie Cassidy's gossamer dress is timeless and I still think about the asymmetrical hemline.

Serena's Yale Outfit (Season 2, Episode 6)

Serena does casual better than anyone else on Gossip Girl (my apologies to Vanessa, who is casual more often). Probably because she's so upscale without seeming to be trying. I've never seen a blazer as unique as the one she wore to the Yale campus in Season 2. She paired the look with jeans and the perfect bag and riding boots. Want.

Blair's Green Dress Season 5, Episode 1

I've always kind of felt Blair's green dress in the opening episode of Season 5 is a showstopper that doesn't get enough time to shine. I don't see people talk about it much, probably because Serena's California storyline takes over in the episode, but I still think it's a showstopper.

Ivy's Flapper Dress (Season 5, Episode 7)

Ivy wears a lot of flowy outfits that look dated years later, but on the night of the masked event she pulls out all the stops in a sparkly flapper dress with floral detailing on the lower half. The silhouette won't work for everyone, but it sure is stunning to look at.

Chuck's Animal Print Collar (Season 5, Episode 12)

One of Chuck's more subtle-yet-unusual looks came in Season 5. He traipsed around the streets of New York in what at first glance seems to be a pretty demure grey suit with a semi-unexpected brown vest with it. But if you look at the collar of his suit coat, you'll see Chuck Bass at his finest: animal print.

Diana's Yellow Dress (Season 5, Episode 4)

Before this moment, I would have argued Serena is the queen of the yellow dress. But Liz Hurley's brief foray into the world of Gossip Girl is full of fitted sheath looks that still look on trend. This one's a keeper.

Serena's Marilyn Monroe Nod (Season 5. Episode 13)

Lots of people have nodded at Marilyn Monroe's famous dress from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, including Margot Robbie channeling Monroe as Harley Quinn. But something about Blake Lively in the look feels like real theater, in a good way. It's timeless, pink, and best of all, dripping with jewels.

Jenny's Marchesa Moment (Season 3, Episode 20)

Little Jenny Humphrey mostly attempted a punk rock or at least edgy look during the course of the show, but somehow she made a mint number from Marchesa look cool before her big child star exit form Hollywood. The brand was popular during the show's run, and while it's less popular today, I still wouldn't be mad if I had this on a hanger.

These days, when the name Chace Crawford comes up, his role as The Deep in The Boys – which just finished airing its latest season on the 2024 TV schedule – probably comes to mind first. However, he’ll always and forever be known for his role in the Gossip Girl cast as Nate Archibald too. Now, we’re getting a blast from the past as Sweet Magnolia’s JoAnna Garcia Swisher opened up about working with Crawford, and how her trip to New York City to make out on screen with him led to a life plot twist that involved her now-husband, Nick Swisher.

Now, when you look at the relationships in Sweet Magnolias, Garcia Swisher plays a pivotal role in them. She’s one of the show’s leads, and at the end of Season 3 her character Maddie is still with Cal. Meanwhile, in the grand scheme of Gossip Girl relationships, her role as Bree Buckley didn’t play a big role at all seeing as she was only in four episodes.

However, it ended up being a life-changing job for the actress, because that’s how she met her husband. She dished about this cute story with She Knows, explaining:

For a bit of context, JoAnna Garcia Swisher appeared in four episodes (specifically, the first, second, third and fifth episodes) of Gossip Girl’s third season, which aired in 2009. She played a love interest of Nate’s, who he met over the summer, and they had a very short-lived and dramatic relationship – which is par for the course on this show.

They had a passionate relationship, that did involve making out, and it ended with a bang and betrayal.

In real life, Garcia Swisher’s romance had a much happier ending. She went on to explain that she met her husband in the big city, and they got married in 2010. It sounds like an adorable meet-cute, as she explained:

At the time, Nick Swisher, who is a former professional baseball player, was playing for the New York Yankees, who won the World Series in 2009. So, that year was a very good one for this couple!

According to People, the two dated for less than a year before getting engaged in May of 2010. Now, they’ve been together for 14 years, and they have two kids – Emerson Jay Swisher, who was born in 2013, and Sailor Stevie Swisher, who came into the world in 2016.

The two are still thriving too! JoAnna Garcia Swisher has been leading the Sweet Magnolias cast since 2020, and the series has been renewed for a fourth season. Meanwhile, her hubby retired from playing baseball in 2017, and now he’s a special advisor for the Yankees and the co-owner of Baseball United, per his Instagram.

Now, don’t think I forgot about where this story began. Chace Crawford is doing fantastic too! He’s part of one of Amazon Prime’s best shows – The Boys – and that’s about to head into its final season.

And to think…all of this started because of Gossip Girl. I guess there’s a reason why she says “You know you love me.”

Three are a lot of places around the world that have become famous for being set locations or exterior shots from television shows. From restaurants, to prisons, to houses, to everything in between. These are just a few of these now-famous locations everyone recognizes from their favorite shows. 

Tom's Restaurant - Seinfeld

In virtually every episode of Seinfeld, the gang met up at Monk's Diner. The interiors were a set, of course, but all the exterior shots for Monk's were of Tom's Restaurant at the corner of Broadway and 112th Street in New York City. The cast of Seinfeld is enshrined in caricatures on the wall. One more fun fact about the eatery, it was also the restaurant that inspired the song "Tom's Diner" by Suzanne Vega. 

Highclere Castle - Downton Abbey

Grand houses dot the English countryside, many of which are quite famous for their ornate beauty. One house now stands out from the rest, Highclere Castle in Hampshire. As hardcore fans of Downton Abbey know, not only was it used for the exterior of the house, but many of the interiors, including the iconic library, were used in the production. 

The Painted Ladies - Full House

San Francisco was once home to thousands of grand Victorian homes, though many were destroyed by the earthquake in 1906. A notable row that survived across from Alamo Square Park is famously known as "The Painted Ladies" and is a big tourist destination for fans of Full House after they featured prominently in the show. 

Police Beach - Lost

The mysterious island in Lost was in actually many filming locations across Oahu in Hawaii. One of the most famous locations is known as Papailoa Beach or Police Beach. It is located on the North Shore and was used a lot in the show as the spot where the plane crashed and where the survivors lived for a time. 

94 Bedford Street - Friends

94 Bedford Street, at the corner of Grove and Bedford, has become one of the most popular tourist attractions in New York City. Not because anyone famous has lived there, but because that's the building used for the exterior shots of where most of the characters on Friends lived.

St. Michael's Mount - House Of The Dragon

St. Michael's Mount in southeast England is less famous than its cousin, Mont-Saint-Michel in France, but they are very similar monasteries. Both were built on little spits of land surrounded by a tidal area that leaves them completely separated from the mainland much of the time. St. Michael's Mount serves as the exterior for Driftmark, the seat of House Velaryon in House Of The Dragon.

Salish Lodge & Spa - Twin Peaks

On Twin Peaks, one of the most prominent locations is The Great Northern Inn, where Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) lives during his time in the town investigating the murder of Laura Palmer. The exterior of the hotel, located above a beautiful waterfall, is actually the Salish Lodge & Spa in Snoqualmie, WA.

The Bull & Finch Pub - Cheers

Tourists in Boston are often startled to see the exterior of Cheers as they walk around the Public Garden at the foot of Beacon Hill. The famous bar from Cheers was once called The Bull & Finch Pub and has been in that spot since the late '60s. In the early '00s, the owners changed the name to Cheers. 

Pasadena City Hall - Parks And Recreation

Parks & Recreation may be set in the town of Pawnee, Indiana, but the exterior shots of the City Hall on the show were filmed much closer to where the show was actually filmed in LA. The building is, in fact, the City of Pasadena's City Hall. A far cry from rural Indiana, but these days the building is more famous for being in a fictional TV town in the Hoosier state than the City of Roses. 

Richmond, London - Ted Lasso

A little alley in Richmond, London, has become one of the most visited tourist spots in a town chock-full of great tourist spots. That's because it served as the exterior to Coach Lasso's apartment in Ted Lasso. The pub nearby was also one of the most-used shooting locations for the show and fans of the hilarious show have been flocking ever since. 

The Belnord - Only Murders In The Building

There are a few famous apartment buildings on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, including The Belnord. The grand building is one of the most prominent of all, especially now as it serves as the titular building in Only Murders In The Building starring Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez. It's located at 86th St. and Amsterdam.

Dubrovnik Harbor - Game Of Thrones

HBO's Game of Thrones made quite a few locations around the world famous, and while the city of Dubrovnik, Croatia was already famous among historians, it entered popular culture in a big way when it was the stand-in for King's Landing throughout many episodes of the show. There is a little harbor on the city's west coast that was one of the locations used in some of the most famous scenes.  

The Waybury Inn - Newhart

In Newhart Dick Loudon (Bob Newhart) and his wife Joanna (Mary Frann) moved to Vermont to run the Stratford Inn. The real-life Stratford Inn is actually The Waybury Inn in Middlebury Vermont. And yes, it's still a hotel, and you can still stay there. 

Ranger's House - Bridgerton

The stately home of the Bridgerton family in Bridgerton is, in fact, called Ranger's House. Built in 1722 in what is now London, it's located near Greenwich Park, just a couple hundred yards from the famous Royal Observatory, Greenwich, which was where time was set for the world for centuries, but it is now a museum. 

Mr. Beef - The Bear

Chicago is famous for a lot of different foods. Pizza and hot dogs are probably the two most people think of first. Or at least, they used to. After the wild success of The Bear, one of the best shows on Hulu, the Windy City is increasingly famous for Italian Beef sandwiches, like the ones served at Mr. Beef. The small eatery stood in for The Beef on the show. 

15 Washington Street, Brooklyn - Gossip Girl

Located basically under the Manhattan Bridge in the Dumbo neighborhood, 15 Washington Street has become iconic for its use as the exterior of the Humphrey loft in Gossip Girl. 

Bell Works, Holmdel, NJ - Severance

The Bell Works building in Holmdel, NJ was locally famous for decades before the Apple TV+ show Severance made it famous everywhere. Long a favorite in architectural circles, the building, designed by Eero Saarinen, was the R&D headquarters for Bell Labs for decades starting in the early '60s. It is a perfect building to house the mysterious Lumon Industries on the show.  

Chief Joseph Ranch - Yellowstone

Some terrible things have gone down on the Dutton Yellowstone Ranch in Yellowstone. It has to be the most violent place in all of Montana, in the context of the show. Luckily, the real ranch where it is filmed, Chief Joseph Ranch is like it in looks only. It's a guest ranch and fans of the show can even stay there. Just try not to murder anyone. 

Holsten’s Brookdale Confectionary - The Sopranos

One of the most controversial and possibly one of the best endings of a show in TV history took place at Holsten’s Brookdale Confectionery in Bloomfield, NJ. The Sopranos ended when Meadow walked through the door of the diner and the screen went black. Did Tony die or didn't he? The arguments will last forever, an argument you could have over some onion rings at Holsten's.

Twisters Restaurant - Breaking Bad

A Twisters Restaurant in Albuquerque, NM is better known to Breaking Bad fans as Los Pollos Hermanos. The chain restaurant location on Isleta Boulevard in Albuquerque was re-dressed as Los Pollos Hermanos for the show and its spinoff Better Call Saul. 

Speedy’s Cafe - Sherlock

221B Baker Street is one of the most famous addresses in literary history as the home of Sherlock Holmes. On the BBC show Sherlock starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, the flat is located next door to a cafe called Speedy's. Not only is the restaurant's exterior featured on the show, but the interior is shown on occasion, such as when Watson (Freeman) meets with Mycroft (Mark Gatiss). 

Senoia, Georgia - The Walking Dead

Senoia, Georgia is a small unassuming town on the far southwest edge of the Atlanta metro area. It's a quaint, picturesque southern town that is not a hotbed for tourism by fans of The Walking Dead as it became the setting for the settlement of Alexandria on the show. 

Buckingham Fountain - Married... With Children

The Buckingham Fountain in the heart of Grant Park in Chicago has long been a local landmark in The Windy City. When it was used in the opening moments of the credits on Fox's Married... With Children, it became a national landmark, recognized the world over. Along with having one of the most famous musicians ever singing the theme song, Frank Sinatra, it became an iconic opening. 

Mystic Grill - The Vampire Diaries

The real Mystic Grill is located in Covington, GA, and has become a must-see location for fans of The Vampire Diaries. It pre-existed the show and looks pretty much identical to what fans remember from the beloved show. 

Frist Campus Center - House

Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, where Dr. Gregory House torments his residents and his patients on House isn't actually a hospital at all. The famous exteriors are actually of the Frist Campus Center on the campus of Princeton University. The building is also famous for Room 302, where Albert Einstein lectured when he was a professor at the school. 

Torrance High School - Beverly Hills, 90210

Without a doubt, Torrance High School in Torrance, CA, is one of the most recognizable locations in television history. It was the setting for West Beverly High on Beverly Hills, 90210, but that's not all. It was also the stand-in for Sunnydale High on Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Ulysses S. Grant High School in The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and it was used in movies like She's All That, Not Another Teen Movie, and Bruce Almighty, among others. 

Waterfords' House - The Handmaid's Tale

In The Handmaid’s Tale, the Waterfords live in Boston, but the mansion used for the exterior shots of their home is actually in Hamilton, Ontario, near Toronto. Like other houses featured in shows, it's become a popular place for selfies, but do you really want to memorialize that house after everything awful that happened inside it? 

Rosenheim Mansion - American Horror Story

The stately Rosenheim Mansion in Los Angeles has a look that is just perfect for horror stories. Most notably, it was used in American Horror Story. It's also been featured in other creepy shows like The Twilight Zone, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, The X-Files, and Dexter. Yikes! 

Franklin Square House Apartments - St. Elsewhere

The exterior of St. Eligius Hospital, the fictional hospital in the critically acclaimed '80s show St Elsewhere is actually an apartment building called Franklin Square House Apartments, in Boston's South End, where the hospital was also set. The show launched quite a few careers, including Howie Mandel's and Denzel Washington's, and like their careers, the apartment building is still around today. 

1618 Pine St., Boulder Colorado - Mork & Mindy

If you find yourself in Boulder, CO, and are a fan of Mork & Mindy, you can take a selfie in front of their apartment. The exterior used is a house that still stands on  Pine St., near the middle of town. 

Old Joliet Prison - Prison Break

If you close your eyes and picture a classic American prison, you'll probably see something that looks a lot like the old Joliet Prison in Joliet, IL. For that reason, the now-closed prison has been a popular shooting location over the years. Not only does it serve as the exterior of the jail in Prison Break, but it's also where Jake Blues (John Belushi) is released from in The Blues Brothers, and has been in numerous other movies and TV shows. 

Cincinnati Enquirer Building - WKRP In Cincinnati

Though it was really only used in the opening credits and very occasionally in the show, the studio for the fictitious radio station WKRP from the hit '70s sitcom in the Cincinnati Enquirer Building, located in downtown Cincinnati. When you're in town, you can pretend all your favorite DJs and intrepid reporter Les Nessman are hard at work in the building. 

