History SanitySlippage / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/TheHandmaidsTale'': Janine. After having her right eye torn out, she's quickly and utterly broken down and never recovers.

** Although Dr. Forrester is established as a mad scientist from the beginning, and mentions performing acts such as blowing up or burning down the convention center when he loses the mad scientist competition, he seems to slowly get more insane as the series progresses (possibly as a result of his test subjects retaining their sanity no matter which films he shows them). In Season 4 he gets a crazier hairstyle which seems to reflect this.

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': [[spoiler:Walter White]] displays this at the end of "[[Recap/BreakingBadS4E11CrawlSpace Crawl Space]]" {{laughing ma|d}}niacally after realising that [[spoiler: Gus Fring is going to kill his family and Skyler gave his money to Ted Baneke.]] Many feel that this is the point where [[spoiler:Walter White]] completely died and only [[spoiler:his alter ego, Heisenberg,]] remained.
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Several examples. Faith, portrayed as not the most stable of individuals to begin with, begins by trying to strangle Xander to death and it goes downhill from there. After Tara's death Willow thinks nothing of killing her friends if they get in her way of vengeance, before deciding that destroying the world would be a MercyKill. Even Buffy herself is prone to this: the stress of each season finale seems to bring out the worst in her (such as trying to drive her friends away, fleeing from Sunnydale, thinking she can't let anyone close out of fear of getting hurt, then [[FromBadToWorse It Gets Worse]], oh boy [[DrivenToSuicide does]] it [[DestructiveRomance ever]] get [[TookALevelInJerkass worse.]] Happens to Whistler and Angel bluntly tells him that he believes that being separated from TheMultiverse and the Powers since the Seed was destroyed have made him crazy. And he may have a point.

* Mrs Tishell on ''Series/DocMartin''. Her crush on Martin went from "she's an odd one", to "what're those pills she's taking?", to StalkerShrine, and finally a full blown psychotic break, which was a bad interaction between two drugs she was taking.

** The Master has always been rather unstable, try as he might to hide it under his veneer of a MagnificentBastard. However, this takes a turn for the worse in [=NuWho=], when he complains of a persistent drumming in his head, getting even worse [[spoiler:after returning from the dead in the Specials Season]]. The main question is whether or not the drumming is real, making the Master even crazier [[spoiler:(It is, turning out to be part of a GambitRoulette by the Lord President of Gallifrey to free Gallifrey from the time-locked Time War)]]. With this revealed, fans speculated on how bad the drumming was during the Master's previous incarnations.
*** Whatever [[spoiler:she]] did to [[spoiler:get out of the pocket dimension]] apparently pushed [[spoiler:Missy]] completely over the edge into a perpetually cheerful, self admitted "bananas" borderline CloudCuckooLander, who skips around, breaks into song apropos of nothing and randomly switches between an English and Scottish accent. [[spoiler:She]]'s also the most sadistic and pointlessly cruel [[spoiler:incarnation]] yet. [[spoiler:Ironically, later on she comes the closest any Master ever has to making a HeelFaceTurn.]]

* Subverted on ''Famous In Love'', actress Alexis gets her own reality TV show which is managed by Ida, mother to Alexis' friend Tangey. However, the show soon makes some bad moves that cost Alexis friends and threatens her acting career. Alexis seems to be slipping deeper into this as she's popping pills, cutting off her hair and videotaped in public playing the guitar and then arrested for breaking into a family's house. With her held at a psychiatric hospital, Ida reveals that Alexis' show has been cancelled and coldly leaves her. As soon as she's gone, Alexis sits up and, with, with friend Sloane, reveals she was faking this whole "breakdown" as the excuse to get the show canceled. The "drugs" were candy, the family whose house she "broke into" are friends of Sloane's and her "haircut" is a wig. At first thrown, Tangey is more happy Alexis is okay and congratulates her on this scheme.

* ''Series/FromDuskTillDawn'': Richie Gecko used to be a highly intelligent, methodical and dependable bank robber. However while his brother Seth was in prison he became more and more unhinged, and it only gets worse as the series starts.

