Everyone has at least one example of a very popular thing they just don’t get. From critically acclaimed films you don’t enjoy to popular music you can’t stand, the old adage that “you can’t please everyone” stands true.
Someone asked “What’s the most overrated TV show in your opinion?” and people shared their hot takes. From dislikable characters to just downright bad writing, get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote the examples you agree with and be sure to share your own thoughts in the comments below.
This post may include affiliate links.
Keeping up with the Kardashians. Infact anything Kardashian!
I never got it either. I was literally like "What like the aliens from Star Trek?" Why are these people famous? None of them have accomplished anything. They're just rich entitled a-holes.
Wednesday. Outside of Jenna’s acting it’s pretty bad. It turned Addams Family into something it isn’t. With all the references to social media it really got on my nerves. The Addams Family is a classic that anyone from any age can enjoy. I’m sick of movies and shows trying so hard to appeal to us gen z. “You look like a real life instagram filter”. Like wtf is that dialogue. It’s terrible. No one in my generation talks like this. Why couldn’t the show makers just do what the makers of the Peanuts movie did for Peanuts but for Wednesday and the Addams Family instead. Introduce the Addams Family to new people but keep the charm of the original. Oh yeah and the romance sucked. I don’t understand why those two guys are so in love with Wednesday when she’s so unlikeable. There’s also Wednesday and Morticia having problems with each other when the whole point of the Addams Family is despite being a little weird they are a loving family and have no issues with each other.
I agree. Especially about that romance part. Why can’t a heroine be good enough, be deemed interesting enough to viewers without some arbitrary love interest? And what also bothered me was how Wednesday time and again commented on Enid‘s looks/personality. The Addams Family was about accepting those who are different, yet here we are with Wednesday judging everyone and everything.
Grey's Anatomy was interesting for a couple of seasons, but then it became more and more and more ridiculous. Everyone f**ked everyone, everyone had a clinical death, etc. (and that was by the 3rd and 4th seasons). I don’t even know what’s happening now.
The Walking Dead, I like it, but I feel like it's let down by s****y writing and each season basically having the same plot over and over again.
Early seasons were great. The entire franchise took a massive nosedive in quality after season 8.
3 1/2 Men - how the f**k did that donkey s**t show stay on the air so long??? I mean it was pretty awesome when it started. Every single episode was funny, the timing was perfect, the laugh track was not annoying at all. But once I got older than 10 years old that opinion changed ;)
Saturday Night Live. I keep waiting for it to be funny...It just feels cringe most times. Occasionally, they stumble across a joke or some witty insight...Probably on accident.
Weekend Update when Colin Jost and Michael Che make eachother read jokes they have not seen before is hilarious
2 broke girls!! 6 seasons of that c**p!! Laziest writing I’ve ever heard.
Lost. Just bad writing hand-waved away as mysterious and spiritual.
During its run, so many people I knew suddenly acted like they were missionaries for Game of Thrones. Practically going door to door, spreading the 'gospel,' and badgering others to pledge that they'd watch it. Even when I'd tell them that I gave it a shot and it wasn't for me, they'd insist that I didn't give it a good enough chance and would interrogate me every time we saw each other about why I didn't watch more of it yet. I spite 'NOT-watched it' even harder.
Seinfeld. Seinfeld is a show I watched the first time around and enjoyed it to a certain extent but it is completely unwatchable to me now. I hate all the characters on it. There is not a single redeeming character. You can also tell that the writers were completely full of themselves.
The characters aren't supposed to be redeeming. They're all a$$holes. That is kind of the point. I've seen this show so many times through--I can't even count how many times. My brother and I can carry on text conversations with nothing but Seinfeld quotes.
Family Guy. It seems like especially in later seasons, the plot lines and characters were nothing more than vessels for each lame cutaway gag. Almost every episode feels like a bunch of cutaway gags lazily strung together.
The whole point is offensive gags. It’s not supposed to be another Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks
My wife watched a lot of The Good Doctor. That show is horrendous.