In the recently wrapped season of The Boys, we saw new Supe Sister Sage lobotomizing herself in order to dumb down to The Deep’s level. Oh how things have changed for Chace Crawford over the past decade and a half. Back in 2007 he had Blake Lively and Leighton Meester fighting over his character on Gossip Girl. Obviously that’s far from the only difference between the hyper-violent superhero series and the CW teen drama, but Crawford seems to think there’s some room for overlap. In fact, he said two of his former co-stars would make great additions to The Boys cast.

Talking to People at Comic-Con, Chace Crawford who plays The Deep on The Boys (available to stream with an Amazon Prime subscription), revealed which of Nate Archibald’s fellow St. Jude alumni he’d like to see join the cast of The Boys Season 5, and hopefully showrunner Eric Kripke is taking notes. Crawford said:

As someone who got completely sucked into Gossip Girl’s scandalous high school drama back in the day, I couldn’t agree more that Ed Westwick and Penn Badgley would be able to hold their own in Eric Kripke’s universe of maniacal Supes and the vigilantes determined to stop them.

Ed Westwick’s Chuck Bass was already three-quarters of the way to evil, especially in the early days, when his first encounter with Taylor Momsen’s Jenny Humphrey wasn’t unlike The Deep’s first meeting with Erin Moriarty’s Starlight, if you know what I mean. Chace Crawford even had an idea of what kind of Supe Westwick could play, saying:

The Boys Season 4 already gave us a pretty disturbing Batman spoof via Tek Knight and his BDSM batcave, but I agree that Ed Westwick would be best as a dark and brooding counterpart to the ostentatious Homelander or Season 4 newbie Firecracker. In fact, Chuck Bass and Firecracker would be quite the dynamic duo.

The Deep actor didn’t give any specific ideas for who Penn Badgley could play, but after seeing him as Dan Humphrey for six seasons, we found out just how manipulative he could be when it was revealed in the series finale that “Lonely Boy” had been Gossip Girl all along. Come to think of it, maybe “Lonely Boy” wouldn’t be the worst Supe name. I’m sure Eric Kripke could come up with some uber-depressing lore for that. And we know Badgley is capable of playing the bad guy, thanks to his turn as serial killer Joe Goldberg on Netflix’s You.

Although it's probably a long shot, I’d be down for this Gossip Girl reunion when The Boys returns for its final season, and Eric Kripke himself has said he has very little shame about finding parts to stick people into. (That came out wrong … or did it?)

You can relive Chace Crawford’s days as Nate on Gossip Girl by streaming the series with a Max subscription, or catch up on The Boys on Amazon Prime Video, another of the best streaming services.

Soap operas offer what few other TV shows really can: daily scripted drama and extremely long runs on television, with thousands of episodes over multiple decades. While some former soap opera staples like As the World Turns and Guiding Light ended well ahead of the 2024 TV schedule, others like General Hospital, Days of Our Lives, and the Young and the Restless are still going… and as dramatic as ever with some wild tropes to keep the plot going. Read on for the most ridiculous of these tropes and see if you think it’s time for any of them to be retired!

Rapid Aging Syndrome

Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome – a.k.a. SORAS – refers to young characters disappearing from a storyline, only to return later much older than they should be and played by a new actor. There’s no shortage of examples, but Luke Snyder from As the World Turns holds the distinction of getting SORAS treatment twice.

Back From The Dead

Deaths don't have to stick on soap operas. Admittedly, reveals are often that the person was never truly dead and only seemed to be due to crashes, explosions, and other incidents without leaving a body behind. Resurrections aren’t out of the question in this genre, though, and Days of Our Lives’ Stefano DiMera has proven many times over that all bets are off.

Amnesia

Amnesia is a classic trope in soap operas, with prime drama coming from when it wears off over time. When romance is involved, the trope can get all the more ridiculous. The source of the memory loss tends to be some kind of head injury that can be recovered from, with some exceptions, notably including Jason Quartermaine from General Hospital, whose previous life never came back to him.

Split Personality

Sometimes a soap will add a split personality or two to spice things up for a character. The split is usually due to a trauma that they’ve either been dealing with for years or resurfaces when they’re just not prepared to process it. On One Life to Live, daughter Jessica Buchanan and mother Victoria Lord both have had storylines with multiple personalities.

Switched At Birth

It’s good that soap opera tropes often don’t apply to real life, because otherwise there might be a real-life epidemic of baby swaps! The switch could be due to nefarious reasons or just mistakenly taking the wrong infant from the hospital. The discovery of a switch can lead to juicy storylines of what might have been. Days of Our Lives is a reliable source of baby swaps, including Nicole Walker trading which infant she’d adopt.

Brain Tumors

Brain tumors are a great soapy device to allow drastic personality changes in characters without actually having to stick with them in the long run if there's a cure. This isn’t exclusive to soaps, as Amelia on Grey’s Anatomy was given the diagnosis to explain seasons of odd behavior, but special credit goes to General Hospital for using a brain tumor to redeem former serial killer Roger Howarth.

Microchips

One more modern trope is pieces of technology messing with characters. It can be surprisingly sci-fi for the genre, and suspending disbelief can be rough. That doesn’t mean the storylines aren’t wonderfully juicy if you do suspend disbelief, such as when General Hospital attempted to swap the memories between twin brothers Jason Morgan and Andrew Cain, with a chip involved and disastrous results.

Evil Twins

There are all kinds of twin tropes, but evil twins are really the classic. This one isn’t also exclusively limited to biological twins within families, but it’s hard to think about the concept without giving a nod to the nefarious Adam Chandler and his good-hearted twin Stuart Chandler on All My Children, both played by David Canary for nearly three decades.

Long-Lost Relative Reveal

In a genre of twisted relationships, viewers should never rule out a long-lost relative. In the best cases, there is juicy drama with the new branches on the family trees. In more cringe-worthy scenarios, characters have gotten a little too close to each other before finding out about the family ties. One Life to Live's Todd Manning is a fun twist on the trope, as he was revealed to be a long-lost heir.

Fainting = Surprise Pregnancy

If a woman faints on a soap opera, then the odds are pretty good that she has a bun in the oven. More dramatic than morning sickness, this trope often involves a woman who definitely wasn’t planning on getting pregnant. Days of Our Lives is a good place to find swooning pregnant women, and the trope extends into primetime dramas that pack plenty of ridiculousness themselves.

Brainwashing

There are multiple methods of brainwashing in this genre, and it’s a great way to let the audience in on a character’s dastardly plans while keeping other characters in the dark. Lucky on General Hospital is an example after his parents’ nemesis used everything from kidnapping to black magic on him, but Stefano DiMera of Days of Our Lives shouldn’t be overlooked as a perpetrator.

Extreme Plastic Surgery

Some soap operas explain recastings by giving characters major plastic surgery. It's best not to look too hard at height or eye color differences and just go with the flow. One Life to Live memorably burned the character of Max Holden severely to explain a recasting, but then brought back the original actor without any explanation.

Surprise Children

With love triangles, complicated relationships, and twisted histories galore, is it any wonder that surprise kids are revealed in soaps? Sure, characters may not be children anymore when they're introduced, but the parentage is what matters. Guiding Light's Jonathan Randall has to be one of the most memorable surprise sons in the genre.

Repressed Memories

One doesn’t need a full case of amnesia for memory melodrama, and this can apply to bad guys as well as victims. Sometimes, a character tries to forget any dark deeds they did in their past, while others just want to erase memories of bad experiences. The Young and the Restless’ Adam memorably did a bad thing for an understandable reason, and then forgot.

Catfights

Catfights aren’t exclusive to soap operas, but it’s certainly not hard to find instances of women fighting other women for reasons that can range from trivial to game-changing. This trope can be found all over soaps, but some standouts come from a rare primetime show in the genre: the original Dynasty over nine seasons.

Soap Opera Disease

Ailments don't actually need to be pulled from real life to cause problems on soaps, with symptoms that can be as generic or as specific as needed for max melodrama. These are broader than brain tumors and can be used in a variety of ways, including the classic coma option. This is big enough to extend to primetime, infamously including the How I Met Your Mother finale.

It Was A Dream All Along

Why stick with a messy storyline when it can just be undone with a good old-fashioned dream sequence? Sometimes this can just be a scene or two, while primetime soap Dallas famously turned its entire ninth season into a dream to bring back Patrick Duffy as Bobby Ewing after killing him off in the previous season finale.

Scene-To-Scene Cliffhanger

Any TV viewer has undoubtedly seen a season-ending cliffhanger or two, but no genre does a cliffhanger quite like soap operas. Instead of just ending episodes on cliffhangers, transitions between scenes can be so dramatic that there's really no better way to describe them. No other soap cliffhanger may be as huge in pop culture as Dallas' "Who Shot JR?" but scene-to-scene cliffhangers are easier to find.

Who's The Father?

In a genre full of love triangles, secret identities, affairs, and amnesia, of course, there are often pregnancies with uncertain paternities! In fact, the question of "Who's the father?" is so prevalent in this genre that a major plot of House of the Dragon Season 1 had fans comparing the high-budget fantasy drama to daytime TV.

Wild Retcons

Soap operas aren't bound by the normal rules of continuity; if an event from the past gets in the way of a juicy new story, it can just be retroactively changed. This is easier to handwave on shows that air daily for decades on end, but a bit harder for weekly primetime soaps, such as Gossip Girl by its final season and the big reveal.

Weddings Gone Wrong

If characters are getting married in a high-profile soap wedding, it's a safe bet that something is going to go wrong, possibly involving any of the other 30+ tropes compiled here. The most famous has to be the wedding of Luke and Laura on General Hospital, which reached an audience of 30 million in 1981, with Elizabeth Taylor as a guest star and Laura's ex showing up to start a fistfight with Luke.

Fires

Sometimes characters, scenes, and full storylines quite literally go up in flames in this genre. Whether it's a fire on the smaller side to disfigure a character (by soap standards) to ramp up the tension or a full inferno, many different kinds of sparks are known to fly. Guiding Light's Fifth Street (and its diner) had some particularly bad luck back in the '90s.

Infinite Love Triangles

The course of true love never runs smoothly, and that's the case for just about any relationship on a soap opera, particularly ones that have run for decades. Love triangles are reliable sources of drama and of course result in strong reactions from fans. There's no shortage to choose from, but Young and the Restless' Victor/Nikki/Jack and The Bold and the Beautiful's Steffy/Liam/Hope are memorable for a reason.

Doppelgangers

Lookalikes don't have to be evil twins to deliver the drama; sometimes there are doppelgangers of characters who look exactly like others... mostly because the same actor is playing both. A particularly entertaining version is when one is a criminal and the innocent other is blamed for it, but one iconic case of doppelgangers comes from a show that few might qualify in this genre: Twin Peaks, which did have its soapy moments.

Secret Second Family

Sometimes it's not enough to have a secret affair or secret plan; sometimes there's a whole secret family. Instances aren't always as grand as two nuclear families just separated enough for one person to keep the secret, though, as proven by Del Henry's sibling connection to Dixie Cooney on All My Children.

Controversial Relationship Origins

Soap opera couples don't have to get off to fairy tale beginnings to eventually become iconic, and becoming iconic doesn't mean that the relationships don't eventually fall apart due to their troublesome starts. This can involve anything from violence to family objections, and few daytime TV super couples got off to a more controversial start than General Hospital's Luke and Laura.

Surprise Family Ties

Rarely is there a wilder bombshell on television than a strong relationship formed between two people who didn't know they were related. There are many instances, ranging from Days of Our Lives' Cassie more than once to As the World Turns' Holden and Lily, although their family tie turned out to be a false alarm. This trope is so well known that arguably Game of Thrones' biggest (and least shocking) reveal was deemed soapy by some viewers.

The Soap Wheel

The Soap Wheel is a trope well known to plenty of fans of the genre if not necessarily the name. It's a format of arcs within episodes to guarantee that the plot keeps going at a quick pace and cycling through various storylines. Plenty of other tropes fit into the Soap Wheel, and many shows fit, but perhaps none so reliably as Days of Our Lives.

Accidental Adultery

Adultery isn’t uncommon in soap operas, but accidental adultery is much more unique to the genre. Between secret family ties, evil twins, and characters who might not actually be dead, sometimes characters will make a love connection without knowing that they’re cheating. Sometimes, a person also only seems to be cheating, making that accidental adultery more of a misunderstanding. Other times, somebody is also being framed just for an extra layer of complication.

Local Crime Lords

What would daytime TV be without some bad guys? Some of the most iconic soaps of all time have some legendary crime lords, such as Stefano DiMera from Days of Our Lives and Sonny Corinthos from General Hospital. The crime lords are definitely big threats to the locals, although the details of their dastardly deeds are often vague. They’re on the wrong side of the law, and that’s all that viewers need to know to enjoy the drama!

Comas

Comas can be a serious business in primetime TV, but they can be quite convenient on soaps. Whether for the purpose of writing somebody out without committing to killing off the character or retconning their death as them merely being almost dead, comas are well known enough as a trope in soaps to be parodied on shows like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and – famously – Friends with Joey as Dr. Drake Ramoray.

Kidnapping

With crime lords in the mix with personal vendettas against characters, is it any surprise that people tend to get kidnapped in this genre? The abductions often don’t end in a major tragedy, and some characters have been mixed up with them on more than one occasion of their long runs on the show. Just look at All My Children’s Erica Kane, who was involved on both ends of a kidnapping over her decades on the show.

If you were a fan of Gossip Girl — and I’m talking about the deliciously scandalous 2007 series on The CW, not the critically panned reboot — you know who Taylor Momsen is. She played Jenny Humphrey, the younger sister of “Lonely Boy” Dan and all-around repulsive human being (in a series that was chock-full of those). Jenny didn’t stick around for all six seasons, and if you have ever wondered what she’s been up to for the past decade or so, we’ve got quite the update for you, as she recently got bit by a bat during a concert with her band The Pretty Reckless.

The whole incident was caught on video during The Pretty Reckless’ show in Seville, Spain, as Taylor Momsen explained in an Instagram post. Check out the wild moment below: 

What’s crazy is that the bat attack happened while Taylor Momsen was singing “Witches Burn,” she said in the caption that accompanied the video. She must have been pretty into her performance, too, because she didn’t realize anything was amiss until she noticed people in the crowd pointing at the bat on her leg. In the video, she can be heard saying: 

Honestly, I’m impressed that the bat knew it was the perfect moment to make its appearance. That’s real star quality right there! With the help of some of the crew, it was removed from Taylor Momsen’s leg, with the singer confirming the winged creature was fine and “going to be my new friend.” 

I’m not sure how long that sentiment lasted, however, as it turns out the bat did get a bite of her, and the last part of the above video showed Taylor Momsen at the hospital getting a rabies shot.

It’s been a long time since Taylor Momsen was associated with her last acting role. Jenny Humphrey started out as a sweet and innocent character on Gossip Girl (a series that’s totally worth the hype), but Little J was quickly corrupted by the mean girls and bad boys of New York’s Upper East Side. 

