We don’t really cover reality television to any extent, so don’t expect us to including them on our list of the worst TV has to offer.
We’re pretty sure we can all agree that, overall, reality is the worst of the worst. Unless it’s educational. Or, you know, about refurbishing houses. Or cooking. Or dancing. OK. Singing. SINGING! We love that stuff.
We cover scripted programming, and that’s what we’re looking at here. What really gets us down? A lot of the new programming. Some of it is taking it on the chin for all the others. We could name every insipid half hour comedy, but why, when one does so well representing all others?
And when a show we once loved is suddenly tarnished so much it’s unrecognizable? It’s in trouble. Big trouble.
So see what we have picked as our 12 worst shows of 2015. Don’t be hatin’!
Finding Carter
Finding Carter was so refreshing when first introduced. It took a horrific what-if scenario and overlayed some really intense teenage angst and family drama. What happened next is a head scratcher. Kids living alone without parents, bullets flying, crime at every level and the focus on the kidnapping all but wiped out. No worthwhile focus at all.
Once Upon a Time
“Once Upon a Time used to be really good, but the quality has continued to decline each season and is now nearly unwatchable. The “twist” that Marian was actually Zelena was groan-worthy, and this season has been no better. Jennifer Morrison has turned in her worst acting of the series trying to be the Dark One, and the whole Camelot story line was simply boring.
New character Merida also turned out to be a disappointment. The series has lost its way somewhere along the line, and it now feels as if the writers have no outline and are just making it up as they go. Robert Carlyle’s Mr. Gold was once a treat to watch, but the back and forth between good and evil is just getting old. At least Lana Parrilla is still excellent!
Dig
Dig Starring Jason Isaacs and Anne Heche, this was one was really touted by USA Network as being the next big thing. If they meant the next big mess, then they were thinking clearly after all. Sadly, all off the interesting plot points got lost in a pathetic story about a girl who had a crush and wanted revenge. Nothing special about that at all, and when told without any driving force or lick of sense? Pure drivel.
The Messengers
All you had to do was watch the pilot of The Messengers to know it wasn’t going to be any good. Pulling in people from all walks of life for a common goal and giving them powers is so overdone, and these people were also uninteresting and their goal without much merit.
Backstrom
Given Rainn Wilson’s success on The Office, it only made sense he’d be the next big, yet cranky, investigator on television. Oh, wait, no, no, that made no sense at all. Which is perhaps why nobody turned up to watch his new series. Sorry, Rainn.
Blood and Oil
On paper, this show should have been great (Don Johnson! Amber Valetta! Chace Crawford!). But thanks to cheesy characters, bad story lines, and sloppy plot twists, nothing about this one worked. This show ended up being nothing more than a bad Dallas knock-off. J.R. wouldn’t have approved.
True Detective
Everything that True Detective Season 1 was became the antithesis in Season 2. With a stellar cast, it became a joke. Wooden acting as a result of plodding story and terrible dialog written, seemingly, by someone who felt whatever they said would fly just on title prestige alone. Not even close. By the finale, finding three of the four leads dead felt like mercy killing.
Wicked City
We really wanted to love this show. It had Chuck Bass and 80s hair metal! But oh my gawd, it was awful. The dialogue was lame and the plot was stupid. The only redeeming part was the music, but even that wasn’t enough to keep our interest.
Truth Be Told
Our writer only made it through one episode of Truth Be Told and that was more than enough. We don’t even know how this poorly written and painfully unfunny show even made it to air. It’s sad because Tone Bell actually is really funny, but he needs better material.
Extant
Even Jeffrey Dean Morgan and a marginally improved second season couldn’t save this show. It had its moments (few and far between as they were) but in the end, the series was too much of a mess from the get-go to be resuscitated.
The Slap
Anybody who even saw the commercials for The Slap didn’t really want to tune in, but hey, this is our world. For every kid who needs a slap, there is someone out there who can’t keep their hands to themselves. And thus a crappy drama was born. Which turned out not to be about the slap that much at all. But it as too late by that point. Even the press photo makes us want to slap someone. Hey, maybe that was the point?!
American Odyssey
American Odyssey placed one female soldier into extreme situations after she was left for dead in the middle of the desert followed by one ridiculous plot point after another, and all other characters followed her lead. Maybe they should have just left the title Odyssey instead of trying to cash in on American Sniper’s success. Just sayin’.