** Ramsay Bolton. Not that he was ever stable to begin with, but according to WordOfGod ''he is unable to process that he is losing'' from the moment where the Knights of the Vale arrived in "[[Recap/GameOfThronesS6E9BattleOfTheBastards Battle of the Bastards]]" as he is used to being in control and get his way every time. He remains confident that his cunning and tricks will get him out somehow. When his army is absolutely destroyed by the Vale knights, he waves it off as nothing saying he still has Winterfell and can withstand a siege, never mind that the Arryn forces outnumber him and are prepared to besiege him. When he is being beaten by Jon, he thinks he will be spared because of Stark honor, without realizing Jon spared him so Sansa, Jon's sister, could be the one to deal the final blow. Even when he is chained up inside the dogs kennel, he still thinks he will break out of this one for some reason until they are literally on top of him. This echoes the last days of UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler, who acted much the same way regarding failure.

--->'''Cersei:''' I understand whoever wins could launch a dynasty that lasts a thousand years. \\
'''Jaime:''' A dynasty for whom? Our children are dead. We're the last of us. \\

** It's implied Aerys Targaryen's raving madness increased with time, and Pycelle describes the young Aerys thusly. In the books, when Aerys was first crowned, he was pretty normal. He had a bit of a temper when roused to anger, but nothing that wasn't forgiven after he calmed down. It was only as time went on that his insanity got progressively worse. Even in the TV series, Pycelle describes how horrifying it was to see his friend gradually melt away before his eyes over the years, until there was nothing left of the man he knew. He was kept in check by his advisors for most of his reign but eventually grew paranoid and jealous of Lord Tywin (who, by all accounts, was a tremendously successful Hand of the King), in part due to Aerys's love for Tywin's cousin and wife, Joanna. The king went downhill after he was imprisoned by the rebellious lord of Duskendale for months.

* ''Series/TheHandmaidsTale'': Janine. After having her right eye torn out, she's quickly and utterly broken down, and never recovers.

** Specifically, [[spoiler:Will has extreme empathy that he uses to solve murders, and encephalitis. Will's psychiatrist is a serial killer. Will's psychiatrist knows he has encephalitis, but as it worsens convinces Will that his hallucinations, sleepwalking, lost time and seizures have no physical cause. Will's psychiatrist encourages him to think that killing a different serial killer in the first episode [[EvilFeelsGood felt good]], manipulates him into shooting another serial killer while hallucinating the previous one, and frames him for multiple murders. Will actually copes remarkably well, given the circumstances.]]

* ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'': all of the characters become increasingly unhinged throughout the series, with Dennis deserving special mention. While he starts out as the OnlySaneMan of the group, he is slowly revealed to hide anxiety, feelings of emptiness, and sociopathic tendencies beneath his MaskOfSanity. As he grows older, he finds it harder and harder to keep these issues under wraps, and he is eventually diagnozed with borderline personaloty disorder and prescribed medication.

** Series one also shows Sally the probation worker go through a (arguably milder) version of this. Tony, the previous probation worker was her fiance and she spends the whole season trying to prove that the gang is behind his mysterious disappearance. (and she's right about it), though she spends most her time stalking the misfits and by the end became completely obsessed by this.
* ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'': Mr Praline's attempts to buy a license for his pet halibut puts his sanity into question and it offends him.

** ''Film/{{Starcrash}}'' leads to Jonah and the Bots recreating the climatic fight scene with such craziness that Kinga and Max are forced to consider if this counts as breaking them.

** The ''very next episode'', "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E24TheUltimateComputer The Ultimate Computer]]", when Richard Daystrom attempts to convince the M-5 Computer to stand down after it has killed numerous crewmen on various ships, the fact that his creation, and by extension him, has done this weighs so heavily on him that he snaps, first ranting about how his colleagues laughed at him and took his work to make their own careers, then snapping at Kirk and declaring the two of them invincible at how powerful its become. Spock is forced to Nerve Pinch him before he brings harm to Kirk.

** ''Survivor: Amazon'' had Matthew who freaked out his teammates by beginning to very meticulously sharpen the machete every day while staring creepily out into space, and Butch who suddenly gained a firewood fetish and forced his teammates to stockpile all the wood they could find which ended up burning their camp down when said massive woodpile caught fire. Even Matt thought that was a little messed up.
** ''Panama'' had Shane who made the genius decision to quit a 3-pack smoking habit literally hours before getting on ''Survivor''. Cue him yelling at his tribemates every single opportunity he got, treating a hunk of wood like a Blackberry, and looking more and more like a crazed animal the longer he stayed out there.

