reset button

Definitions

1. A button that resets something.
2. A plot device that interrupts continuity in works of fiction, by returning characters and situations to the status quo they held before certain changes were introduced.

Equivalents

Examples

“But after a year of sagging ratings, Dallas hit the reset button, by having Pam wake⟳ up to see⟳ Bobby, very much alive, lathering up in their shower. The entire 1985–86 season, including Bobby's death, had been a bad dream⟳ of Pam's, and now that she was awake⟳, Dallas could go on the way it should have⟳, with the previous year's events effectively wiped away.”

“Voyager the show⟳ ambles and meanders just like⟳ Voyager the ship, hypothetically exploring new territory but actually doomed to retreads and consequence-free episodic storytelling (heavy on what fans came to call⟳ “the Reset Button” that restores the status quo), exacerbated by overuse of technobabble.”

CEFR level