The relationship between a TV series and its fans can be an intense and volatile one, so a show's loyal followers objecting to a particular plot twist or character development isn't exactly uncommon.
That said, it's far more rare that the creative team behind the programme will publicly agree with the criticism. Here are some notable examples of just that: when TV shows held up their hands and admitted they'd messed up.
1. Homeland - killing Peter Quinn
The shooting death of Rupert Friend's troubled ex-spook hit Homeland fans hard. It felt particularly cruel since the spy thriller's sixth season had seen Quinn recovering after a previous near-death experience, with terrorists exposing him to a chemical weapon.
So incensed were these angry fans, they took out a full page letter in The Hollywood Reporter, demanding that the show's creators explain themselves.
"It has been over four months since your sixth season concluded," they fumed. "In the midst of a mass exodus of your most loyal and devoted viewers, we have asked repeatedly for you to address your audience and the unceremonious end to a character that you openly acknowledge was beloved by millions. You have been silent. We are asking again."
This forced the hand of showrunner Alex Gansa, who responded with a candid statement. "It is painful to hear that that even a small segment of our devoted audience is disappointed in Homeland," he said, while insisting that Quinn had at least "died a hero".
2. Star Trek: The Next Generation - all of 'Code of Honor'
Originally pitched as an episode about a reptilian race who abide by a Samurai-esque code of honour, the fourth ever TNG episode was instead rewritten to reflect a (quote) "1940s tribal Africa" theme... and you can guess how well that played out.
Den of Geek noted that the episode was "quite possibly the worst piece of Star Trek ever made", with its portrayal of the alien Ligonians being "openly offensive". The show's cast weren't any kinder...
Michael Dorn (Worf) called 'Code of Honor' the "worst [episode] ever filmed" while Jonathan Frakes (Riker) labelled it an embarrassment to the legacy of Gene Roddenberry and even sought to prevent it from being aired.
"We all felt quite embarrassed about [that episode]," Patrick Stewart (Picard) would later acknowledge.
3. The Walking Dead - the 'Who did Negan kill?' cliffhanger
Before The Walking Dead infuriated fans by revealing who Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) had killed (Why Glenn? Why?), it first infuriated them by not revealing who Negan had killed.
Loyal Dead-heads were furious when the show's sixth season closed on a cliffhanger, revealing that one of Rick's party had fallen prey to the barbed-wire bat Lucille but withholding their identity.
Series creator Robert Kirkman eventually apologised, in print, in the letters page of the Walking Dead comic book. "For some of you, [the cliffhanger] backfired and you're angry. And for that I'm sorry."
Alright, so it's a classic "I'm sorry if you were offended" apology, but we'll take it. Now beg our forgiveness for killing Carl Grimes.
4. Game of Thrones - putting President Bush's head on a spike
They might have been unapologetic about breaking fans' hearts with the tragic demise of Hodor ("We'd like to apologise... not for killing Hodor... we're sorry for all the idiots who from now on will be shouting 'Hodor!' every time you go through a door.") but Game of Thrones' showrunners were forced to apologise after one episode depicted the severed head of George W Bush.
The head cast of Bush was simply a spare that had been lying around the props house and only featured briefly in the background of a shot. But David Benioff and Dan Weiss made the mistake of pointing out Bush's bonce in a DVD commentary. "It's not a political statement," they insisted. "We just had to use whatever head we had around."
That explanation wasn't good enough for many, so Benioff and Weiss, as well as HBO, later released full apologies, along with an insistence that the head would be digitally scrubbed from all future DVD copies.
"We were deeply dismayed to see this and find it unacceptable, disrespectful and in very bad taste," HBO said. "We made this clear to the executive producers of the series, who apologised immediately for this inadvertent, careless mistake."
5. Star Trek: Enterprise - all of the last-ever episode
'These Are the Voyages...' proved controversial for framing the episode's events as a holo-program experienced by The Next Generation characters Riker and Troi (Marina Sirtis). Fans argued that this gimmick robbed the Enterprise cast of a proper swan song... and the cast, it seems, agreed.
"I thought it was the coolest thing ever when we were writing it, the idea of doing a 'lost episode' of The Next Generation, but they're going to the holodeck to look back at Enterprise," showrunner Brannon Braga later said.
"It didn't work out so well… it was a kind of a slap in the face to the Enterprise actors. I heard it from everybody." So irksome was the finale that even lovely Scott Bakula got a little mad. "It was the only time [he] was ever mean to me," a dejected Braga admitted. "I regret it."
6. Two and a Half Men - the entire show
For various reasons including on-set tensions, acrimonious cast departures and troubled personal lives, Two and a Half Men morphed from your bog-standard sitcom to an absolute car crash.
When it drew to a close after 12 seasons, series co-creator Chuck Lorre decided that, rather than providing any kind of narrative conclusion, he'd use the final scene to address his off-screen feud with former star Charlie Sheen (who'd left the show four years earlier).
The last moments saw a Sheen double crushed by a falling piano, Looney Tunes-style, with Lorre himself then appearing on-screen to deliver Sheen's famous catchphrase, "Winning!"
Lorre did at least have the good sense to apologise for the whole sorry mess when picking up an award for his new show Mom (about a mother and daughter who are both recovering addicts).
"To do a show about people trying to redeem their lives and salvage and repair the damage they've done... well, for me that's an opportunity to apologise for Two and a Half Men," he quipped.
There were no winners here.