Taylor Momsen’s persona off-camera was changing even faster than that of her character, as her band The Pretty Reckless formed in 2009. Following Season 4 of The CW show, Taylor Momsen left Hollywood behind to focus on music, and she’s been doing it ever since. The Pretty Reckless has put out four studio albums, most recently Death by Rock and Roll in 2021, and they’re currently opening for AC/DC on their European tour.

If you want to relive the 2000s teen drama that boasted a stellar cast of up-and-comers — including but not limited to Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Penn Badgley and Chace Crawford — all six seasons can be streamed with a Max subscription. Both seasons of the reboot are available there as well.  

So, sometimes, certain characters become fan favorites when it comes to TV. They capture the interest of television viewers, and almost instantly, we are pulled into their stories. 

But sometimes, these characters that we love are repulsive human beings. They all have significant issues, whether evident at first or slightly subdued. Today, we'll be going over 32 TV characters that, at first, you might like but you would not want to be friends with in real life. 

Joe Goldberg (You)

This is an obvious one, but I have to put Joe Goldberg from You because there was a time when it seemed everyone was falling for this guy. He's the main character of the series and is played by the talented Penn Badgley. 

Look, I think the actor is handsome too, and Badgley can bring a sort of charisma to Joe that makes him hard to deny – hence why, every season, it seems like he can score some new woman. 

But don't get it twisted – Goldberg is a serial killer. He may think that he's killing people for the sake of his love to make sure all their problems are taken care of, but he's still killing people. And even in the fourth season, when he tries to be "better," he ends up just giving in to his dark side and deciding that killing is acceptable. He is as repulsive as a human as you can get. 

Andrea Harrison (The Walking Dead)

I watched all eleven seasons of The Walking Dead, and few characters annoyed me as much as Andrea – which makes sense since she was killed off quite early compared to the comics. She was whiney, trigger-happy, and always turned everyone down when it came to help – and she nearly killed Daryl, so instantly, that makes her the worst. 

Pete Campbell (Mad Men)

Mad Men was a huge show, and Pete Campbell was a prominent character. But man, this dude was the absolute worst. At first, he seems like a cocky businessman, a smug person who thinks he deserves everything. But as the seasons go on, he gets worse in every way possible. He would be in jail now if this were the real world for all he had done. 

Ross Geller (Friends)

I love the Friends cast just as much as the next person, but let's be honest – Ross Geller is awful. He may be hilarious in specific ways and sometimes sweet, but he's self-centered, has pretty bad anger issues, and cheated on Rachel. And no, they were not on a break. 

Merle Dixon (The Walking Dead)

Ironically, I didn't necessarily hate Merle Dixon in The Walking Dead – maybe because I was such a big fangirl of Daryl as a teenager – but he certainly wasn't my cup of tea. And now, years later, he was just a repulsive human being in many ways. While he did have a love for his little brother, Merle left people to die, killed innocents, and only had one redeemable moment – when the Governor killed him after releasing Michonne from her captivity. 

Dawson Leery (Dawson's Creek)

Yes, we all know that famous meme crying face, but have we ever talked about how the titular character or Dawson's Creek is the worst? Dawson Leery is a miserable crybaby who thinks just because he's a more likable guy than most, he deserves more when, in reality, he's just a whiner.

Lori Grimes (The Walking Dead)

While there have been plenty of female characters from shows that people have hated for no good reason, Lori Grimes from The Walking Dead was pretty bad – in many ways. Not only was she a major complainer about everything, but her significant repulsive action was that she slept with her husband's best friend not that long after he was supposedly left to die in a hospital – and then got pregnant with his baby. Judith is sweet and all, but come on. 

Piper Chapman (Orange Is The New Black)

The Orange is the New Black cast has plenty of great characters, but Piper Chapman, the main character the show follows, is probably one of the worst. She's selfish, doesn't know what she wants, and leads many people on. She also had a crazy power trip a few seasons in that turned her into a malicious person.

Will Schuester (Glee)

I'm sorry, Will Schuester from the Glee cast must be imprisoned. Let's push to the side that he sort of lays all his problems out for his students to see half the time – what kind of chorus teacher has his children sing adult songs like "Toxic" in front of the entirety of the school – and join in? Jailtime, right now. 

Rory Gilmore (Gilmore Girls)

Everyone at this point knows how terrible Rory is, in so many ways. She may have been kind in earlier seasons, but she treats her mom horribly, doesn't take her advice well, drops out of school to run on with boys, and treats her significant others pretty terribly. She's awful. 

Madison Sinclair (Veronica Mars)

I usually give high school mean girls a pass because nine times out of ten, they're just going through something at home that makes them that way. But Madison Sinclair in Veronica Mars was as vicious of a mean girl as possible. And what makes it even worse is that she's still just as petty and malicious in the Veronica Mars film, so it's just her personality. 

Blair Waldorf (Gossip Girl)

There are several people from the Gossip Girl cast I can point out on this list, and one is Blair Waldorf. No, she does not get an excuse for being a teenage girl and making stupid decisions because she keeps making them as time goes on to get what she wants. She's the stereotypical rich girl. 

Sheldon Cooper (The Big Bang Theory)

Let's be honest – if Sheldon Cooper were our friend, we wouldn't like him. Sure, the Big Bang Theory cast is extremely talented, including Jim Parsons, but the character of Sheldon Cooper is the worst. He's a know-it-all who has the emotional range of a teaspoon (in Hermione Granger's words) and would probably be the worst friend to have. 

Jenny Humphrey (Gossip Girl)

God, don't even get me started on Jenny Humphrey. She started the series as a pretty innocent girl on Gossip Girl, but it didn't take long for her to rebel and start doing pretty messed up stuff to fit in, and she just started getting worse and worse. I'm not surprised that her character was barely in the show by the time it ended. 

Santana Lopez (Glee)

Look, I love Glee just as much as the next person and Satana Lopez's vocals were some of the best on the show. She killed in every single solo she was in. And while a part of me is in love with her attitude and the fact that she's great representation for LGBTQ+ viewers, she's also kind of a jerk. Like actually. 

At least in the first few seasons, Santana is manipulative in the worst way possible, and if she was going down, she often dragged her friends down with her. It wasn't until later seasons we saw her break out of her shell more and learn to be kinder. 

Serena Joy (The Handmaid's Tale)

The Handmaid's Tale may be one of the best shows on Hulu, but Serena Joy is arguably one of the most despicable characters in the series. You can give me all the backstory into how she became the way that she is, but there is no denying that she is a massive reason why this oppressive society began, and there is nothing you can do or say that will make me forgive her, ever. 

Goku (Dragon Ball Franchise)

Nah, man. I may love anime and will introduce it to everyone, but if they say their favorite character is Goku from Dragon Ball, I'm unfriending them. Why? Because Goku is a deadbeat dad, and he leaves his family and children, especially Gohan, so much that it's a joke that Gohan isn't his kid. 

Erwin Smith (Attack On Titan)

I love Attack on Titan, and Erwin Smith was a part of some of the best arcs of the franchise. But my guy was almost too into the idea of what lay beyond the Walls of Paradis – so much that he's willing to sacrifice hundreds – if not thousands – of the lives of young soldiers just to win a battle. I don't care if you're an army commander – that's pretty messed up, no matter how dire the situation is. He's a kick-butt character, don't get me wrong, but also not that good of a person.

Barney Stinson (How I Met Your Mother)

We can all laugh at Barney Stinson from the How I Met Your Mother cast as much as we want, but if we met a real-life Stinson, we'd all hate him. He's the definition of a womanizer and has the attitude to match in many ways.

Chuck Bass (Gossip Girl)

Nope. No. I don't care if he's marketed as the "bad boy," he and Blaire are an entertaining but toxic Gossip Girl relationship and, more so, a horrible person. No random acts of kindness can make up for how bad he truly is. 

Dwight Schrute (The Office)

Dwight Schrute can take a vegetable beat and suck it – but on a real note, he isn't a great person. The Office cast is exceptionally talented, and yeah, Rainn Wilson certainly gives some humorous moments as Dwight. Still, at the same time, I'm pretty sure the office worker has some OCD with how he micromanages his job and others around him and will sacrifice anyone to get to the top.

George Costanza (Seinfeld)

The Seinfeld cast is full of characters that are all pretty bad in many ways, but let's be honest and say that George Costanza is one of the worst – if not the worst. He may be funny, but he's done some pretty bad things to get ahead in life or out of precarious situations. His frugality even led to the death of his fiance after buying toxic envelopes because they were cheap. 

Angelica Pickles (Rugrats)

No, she does not get a pass because she is a child – Angelica Pickles got her start as a mean girl early in her life with how she treated those babies, and what makes it worse is that she's still a brat in the spinoff, All Grown Up. I don't know who took her bottle away at a young age, but she's just awful. 

Brian (Family Guy)

While Brian is biologically a dog, he's practically a human in the way he speaks in Family Guy and man, has this "hilarious" dog done some messed up stuff. There is not another character that's as self-righteous as this dog, where he thinks he's just better than any other person and always uses that against them. It just makes him so unlikable. 

Dennis Reynolds (It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia)

I mean, do we even really need to explain this that much? Dennis Reynolds, at first, seems like a typical narcissistic male – a womanizer who thinks he's better than most just because his daddy has money. But there are some severe cracks in his mental state and moments where you wonder if this dude would let you walk out of a hookup with him.

Gojo (Jujutsu Kaisen)

I love Jujutsu Kaisen, but Gojo is also a repulsive human being. Yes, I know he's the anime boy that everyone – even some of my closest friends – seems to have a crush on, but he's as selfish as they come and always thinks he'll win everything just because he's powerful. I'm also pretty sure he would sacrifice innocent lives to live, and that's pretty repulsive. 

Ned Flanders (The Simpsons)

There are plenty of popular The Simpsons characters that I could talk about, but Ned Flanders is a pretty repulsive person. I know, at first, he seems like a friendly neighbor, but as the series progresses, he gets more wrapped up in this radical religious mindset. Don't get me wrong, it's alright for you to have your faith – but when you push it on others like Flanders begins to do, that's never the right choice. 

Charlie Harper (Two And A Half Men)

It's his character to be repulsive, but I feel like we've all let that slide because it's Charlie Sheen, and he's funny as Charlie Harper. But if we all met a real-life Charlie Harper, we wouldn't want to be close or even related to him, no matter how many times we watch Two And A Half-Men. 

Eric Forman (That '70s Show)

At first, Eric Forman seems agreeable, but when you rewatch That 70s Show, he is one of the worst characters here. He's just lazy and uses that as an excuse for so many things, and also, he does not deserve the angel that is Donna. 

Debbie Gallagher (Shameless)

Oh, Debbie. At first, Debbie Gallagher of the Shameless cast felt like a misguided teenager who needed someone to help her, but then she got an attitude. And then it got worse. And then she purposefully got pregnant at fifteen. What? It's no wonder Fiona practically lost her mind with this family. 

Rachel Berry (Glee)

Rachel Berry is the type of theater kid that you would never want to be friends with. In Glee, she makes everything about herself, always strives to steal opportunities from others, and even when she goes through something terrible, it doesn't feel like she grows up at all. I could never understand why Finn dated her. 

Ted Mosby (How I Met Your Mother)

There are so many things wrong with Ted Mosby in How I Met Your Mother, so much so that I could write an entire article about them. He would continuously pursue women no matter what despite trying to find the perfect match and still somehow ended up with Robin in the end, even after his wife passed away – which isn't right. 

There are plenty of other characters that I could add to this list, but let's cap it there – and now, I feel the need to check out different characters that make me happier than some of these horrible ones. 

A good plot twist can send shivers down your spine and give you a nice hit of dopamine as it changes everything you thought about a movie or TV show. Here is our list of some of favorite mind-blowing plot twists that shook us to our core. 

WARNING: MAJOR Spoilers ahead!! 

Vader Is Luke’s Dad - Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back

Darth Vader telling Luke that he is Luke’s father is maybe the #1 most mind-blowing plot twist in film history. It seems quaint to many of us now because it’s always been a part of our lives, but think back to what it was like when you first saw the revelation. It was crazy, no one saw it coming. The Empire Strikes Back had a few surprises, including the bad guy winning in the end, but this moment tops them all. 

The First Flashforward - Lost

The final two episodes of Season 3 of Lost were intense, and when they got to the end, audiences were treated to one of the most “what the!” moments in TV history when they realized what they thought was one of Jack’s flashbacks was actually a flashforward when he tells Kate they “have to go back” to the island. It changed the show forever and it's hands down the best episode of Lost.

It Was Earth All Along - Planet Of The Apes

The original Planet of the Apes from 1968 started with Charlton Heston’s character, George Taylor awakening from hibernation after a long space journey when he and his fellow astronauts crashed into an unknown planet. Apes of different kinds rule the planet and humans are treated more or less like animals. The shock comes in the last show when Taylor discovers he traveled through time, not space, and awoke on Earth many years in the future. 

Off With The Main Character’s Head - Game of Thrones

For fans of Game of Thrones, the penultimate episode of Season 1 proved anything in the show was possible and it would be smart not to get too attached to any one character. In the episode, the hero of the story, Ned Stark (Sean Bean) is executed and nothing would be the same for the rest of the show’s epic run. 

The Greatest Trick The Devil Ever Pulled - The Usual Suspects

It’s true that some viewers latched on to the idea that Verbal Kint (Keven Spacey) is an unreliable narrator, but very few anticipated the twist at the end revealing Verbal to be the mysterious Keyser Soze. Just when everyone puts it together, poof…he’s gone. Brilliant. 

He’s Been Dead This Whole TIme - The Sixth Sense

Director M. Night Shyamalan has made an entire career out of twists and turns and last-minute revelations. It’s a formula that goes way back in his filmography, most notably with the film that established him as a big-time director, The Sixth Sense. The twist, of course, is learning Bruce Willis’ character, Malcolm Crowe, is one of the dead people who Cole (Haley Joel Osment) sees. 

The Unexpected Mole - 24

Nina (Sarah Clarke) was a fan favorite in the first season of 24. She helped Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) get out of a lot of tight spots as his eyes and ears at CSU’s headquarters. A fan favorite, that is, until it turns out she’s been a mole along. It only gets worse when she kills Teri Bauer, Jack’s wife. Nina goes from a hero to a villain in a matter of minutes. 

She’s Safe! - Gone Girl

Gone Girl smartly hides its first twist, that Amy (Rosamund Pike) was not kidnapped or killed, but set the whole thing up herself. That’s not the only turn the movie takes though. Later, Amy also framed Desi (Neil Patrick Harris) for her kidnapping, clearing Nick of suspicion. The twists don’t end there, either. As Nick prepared to expose Amy’s crime, she told him she was pregnant with their first child. Nick changes his mind, keeping Amy’s secret, and staying in their marriage. It’s dark, but it’s a heck of a ride. 

Surprise, They Are Triplets - This Is Us

The pilot episode of This Is Us sets up its twist brilliantly with an interstitial explaining how many people are born on the same day, right before meeting Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and Rebecca (Mandy Moore) when Rebecca goes into labor with triplets on Jack’s birthday in 1980. In the present day, audiences meet Randall (Sterling K. Brown), Kate (Chrissy Metz), and Kevin (Justin Hartley), but it’s not until the final scene of the episode that it all comes together that Rebecca lost one of the triplets, but she and Jack adopted Randall the same day after he was abandoned at a fire station. 