** OnlySaneMan Alex fell into this whenever he ''really'' got over the edge. In an early episode, Alex was given some pills he thought that were aspirin, but these were actually "uppers". Their effects are practically immediate, with Alex talking ''very'' fast and singing "Bye-Bye, Love" after waving goodbye to the rest of the gang when he goes to see Mr. [=McKenzie=]. Later he ripped Louie's cage with his bare hands and threatened Louie because of his refusal to listen to him about re-hiring Bobby.

* ''Series/TeenWolf'': In season 2 Lydia begins hallucinating after being attacked by Peter, and in the first episode escapes from the hospital and runs naked into the woods. However it's ambiguous how much of her 'insanity' is actually her going crazy and how much is Peter's ghost gaslighting her. It seems to be more the latter, as Peter is shown to be able to turn her hallucinations on and off, as well as having some degree of MindControl over her.

** Ramsay Bolton. Not that he was ever stable to begin with, but according to WordOfGod ''he is unable to process that he is losing'' from the moment where the Knights of the Vale arrived in "[[{{Recap/GameOfThronesS6E9BattleOfTheBastards}} Battle of the Bastards]]" as he is used to being in control and get his way every time. He remains confident that his cunning and tricks will get him out somehow. When his army is absolutely destroyed by the Vale knights, he waves it off as nothing saying he still has Winterfell and can withstand a siege, never mind that the Arryn forces outnumber him and are prepared to besiege him. When he is being beaten by Jon, he thinks he will be spared because of Stark honor, without realizing Jon spared him so Sansa, Jon's sister, could be the one to deal the final blow. Even when he is chained up inside the dogs kennel, he still thinks he will break out of this one for some reason until they are literally on top of him. This echoes the last days of UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler, who acted much the same way regarding failure.
** Cersei is much more calm, collected, and rational in the first season than she is in the second. Her loss of Jaime and Joffrey's increasingly out of control attitude, complemented by her father's suddenly dismissive attitude towards her don't seem to be doing well for her mental faculties. Her despair over her daughter Myrcella's impending ArrangedMarriage can't help, either. She comes within inches of poisoning Tommen during "[[{{Recap/GameOfThronesS2E9Blackwater}} Blackwater]]" when she thinks that Stannis is about to break down the door. In "[[{{Recap/GameOfThronesS1E5TheWolfAndTheLion}} The Wolf and the Lion]]", she's outright screaming with rage at Tyrion, as she believes he poisoned Joffrey, and by Season 5 she's noticeably resorting to alcohol continuously, further worsening her condition. By the end of Season 6, she's clearly gone off the deep end. She not only blows up the Sept of Baelor and dozens of nobles within, including her uncle Kevan and three of the four Tyrells, but she doesn't care at all that Tommen kills himself in the aftermath. She still believes she can create a great dynasty with her children dead and surrounded by enemies. In the Season 7 premiere, Jaime actually calls her out on this last point.

* ''Series/{{Merlin}}'': Morgana starts out pretty sane, but after she [[FaceHeelTurn goes evil]] she starts going off the edge. She is encouraged by her sister to isolate herself from everyone nonmagical, and when her sister dies becomes obsessive about gaining her revenge. During the TimeSkip between seasons four and five, [[GoMadFromTheIsolation she was locked at the bottom of a well and didn't see the light for two years]], which has damaged her beyond all repair. Even Mordred goes from idolizing her to being frightened by how unhinged she is [[spoiler: and stabs her in the back when she tries to kill Arthur]].

--->'''The Doctor''' I don't need anyone.\\
'''Donna Noble''' Yes, you do. Because sometimes, I think you need someone to stop you.

*** Whatever [[spoiler:she]] did to [[spoiler:get out of the pocket dimension]] apparently pushed [[spoiler:Missy]] completely over the edge into a perpetually cheerful, self admitted "bananas" borderline CloudCuckooLander, who skips around, breaks into song apropos of nothing and randomly switches between an English and Scottish accent. [[spoiler:She]]'s also the most sadistic and pointlessly cruel [[spoiler:incarnation]] yet.
** Hell, the Doctor himself gets this sometimes! The Eighth Doctor undergoes this twice in [[spoiler: "Minuet in Hell" and "Zagreus"]], The Tenth Doctor has one in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E16TheWatersOfMars The Waters of Mars]]" that temporarily turns him into [[spoiler:[[AGodAmI the Time Lord Victorious]]]], and the final three episodes of Series 9 see the Doctor FreakOut and undergo a ProtagonistJourneyToVillain -- becoming a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds for a while -- when he proves unable to handle his anguish and rage over [[spoiler: Clara's death]]. It's telling he needs [[spoiler: MindRape - delivered unto him by no less than Clara herself (though he does this voluntarily)]] to help him return to his best self in the end. The revival series has made it pretty clear that without companions to keep him grounded, the Doctor would likely undergo these slippages ''all the time''. Witness this exchange from "[[Recap/DoctorWho2006CSTheRunawayBride The Runaway Bride]]":

