Perspective Flip / Live-Action TV

• Some of the events depicted from Spike's perspective in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Fool For Love" are depicted from Darla's in the Angel episode "Darla". It is not quite an example of The Rashomon (as everything displayed is internally consistent), but knowledge from one can change the interpretation of the other.
• In Dollhouse we originally believed from Bennett's memories that Caroline coldly left her trapped with a block of concrete on her arm after an explosion they caused in a lab. We later learn in a flashback that Caroline only left her because the police were coming and she didn't want Bennett connected with her and getting arrested.
• The Merlin (1998) miniseries, starring Sam Neill in the title role, retells King Arthur from the perspective of the wizard Merlin.
• How I Met Your Mother:
  • One episode has Ted and Barney at a club taking Refuge in Audacity, pushing karma to the limit to see if doing bad gets good results (for the most part, it does). In the morning, just as Ted is set to start bragging to Marshall, Marshall reveals that Ted butt-dialed him seventeen times, and the significant events of the night before are shown from a different perspective. Rather than being audacious and charismatic, Ted was a Jerkass thief who nearly knowingly had sex with a married woman. Ted felt shame and Marshall scorned him.
  • Barney reveals that he always roots for the villain of a movie and that he cries when said villain dies at the end.
    (Talking about the first Terminator movie): Who of us didn't shed a tear when his little red eye went dark and he didn't get to kill these people?
  • The episode "The Wedding Bride" features the movie, written by the husband of one of Ted's ex-girlfriends and based on their relationship, with the Ted character depicted as a bumbling jerkass.
  • In the episode How Your Mother Met Me Future Ted recounts how he and The Mother barely crossed paths in some essential moments in each others' lives.
• Doctor Who:
  • The modern series introduced a type of episode known as the Doctor-lite, with "Love & Monsters'", "Blink", and "Turn Left" each focusing on a different character. The characters are regular people who chance upon the Doctor in "Love & Monsters" and "Blink", while "Turn Left" focuses on then companion Donna Noble.
  • Skipped over for Season 5, but seems to make a comeback in Season 6 with "The Girl Who Waited" which largely focuses on Amy and Rory. (The Doctor is still around but is bound to the TARDIS.)
  • The first episode of the revival is from the perspective of Rose Tyler, the Ninth Doctor's companion.
  • "The Doctor's Wife" does this with the Doctor's well-worn origin story of stealing an antique time machine and using it to run away from Gallifrey and explore the universe. As it turns out, the TARDIS was bored and wanted to travel, so she purposely left her doors unlocked for the Doctor so that he could steal her.
    The TARDIS: I wanted to see the universe, so I stole a Time Lord and I ran away. And you were the only one mad enough.
  • The possessives of her and the Doctor's relationship are also flipped:
    The Doctor (upon realizing who she is): My TARDIS??
    The TARDIS (reprovingly): My Doctor!
    The TARDIS: The first time you touched my console, you said —
    The Doctor: I said you were the most beautiful thing I had ever known.
    The TARDIS: Then you stole me. And I stole you.
    The Doctor: I borrowed you...
    The TARDIS: "Borrowing" implies the eventual intention to return the thing that was taken. What makes you think I would ever give you back?
    • In this particular case it should be noted that both characters are displaying a rather self-serving memory here, since a later episode would reveal that an alternative Gallifreyan version of his future companion Clara Oswald (It Makes Sense in Context) was in fact responsible for this.
• Not exactly a villain-hero flip, but the NFL Network did it with their America's Game: The Super Bowl Champions series that tells the stories of teams that won the Super Bowl. The spin-off Missing Rings tells the story of the teams that lost them.