Rosebud - Citizen Kane

One of the most famous twists in cinema history is also one of the earliest. In 1941, Citizen Kane tricked audiences into wondering for the entire movie what Charles Foster Kane’s (Orson Welles) final word, “Rosebud,” meant. At the end of the movie, they learn it was a beloved sled from his innocent youth, things he had lost a long time ago. 

Bernard Is A Host - Westworld

Jeffery Wright’s performance as Bernard in Westworld was one of the brightest spots on an uneven show. Audiences loved him and when it turned out he was a “host”, it was mindblowing for many. As is the nature of shows like Westworld plenty of people “called it” in online discussions, and there were clues to Bernard’s true nature, but for the rest of us, it was a real “wow” moment. 

Who Exactly Is Norman Bates? - Psycho

Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho created a template for modern horror movies that directors are still following today, to great success. One of the most influential moments in the movie is the reveal at the end just who is Norman Bates’ (Anthony Perkins) mother. Before the end, we just see glimpses of her in windows, and comments by Norman. It’s not until the final scenes that we learn she’s been dead for years and Norman has been dressing like her, or even becoming her? 

Agatha All Along - WandaVision

Another TV show that drops plenty of hints for the big twist is Marvel’s WandaVision. As audiences were left wondering who was behind all the weird things happening in Westview. It turns out, it was Wanda’s neighbor Agnes – or Agnes (Kathryn Hahn) all along. It’s one of the most fun reveals on this list as well. 

The Wizard Is A Conman - ​​The Wizard Of Oz

When Dorothy (Judy Garland) finds herself transported to Oz in The Wizard Of Oz, the only way home, as she understands it, is to visit the Wizard, who can help. Along the way, she meets some friends who all need something from the power Wizard. Of course, when they arrive in the Emerald City, they learn the truth, the Wizard is just a conman. What a nightmare! 

The Bad Place - The Good Place

The reveal at the end of Season 1 of The Good Place is just a lot of fun. It’s not so much of a “holy cow” moment as it is an “I love it! moment. Instead of being in the “good” place, aka Heaven, it turns out Eleanor (Kristen Bell) is in the other place, the “bad” place. 

The Big Reveal - The Crying Game

The Crying Game is an emotional movie that takes place during The Troubles in Northern Ireland, but it’s the reveal that Dil (Jaye Davidson) is transgender. Davidson, who retired after only acting in two movies, won all kinds of awards for the role that shocked audiences everywhere, but in retrospect, opened up a new, better, more honest understanding of transgender people. 

Sharon Lives - Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

It’s pure Quentin Tarantino to reveal a twist that not only changes the movie, but history itself. He did in Inglourious Basterds with the death of Hitler and he does it again, perhaps to better effect, in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. Instead of Charlie Manson and his crazy followers killing Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), Dalton, and Booth unwittingly save her by distracting the family. 

Waking Up In A Different Show - Newhart

Newhart in the ‘80s was Bob Newhart’s second sitcom that hit big, after The Bob Newhart Show in the ‘70s. Although neither show was connected at all, with Newhart playing completely different characters, in a different place, they both came together in the final episode when Bob Newhart awakens in bed, on his old show, revealing the second show was all just a dream of his first character. People talked about it for weeks. 

John Doe’s Plan Is Revealed - Se7en

Se7en is a movie that sticks with you long after the credits roll. Kevin Spacey’s performance as the serial killer John Doe is perfect, and it all comes together in the end when he finally reveals his grand plan. Audiences never expected David’s (Brad Pitt) wife, Tracy (Gwenyth Paltrow) to be as involved as she was and what a tragedy it is, setting in motion the end of Doe’s plan, to make David “wrath” and himself as “envy.”

The Whole Family Is In On It - Get Out

Jordan Peele got everyone talking about his directorial debut Get Out when it was revealed to the audience that not only were Rose’s (Allison Williams) parents performing twisted experiments on African-Americans, but Rose herself was involved, tricking her boyfriend Chis (Daniel Kaluuya) into going home with her to be a victim. Always question things when they seem off.

Helly’s Outie Is An Insider - Severance

One of the most talked about shows of 2022 was Apple TV+’s Severance. Questions abound throughout the first season, but what makes the twist so good is that it’s a huge reveal, that viewers didn’t even know they needed to know. Helly’s (Britt Lower) “outie” is in fact part of the family that is responsible for the twisted company’s project in the basement. 

The Narrator Is Tyler Durden - Fight Club

David Fincher is a master of late reveals and his movie Fight Club, based on the book by Chuck Palahniuk, is no exception. Though the movie was a box office disappointment it’s since become a quintessential cult film. It’s a mindblowing moment when you put together that Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) is just an alter-ego of The Narrator (Edward Norton).

Dan Is Blogger - Gossip Girl

For six seasons, fans wondered who was behind the Gossip Girl blog in Gossip Girl. Finally, after years of speculation, it’s revealed that Dan (Penn Badgley) is actually the voice behind the screen, despite being voiced by Kristen Bell throughout the show. Of course, other characters filled the role of the Gossip Girl, but Dan was the man, it turned out. 

Leland Palmer Killed Laura - Twin Peaks

The central mystery of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks is the murder of Laura Palmer. For one and a half seasons, it’s all the fans talked about it. When it was finally revealed in Season 2 that it was Laura’s father, Leland who did the deed. David Lynch wasn't happy with Season 2, but audiences loved it. 

It’s All In The Title - The Game

The Game is not one of David Fincher’s most talked about movies, but it should be. It has a fantastic, mindblowing reveal at the end when Nicholas (Michael Douglas) learns that all the craziness that he’s been through is all part of an elaborate game set up by his brother (Sean Penn). The rush for the characters and fans of the movies is intense when we learn the truth together. 

It’s People - Soylent Green

Soylent Green is a movie that is almost exclusively known for its plot twist. In a dystopian future, people subsist on a food called Soylent Green. It’s a mysterious food that in the end, is revealed to be human. Soylent Green is people! It’s become part of pop culture, but it’s a movie few people have actually watched. 

Parasite

The South Korean drama Parasite took the world by storm upon its release and a big reason why is the fantastic twist. On its surface (literally) the movie is a comment on the class struggle in South Korea, but below, it's a wild story about a poor family literally living in the basement of a wealthy family's house. The reveal is truly mindblowing and what sets it apart from other films dealing with the struggle. 

Earth Isn’t All That - Battlestar Galactica

For the first three seasons of Battlestar Galactica, the last remaining humans searched for their home Earth while battling the Cylons along the way. In the final episode of the penultimate season, they finally arrive home, ending their journey. When a group from the Galactica travel down, however, they find the planet in ruins, and uninhabitable due to nuclear radiation from a war centuries earlier. It’s a devastating moment, but in the end, they do find a home. 

The Deed Was Done - Memento

Director Christopher Nolan’s Momento has a lot of twists and turns, given the nature of the film, as Leonard (Guy Pearce) searches for his wife’s killer and the structure of the film's forward and backward timeline. When Leonard finally puts the pieces together, he finds that he got vengeance a year early and had been manipulated by Teddy (Joe Pantoliano) to do dirty work for him. Teddy becomes Leonard’s next target. 

Irene Is Moriarty - Elementary

In Elementary, Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) has an ongoing battle with Jane Moriarty (Natalie Dormer) and often feels the pain of his lost love with Irene Adler. The twist is that Irene and Jane are, in fact, the same person. The relationship between them is very complicated and continues through the run of the show to present problems for Sherlock. 

Modern Times - The Village

M. Night Shyamalan's The Village has one of the better twists in the director’s filmography. The movie is set in 19th-century America, or so we think. The elders of the titular village do everything they can to keep the people in the village because only they know that it’s actually the 21st Century.

Jason’s Mom - Friday The 13th

In one of the all-time great plot twists in horror movie history, Jason Vorhees, the killer of summer campers is not actually Jason, but his mother. She is bent on murdering the campers to avenge her son’s death years earlier. 

It is always so cool to see when former child stars continue to act to this day, which also tends to remind us of the former child stars whom we do not see very often anymore, if not at all. It begs the question, what are they doing these days? Well, allow us to provide that answer about the following one-time child actors.

Shirley Temple 

The quintessential name in child stardom is, undeniably, Shirley Temple, who got her start when she was 3 years old and rose to fame as one of the Depression Era’s biggest stars in movies like The Little Colonel and Bright Eyes. Following her 2014 death at the age of 85, Time published an obituary recalling how she quit acting at 21 and went on to pursue a political career that included running for Congress in 1967 and serving as a U.S. ambassador to Czechoslovakia.

Jonathan Taylor Thomas

After getting his big break on Home Improvement, Jonathan Taylor Thomas joined Disney’s original The Lion King voice cast as Young Simba and landed more movie roles that made him one of the ‘90s most popular teen heartthrobs. He still acts on occasion — such as when he reunited with Tim Allen and Patricia Heaton on Last Man Standing, but is rarely seen in public these days.

Mara Wilson

From her debut in 1993’s Mrs. Doubtfire to her leading role in Roald Dahl’s Matilda three years later, Mara Wilson was the talk of the town in her younger years, but did not always enjoy the experience. A negative experience on the set of 2000’s Thomas and the Magic Railroad convinced her to abandon acting (which she has been doing on occasion in more recent years) and pursue her primary claim to fame these days as an author.

Jeff Cohen

Jeff Cohen of The Goonies cast fame once told The Daily Mail that his career began to slow down when he went from "Chunk to hunk" and started losing weight after hitting puberty. These days, he is an entertainment lawyer and one of his most notable clients is none other than the actor who played Data in the 1985 family adventure classic: Academy Award winner Ke Huy Quan.

Carrie Henn

“Newt” — the young sole survivor of a Xenomorph attack on her colony in 1986’s Aliens — is the first and only acting credit of actor Carrie Henn. She told Tulsa World (via Mirror) that she chose to, instead, follow her true passion in education and succeeded, now working as a teacher.

Peter Ostrum 

After scoring the “Golden Ticket” with his very first acting gig by playing the central role of Charlie Bucket in 1971’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Peter Ostrum immediately turned his back on Hollywood and has not acted since. However, you could say that he does make some contribution to the chocolate industry today by working as a veterinarian for large animals such as cows, as he explains in a segment of OWN’s Where Are They Now?

Mary-Kate And Ashley Olsen

After sharing the role of Michelle Tanner on Full House, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen were on top of the world and both continued to act well into their early 20s. However, the twins did not return for a cameo in Netflix’s revival sitcom, Fuller House, as their successful fashion careers had already begun to take off.

Angus T. Jones

After 10 seasons as Jake Harper on  Two and a Half Men, Angus T. Jones quit the show and acting altogether due to his religious beliefs (which drove him to openly criticize the top-rated sitcom’s raunchy material) and interests in business opportunities. He would later return to the craft, and reunite with Charlie Sheen, by making an uncredited cameo on a 2023 episode of Bookie.

Kay Panabaker

Along with her older sister, Danielle, Kay Panabaker was one of the most promising Disney Channel stars of her generation, appearing in hit shows like Phil of the Future and leading the made-for-TV movie, Read It and Weep. While Danielle still acts (and is best known for starring in The CW’s The Flash), Kay has left that world behind, but still works for Disney as an animal keeper at at Disney World's Animal Kingdom, according to Naperville Magazine.

Charlie Korsmo

Charlie Korsmo is best known for his role in 1991’s Hook as Jack Banning — the son of a Robin Williams’ character, who has forgotten his days as the legendary Peter Pan and grew up to be a lawyer. Coincidentally, after walking away from acting at starring in Can’t Hardly Wait, Korsmo grew up to become an assistant professor of law at Case Western Reserve University, but revealed to the school’s official website that he still gets fan mail from fans of Hook and Dick Tracy.

Taylor Momsen 

Years after her feature film debut as Cindy Lou Who in 2000’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas propelled her to fame, Taylor Momsen’s role in the Gossip Girl cast as Jenny Humphrey was put on indefinite hiatus when her style began to change to match her persona as frontwoman for The Pretty Reckless. She ultimately chose to abandon acting completely for music, which she called a lifesaving decision when speaking to People.

Barret Oliver

You may recognize Barret Oliver as Bastian in 1984’s The NeverEnding Story, the eponymous robotic child from D.A.R.Y.L., David from the Cocoon movies, and even the title role of Tim Burton’s breakout short film, Frankenweenie. He has not acted since the late ‘80s, however, and — as the blog Photo Culture details — he now makes a living as a photographer who specializes in 19th-century printing processes.

Amanda Bynes 

After getting her big break on Nickelodeon’s kid-friendly answer to SNL, All That, Amanda Bynes got her own sketch comedy series called The Amanda Show, led the sitcom What I Like About You, and starred in movies like She’s the Man and Easy A. After announcing her retirement on Twitter in 2013, concerns over her mental health put her under a conservatorship that ended in 2022 and, the following year, she debuted Amanda Bynes and Paul Simienski: The Podcast, which she canceled after one episode.

Norman D. Golden II

Norman D. Golden II made his breakthrough in the 1993 comedy Cop and a Half as a boy who witnesses a murder and agrees to testify if he can be made partner to a cantankerous veteran police officer played by Burt Reynolds. As a profile by The Journal Times reveals, he stopped acting years later to pursue education and nonprofit work but, more recently, has written and produced some projects.

Jennette McCurdy

As Sam Puckett on iCarly, Jennette McCurdy quickly became one of Nickelodeon’s brightest young stars and, following its ending in 2012, would continue to act for a few years. Ultimately, however, as the author said on her podcast, Empty Inside, "I quit... because I initially didn't want to do it. My mom put me in it when I was 6, and by... age 10 or 11, I was the main financial support for my family."

Ross Bagley

Playing Will Smith’s cousin on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and his stepson in Independence Day made Ross Bagley a bit hit in Hollywood at a young age. According to The Sun, he makes a living in real estate these days, but did not decline the opportunity to appear in Max’s The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Reunion in 2020.

Ariana Richards

A former child actor whose most famous roles pitted her against man-eating beasts was Ariana Richards of Jurassic Park and Tremors fame. According to the Daily Mail, in the early 2000s she began taking art classes in Pasadena, which led to her current career as a painter.

Danny Lloyd

One of the best performances by a young actor in one of the best horror movies of all time came courtesy of Danny Lloyd as the gifted Danny Torrance in Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Shining from 1980. In 2017, the Kentucky biology professor told The Guardian that he realized acting was not for him once he reached his teens, but he would make a small cameo in Doctor Sleep — a sequel to the terrifying classic from 2019.

Alisan Porter 

After playing the title role of writer and director John Hughes’ 1991 dramedy Curly Sue, Alisan Porter left acting for years, but would return for a few occasional appearances. She experienced a major career resurgence, however, when she was crowned the winner of The Voice in the singing competition show’s tenth season.=

Luis Armand Garcia

Following his role as Max on George Lopez, Luis Armand’s next and most recent acting credit would mark a reunion with his sitcom dad on NBC’s Lopez vs. Lopez. According to Legit, he spends most of his time performing philanthropic efforts, including for his own foundation, Hands On Horses.