We GET IT. He’s autistic. That can’t be the only plot point in your entire show.
As an autistic person even I can pick up that there's a hell of a lot more going on then just "He's autistic". It goes through romance, childhood drama and trauma, family drama with that old guy (can't remember his name) and his guilt about whatever killed his daughter, and basic medical drama. I'd put it on equal footing with New Amsterdam personally
Young Sheldon. I understand that Sheldon is supposed to be insufferable, but I swear I just want to punt the kid every single clip I see of that stupid show.
I’m gonna get hate for this, but This Is Us. The first two or three seasons were good, but I could only take so much weepy, pity party drama over and over again. Also, the character of Kate was so annoying.
First season was cool but i lose interest really quickly with poor storylines.
The Office is nine seasons long. And if you ignore the first one (which is pretty meh), it's only downhill with every season after Season 2. It's to the point where it almost starts feeling like different shows broken into different iterations. Like, Jim and Pam from Season 2 through Season 4 is reasonably realistic. Season 5 to Season 7 Michael is just a sitcom with talking head moments. Season 8 to Season 9...can we scrap every last dollar we can out of this?
Rick and Morty isn't terrible. But, I’ve had several conversations with friends who insist it’s the most brilliant show on television and even better than peak-The Simpsons, South Park, and Futurama. The same themes and jokes get recycled endlessly. There is very little of the sharp-cutting social commentary I associate with the other excellent adult-animated shows, and I find the writing fairly pedestrian in general. It’s fun, but I also think many people believe it’s significantly overrated.
I can't stand Rick and Morty. For an adult animated comedy show that's supposed to be more intelligent, it doesn't hold a candle to Futurama. The point is supposed to be nihilism, but it's about as subtle as a brick.
Gilmore Girls...
My wife adores it, watches it all the time. It's a show about every day nothing topics, constant irritating tit for tat minor arguments, and the characters annoyingly and obsessively talking way too fast. I can't f*cking stand it!
So I'm probably going to get down-voted to hell for this but... The Simpsons. The Simpsons has 9 or 10 insanely good seasons but it's been mediocre to terrible for 24 years. That is to say the vast majority of the time the show has been on the air it's been average or even bad.
I haven't seen a new episode in 20 years for this exact reason. I remember one of the last episodes I ever watched, the one where Bart and Milhouse take over the Comic Book Guy's store and at the end of the episode Bart says "And we haven't been to school in weeks and weeks". The writers were self aware enough to know that the whole premise had dissolved into irrelevancy. Bart and Lisa never go to school and Homer never goes to work anymore. Nothing of consequence ever happens and it's just a bunch of gags with no payoff.
Doctor Who has a cycle of being absolute trash and then having four of the best episodes you’ve ever seen. It’s mostly been downhill ever since Peter Capaldi had his best episodes. The constant rewriting of the canon lore is also extremely annoying. I will stand by David Tennant’s Doctor being peak British TV, though.
Tenant was the best of the new doctors, but I'll forever love Tom Baker
Of the shows I've watched in-depth, I'd say Stranger Things. The first season is very good, but I just stopped caring midway through Season 2.
I absolutely love this show. I would have been just a bit younger than them in the 80s. I love watching because it's like watching my childhood. Riding bikes, playing D&D, hanging out at the arcade. I remember my Gramps saying he liked watching A Christmas Story because he would have been about Ralphie's age during that time period. It was comforting nostalgia. Watching Stranger Things, I get what he meant.
. I enjoyed season 2, couldn't make it past the first episode of season 3. I gave up.
Couldn't get past the 2nd episode. Just thought to myself, I don't care how good this show is meant to be, these kids are annoying as f**k.
i sat through the first season. I feel like they just tried to hard with the 80's vibe, like a big 80's commercial, and they also copied Stephen King (talking about vibes)
That's a show mostly getting my attention because of the nostalgia bonus (even though my childhood differs a bit from the US guys) and honestly season 2 and 3 were bit hard to go through but season 4 rocked the hell out of it (that sword in the finale wielded by Hopper... damn, I partied hard on my couch when my mind put out the 80s trivia movie-match making!!!)
