Another year of TV, and a lot of garbage that I didn't care for. While I tried to be open minded, I saw most of my good will go out the window when it came to some shows. The following is a look at the shows that I either loathed watching, or gained disinterest for over time. This list proves that despite it being an excellent year for TV, there are still a few shows that try to convince you otherwise. Also, I will not be counting shows that I haven't seen, which I consider unfair, though makes a good argument for putting Betty White's Off their Rockers on the list.
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| 1. Ringer |
Last year, I had the honor of watching every episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I was so enamored with the show that I figured that I would give Sarah Michelle Gellar's new show a chance. Halfway through the pilot, I was bored to tears. All of the love that I had for Gellar seemed to disappear with stiff acting, boring stories, and very little tension. There was little to take away from it and somehow left me disappointed enough never to return. If the show found a way to not be boring and canceled, let me know.
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| 2. House of Lies |
Another case of misunderstood audience. I tried to give this show a shot because of the appearance of Ben Schwartz, Kristen Bell (who was better on Unsupervised this year), and sometimes good actor Don Cheadle. The idea of being businessmen who try and change businesses seems like a good idea, except in times of a recession. I tried to give the show a shot, but almost everything about it seemed too gimmicky, including Cheadle constantly breaking the fourth wall and talking to the camera. With choices to try and be racy by making characters gay or somehow shocking, the show tried to be so much and failed, especially as a comedy without jokes.
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| 3. Revolution |
Giancarlo Esposito played Gus Frings, the biggest TV badass of all time. As a lover of Frings' role in Breaking Bad, I decided to give this new high concept farce a shot. Imagine a world without electricity, and this is the show in a nutshell. There are many logic holes and with Esposito playing a watered down version of his new found baddassery, there's really nothing authentic or fun about this universe besides that Wrigley Field looks very rusted. Also, the leaps of logic to accept that electricity is forbidden yet there aren't any other energy alternatives by this point is just appalling.
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4. Animal Practice
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Quickest way to lose my interest in a TV show? Besides become infamous for interrupting the closing night of the Olympics ceremony, spend the first five minutes of your show convincing me that a cat can commit suicide. That was only the start of a series of attempts to turn animal tragedies into lowbrow humor that serves little purpose but to claim that animals are disposable. It also hurts that the doctors there are incapable of being fully functional doctors who can handle not being strangled by animals or care to give a monkey duties. The show tried to be high concept in ways that Children's Hospital succeeded, but by watering down the story and replacing it with bad jokes about dead animals, it essentially was doomed to fail. Oh yeah, and interrupting the Olympics doesn't help.
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| 5. Life's Too Short |
Despite all of the bad press around him, I tend to side with Ricky Gervais' TV shows. He finds new and interesting ways to skewer the comedy. As proven with Tuesday's Best of, he has made some amazing efforts by turning his friends into central faux-realism characters. The unfortunate thing is that Warwick Davis in Life's Too Short has to be one of them. While they don't insult Davis too much, it is the idea that he cannot play along that essentially sinks the show. There is too much awkward staring at the camera and trying to be goofy. This show tries to convince you that it is funny when it isn't. Davis is a nice guy who has worked on a lot of great movies, but this comedy vehicle was ill conceived for him. However, my love for Gervais' work hasn't yet faded. I saw the pilot for Derek, and I think it may make some list in 2013, preferably good.
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| 6. 2 Broke Girls |
As my blog will show, I gave all of season one of this show a shot. I expected some progress to be made. However, it ended up tanking my love affair with Kat Dennings, who was stuck in a racist, sexist, poorly scripted, smutty show that didn't care one way or the other about the progression of its characters. I haven't missed it at all since I moved onto other programming. In many ways, I am thankful for not having to rid myself of guilt immediately followed and the fact that it made it to season two saddens me. I haven't seen a single episode, but if I remember right, Beth Behrs dry humps an Amish man according to reports. My choice to return to the show remains negative, and I probably won't rekindle my love for Dennings until she leaves the show for good.
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| 7. Napoleon Dynamite |
Probably the most disappointing show on this list. I really gave this series' short run a shot, and eventually considered myself disinterested. I loved that it was weird and different, but it never clicked and found the essence that made the original movie so iconic. While it does little to diminish its source material, the wild, out there premises suffered from a lack of a grounded nature necessary for them to be funny. Unfortunately, despite an average episode carrying a few laughs, this show eventually had nothing going for it.