Lisa Jakub 

Best known as Lydia Hillard in Mrs. Doubtfire and Alicia in Independence Day, Lisa Jakub left her acting career behind in the early 2000s. She still exists in the public eye, however, as a blogger, author, and motivational public speaker, as seen on her official website.

Jeremy Suarez 

As Jeremy Suarez got older, the star of The Bernie Mac Show and Disney’s Brother Bear (as the voice of Koda) found it more and more difficult to land acting gigs. As recalled to Atlanta Black Star, this would lead him to pursue a "normal life" working various jobs in construction, with boilermakers, retail, etc.

Liesel Matthews

With only three acting credits to her name, Liesel Matthews considered returning to the craft before a lawsuit against her father and cousins for misusing money meant for her brother stalled that pursuit, as Forbes recalls. Best known as the lead of 1995’s A Little Princess and the First Daughter in Air Force One from 1997, her current claim to fame is her philanthropic efforts.

Willow Smith

Years after making her acting debut alongside her father, Will Smith, as his onscreen daughter in I Am Legend, Willow Smith was supposed to be the star of the 2014 remake of Annie. According to The Guardian, her “intuition” influenced her to pass on the opportunity and, instead, pursue would would turn out to be a very successful music career.

Jake Lloyd

After playing Anakin Skywalker — a young Darth Vader — in 1999’s Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, Jake Lloyd was open about his struggles with criticism over his performance for years that ultimately pushed him out of the spotlight. Following several legal troubles, according to Yahoo, he was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic in 2020.

Jolean Wejbe

According to Big Love showrunner Will Scheffer’s comments to the LA TImes, Jolean Wejbe’s role on the HBO drama as “Teenie” was recast with Bella Thorne in Season 4 after a growth spurt caused the actor to appear older than the character’s age. On LinkedIn, she lists herself as a Computer Science student at California State University, Northridge.

Taran Noah Smith

Taran Noah Smith did not do much acting outside of playing Mark Taylor in the Home Improvement cast and, right after the sitcom ended in 1999, the then 16-year-old quit the business completely. According to EW, he went on to start a vegan food company, constructed installation art for events like Coachella, built energy-efficient water purifiers for the military with his father, and — according to SFGate — later became a submarine pilot instructor.

Tami Stronach 

The Childlike Empress from The NeverEnding Story is the only screen acting role Tami Stronach, who chose to pursue dance instead shortly after. The reason being, as recalled on Mamamia — the then 10-year-old received a lot of unwanted attention from fans who were grown men, some of whom camped outside her family's home. She later became a professor and returned to acting onstage.

Ross Malinger

Ross Malinger had a successful acting career that included starring in Kindergarten Cop, playing Tom Hanks’ onscreen son in Sleepless in Seattle, and voicing T.J. on Recess. According to THR, he went on to manage a car dealership.

Jamie Waylett 

Vincent Crabbe from the Harry Potter movies is the only role that Jamie Waylett ever played, as he was dropped from the gig in 2011 due to legal trouble that put him behind bars. According to Metro, he still makes a living putting himself in the public eye by using an app called Cameo.

Caitlin Sanchez 

Caitlin Sanchez made her debut on Law & Order: SVU and appeared on Lipstick Jungle, but is best known as the voice of Dora the Explorer — a role she was fired from when her voice changed. However, as THR reported, when she was left with no compensation to show for it, she filed a $10 million lawsuit against Nickelodeon, only to settle for $500,000.

Jason Zimbler 

Following his role as Fergus Darling — Melissa Joan Hart’s onscreen brother — on Nickelodeon’s Clarissa Explains It All, Jason Zimbler had a career in theater. However, as of 2011, he works at HBO as a software engineer, according to The Sun.

Not every child actor is destined for a life of fame, but at least they have the opportunity to discover their true callings early on.

Look, as someone who watches a lot of TV, there are a lot of television characters that I have come to love, whether it be from the Stranger Things cast, the Game of Thrones cast, or more. But today, we will talk about the characters that deserved (or deserve) way more screen time. 

That's right; we're talking about the side characters we all loved, the strange ones we never got answers to, or even those killed off too early – so obviously, significant spoilers for shows ahead. 

Twyla (Schitt's Creek)

Look, I'll be the first to say that the Schitt's Creek cast is exceptionally talented and features some of the best modern-day TV comedy, but how come no one ever talked about Twyla? She was one of the few people in the town who was genuinely kind to the Roses and would always be there for them no matter what. It's a shame we never got to know her more besides her strange family life. 

Creed Bratton (The Office)

The Office cast is full of strange characters that we may have met once and never seen again, but Creed Bratton is someone I would kill to see more of in the show. He was just so…weird, and the few moments we did get to see him in a more active role in the series, he would always make me laugh the hardest because of the most out-of-pocket things he would say – you can't get better than him.

Sunshine Corazon (Glee)

As someone who loved all the best Glee covers and truly does enjoy the Glee cast, one side character I wish got more screen time was Sunshine Corazon. We saw her a couple of times throughout the show's six seasons, and that is just a crime – with a voice like that? Rachel Berry can step to the side. 

Oberyn Martell (Game Of Thrones)

I know Pedro Pascal's best movies and TV shows have expanded dramatically since his time on Game of Thrones, and while he may be known as Din Djarin or Joel Miller now, he'll always be Oberyn Martell to me. And what's even more surprising is that he was only in the fourth season before he was killed off – a man of that swagger should have been around for way longer.  

Tuco Salamanca (Breaking Bad)

The Breaking Bad cast is incredibly talented, but can we talk about the fact that Tuco Salamanca should have been as big of a villain as Gus? If not more? He was such a prominent figure in Season 1, and then he was just killed off at the beginning of Season 2, and we barely heard about him again. Sure, we saw him a little bit in Better Call Saul, but in comparison to the original? No. I needed more.  

Nadia (New Girl)

While the New Girl cast is hilarious, and the story itself is one I can genuinely love watching again and again, we could have seen more of Cece's life outside of Jess' bubble – precisely her time as a model with her model friends like Nadia (Rebecca Reid), who arguably had the most hilarious date with Schmidt and said the strangest things. It could have been great to see her in more episodes. 

Shego (Kim Possible)

Oh, don't even get me started on Shego from Kim Possible. Yes, I know, she's the partner to the bad guy in the famous Disney Channel series, but it's Shego. She's a kick-butt villain with surprisingly great chemistry with Kim, and she looked good. I would have been fine having her just be the villain instead of Dr. Drakken. 

Euron Greyjoy (Game Of Thrones)

As someone who has read the Game of Thrones novels, Euron's portrayal in the show greatly bothers me. Surprisingly, he's one of the few characters in Game of Thrones who wasn't in the show as much as you would think, and yet, somehow, he left a bad taste in my mouth. I would have liked to see him in more episodes so we could better expand his story and make him the scary person he is supposed to be from the books. 

Ekko (Arcane)

As someone who is patiently waiting for Arcane Season 2, Ekko is a character I would die to see more of in the next part of the story. We only saw Ekko for a couple of episodes in Season 1, and for half of them, he was injured. I saw how much of a fighter he could become; we need more Ekko. I demand it. 

Lexa (The 100)

If you were a fan of The 100 in 2015, you knew how devastating this loss was. The 100 cast was talented and created a huge show, but Lexa was arguably one of the most popular characters. When she and the main character, Clarke, finally got together romantically, she was killed. I mean, come on. There could have been so many more episodes with her. I'm still upset.

Ellie Alves (You) 

Jenna Ortega played Ellie Alves in Season 2 of You, and she was such a great counterpart to Joe in the scenes she was in. She was spunky but also a good kid that Joe genuinely wanted to keep safe. Ortega's portrayal of her made her that much more enjoyable, and I wish we got to see more of her. 

Bo Thompson (Superstore)

Superstore feels like it goes under the radar for how hilarious it truly is, and while the Superstore cast is entirely made up of great characters, I would have loved to see Bo Thompson in more episodes. And what's better is that in the few episodes we got to see him, he grew up a lot, which I can appreciate. I would have loved to see more. 

Heath (The Walking Dead)

So, like, Heath just vanished in The Walking Dead. Angela Kang says that Heath was captured by Jadis and traded to Civic Republic Military, but it was so sudden that fans everywhere were left wondering what the point of his character even was. I would have liked to see more of him so that I could care more about him disappearing. 

Ty Lee (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

I love Ty Lee from Avatar: The Last Airbender and she's one character that I'm sure could have been expanded on more if she were given more episodes. Not only was she incredibly flexible and able to leap from building to building with her incredible acrobatic skills, she was sweet and kind. I would have loved to learn more about her background with her family aside from knowing she came from identical sisters—such a shame. 

Susan Bunch (Friends)

Yes, I know we all love the Friends cast, but let's talk about Susan Bunch for a second. Friends was released in the early 1990s, and to me, she was one of the first openly gay characters I saw on a primetime sitcom as a child – and in doing so, it made me feel a little more comfortable with my sexuality as I grew older. We barely got to see her, while we would see her wife, Carol (and Ross's former wife), way more. I would have loved to see her. 

Judge Gen (The Good Place)

I mean, it's Maya Rudolph – we always want to see more of Maya Rudolph because she is hilarious. Even so, Judge Gen from The Good Place was hilarious every time she appeared on screen, and I don't think anyone would complain if we saw her more throughout the show. 

Jean-Ralphio Saperstein (Parks And Recreation)

Yes, the Parks and Recreation cast is so funny it hurts, but tell me why we didn't see more of Jean-Ralphio Saperstein. He was hilarious and was portrayed by Ben Schwartz, who truly knocked this role out of the park. Saperstein was even in talks to get his own spinoff series – that's how you know he deserved way more episodes. 

Beth (The Walking Dead)

Watching Beth die in Season 5 of The Walking Dead broke a part of me that I don't think I'll ever get back. It was one of the most heartbreaking deaths of The Walking Dead, and I still believe that if she were given more episodes, she could have had some of the best character development of all time. It's such a shame. 

Lyanna Mormont (Game Of Thrones)

While I'm sure most of us all know Bella Ramsay from her role on The Last of Us on HBO now, I first knew her in Game of Thrones when she played Lyanna Mormont, the feisty Lady of Bear Island. Despite her lasting impact, the character only appeared in nine episodes – and we should have had way more. 

Edgar Evernever (Riverdale)

Riverdale had some of the strangest villains throughout its seven-season run. Edgar Evernever was one of the worst and weirdest, considering he was the leader of a cult that harvested organs from vulnerable people. And when he was caught, he decided to take off in his rocket before getting shot -- what? That's so out there. He's such a strange, charismatic character – and out of everyone, I would have liked to see him more. 

Mose Schrute (The Office)

The Office has so many strange characters that appear occasionally, but Mose Schrute is someone I needed to see more of, if not for the fact that he was related to Dwight. Like, if you're related to Dwight Schrute, you're going to be a weird person, and I would have probably laughed my butt off to see more of him.

Mai (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Mai was one of Azula's friends in Avatar: The Last Airbender and Zuko's on-again-off-again girlfriend, and while she certainly had her moody moments, I would have liked to see more of her. I wanted to understand why she became the way she is, her family's history, and how she ended up falling for Zuko – we got a little more in the comics, but it would have been nice to see it on screen. 

Coach (New Girl)

Yes, I know we all love Winston from New Girl and that Coach was supposed to be the original third roommate in that apartment, but Coach is so funny. We didn't see much of him in the show, and he would have made us all laugh so much if he had been given more episodes and storylines. 

Eve (Supernatural)

Eve was a supporting Supernatural character that could have been amazing if given the chance. The show started moving in a different direction, and Eve became one of the prominent antagonists, but she was killed so quickly in Season 6 that I could barely register it. I wanted to see so much more of her.

June (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

She was a bounty hunter in Avatar: The Last Airbender who rode an incredible beast that could scent anything. How the heck did she become that? When did she find this monster? We barely saw her in the show, and I would have loved to see more. She was so cool.

Jinx (Teen Titans)

As someone who did love Teen Titans when it first came out, there were so many side characters that I wish I saw way more of. Jinx was a minor villain that we didn't get to see much until Season 5, when her character is expanded on for one episode and then not talked about again for a while – her powers of bad luck could have been talked about way more, personally. 

Bill (The Last Of Us)

I know we all loved that Bill and Frank episode in The Last of Us, but as someone who also loved that episode and the game, I would have done anything to see Nick Offerman's Bill meet Ellie. It was such a significant moment in the game. I would have liked to see more episodes of him – but I suppose I'm happy with Bill getting a partially happy ending this time. 

Eddie Munson (Stranger Things)

The entire Stranger Things fandom agrees that Eddie Munson could have been in more show episodes. An all-star of Season 4 of the series, Munson was a fan-favorite with a lot going for him, and Joseph Quinn blew up in the spotlight afterward. It's a shame he's gone.

Margaery Tyrell (Game Of Thrones)

The Season 6 finale of Game of Thrones saw the end of Margaery Tyrell, and even if she were in the show from Season 2 on, I would have given anything to see her in more episodes, even beyond Season 6. She was one of the few people who truly was a foil to Cersei – and their interactions were everything. 

The Weirdos (Portlandia)

Portlandia was such a strange but funny show overall, and The Weirdos were arguably some of the best parts of it. Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein played them, and they were people dressed in goth attire that would do some hilarious things – which I could have seen a whole spinoff of if we're being honest. 

Georgina Sparks (Gossip Girl)

It seemed that whenever Georgina Sparks appeared in Gossip Girl, things turned upside down for every character on the popular CW show. And yet, Georgina wasn't in the show that much, and while her name lives on, I wish we could have seen more of her drama. I wanted all the craziness she could bring – not just the few episodes we got. 

Danny (Teen Wolf)

I will never forgive Teen Wolf for removing Danny in the show. Not only was he a popular character, but he had revealed in Season 3 that he knew about all the creatures at Beacon Hills. And then, in Season 4, he's just gone. Vanished. Poof. The showrunner says that Danny graduated early, but, like...what? A fan favorite just gone? Bothers me every time. 

So many great characters deserve more love and episodes, but these are just some of the few that come to mind. Now I need to re-watch Avatar: The Last Airbender again for all the characters I love. 

One Tree Hill is a classic teen drama, and to this day it’s beloved for its soapy drama, romances and focus on friendship, family and basketball. The story follows the iconic OTH cast – which features Chad Michael Murray, James Lafferty, Sophia Bush, Hilarie Burton and Bethany Joy Lenz – as they make their way through high school in a small town. This early 2000s series was a staple of its time, and if you are looking to find this kind of drama and nostalgia again I have some show recommendations for you.

The O.C.

When the wealthy Cohen family adopts Ryan Atwood (Ben McKenzie), he and Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) go about their dramatic lives in Orange County.