100% agree with OP. Subsequent seasons were everything I loved the first season for NOT being: California-obsessed, totally fake 1980s sitcom material, just done as a horror show instead of as a sitcom. Season 1 was what the 1980s were REALLY like, in contrast to later seasons... and for that reason it inspired a nostalgia I had never before been inspired to by any TV show.
The first season was awesome and the second season was really good. Seasons 3 and 4 are LONG to watch but have some moments that fantastic that you struggle through. Season 4 could have just NOT had the russia story or made it a whole lot shorter and still had Hopper return. That being said,,, Season 5,,, where the heck are you??????
Mid way through second is actually the lowest point of the series for me. It picks back up after it but there were 2 episodes maybe three that were really sub-par compared to the first season
This was a one season show. I dont blame the showrunners for taking the money and running with it, but its an overextended gag.
YES! THANK YOU! It's just 80's fodder for kids born in the late 90's early 2000's.
I watched a season or so, but after a while it felt like the actors real personalities started to show through a bit too much, so it got difficult for me to get invested. As if they hadn't really given the characters enough through and just told the actors to do whatever with a few very loosely written character traits
Season 4 would have been better with a timeskip - it was hard to believe those young adults were still in junior high. Noah Schnapp looked bad enough with that bowl haircut when he was 11 (*why* is that such a popular style for young male actors??), but it was ridiculous when he was 17.
....and after unrealistic dialogue, the second most annoying thing about US TV is not knowing when to quit. Too many seasons of too many episodes just means I end up not caring about any of it.
Terrible, horrible show. I liked season one, but damn season 2 was just 'hey we got picked up but we lost our writers and mojo, but let's plow through and pretend'
Big bang theory. Completely unwatchable, on every level. It’s designed to use some “big words” to make us feel in on the smart jokes. But the jokes themselves are not funny and Sheldon is the worst. Ug, I hate that show.
90 day fiance. That show sucks sooo bad, & just about every woman I know watches it religiously.
The Flash. Or any CW superhero show. I like superhero media, but I can’t get past the low quality visual effects and stilted dialogue of CW shows.
That didn‘t bother me, but superhero shows somehow have the talent to always make the character I like most either die or become evil (or both).
Bridgerton lost me after Season 2. I HATE that they had to spice it up and deviate from some of the plot. I refuse to watch Season 3 because it will always be the wrong book to have based the season off of, and I can’t get over it. Plus, spoilers for anyone who never read the books, but Eloise would NEVER be friendly with Cressida Cowper. Never, ever, ever. It’s a terrible disservice to that character.
I feel the opposite. The books are incredibly dated and play into a lot of sexist, toxic tropes. All the men are angry brooding brutes. Some romance scenes border on SA. The characters are basically all the same, especially the Bridgerton men. They hardly have enough personality to tell them apart. The show might not be perfect, but overall it's an improvement on nearly everything the books build.
I’m going to be crucified for this but the Netflix Marvel shows. Don’t get me wrong, some parts are genuinely great, but a lot of the time it just isn’t my cup of tea. I couldn’t really get into it or find myself super invested into them. Not to mention some seasons are rather inferior to another.
Euphoria. Disgusting show. I love the visuals, the makeup, the hair, the outfits. but the story itself? 1. incredibly unrealistic to high schoolers 2. ewwwwwwwwwwwww
No one mentioned Friends. I was once insulted by a snarky young women for not having heard of the show. Insipid humor. Written for 20 year olds. She considered it the best comedy ever written.
Yeah, Squid Game was good, but back in 2021, people were talking about it 24/7. Like, 90% of the internet was filled with it, and honestly, I don't think the series deserved to have the entire world talking about it for three months nonstop.