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| 8. The New Normal |
I though that they had done it. When this first premiered, I felt like Ryan Murphy had the perfect progressive show that made gay characters an acceptable lead for the big channels. While NBC has taken a lot of risks this year, I felt that this was the most interesting. It embraced an outcast nature and dealt with what that meant. However, after a few episodes, the spark was gone and it turned into debates on why normal people were wrong, whether it be based on sports or religion. The show got too preachy and strayed away from what I felt made it a promising new show. It may turn around in 2013, though from the seven episodes that I saw, chances are that it will only get more catty and anti-straight people.
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| 9. Family Guy |
Technically, I saw one episode this year. Ellen Page was the guest star and she played a girl who was too similar to Lois. Her character was essentially pointless and the story equally unfunny in true Family Guy style. Go back and do more episodes of the Simpsons, my dear Page. Alaska Nebraska is such an endearing character.
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| 10. Loiter Squad |
Rap group Odd Future somehow landed a deal to do their own version of Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job for Adult Swim. The results were definitely different and bizarre, often to a juvenile extent. However, it seemed to be going for too much of a stoned, Jackass vibe in which all of the humor never quite lands and it seems like it is being done to entertain each other. The above picture is enough proof that their off the wall comedy ideas weren't all that great. I'd say that they're best left sticking to rap music, but are they really that much better at doing that? Okay, Frank Ocean's album is getting good reviews, so maybe there's some silver linings.
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| 11. The Newsroom |
Aaron Sorkin returns to TV with this look at journalism from another time. Not the great past from the 70's, but a mere few years ago. It has gotten lauded pretty harshly as a result, but this could largely also be due to a lack of insightful things to say. The show managed to be insightful with hindsight and added nothing new. Sure, it continued to prove that Olivia Munn may be a good actress, and that Terry Crewes can be on any show, but essentially this show tried to be cutting edge by being regressive and not tell fulfilling stories about its characters. It is a shame because with one of the more intriguing ensembles of a new show this year, it could have been far more entertaining and fun to listen to.
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| 12. Brand X with Russell Brand |
I am one of those who kind of likes Russell Brand the persona. However, when he got a talk show that basically involved him talking to the audience for 30 minutes (later made into a whole hour), it seemed like an intriguing direction. However, the flow of consciousness technique didn't quite work and he is left mugging with the audience in a very unflattering way. He is still a decent, charismatic man, but his smutty wit doesn't quite do the trick when it comes to improv with crowd members. I am surprised that the show lasted this long, but maybe this is FX trying to make a serious late night show. May their sanity help them if this ever takes off.
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| 13. 30 Rock |
In many ways, I regret taking on the job of reviewing each 30 Rock episode on a weekly basis. The show continues to get less and less interesting as it approaches the end. It's too bad that the once brilliant show has now spent a half of a season dealing with the very dated humor of the 2012 election, an episode about the show's insistence on deja vu, and just that Tracy Morgan is trying to continue to be a good person. There just isn't any juice left in the series and the quest to tell rapid fire jokes isn't working. Even the wedding episode, which was supposed to be built up to as this great moment, was god awful and boring. I regret watching this show because it unfairly represents what the first four seasons were. On the other hand, it is getting me good amounts of page views. It is just a pain to set aside time every week to have to watch it.
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| 14. Go On |
I may have not liked the pilot for this comedy, but I can admit that I see potential in it. However, there isn't enough for me to subscribe to watching it. With a cast that somehow includes Brett Gelman, I think that their take on comedy in mental illness is too soft to really be effective. However, there are some pretty tame jokes that aren't half bad. I worry that the general idea will wear thin over time and it will never get a strong voice, but at least it isn't that painful to sit through. It is a nice little, forgettable hug to your weekly TV viewing.
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| 15. Best Friends Forever |
The most unfortunate new release of the year. While I have also panned it, I also felt that there was some potential in it to be a very entertaining look into two girl friends hanging out and dishing on life. This only makes the list because I felt like it needed more recognition, and this is my least favorite, not necessarily the worst. I may eventually get around to watching the rest of the episodes. But for now, it joins Free Agents as one of my favorite recent NBC shows that was cancelled before its time.
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| Bonus: Pan Am |
Easily my guilty pleasure that I told nobody about. The story followed four flight attendants as they flew around the world and got messed up in interesting situations. Some of the episodes were bad, especially in the latter half. There was love, espionage, and no real sense of cohesive story in some episodes. However, I found the light friendly vibe and aura of being excited to travel the world to be a fun look into the series. Also, the finale somehow managed to be an unfortunate, but excellent finale to the series as a whole. It may not have had the best writing, but it definitely was a lot of fun to watch.
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