--> '''Cersei:''' I understand whoever wins could launch a dynasty that lasts a thousand years.
--> '''Jaime:''' A dynasty for whom? Our children are dead. We're the last of us.
--> '''Cersei:''' A dynasty for us, then.

--> '''Pycelle:''' Aerys Targaryen. Of all the thousand thousand maladies the gods visit on us, madness is the worst. He was a good man, such a charmer.

* ''Series/TheHandmaidsTale'': Janine. After having her right eye torn out, she's quickly and utterly broken down, and never recovers.

** Say what you will about [[BaseBreaker Captain Janeway]], but she's usually at her best when she's under pressure. The episodes "[[{{Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS4E8YearOfHell}} Year of Hell]]" and "[[{{Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS5E25S6E1Equinox}} Equinox]]," however, show us what she becomes when she's pushed past her limit, and the result is more than a little unsettling.

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': [[spoiler:Walter White]] displays this at the end of "Crawl Space" {{laughing ma|d}}niacally after realising that [[spoiler: Gus Fring is going to kill his family and Skyler gave his money to Ted Baneke.]] Many feel that this is the point where [[spoiler:Walter White]] completely died and only [[spoiler:his alter ego, Heisenberg,]] remained.

** Hell, the Doctor himself gets this sometimes! The Eighth Doctor undergoes this twice in [[spoiler: "Minuet in Hell" and "Zagreus"]], The Tenth Doctor has one in "The Waters of Mars" that temporarily turns him into [[spoiler:[[AGodAmI the Time Lord Victorious]]]], and the final three episodes of Series 9 see the Doctor FreakOut and undergo a ProtagonistJourneyToVillain -- becoming a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds for a while -- when he proves unable to handle his anguish and rage over [[spoiler: Clara's death]]. It's telling he needs [[spoiler: MindRape - delivered unto him by no less than Clara herself (though he does this voluntarily)]] to help him return to his best self in the end. The revival series has made it pretty clear that without companions to keep him grounded, the Doctor would likely undergo these slippages ''all the time''. Witness this exchange from "The Runaway Bride":

** Ramsay Bolton. Not that he was ever stable to begin with, but according to WordOfGod ''he is unable to process that he is losing'' from the moment where the Knights of the Vale arrived in "The Battle of the Bastards" as he is used to being in control and get his way every time. He remains confident that his cunning and tricks will get him out somehow. When his army is absolutely destroyed by the Vale knights, he waves it off as nothing saying he still has Winterfell and can withstand a siege, never mind that the Arryn forces outnumber him and are prepared to besiege him. When he is being beaten by Jon, he thinks he will be spared because of Stark honor, without realizing Jon spared him so Sansa, Jon's sister, could be the one to deal the final blow. Even when he is chained up inside the dogs kennel, he still thinks he will break out of this one for some reason until they are literally on top of him. This echoes the last days of UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler, who acted much the same way regarding failure.
** Cersei is much more calm, collected, and rational in the first season than she is in the second. Her loss of Jaime and Joffrey's increasingly out of control attitude, complemented by her father's suddenly dismissive attitude towards her don't seem to be doing well for her mental faculties. Her despair over her daughter Myrcella's impending ArrangedMarriage can't help, either. She comes within inches of poisoning Tommen during "Blackwater" when she thinks that Stannis is about to break down the door. In "The Lion and the Rose", she's outright screaming with rage at Tyrion, as she believes he poisoned Joffrey, and by Season 5 she's noticeably resorting to alcohol continuously, further worsening her condition. By the end of Season 6, she's clearly gone off the deep end. She not only blows up the Sept of Baelor and dozens of nobles within, including her uncle Kevan and three of the four Tyrells, but she doesn't care at all that Tommen kills himself in the aftermath. She still believes she can create a great dynasty with her children dead and surrounded by enemies. In the Season 7 premiere, Jaime actually calls her out on this last point.

