As we reflect on the TV landscape of the recent year, a handful of series stand out not for their brilliance, but for their notable failures. Ranging from awkward spin-offs to confusingly poor docuseries, here are the programmes that left us scratching our heads or simply reaching for the remote.
How to start with this love/hate follow-up? Burdened with dreadful writing, painful character development (justice for Miranda!), and a mere 71 seconds of fan-favourite Samantha, the show fought to find its footing. For a moment, as the final season started, it seemed as if it had finally hit its stride. Then arrived an episode all about Seemaâs natural deodorant. No wonder the creator announced this would be the last season. It concluded on a bum note; the closeup of Mirandaâs toilet full of poo was just way too on-the-nose. Yet, viewers undeniably found joy picking apart every single âwtf?â episode. And as Carrie â once again single â twirled around her palatial townhouse to Barry White, who didnât release a little sob?
âCan Kim Kardashian act? The answer is a resounding no.â
But that was almost the least of this show's problems. The subject of a very rare zero star review, it was hard to know where to begin listing the problems. The hilariously leaden writing? The mind-numbing veneration of affluence and consumption? The almost deliberate procession of tropes? Performances so bad they felt borderline spiteful? Suffice it to say âall of the aboveâ and forget about this show again. Except, a new season has been commissioned, so weâre likely going to have to.
Given the legal troubles, abuse claims and parental failures, itâs fair to say Charlie Sheen has been a troubled figure. Not that youâd really have gleaned it from this multi-part docuseries which chuckled along at Sheenâs various episodes of self-destructive excess while struggling to tell us anything we didnât already know. Instead, it felt as if this volatile personality was being pandered to, so any sympathy this show might induce should be reserved for the people who have had to endure proximity with this charismatic but dismissive narcissist.
Naturally we knew it was ridiculous from the get-go: a drama about a AI known as Charlie Big Potatoes that could either save the world â or destroy all of humanity. We stuck with it out of sheer love for its stars ⊠but by the end, it felt like even they had given up trying. One scarcely reacted when his character died, and the other ended up hacking Charlie with an axe ⊠in super slow-motion. Talk about giving up the ghost.
Dodgy characters convening in deserted boxing gyms? A certain band's Firestarter jackhammering away in club scenes? The late 90s called and demands its crime drama back.
In truth, that is unfair on the gangland dramas of the late 90s. Many look a bit dated now, but at least they didnât suffer the ignominy of having to indulge baffling dialects. But there were plenty of other issues. Primarily that it was just really dull; a conflict over drug-selling territory between various London picaresques which felt a bit basic.
Considering the degree to which she grinds the gears of the nationâs ostentatiously enraged commentators, itâs temptingly easy to admire the Duchess of Sussexâs televised forays into quaint homemaking as deliberate statements. But then you watch them and are forced to concede that in this case, they might have a point. Itâs like watching a lifestyle catalogue animated; a meme for evening drinks with delusions of grandeur; a procession of snoozing dogs, buzzing beehives, Hallmark sayings and pointless crafting âhacksâ youâll not remember instantly. All supported by immense, mostly unearned wealth. Ugh.
There are obviously fascinating things to be said about regarding Victoria Beckham and her struggles with career, identity, self-acceptance. But for whatever reason, this three-part series opted not to explore them. Instead, the viewing was like reading a sales brochure. She obviously has good reason to resent what she describes as her âsternâ image. But unfortunately, she didnât do herself any favours with this cagey non-event of a series.
It had the potential to be the next big hit â except even camper, with a famous star playing dead and a sharp-tongued personality overseeing her estate. What more could you want? As players battled it out, there was plenty of backstabbing and squabbling. But the rules quickly became incomprehensible: itâs even now too complicated to explain what exactly was happening. Even more disappointingly, we only saw glimpses of the star via filmed videos. The series ended up reeking of a production that was straining desperately to emulate something far greater than it.
How do you follow a show that captured a generation? The expectation was enormous for this starry romcom about Jessica, a rosy-eyed New Yorker who lands in London with a shattered romance. The star took her biggest role by the horns and was joyous to watch, embodying Austen levels of romantic notions. But it was all very glossy and, paradoxically, was not enough. Plus, the sheer amount of famous friends involved felt uncomfortable.
Not good enough to be âpatchyâ.
Given the shrewd inclusion of gifted emerging comics, expectations were high. But unhappily, most of it didnât land. A particular sketch was a one-note joke milked to a husk but repeated in every episode. One star seemed too willing to slip into a familiar irate mode. The behind-the-scenes sketches, in contrast, simply inspired the thought that they should probably have stayed in there a bit longer.
This dramatisation of the story of Amanda Knox was executive produced by Amanda Knox and pretty much exclusively showcased the perspective of Amanda Knox. So, while there undoubtedly is an interesting drama to be made about the horrific 2007 murder, this isnât it. The subject matter needed to be handled sensitively. Rather, the series laboured awkwardly to find the right tone, lumbering from strangely breezy, slightly stylised farce to ultimately, real-life horror. Twisted? Arguably. A complete mess? Absolutely.
We love the lead actor ⊠but did we believe him playing the greatest maths genius since, a man so intelligent heâs on the brink of a discovery that could destabilise society? Nope! This globe-trotting thriller about government agencies targeting â and eliminating â academics honestly got more absurd by the second. Silliness-by-numbers.
This hagiography followed the content creator notorious for explicit escapades as she prepared for her most extreme feat yet. What on earth would motivate her? What we craved was far greater examination of her true psychology, plus those of the men in the queue. They could at least have interviewed the now-famous mum who showed up to drag her son out of the queue. What we got was disturbing shots and absolutely no interrogation of her infamy whatsoever. And to think, the filmmaker has a teenage daughter too.