I don't think Succession is all that funny or witty. I need for someone to have at least ONE redeeming quality so I can root for them, even if I know rationally they're a 'bad guy.' For instance Tony Soprano from The Sopranos. He was awful, but damn, if there weren't moments where I was like, 'F**k yeah, Tony!' There isn't a shred of that for me in Succession. They all suck hard. I'd go so far as to say that the show is definitively not a comedy-drama, but rather a full-out tragedy on the pitfalls of parental child neglect and abuse. But, the one-liners serve to distract from that core tenet.
Yellowstone. The first couple of seasons are fun and enjoyable as a “modern Western soap opera” type thing. But it really crashed and burned at the end.
Ozark, tried and tried again, far too outrageous to believe the plot to escape reality for me.
I can never understand the hype over any reality show. I just don’t get it. I just feel like it’s the same stories over and over again, totally predictable, totally obvious manipulation in the production and editing, SO MUCH whining and bitching and chattering nonsense and so little actual doing the thing they are supposedly doing. I find it insufferable.
For the most part I agree with you, but I've enjoyed watching the various shows like North Woods Law. They are basically Cops, but with game wardens instead of regular police.
Load More Replies...The common denominator for majority of these posts is they went/are going on way past their time. Like a lot of these shows would have been excellent had they stopped around season 3.
I guess the tendancy for series to turn into soap-operas is partly because they're usually only commissioned one or two seasons at a time, so a tightly written story arc is only prepared for the first season (or two if you're lucky). After that, it's per-season or per-episode scripting following a "more of the same" approach.
Load More Replies...Nothing about Friends ? Lame jokes, unreallistic, not funny at all. I really don't get the cult around it
For me, definitely "Friends" I just saw it as a show about six highly annoying people.
So, basically every series ever made, some people like it, some don't.......there, saved you a whole article.
why the hell isn't friends in this list, I swear to god its the most overhyped show in existence. It's NOT funny.
For me it;s Friends that should be right at the top. A colleague said I had to see it so I watched the first episode and flogged my way through half the second before throwing the DVD set into the dustbin. Not once did it raise a smile, let alone a laugh.
Drop Dead Diva. The last season was so painfully bad, I wished I'd never watched it. Shame really, because I truly enjoyed that show in the beginning.
The Expanse. I'm a huge sci-fi fan, especially "space opera". I can recite the entire multi-season story arcs of Babylon 5 or Battlestar Galactica with my eyes closed. I can identify any episode of Star Trek from a single line of dialogue. However, I can't recall a darn thing that happened in The Expanse. I couldn't even finish the series, gave up after season 3.
I didn't made it through season 1, it drags on way too much
Load More Replies...What what you like, don't watch what you don't like, and let other people watch what they want. We all have different lives and want different entertainment experiences. Don't understand why a television show or a movie had to be so divisive. It's just entertainment.
In fact, BP author should wait a month and then have us write a collective listicle of shows that went on too long. The original offender Happy Days, definitely The Simpsons, The Walking Dead, Big Bang Theory, Scrubs, 2.5 Men, and?
Load More Replies...I actually came to this list to see if I actually heard of these "horrible shows". Surprisingly I have heard of all of them, though haven't watched. Some of the reviews it's like they missed the plot, e.g. Seinfeld. You aren't supposed to "like" the characters or whatever. That fact that you can "hate" the characters v. just not care, I think the show made it's point. SNL was funny once upon a time...
I binge-watch a lot of medical, crime, and attorney dramas. I don't expect them to be completely realistic because they are for entertainment. I know surgeons don't do blood tests or take X-rays themselves, for example. It's like reading a novel for me, and I get into the characters as much as the story. Admittedly, some start to get tedious after many seasons, and I often find myself wondering why the character did or said something particularly stupid, especially when someone else told them not to do it. But they are usually entertaining anyway. When they stop being fun to watch, I check out.