Why The O.C. Is Like One Tree Hill: This soapy teen drama from the early 2000s focuses on two brothers, albeit their relationship is a lot healthier than Nathan and Lucas’, and their journey through high school. With romantic pairings like Seth (Brody) and Summer (Rachel Bilson), and big dramatic moments played out by the ensemble cast of The O.C. too, it’s actually super similar to One Tree Hill.

Stream The O.C. on Max.

Stream The O.C. on Hulu. 

Outer Banks

A crew of teens from the Outer Banks, led by Chase Stokes’ John B. are on the hunt for an ancient treasure. 

Why Outer Banks Is Like One Tree Hill: Need a show that also takes place in one of the two Carolina states and features beloved romances, intense adventures and unexpected action? Outer Banks is for you. While its main character John B. almost dies way more often than any character on One Tree Hill, it’s still full of the same soapy drama that I’m sure you’ll like if you dug the early 2000s show. 

Stream Outer Banks on Netflix.

Dawson's Creek

To this day, you’ll find people re-watching Dawson’s Creek much like they do One Tree Hill. The story follows Dawson (James Van Der Beek) and Joey (Katie Holmes) through high school and the drama that ensues between them and their romantic interests – especially when Pacey (Joshua Jackson) and Jen (Michelle Williams) get involved.

Why Dawson’s Creek Is Like One Tree Hill: This show is arguably the most similar to One Tree Hill on this list. Both series ran for many seasons during the early 2000s and centered around high schoolers dealing with love, life, family and soapy drama. Along with their plot similarities, both the Dawson’s Creek cast and OTH ensemble took off because of their shows. Also, Chad Michael Murray played a role in both seminal teen dramas. 

Stream Dawson’s Creek on Hulu.

Stream Dawson's Creek on Amazon Prime.

Stream Dawson's Creek on The CW.

Gossip Girl

Gossip Girl centers around a group of rich Upper Eastside teens (and Dan from Brooklyn) who are targeted by the titular anonymous gossip blog. 

Why Gossip Girl Is Like One Tree Hill: While the New York City setting is what greatly differentiates these two shows, at their core, they are both centered around a dramatic high school and the interpersonal relationships between the core characters. And let’s face it, both One Tree Hill and Gossip Girl live up to their hype because of their iconic relationships (like Chuck and Blair and Nathan and Haley). 

Stream Gossip Girl on Max.

Stream Gossip Girl on The Roku Channel.

Gilmore Girls

Mother/daughter duo Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Rory (Alexis Bledel) live in Stars Hallow, and they go about life in their small town with their friends and family.

Why Gossip Girl Is Like One Tree Hill: Both Tree Hill and Stars Hallow are small towns, and both shows span over many years as we watch the ensemble cast grow up. Also, like Gilmore Girls, OTH focuses a lot on family, both biological and found. Not to mention, one of the Gilmore Girls cast members whose career took off after he starred in the show was our beloved Chad Michael Murray – however, a big difference is Lucas from Tree Hill is significantly nicer than Stars Hollow’s Tristin.

Stream Gilmore Girls on Netflix.

Riverdale

Based on Archie Comics, Riverdale follows Archie (K.J. Apa), Betty (Lili Reinhart), Jughead (Cole Sprouse) and Veronica (Camila Mendes) through high school. Throughout the show, there are murder mysteries, supernatural entanglements and even musicals.

Why Riverdale Is Like One Tree Hill: If you are looking for over-the-top high school drama, relationships that you’re excited to ship and a fun ensemble, both these shows have you covered. While Riverdale has crazy plot twists that involve more magic and mystery than OTH, they both will fill your need for a good ol' high school drama. Oh, also, Chad Michael Murray guest stars in a few episodes of this too.

Stream Riverdale on Netflix.

Stream Riverdale on The CW.

Friday Night Lights

Friday Night Lights follows one of high school’s best football teams, the Dillon Panthers, and their coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler).

Why Friday Night Lights Is Like One Tree Hill: The biggest reason these two shows are like one another is how sports play into the story. The majority of the Friday Night Lights cast are on or involved with the town’s football team. Just switch the sport to basketball, and you have a similar situation with One Tree Hill, especially in the earlier seasons. 

Stream Friday Night Lights on Netflix.

Stream Friday Night Lights on Hulu.

Stream Friday Night Lights on Amazon Prime.

All American

All American follows a young football player, Spencer James (Daniel Ezra) after he moves as he attempts to adjust to his new school, life and team. 

Why All American Is Like One Tree Hill: While there are many shows like All American, One Tree Hill stands out as an apt comparison because it's centered around sports -- football and basketball, respectively -- and the story of one guy adjusting to a new team. While Spencer is new at his school, Lucas has been in Tree Hill forever. However, when he joins the basketball team, it almost feels like he’s the new kid. 

Stream All American on Netflix.

Stream All American on The CW.

On My Block

On My Block follows Monse (Sierra Capri), Ruby (Jason Genao), Jamal (Brett Gray) and Cesar (Diego Tinoco) through high school in this coming-of-age drama. 

Why All American Is Like One Tree Hill: When it comes to the legacies of On My Block and One Tree Hill, they both stand as beloved dramas about growing up, coming-of-age and friendship. If you are looking for a YA drama from more recent years, this is the show for you.

Stream On My Block on Netflix.

Parenthood

Parenthood follows the Braverman family by focusing on Zeek (Craig T. Nelson) and Camille (Bonnie Bedelia), their kids and grandkids. 

Why Parenthood Is Like One Tree Hill: Along with One Tree Hill and Parenthood featuring famous folks you forgot were in it, its central focus on family and the trauma and love that comes with them is the major reason why these two shows are alike. 

Stream Parenthood on Hulu.

Degrassi

This long-running Canadian teen drama follows an ensemble of kids as they deal with love, life and high school as well as the transition from childhood into adulthood. 

Why Degrassi Is Like One Tree Hill: Like One Tree Hill, Degrassi was long-running, ending on Season 14, and it told its stories in a soapy way. Whether it be tales of love, coursework, sports or the occasional crime, both shows are big and dramatic, which is why we love them.

Stream Degrassi on Amazon Prime.

Stream Degrassi on Max.

Stream Degrassi on Tubi.

The Summer I Turned Pretty

The Summer I Turned Pretty focuses on Belly (Lola Tung) and her relationship with Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) and Conrad Fisher (Christopher Briney) as she navigates her romantic feelings for the brothers.

Why The Summer I Turned Pretty Is Like One Tree Hill: Both TSITP and One Tree Hill have romance at the center of them, and feature some seriously iconic love triangles. From Lucas, Peyton and Brooke on OTH to the aforementioned Belly, Jeremiah and Conrad, the romantic relationships in these shows are messy, dramatic and oh-so-compelling. 

Stream The Summer I Turned Pretty on Amazon Prime.

One Tree Hill is truly one of the most iconic teen dramas, and luckily many came both before and after it that are worth checking out. So, after you see how Brooke, Lucas, Nathan, Haley and Peyton’s stories come to a close, make sure to check a few of the aforementioned shows out. I’m sure you’ll enjoy them! 

In the modern world of streaming, ratings don't really mean what they used to mean for most TV shows. Looking back, it's incredible how many people were tuning in for some of these famous shows' episodes with the highest ratings, so let's dig in and see what kind of numbers they drew. Warning: this story contains spoilers. 

ER - "Ambush" 

At its peak in the mid-1990s, ER was the most popular show on TV. It comes as no surprise that its highest-rated episode fits right in the middle of it. Episode 1 of Season 3, titled "Ambush" drew a whopping 42.71 million viewers, one of the highest-rated dramas of all time. 

The West Wing - "In The Shadow of Two Gunman" 

The West Wing is considered by many to be one of the best television shows of all time, especially the first four seasons. The Season 1 cliffhanger was of shots fired at President Bartlett (Martin Sheen) and 25.05 million people tuned in to the Season 2 premiere "In The Shadow Of Two Gunman" to see what happened. 

Breaking Bad - "Felina" 

By the time Breaking Bad came around, ratings numbers were completely different. With the dawn first of cable TV, then of streaming, TV shows didn't draw the same number of viewers network shows did at their peak. Still, the highest-rated episode was still watched by a respectable 10.28 million watchers. The episode was of course the series finale, "Felina." 

Better Call Saul - "Uno"

The Breaking Bad spinoff, Better Call Saul benefited from its connection to the hit AMC show, and when it debuted in 2016, the first episode drew its highest ratings through its run, 2.57 million viewers. 

Atlanta - "The Big Bang"

Looking at the numbers for Atlanta you can see how things have changed in the television landscape. The critically acclaimed show was very popular, but its numbers are dwarfed by older shows. The most-watched episode of the Donald Glover-driven show was the premiere with 1.08 million people tuning in. 

The Sopranos - "For All Debts Public and Private" 

This one is a bit of a surprise. The finale of The Sopranos was a huge deal and it felt like everyone in the world was tuning in. It is not, however, the highest-rated episode for the series. That distinction belongs to Episode 1 of Season 4, "For All Debts Public and Private." The show's peak reached 13.43 million people, which is really impressive for a pay channel.

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - "Ch-Ch-Changes" 

For the first seven seasons of its run on CBS, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation completely dominated the ratings for dramatic shows. It regularly drew 20-25 million viewers every week. It reached its apex with Episode 8 of Season 5 when 31.46 million viewers tuned in to  "Ch-Ch-Changes."

The Office - "Pilot" 

The Office remains one of the most beloved sitcoms ever. You might expect episodes like Pam and Jim's wedding to crush it ratings-wise, but it was actually the pilot episode, way back in 2005 that takes the title, with 11.23 million people. 

Roots - Final Episode

Okay, this is fudging a little bit. Roots was really a mini-series, not a regular show, but it's impossible not to include it because the ratings were so insane. It's estimated that 100 million people watched the final episode on PBS in 1977. 36.36 million TV sets were tuned in, which was 71% of the total TV viewership in its timeslot. 1 in 4 TVs in the whole country were tuned to Roots.

Lost - "Man of Science, Man of Faith" 

Lost took the TV world by storm when it debuted in 2004. By the end of Season 1, fans were glued to their sets every week. 23.47 million of those fans tuned in for the first episode of Season 2, "Man of Science, Man of Faith" to find out what was in the hatch. 

Magnum, P.I. - "Resolutions" 

Thomas Magnum has had an enduring legacy on TV, first with Tom Selleck in the role, and then with Jay Hernandez in the recent reboot of Magnum, P.I. In the original show's run, the ratings were generally good, though they fell off as the years went on. Still, the series finale showed just how popular the show was when, according to the fansite MagnumMania, the final episode drew 50.7 million viewers, ranking it 5th all-time for a single episode. 

This Is Us - "A Father's Advice"

While network shows have generally seen ratings decline over recent years, NBC's This Is Us bucked the trend and brought back the idea of "must see TV." The tear-jerker regularly drew high ratings throughout its 6 seasons run, peaking at 12.94 fans tuning in for Season 2, Episode 1 titled "A Father's Advice". 

The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air - "Just Say Yo"

Will Smith was just getting started on his acting career when The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air first aired in 1990. Two and a half seasons later, it was clear how popular he'd become when Episode 19 of Season 3, "Just Say Yo," found 30.6 million people tuning in to watch the hijinks of Will and Carlton making some bad decisions about some pills. 

Mad Men - "Person to Person" 

AMC's Mad Men stayed remarkably consistent through its entire seven season run. The ratings didn't fall off a cliff like so many shows do at some point. Sure, it's a more modern show, so the ratings aren't through the roof like the pre-cable era, but still 3.29 people watched as the series came to a close in Episode 14 of Season 6, called "Person to Person" when Don Draper finally seems human at the end. 

Dallas - "Who Done It" 

"Who shot J.R.?" was more than just a TV catchphrase. For the entire summer of 1980, people everywhere were asking the same question.  J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) getting shot at the end of Season 3 of Dallas remains to this day the most famous cliffhanger in TV history. Episode 1 of Season 4 reflects just what a huge deal it was when 61% of the TVs in the country tuned in to find out who did it, which translated to 38 million people at the time. The show dragged it out of course, and the ratings peaked for Episode 4 of that season when we all learned who actually did it. An astounding 76% of all the TVs in America were tuned to CBS for the episode "Who Done It." 53 million people. Just nuts. 

The Simpsons - "Bart Gets An F" 

The Simpsons holds a lot of TV records, as you would expect for a show that's been on since the first George Bush was President. Surprisingly, its highest-rated episode came very early on in its run. Season 2, Episode 1 "Bart Gets An F" remains the highest rating the show's ever gotten, with 33.6 million viewers. It's a classic episode, but you'd think something like "Who Shot Mr. Burns" would have eclipsed it, but nope. 

Seinfeld - "The Finale" 

It will come as no surprise that Seinfeld is responsible for one of the highest-rated episodes of all time. The final episode of the show, simply called "The Finale" drew an unbelievable 76.26 million viewers. Those are numbers that we will likely never see again with the diversification of viewer habits. It is simply amazing. 

The Wire - "Port in a Storm" 

While The Wire is often ranked at the top, or very near the top of the greatest TV shows of all time, it had pretty modest ratings during its original run. Fans at the time were always worried that HBO was going to cancel the beloved show. The show hit its ratings peak in Season 2, with Episode 12 "Port In A Storm" which sees the demise of Frank Sobotka, with 4.48 million fans tuning in. 

Succession - "With Open Eyes" 

HBO has a knack for churning out hit after hit and Succession is no exception. What's different is how people consume those hits these days. With the rise of streaming, ratings on HBO don't come close to what they used to be and that's reflected in Succession's highest-rated episode, the series finale, "With Open Eyes," only garnering 800k viewers. No doubt that number was much higher on the MAX streaming platform, and it was met with widespread critical acclaim. 

House - "One Day, One Room" 

For seven seasons on Fox, House was among the network's most popular shows. Episodes like when Dr. House (Hugh Laurie) was shot and others garnered high ratings, but the highest ratings came when it was revealed if House would beat the drug charges against him in Season 3, Episode 4, "One Day, One Room."

M*A*S*H - "Goodbye, Farewell, Amen" 

Here it is. The granddaddy of them all. The series finale of M*A*S*H, a show that famously ran for 5 times as many years as the actual Korean conflict lasted, was a television event that will never come close to being matched. The episode, titled "Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen" drew an insane 105 million viewers. It was at the time, and remained for years, the highest-rated TV show of all time. It wasn't until 2010 that even a Super Bowl surpassed it.  

Gossip Girl - "The Dark Night" 

Gossip Girl has a big place in the hearts of its fans and its highest rated episode, "The Dark Night" in Season 2 reflects that as it's usually ranked as one of the best shows of the series. The episode drew 3.73 million fans to the screen

The Walking Dead - "No Sanctuary" 

AMC had another huge hit on their hands with The Walking Dead. The show, especially in its early seasons, drew enormous ratings. The show was also the master at cliffhangers, so it's not surprising that one of the biggest, with our heroes locked in a train car at the end of Season 4 would be resolved with the highest-rated show of the series, Episode 1 of Season 5, which drew 17.29 million watchers. 