** Say what you will about [[BaseBreaker Captain Janeway]], but she's usually at her best when she's under pressure. The episodes "Year of Hell" and "Equinox," however, show us what she becomes when she's pushed past her limit, and the result is more than a little unsettling.

** However, in a case of GoneHorriblyRight, the doctors refuse to let Alexis check herself out, arguing that someone going to such a huge degree just to quit a job shows they do have mental problems.

** ''Film/Starcrash'' leads to Jonah and the Bots recreating the climatic fight scene with such craziness that Kinga and Max are forced to consider if this counts as breaking them.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Several examples. Faith, portrayed as not the most stable of individuals to begin with, begins by trying to rape Xander to death and it goes downhill from there. After Tara's death Willow thinks nothing of killing her friends if they get in her way of vengeance, before deciding that destroying the world would be a MercyKill. Even Buffy herself is prone to this: the stress of each season finale seems to bring out the worst in her (such as trying to drive her friends away, fleeing from Sunnydale, thinking she can't let anyone close out of fear of getting hurt, then [[FromBadToWorse It Gets Worse]], oh boy [[DrivenToSuicide does]] it [[DestructiveRomance ever]] get [[TookALevelInJerkass worse.]] Happens to Whistler and Angel bluntly tells him that he believes that being separated from TheMultiverse and the Powers since the Seed was destroyed have made him crazy. And he may have a point.

** Ramsay Bolton. Not that he was ever stable to begin with, but according to WordOfGod ''he is unable to process that he is losing'' from the moment where the Knights of the Vale arrived in "The Battle of the Bastards" as he is used to being in control and get his way every time. He remains confident that his cunning and tricks will get him out somehow. When his army is absolutely destroyed by the Vale knights, he waves it off as nothing saying he still has Winterfell and can withstand a siege, never mind that the Arryn forces outnumber him and are prepared to besiege him. When he is being beaten by Jon, he thinks he will be spared because of Stark honor, without realizing Jon spared him so Sansa, Jon's sister, could be the one to deal the final blow. Even when he is chained up inside the dogs kennel, he still thinks he will break out of this one for some reason until they are literally on top of him. This echoes the last days of AdolfHitler, who acted much the same way regarding failure.

** Stark, when initially introduced, is not completely stable, but vastly exaggerating his madness to [[ObfuscatingInsanity confuse his jailors]]. By the third season, it looks as if [[{{Flanderisation}} the writers forgot this]], as he becomes floridly, and sometimes dangerously, psychotic. It's possible that his mental decline can be blamed on the trauma of [[spoiler:being executed by disintegration and having to create a new physical body for himself]], and then shortly afterwards [[spoiler:the death of his lover Zhaan]].

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Ramsay Bolton. Not that he was ever stable to begin with, but according to WordOfGod ''he is unable to process that he is losing'' from the moment where the Knights of the Vale arrived in "The Battle of the Bastards" as he is used to being in control and get his way every time. He remains confident that his cunning and tricks will get him out somehow. When his army is absolutely destroyed by the Vale knights, he waves it off as nothing saying he still has Winterfell and can withstand a siege, never mind that the Arryn forces outnumber him and are prepared to besiege him. When he is being beaten by Jon, he thinks he will be spared because of Stark honor, without realizing Jon spared him so Sansa, Jon's sister, could be the one to deal the final blow. Even when he is chained up inside the dogs kennel, he still thinks he will break out of this one for some reason until they are literally on top of him. This echoes the last days of AdolfHitler, who acted much the same way regarding failure.

* ''{{Taxi}}'':

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Ramsay Bolton. Not that he was ever stable to begin with, but according to WordOfGod ''he is unable to process that he is losing'' the moment where the Knights of the Vale arrived in "The Battle of the Bastards" as he is used to being in control and get his way every time. He remains confident that his cunning and tricks will get him out somehow. When his army is absolutely destroyed by the Vale knights, he waves it off as nothing saying he still has Winterfell and can withstand a siege, never mind that the Arryn forces outnumber him and are prepared to besiege him. When he is being beaten by Jon, he thinks he will be spared because of Stark honor, without realizing Jon spared him so Sansa, Jon's sister, could be the one to deal the final blow. Even when he is chained up inside the dogs kennel, he still thinks he will break out of this one for some reason until they are literally on top of him. This echoes the last days of AdolfHitler, who acted much the same way regarding failure.