• Cobra Kai: A good part of the series focuses on Johnny Lawrence, the antagonist from The Karate Kid, and the audience gets to learn more about his background and how he saw the events of that film. It turns out that rather than being some spoiled jerkass high school bully, Johnny was actually a troubled youth who, while privileged materially, faced daily verbal abuse from his stepfather that scarred him emotionally. He joined the Cobra Kai dojo when he was younger as an escape and the knowledge, skills, respect and social acceptance he gained caused him to see Kreese as a surrogate father. As he entered high school, he started dating Ali and, despite some somewhat boorish behavior, he did genuinely love her and wanted to patch things up after their big fight before his senior year. Then Daniel LaRusso moved to town and, while Daniel saw him as The Bully, Johnny saw him as the cocky new kid making moves on the girl he loved and he just wanted LaRusso to back off. Once the tournament came and was done, Johnny lost Ali, had to suffer being nearly strangled to death by his father figure, and, upon leaving Cobra Kai, lost the one thing in his life that gave him meaning, sending him on a downward spiral to the his present day status as a snakebitten handy man.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation:
  • It's subtle, but in keeping with the theme of the episode "The Enemy". Picard's dialogue with the Romulan Commander Tomalak shows us what a Trek episode looks like from the opposite side of the viewscreen. Tomalak does exactly what Picard or Kirk would do in his place when he crosses the Neutral Zone to rescue a wounded crewman. This forces Picard into the role of the unreasonable alien seemingly more interested in protecting his territory than saving a life. Tomalak even attempts a Kirk Summation, which Picard shuts down with a dire threat:
  Tomalak: Territories? You would measure territories against a man's life?
  Picard: Commander, I am singularly impressed by your concern for a life. Do not risk any more lives by leaving the Neutral Zone. Picard out.
  • The 4th-season episode "First Contact" (no relation) recounts the Federation making first contact with a new species, only entirely seen from the perspective of said species. It can also be seen as a subtle Perspective Flip of the "government conspiring with aliens infiltrated among the population" plot, as the story goes through each stages of such a plot, only with the protagonists being Rubber-Forehead Aliens and the visiting "aliens" the human-looking main characters. The audience is also perfectly aware that the Federation's goals are benevolent, but it does not appear that obvious from the newly-contacted species' perspective.
• The X-Files did this a few times:
  • "Bad Blood" opens with a teenage boy fleeing in terror from a shadowy, off-screen pursuer while screaming for help. He's chased down and stabbed to death... by Mulder. The kid is a vampire, and Mulder was trying to stake him.
  • "Hungry" is a Monster of the Week episode told from the perspective of the monster. He's a normal guy who doesn't understand what he's become, is constantly struggling against his painful Horror Hunger, and is relentlessly persecuted by two black-suited government spooks who seem almost supernaturally perceptive.
  • "Mulder And Scully Meet The Were-Monster" takes the standard werewolf trope and flips it on its head: instead of the aforementioned were-monster being a human bitten by a monster and turning into a blood-thirsty killer, the were-monster is a peaceful, mild-mannered monster bitten by a human and turns into one of us. The real monster in the episode is a plain old mundane human serial killer.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe
  • WandaVision: The fourth episode takes place during the events of the first three episodes but from the perspective of the government officials trying to investigate the “disappearance” of Westview, in contrast to the sitcom format of the previous three episodes. Additionally, there’s another flip told from the perspective of Monica Rambeau: namely the realistic issues that would happen to anyone that was taken during the Snap and returned five years later.
  • Hawkeye: The first scene of the first episode takes place during the Battle of New York from the perspective of young Kate Bishop. The audience is re-shown the scene where Clint Barton runs out of arrows and has to fight off several Chitauri soldiers before barely escaping with his life by swinging into the skyscraper he's on top of. But from Kate's perspective, she sees Clint using his last arrow to save her life from the Chitauri before quickly beating up a few of them and making a cool getaway.
• Everything Now: Episode 6 shifts to show what Alex has going on and how he's dealing with Mia's problems. His perspective previously hadn't been shown.
• High Fidelity: "Ballad of the Lonesome Loser" focuses on Simon instead of Rob, including having him talk right to the audience like she does and shows more of his backstory.

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