Cheers

Like so many shows in the '80s and '90s, it was the finale of Cheers that scored huge numbers. The final episode, appropriately named "One For The Road," was watched by 80 million people in the U.S., ranking among the highest-rated shows ever. Many in Gen X can remember where they were when Sam (Ted Danson) turned the lights off in Cheers for the final time. 

Game of Thrones - "The Iron Throne" 

In a rare example of streaming likely helping a TV show's ratings, Game of Thrones' viewership numbers steadily climbed as the show moved along, culminating in the 13.61 million people that tuned in to HBO to watch the finale. While critics and fans had mixed reviews of the ending, you can't argue with the numbers. 

Full House - "Happy Birthday, Babies" 

The legacy of Full House is huge. Millions of fans still love the show enough that it was brought back decades after it ended with Fuller House. The family is still one of the most loved in TV history, so the episode "Happy Birthday, Babies" in Season 5, when Becky gives birth to Nicky and Alex, is unsurprisingly the most-watched episode, with 35.7 million people tuning in. 

Friends - "The Last One" 

You will not be shocked to learn that the series finale of Friends, "The Last One," is one of the most-watched shows of all time. The ratings juggernaut saved its best for last with 52.2 million fans watching as the show came to a close. It's good enough for 5th all-time, among TV finales. 

Grey’s Anatomy - "It's The End Of The World" 

Full disclosure here, the highest rated episode of Grey’s Anatomy had a little help, as the Season 2 ep aired directly after a Super Bowl. The result was a monster viewership of 38.1 million people. The show has always been very successful and its ratings are regularly among the highest on TV, but it's hard to imagine it ever topping that number. 

Yellowstone - "One Hundred Years Is Nothing" 

The newest show on this list is Paramount's Yellowstone. The Kevin Costner-led show started modestly, but over its first five seasons, it's grown into a powerhouse. The Season 5 premiere is the cherry on top of John Dutton's cake as he got sworn in as governor of Montana with 9.4 million people watching. 

The Cosby Show - Series finale

Like many of its fellow sitcoms, The Cosby Show's final episode was its peak, with 44.4 million viewers. A huge show that will never be seen the same way ever again, but worth mentioning on this list. 

Family Matters - "Life of the Party" 

The enduring legacy of Family Matters is the character Steve Urkel, played by Jaleel White, so it's only appropriate that the highest rated episode was in Season 2 when Urkel taught everyone how to do "The Urkel" dance. 30.9 people danced along at home. 

Arrow - "The Scientist" 

Arrow had a long run, lasting seven seasons, and it kept its ratings remarkably consistent, at least until the last couple of seasons. The high water mark for the superhero show was 3.24 million viewers for the Season 3 episode, "The Scientist."

If you're wondering what program has the highest ratings of all time, it's not a Super Bowl, though eight Super Bowls are in the top 10. The highest-rated TV broadcast of all time was the Moon landing in 1969 with somewhere in the neighborhood of 125 million people watching on all three networks, in total. A small step for a man, a giant leap in TV viewership. 

In 2003, Adam Brody’s Seth Cohen introduced us all to “Chrismukkah” on The O.C. As the son of a Christian mom and Jewish dad, he wanted to celebrate both holidays, so he decided to create a super holiday. Since then, this silly term has continued to be used. However, it turns out the actor’s own wife, Leighton Meester, only recently found out her partner helped coin the fantastic word. 

So, with Chrismukkah fast approaching, let’s learn about how the hybrid holiday came to be, and why Adam Brody’s wife and fellow actor didn’t fully realize he was one of the folks who helped create it. 

How The O.C. Came Up With Chrismukkah

In Season 1, Episode 13 of the teen drama, aptly titled “The Best Chrismukkah Ever,” Brody’s character passionately explained the thinking behind the combo holiday to his friend (and The O.C. cast’s leading man) Ryan, saying:

His mom then admitted they didn’t know which religion to raise Seth under, and he said:

While speaking with Huff Post in 2013, The O.C.’s creator Josh Schwartz explained why they came up with the now iconic holiday term. Noting that it was partly inspired by his own experiences and the intentional choice to have Seth grow up in an interfaith family he said:

Seth does say in the episode that one of the benefits of the holiday is having “eight days of presents, followed by one day of many presents.” You can see the other traditions of Chrismukkah in the hilarious clip from The O.C. below:

Schwartz then went on to say they were trying to pick between Chrismukkah or “Hanimas.” I think they chose correctly because, the creative said they “probably should’ve done a better job of trademarking it and selling greeting cards,” since the term has become so widely used. 

Many know that Seth Cohen coined the term in 2003. However, Adam Brody’s wife Leighton Meester was totally unaware that her partner helped make the word iconic until recently, even though both Chrismukkah and The O.C. are over 20 years old now.

Leighton Meester Only Recently Found Out Chrismukkah Originated On Adam Brody’s Show 

It turns out, Leighton Meester, Adam Brody’s wife and fellow 2000s teen drama star, “didn’t know” his show created the holiday verbiage until recently. While speaking with The Messanger about her own project on the 2023 Christmas movie schedule, EXmas, the former Gossip Girl cast member said:

I find it hard to believe that Meester didn’t know her husband helped coin the term Chrismukkah, especially since she said they kind of celebrate both holidays in their home. 

Both Meester and Brody have starred in two legendary teen shows, and like The O.C., Gossip Girl also had some fabulous holiday episodes that are full of fun and unique traditions (and lots of drama, obviously). However, they were more known for their Thanksgiving episodes, not Christmas (or Chrismukkah).

If you are looking to throw it back, and watch the holiday episodes of The O.C. and Gossip Girl to get in the Chrismukkah, Christmas, Hanukkah or holiday spirit, you can stream both shows with a Max subscription. When you are done with that, make sure to check out our list of the best Christmas movies to continue the festivities. 

I'm a massive fan of television. It started when I was young and watched hours of Disney Channel shows, but of course, it has now expanded into the world of adult television through several different genres – drama, comedy, horror, you name it, and I've probably watched it. I had to do something while at home when the pandemic had us confined to our homes. 

But in my time watching show after show, various options started out fantastic. They had excellent plots, brilliant storytelling, and great acting, then slowly dwindled. From terrible, horrible TV show endings or shows that dipped in quality over time, here are 30+ great shows that lost their way by the end. 

The Walking Dead

Do you want to hear a fun fact about myself? I watched The Walking Dead until the bitter end, and the emotional Walking Dead finale made me cry a ton. But man, it definitely could have been better. 

The Walking Dead started hot when it first aired and had a pretty steady and brilliantly told storyline until about Season 6, and then when Andrew Lincoln ended up leaving, it all started to tumble down the weeds. 

While we have a good amount of fan favorites coming back for The Walking Dead universe shows, it never quite picked itself up after that when the show was one the series to be watching. 

Lost 

Lost is known now for its awful finale, but truthfully, the entirety of the series had a downfall slump. The main reason is that it was literally consumed by all the mysteries that needed to be solved by the end of the series, and somehow, the show 'lost' itself that way. And, of course, we don't even need to talk about the horrible ending. I hadn't even watched the show then; it was all I heard about for weeks. 

Riverdale 

I remember writing long ago that I had plenty of issues with Riverdale, but I never expected it to turn into the off-brand MCU because that's exactly what happened somehow and they all had powers. And then, in the last season, the main group went back in time somehow. What the heck? What happened? 

This hit CW show started so good with the murder mystery, and then it just tumbled completely.

Game Of Thrones

So I'll be honest here and say that I have rewatched Game of Thrones, and plenty of it still holds up, but you can tell it starts to dip in quality at the very beginning of Season 7 – maybe even Season 6, though I did love "Battle of the Bastards."

Even so, the Game of Thrones ending is pretty much considered one of the worst of the 2010s, and as a hardcore Daenerys supporter, I fully stand by that. They did my girl – and almost all of these characters – dirty. 

The Office

The Office is another clear-cut example of when a main character leaves, the show starts to fall apart. The hit sitcom did try to pick itself up after Steve Carell left in Season 7, but it never reached the heights of where it once was. I was glad we saw him for the finale, but it never felt the same.

Heroes

The first season of any show is crucial, and Heroes had one of the best, featuring the story of ordinary people who discover they have superhuman abilities. This was the superhero show before all the MCU shows started to take over. 

But then Season 2 came along, and this show went downhill fast. It was just horrendously bad, and I, for one, struggled to get through the rest of the seasons after that. 

Westworld

Westworld had everything going for it: a fantastic idea, an excellent Westworld cast, and, the best yet, the funding of HBO to truly take this world into the new age. 

But then both Season 2 and Season 3 happened, and the plot got so convoluted I could barely keep up with it, and all the characters I once loved, I  ended up hating. And then the fourth season came and it’s just so different from what we were given. Unsurprisingly, it was canceled after the fourth season when backlash started to grow more and reviews went down.

That '70s Show 

I don't know what it is about Season 7 and some sitcoms, but that was the case for That '70s Show, when Topher Grace, who played Eric Foreman, left the show. And, of course, it never recovered. I don't care if he did appear in That '90s Show; it just doesn't feel the same. 

How I Met Your Mother

I don't need to get into this. How I Met Your Mother was great, from the fantastic cast to the comedy to Barney and his jokes, but the intensely divisive ending ruined everything. It just did. I can't return to the series and only recommend finishing it to some.

Weeds 

Weeds is a black comedy that ran for several seasons on Showtime and tells the story of a widowed mother who starts selling marijuana to support her family. And while the first few seasons were great, the rest were very different. It felt like another show in its later seasons, and by the end (102 episodes), the plot didn't feel remotely similar to how it was in the first season. 

Glee

There is so much to like about Glee. The Glee cast is incredibly talented, and the best Glee covers still top my playlists, but the story took a nosedive after Season 3. Both Season 1 and Season 2 were great, and Season 3 was alright but still enjoyable, but Season 4-6 was just an utter catastrophe of a story that was only saved by some of the brilliant voices on that show. Other than that, it can stay locked away at McKinley High. 

Supernatural

Supernatural was an excellent fantasy series about two brothers hunting down demons, ghosts, and monsters. And I did enjoy this series until the end, but it certainly was not the same show from the beginning. Many plot points needed to be clarified, and there was plenty of fan service, so as much as I like my spooky boys, it didn't need to be like this. 

The Big Bang Theory 

So I'll fully say that The Big Bang Theory is a great show, but this is another case where it feels that the last few seasons were there just for the money. There was no impressive story to be told, and the characters experienced little growth. It was just a dive into obscurity.

Pretty Little Liars

Pretty Little Liars was just an unnecessary drag. Again, a murder mystery is always good, but when the puzzle doesn't make sense towards the end, it makes the show that much harder to follow. And not only that, but the main characters weren't still in high school by the end. They were in college and out in the working world – this should have been just a high school story. 

Gossip Girl

Gossip Girl should have just ended after a few seasons, but it went on because it was the biggest show ever at the time. The series was fun until the later seasons, where the reveal of who Gossip Girl is was utterly disappointing and nonsensical. Not only that, but the finale – and final season overall – felt rushed. 

Two And A Half Men

Fun fact – I just binge-watched all of Two and a Half Men not long ago and I enjoyed it – until about Season 10. 

Charlie Sheen did bring a certain vibe to the show that Ashton Kutcher couldn't, but he did keep the show going for about two seasons before it started to fall apart more than it already had. 

Euphoria 

Okay, so Euphoria technically is still ongoing. However, I'm still determining if we'll even get Season 3 ever since the tragic passing of Angus Cloud. I'd be fine if it ends with two seasons. 

The first season of Euphoria was great television, but the second was so out there and had so many plot points that didn't make sense. The acting was the only thing that saved it because that's always great. But other than that? There's little to love about Season 2. Some things were improved, but others weren't. 

Gilmore Girls

We all like to turn on Gilmore Girls when the fall comes around, but have we forgotten that the ending is terrible? And that Rory's character is utterly destroyed by the end of it? Yeah, I thought so – and the revival didn't do an excellent job of making it any better. 

Killing Eve

The first two seasons of Killing Eve were brilliant, and I loved watching this cat-and-mouse game. But then the next two seasons' plots fell apart entirely, and it led to characters that really shouldn't have been featured getting the spotlight, followed by an ending that fans are not super happy with. 

13 Reasons Why

I liked 13 Reasons Why during its first season because it told a bold message about the effects of bullying and words. But this show should have remained just a miniseries because the seasons that followed were unnecessary and ultimately dissolve the point of the first season when they somehow try to redeem Bryce (the assaulter). 

Scrubs 

Scrubs ran for nine seasons and took the world by storm with its medical comedy mixed with drama. Plus, viewers got to know Dave Franco for the first time. But the later seasons feel like messy attempts to try and make funny jokes that do not land and a story that is not there at all. 

Suits 

I know Suits was wildly popular on Netflix in August 2023, but the series is just ok to me compared to many other great legal dramas. Don't get me wrong, the first few seasons are great television, but as the show goes on and the cases become stranger and more unique, it's different from the show it originally was. 

Bones

Twelve seasons happened for Bones, and the show was alright, but everything was dragged out so long that by the time there was a payoff, there were barely any more fans to care as much. And not only that, but the story would become more convoluted as time passed. I won't spoil anything, but it's a hard watch for later seasons. 

Community 

Okay, hear me out; I love this show and the Community cast, but let's be honest: Seasons 4, 5 and 6 were not the best. Both Season 4 and 5 were bad, and while Season 6 was getting a little better, it was nowhere near as good as the first three seasons of this show. I'm hoping that the Community movie will bring that level of comedy back.

Money Heist 

The thing about Money Heist is that it was so much fun at first. Was it over the top? Yes, totally, but that's what made it fun to watch. But then, as the series went on, it just got ridiculous with its story, and nothing made sense.

Once Upon A Time

Admittedly, I was a big Once Upon a Time fan because I loved Disney movies, but by the time this show ended, it felt like a Disney cash grab using the most famous names from their list of princesses and characters to make a buck. Elsa somehow even made it into this show. The story didn't mean anything anymore.  

True Blood

I put this on here because I know how badly my mother and father hated the ending of True Blood, and I decided to watch it. Not only did the series' narrative completely fall apart by the finale, but the characters were making choices and decisions that didn't align with what the story had set up for years before. Nothing made sense. 

Dexter

I enjoyed watching Dexter for the first time, and I actually say Dexter is worth re-watching, but I can see why most people don't watch it after Season 5 nowadays. The story certainly takes a dip in quality, and the ending is only for some and is controversial for a reason. I do think Dexter: New Blood made up for it a bit. 

Shameless

Shameless was my favorite TV show, but after Emmy Rossum left, it was always different. The Gallagher family dynamic fell apart, and nothing ever flowed as well. Rossum wasn't even there for the finale, making it feel even more incomplete. 

The Vampire Diaries

Do I even need to get into this? The Vampire Diaries died when Nina Dobrev left, and the story fell apart. I don't care what spinoffs there are; you can't make me watch them. 

Modern Family

Don't even get me started on Haley in this show or any of the choices these characters make at the end of Modern Family that make me want to rip my hair out. I will go on for hours. This show was so good until it wasn't, and it drove me mad. 