Now I don't even bother watching multi-season series. Give me à good, compact, 8 to 12 eps story like "The Queen's Gambit" that has à full arc of itself. Longer, and the writers' tricks to prolong the angst and start new arcs within arcs become too visible.
A lot of this reminds me of my friend. He cannot watch Silence of the Lambs. He was in his 20s when it came out and all he heard was how great it was and all the critic recommendations and such. I think he's just full of it but I grew up later and learned to ignore critics and just give a movie a chance Good or bad reviews.
The tv show big mouth was on this list. Now it's gone. Did anyone else notice that? Can the journalists go back and edit and remove stuff after it's been posted. I wonder why they removed it?
Heroes. First two seasons were great. Then they must have fired all the writers and hired a bunch of 8 year olds to write the rest.
Really if you're spending any time watching a reality show you're wasting your time IMO.
Anything, literally ANYTHING, labeled as a 'Reality' show is a complete falsehood. They are all unbearable to watch, because they are all nowhere near to reality than any given viewer's actual experiences. They should be prosecuted for their inclusion of the word 'reality,' because they have nothing to do with reality.
I used to background watch the kardashians while working on my laptop. Not sure why, but seems I work well with trashy TV playing around me.
Some I never heard of, several I never watched (intentionally!), and a few others I liked early on, but then they got stale or worse, preachy
I mostly agree. Some were great at the start, but they kept going too long and got stale or even worse, preachy.
I love a lot of shows and movies other people dont like, and if I like them enough I will watch the entire series multiple times. I have only seen a hand full of the shows listed here. But I loved Young Sheldon and although it annoys many, I think that is the point to keep him in same character as old Sheldon in BBT. I have never watched anything with the Kartrashians, and never will. I dont even want any "reality tv" on in my house.
Anybody watched "the good place"‽ Upload was good the first two but the third made no sense. I thought I'd missed a series.
I know it is the point of this article to let people criticize popular tv-shows, but everyone has a right to have an opinion. People who say; x is terrible, I don't get y, I can not understand x or whatever, because YOU don't like something, that does not mean it IS bad. If you don't like it, don't watch. Don't put people down because you don't like/get/understand it.
An entire article of, "Everyone else thought THIS, but I thought THAT"
I'm currently binge watching Green Wing, and I'm pleased to report that it's still capable of giving me stomach ache from laughing
I have never seen most of the shows on this list and I haven't even heard of about half of them.
I can never understand the hype over any reality show. I just don’t get it. I just feel like it’s the same stories over and over again, totally predictable, totally obvious manipulation in the production and editing, SO MUCH whining and bitching and chattering nonsense and so little actual doing the thing they are supposedly doing. I find it insufferable.
For the most part I agree with you, but I've enjoyed watching the various shows like North Woods Law. They are basically Cops, but with game wardens instead of regular police.
Load More Replies...The common denominator for majority of these posts is they went/are going on way past their time. Like a lot of these shows would have been excellent had they stopped around season 3.
I guess the tendancy for series to turn into soap-operas is partly because they're usually only commissioned one or two seasons at a time, so a tightly written story arc is only prepared for the first season (or two if you're lucky). After that, it's per-season or per-episode scripting following a "more of the same" approach.
Load More Replies...Nothing about Friends ? Lame jokes, unreallistic, not funny at all. I really don't get the cult around it
For me, definitely "Friends" I just saw it as a show about six highly annoying people.
So, basically every series ever made, some people like it, some don't.......there, saved you a whole article.
why the hell isn't friends in this list, I swear to god its the most overhyped show in existence. It's NOT funny.
For me it;s Friends that should be right at the top. A colleague said I had to see it so I watched the first episode and flogged my way through half the second before throwing the DVD set into the dustbin. Not once did it raise a smile, let alone a laugh.
Drop Dead Diva. The last season was so painfully bad, I wished I'd never watched it. Shame really, because I truly enjoyed that show in the beginning.
