21 TV Characters Who Were Successfully Brought in to Juice the Plot

TV writers will take some pretty desperate measures to bring a moribund series back from the brink of ratings death. There might be dramatic births, shocking murders, water skis and aquatic life or even just a new character. These 11th-hour introductions rarely add anything, as asking audiences to learn and care about someone new so late in the game is a tall order, but they’ll try just about anything.

And sometimes, surprisingly, it works. According to one Redditor, a good example was with the adopted teenage horse, Hollyhock Manheim-Mannheim-Guerrero-Robinson-Zilberschlag-Hsung-Fonzerelli-McQuack, who believes BoJack may be her biological father, added to the fourth season of BoJack Horseman. In fact, “rewatching season four of BoJack was my reason for making the thread,” they told r/AskReddit. 

They then asked, “Which TV series introduced a new character who actually improved the show?” These are the fresh faces their fellow Redditors cited…