House Of Cards

House of Cards was a brilliant drama on Netflix, but of course, the central star, Kevin Spacey, faced several allegations of sexual misconduct, so it had to shift course – and from there, it just fell apart. It should have been canceled once Kevin Spacey. 

All of these shows are worthy of a single watch, but maybe not a rewatch. There is plenty of great drama here, but I can also live without it. Either way, I'll go check out Breaking Bad for the umpteenth time – that'll never let me down. 

Money was no object for the teens growing up on the Upper East Side of New York City on the 2007 CW hit Gossip Girl. Every opportunity was available to Nate Archibald, and only the finest of clothing, liquor and women would suit Chuck Bass. On the other hand, Chase Crawford and Ed Westwick — the young actors portraying the privileged high-schoolers — apparently did not have the same experience. Crawford opened up about the early days of the six-season teen drama, and the reality for him and his co-star was definitely not as luxe as what we saw for their characters.

Nate and Chuck were best friends on the series that made household names of actors like Chace Crawford and Blake Lively, and the actors seemed to be pretty close outside of the show, as well, as Crawford and Ed Westwick shared an apartment back when they were cast for Gossip Girl. But instead of lavish apartments with a plentiful staff and trust funds, the guys chose to get a place together to offset the cost of living in NYC. On Podcrushed, which is co-hosted by fellow Gossip Girl alum Penn Badgley, The Boys actor recalled: 

I can imagine it was probably a relief for both of the actors to have someone to help share those costs for rent and food, as Chace Crawford has admitted to eating “like crap” back then, since it was before they were known as two of the most popular students at St. Jude’s. Especially Ed Westwick, who was traveling to a new country for the job, it sounds like Chace Crawford’s family made it really easy on him, even if he didn’t get to actually see the place they picked out before moving in. 

They still needed a bit of help getting started, though, as the Nate portrayer continued:

No bed? No problem! Ed Westwick had a roof over his head that he may not have been able to afford otherwise. Who cares if he had to (temporarily, I’m sure) sleep on his suitcase? 

While Nate borrowing money from his dad was a move I'm sure the character was familiar with, I’m sure Mr. Archibald never saw it paid back, and I shudder to think about what Chuck would say about not getting to weigh in on any new digs before moving in. I’m sure it wasn’t long, though, before the Gossip Girl cast members — who also included Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Penn Badgley and Taylor Momsen — started earning enough to upgrade a little, or at least pay off anything they had borrowed. 

If you want to see what all the Gossip Girl hype was about, all six seasons are available to stream with a Max subscription, as well as both seasons of the 2021 reboot of the same name. 

I did it. I finally did it. I watched Gossip Girl.

No, not the new HBO Max abomination that came out that we will not discuss here, or ever again, because it was cancelled, but the original CW show. It was incredibly popular during its time on the air, and that's only continued with its fans watching on streaming platforms now. As an adult, I decided to give the entire series a shot and I must say – wow, lots of fun stuff in this show, and things that drove me absolutely nuts – but that’s sort of par for the course with CW shows.

However, there was one thing in Gossip Girl in particular that I found myself drawn to, and that, my friends, was the relationships. The romances in this show truly made my life and I absolutely loved watching them. All these Gossip Girl relationships were honestly some of the best parts of the show, and today, I’m going to get into the relationships that I just couldn’t get enough of – for better or for worse. 

8. Serena And Her Non-Dan/Nate Love Interests

We’ll get into Dan and Nate later on, but first off, I just have to put this at number eight – Serena and literally any of her other love interests that weren’t those two. I just loved every story with them. 

Whether it was because of Blake Lively’s incredible acting or just how messy they were, I couldn’t get enough. They would never last too long, sometimes only a few episodes, maybe even just one, but they always left a lasting impression. 

I'm talking about the likes of Sebastian Stan’s character, Carter Baizen, or Colin Forrestor (played by Sam Page) who literally quit his professor job at Columbia to be with her. Talk about messy. 

7. Dan And Blair

God, this couple was the epitome of hate-watching. I despised this couple so much, but at the same time, it was like a car crash. I couldn’t look away. 

This was not my typical, favorite enemies to lovers story, because it really didn’t feel genuine. Their relationship felt like it really happened out of nowhere and because of that, it was quite hard for me to swallow as a viewer. But that also meant that I was fully invested in this relationship ending because literally Dan and Blair are two of the most incompatible people ever. 

I always love Penn Badgley and Leighton Meester, but them together just didn’t do it for me. However, it was fun to watch it go down. 

6. Rufus And Lily

I’ll be honest, a lot of people seem to like Lily and Rufus, but to me, they feel just sort of…meh. 

I’m not sure what it is. I definitely enjoyed watching them in the show, hence why they’re number six, but I feel like their relationship could have been a little spicier and had a lot more fun moments rather than how vanilla it actually was. The only real interesting storyline they had was their secret son they never told anyone about. 

That was sort of dropped, though, and never spoken about again, so I can’t put them higher than six. At least they weren’t that toxic. 

5. Cyrus And Eleanor

Oh my god, I loved Cyrus and Eleanor so much. They were honestly the sweetest couple out of everyone on this list. 

It was a relationship that really no one was expecting to happen, but Blair’s mother, Eleanor, marrying Cyrus (played by Wallace Shawn) was one of the best decisions the show ever made. Cyrus was such a kindhearted, warm man who genuinely wanted only the best for Eleanor and Blair, and you could tell by how close Blair ended up being to Cyrus, and how much Eleanor and Cyrus were in love. 

If they had expanded on their relationship more in the show, they would have been higher, but I must say they are my personal favorite without any drama. 

4. Blair And Lord Marcus

I mean, we all knew Blair would be around someone with royal ties at some point during the series, and Lord Marcus felt like he would be a perfect match for her. He was kind, rich, and had connections that could give her everything she ever wanted. They had a good thing going. 

And then we found out he was having sex with his step-mother and that all went to garbage. 

It’s that singular moment that bumps this couple all the way up. That sort of storyline is so messy and yet, I just can’t look away. It was something that made my head do a full 180, and I needed to see how this relationship ended. Truly one of the craziest moments of the show. 

3. Nate And Serena

To be honest, I actually really liked the dynamic between Nate and Serena, even though I don’t really think their relationship was super healthy. Obviously, you can’t help but love Chace Crawford (who is killing it now in The Boys on Amazon Prime) as Nate and his interactions with Serena, but I have a feeling that if there wasn’t the history with Blair, these two would have ended up together in the end. 

They had their own story, their own vibe, and came from the same world of the Upper East Side. They could have been the golden standard for couples, but alas, it all fell apart. 

2. Serena And Dan 

Look, yes, I know Dan is Gossip Girl, and he spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to ruin Serena and everyone else’s life, but that’s what makes this partnership spicy. 

Yes, Dan is a problematic man and honestly needs to go to therapy for how often he focused on other people’s problems, but let’s be real here – Dan and Serena in Season 1 was great, and even later on, any time they were together, they had some excellent chemistry. A lot of fans found it hard to believe that they married at the end of the series, but I can see it. 

This may sound a tad problematic, but Serena likes someone who can keep her on her toes and Dan sure did that with his blog. Don’t think they would have made it past a few years of marraige, though. 

1. Blair And Chuck 

I mean, was there ever any doubt? 

Chuck is literally the worst, and I will stand by that. And Blair honestly wasn’t that much better. It took a crazy amount of character development for me to like either of these two and think that their relationship was meant to be, but even by the messy end, I actually thought that out of everyone, they deserved each other. 

Admittedly, they both did change a lot by the end of the series, but wow, this relationship was truly something I could not get enough of, through the toxic moments and everything else. 

Gossip Girl was a marvel of its time and I’m happy that it’s over with now and I never need to return to the world of the Upper East Siders – or any of these relationships. I’ll just check this off of my watch-list and look for something a little less toxic in my favorite teen dramas. 

Stream Gossip Girl on HBO Max.

“XOXO, Gossip Girl here, coming at you with the latest news on the Upper East Side.”

I swear to God, that’s all I heard for four months straight and it drove me absolutely nuts. For years, I had stayed away from Gossip Girl because I always heard so much about it and thought the idea of a show being centered around gossip had to be the dumbest idea ever. But now, as an adult, I decided to watch all six seasons of the show on HBO Max. 

And yeah, alright – I get the hype now, you crazy people. 

I’ve seen a few episodes before, but only now did I fully watch it through to completion and I felt compelled to talk about it, instead of ranting about how I hated the reveal of who Gossip Girl actually was. Let’s get into it, why don’t we?

The Cast Of This Show Is Actually Amazing

So here’s the thing – I’m very used to CW shows at this point having really good casts.

There have been so many great CW shows that have given us excellent actors, like the Riverdale cast, despite the show’s interesting (and sometimes very bad) twists and turns, or the Supernatural cast members getting even more famous from their roles.

I mean, literally no other CW show cast compares to the Gossip Girl cast, though, where I have seen many of the main characters in so many big TV shows and movies. Blake Lively is literally everywhere now and is married to Ryan Reynolds, one of the cutest couples in Hollywood. Penn Badgely is the star of his own popular Netflix series, You. Chace Crawford is on The Boys and plays the interesting and weird superhero, The Deep. I swear, everyone is so talented. I am blown away by how many of them got their start here. 

And While The Drama Is Predictable – It’s So Addicting 

Look. This is a CW show. The drama isn’t going to be like the Game of Thrones universe shows or even like Succession or Yellowjackets, where you’ll feel shocked after every single episode. It’s very petty drama that these people get into. 

But, damn is it addicting. 

I can’t even tell you how many stupid, petty squabbles these kids got into on Gossip Girl, but every time I watched them, I found myself glued to the television screen. Whether it be someone wearing the same dress as another, or literally something as serious as murder, I couldn’t look away – and I genuinely think that’s because of the cast. 

I Also Loved Every Single Relationship – Specifically The Toxic Mess That Was Chuck And Blair

On God, the relationships in this show made zero sense – but I was here for them. 

I seriously think that the reason why I supported not only the decent relationships (like Dan and Serena) but the truly horrendous ones (like Blair and Dan), is that every single one of them had their interesting storylines and fun moments where I just couldn’t look away – or, sometimes it felt like a slow motion car crash. 

You want to know what felt like that the whole time? Chuck and Blair. Chuck and freaking Blair. 

I could write a whole article on why Chuck and Blair would be divorced at this point if this show took place in real life. Their dynamic was so toxic and so bad for them and while everyone will say “Chuck’s changed!” or whatever the heck they want to spew at me, I can’t get over how horribly he treated her.

And yet, I can’t look away. It’s just a mess all around. And I love it – probably because I’ve never experienced the messiness of a bad breakup. 

This Is The Most Unrealistic Portrayal Of Teenagers Ever – But I Still Enjoyed The Heck Out Of It

Yeah, this show is not Never Have I Ever on Netflix, or even Ms. Marvel on Disney+. These teenagers are too hot. 

I’m allowed to say that because nearly every "teen" cast member was at least 20 when this show came out, and they don’t look or act like teenagers. 

The only “teenager” who was really awkward was Dan, but he got over that real quick and then no one felt like a teenager. But, I suppose that’s the dream while going to a prim and proper school on the Upper East Side. Might as well act like a grownup at the same time. 

How The Hell Did Serena And Blair Even Stay Friends?

Like, actually, how did they stay friends? There were so many backstabbings, betrayals and so much more that happened between these two – how on earth did they manage to make it out of this series on civil terms?

You would not catch me being that buddy-buddy with someone like Blair or Serena if they were like that to me. I don’t know if it’s pure ignorance, but hey, it makes for good television, so here I am. 

Also – Why Did It Seem Like They Had A Full Breakfast Spread Every Morning? 

Why was there always a breakfast spread?

Granted, I know, these people are rich-rich. They probably have servants and all these cooks to make food for them on a daily basis, but every day? Every day?! When I was a teenager, I barely had time for a piece of bacon in the morning and you’re telling me they had time to have a full, sit-down breakfast everyday? 

This is me being picky about the show, but I just can’t believe it. Even with me loving all my cooking shows, I'd never have the time to have a breakfast like that every day. 

And For The First Time In A CW Show, The Parents Felt Slightly Useful

Most CW shows, I always feel that the parents are never really there. Sure, they’re cast, but I feel like they are always just a placeholder to show the audience, “Look! We cast the parents! We didn’t forget!” And then we never see them again. 

On Gossip Girl, I actually liked the drama that most of the parents brought. I really liked the relationship dynamic between Lily and Rufus. I enjoyed the bits between Chuck and his father and his goal to be better than him. Every parent storyline actually melded pretty well with the others – and for that, I give props to the show. 

The Sixth Season Was The Weakest – But Still Had Its Fair Share Of Drama

Yeah, I can see why most people don’t like the sixth season. It’s not as petty dramatic as other seasons and was only 10 episodes long, which wasn’t the norm for the show. I didn’t like the finale all that much, either. 

What I will say is that the season did have its fair share of drama – such as Chuck and Blair literally being framed for murder. Like, who would have expected that? Not me. Even so, it could have been better – but the rest of the series made up for its lacklusterness. 

From terrible relationships to funny plotlines to crazy characters, Gossip Girl really had it all – including the best narration from Kristen Bell – and now, I do understand why so many loved this silly, dramatic CW show – it’s scored a point in my book and I can fully say, I’ll probably end up watching it again. 

Stream Gossip Girl on HBO Max.

Things are not looking good on the Upper East Side dear readers, because after two seasons on HBO Max, and in the middle of a slew of cancellations and changes at the streamer, the Gossip Girl reboot has been canceled. 

Joshua Safran, the showrunner, announced on his Instagram that the series was canceled by the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned streamer one week before the show’s second season finale is set to air. Now that finale will also serve as the series finale. He wrote: 

This cancellation of the Gossip Girl reboot comes in the midst of HBO Max going through some serious cost-cutting following its merger with Discovery. Some of the shows that were caught in the cost-cutting included Westworld, which is being pulled from the streamer altogether, The Nevers which was also canceled and taken off HBO Max as well as Minx, which was in production on Season 2 when it got the news. 

In Safran’s statement, he mentioned that the show is looking for a new home at a different streaming platform, similar to the situation Minx was in. Safran wrote: 

You can see Safran's full post here:

With HBO surprise canceling so many shows and moving various original series to third-party free, ad-supported streaming platforms it appears Safran is hoping Gossip Girl might be able to continue in a new home. And it’s not impossible, while Minx was canceled it continued to move forward, and was soon picked up by Starz, which is where its second season will air, per THR. 

According to THR, HBO Max released a statement regarding the decision to cancel Gossip Girl, that said:

While Gossip Girl was the predecessor to the legendary teen drama, it did receive brutal reviews for its first season. However, it was watched by many, prompting HBO Max to renew it for a second installment halfway through its freshman season. 

While Gossip Girl will no longer air new episodes on HBO Max, and while we wait to see if it finds a new home, you can watch the final episode on the 2023 TV schedule  Thursday, January 26 as well as the OG Gossip Girl with an HBO Max subscription.