The Expanse. I'm a huge sci-fi fan, especially "space opera". I can recite the entire multi-season story arcs of Babylon 5 or Battlestar Galactica with my eyes closed. I can identify any episode of Star Trek from a single line of dialogue. However, I can't recall a darn thing that happened in The Expanse. I couldn't even finish the series, gave up after season 3.
I didn't made it through season 1, it drags on way too much
Load More Replies...What what you like, don't watch what you don't like, and let other people watch what they want. We all have different lives and want different entertainment experiences. Don't understand why a television show or a movie had to be so divisive. It's just entertainment.
In fact, BP author should wait a month and then have us write a collective listicle of shows that went on too long. The original offender Happy Days, definitely The Simpsons, The Walking Dead, Big Bang Theory, Scrubs, 2.5 Men, and?
Load More Replies...I actually came to this list to see if I actually heard of these "horrible shows". Surprisingly I have heard of all of them, though haven't watched. Some of the reviews it's like they missed the plot, e.g. Seinfeld. You aren't supposed to "like" the characters or whatever. That fact that you can "hate" the characters v. just not care, I think the show made it's point. SNL was funny once upon a time...
I binge-watch a lot of medical, crime, and attorney dramas. I don't expect them to be completely realistic because they are for entertainment. I know surgeons don't do blood tests or take X-rays themselves, for example. It's like reading a novel for me, and I get into the characters as much as the story. Admittedly, some start to get tedious after many seasons, and I often find myself wondering why the character did or said something particularly stupid, especially when someone else told them not to do it. But they are usually entertaining anyway. When they stop being fun to watch, I check out.
Now I don't even bother watching multi-season series. Give me à good, compact, 8 to 12 eps story like "The Queen's Gambit" that has à full arc of itself. Longer, and the writers' tricks to prolong the angst and start new arcs within arcs become too visible.
A lot of this reminds me of my friend. He cannot watch Silence of the Lambs. He was in his 20s when it came out and all he heard was how great it was and all the critic recommendations and such. I think he's just full of it but I grew up later and learned to ignore critics and just give a movie a chance Good or bad reviews.
The tv show big mouth was on this list. Now it's gone. Did anyone else notice that? Can the journalists go back and edit and remove stuff after it's been posted. I wonder why they removed it?
Heroes. First two seasons were great. Then they must have fired all the writers and hired a bunch of 8 year olds to write the rest.
Really if you're spending any time watching a reality show you're wasting your time IMO.
Anything, literally ANYTHING, labeled as a 'Reality' show is a complete falsehood. They are all unbearable to watch, because they are all nowhere near to reality than any given viewer's actual experiences. They should be prosecuted for their inclusion of the word 'reality,' because they have nothing to do with reality.
I used to background watch the kardashians while working on my laptop. Not sure why, but seems I work well with trashy TV playing around me.
Some I never heard of, several I never watched (intentionally!), and a few others I liked early on, but then they got stale or worse, preachy
I mostly agree. Some were great at the start, but they kept going too long and got stale or even worse, preachy.
I love a lot of shows and movies other people dont like, and if I like them enough I will watch the entire series multiple times. I have only seen a hand full of the shows listed here. But I loved Young Sheldon and although it annoys many, I think that is the point to keep him in same character as old Sheldon in BBT. I have never watched anything with the Kartrashians, and never will. I dont even want any "reality tv" on in my house.
Anybody watched "the good place"‽ Upload was good the first two but the third made no sense. I thought I'd missed a series.
I know it is the point of this article to let people criticize popular tv-shows, but everyone has a right to have an opinion. People who say; x is terrible, I don't get y, I can not understand x or whatever, because YOU don't like something, that does not mean it IS bad. If you don't like it, don't watch. Don't put people down because you don't like/get/understand it.
An entire article of, "Everyone else thought THIS, but I thought THAT"
I'm currently binge watching Green Wing, and I'm pleased to report that it's still capable of giving me stomach ache from laughing
I have never seen most of the shows on this list and I haven't even heard of about half of them.