Browsing Tag

Gilmore Girls

Worst TV of 2016

worst-tv-shows-2016

From revivals of shows that should have stayed dead to returning favourites that suddenly sucked, it was an often bleak year for TV (especially in the one-hour drama realm). I sat down with my fellow TV junkie Nicole for our annual chat about what we watched and hated. (Check out our Best of TV list here.)

MOST DISAPPOINTING NEW SHOWS:

Jen: I already talked about Westworld in our Best of TV chat, but that’s my pick. I’d also add The Path. If you told me last year that I’d quickly abandon a show starring Aaron Paul, I wouldn’t have believed you.

Nicole: I think mine was Divorce. I watched a few episodes but it just wasn’t the least bit enjoyable. I’m too busy (and old!) for TV to be work. I also did not get the hype of The Night Of. It was like a longer Law & Order. I was so bored.

Jen: Yeah, I still think The Night Of had the best first episode of the year (it was so tense I was sweating). But then it eventually dissolved into a standard, boring procedural.

MOST DISAPPOINTING RETURNING SHOWS:

Jen: This felt like the year of decent shows with terrible series finales. I was ok with both The Good Wife and Gilmore Girls, but I hated the last 30 seconds of each.

Nicole: I liked Gilmore Girls but I totally agree with you on The Good Wife ending.

Jen: This might be the year I end up breaking up with my beloved superhero TV shows. That hurts, especially when it comes to Arrow because it was on my Best Of list in 2015. This time last year, they had just aired one of their best episodes ever (which featured a proposal followed by a brutal limo attack). But then the show fell off a cliff and never recovered. When it’s good, Arrow is a fun blend of soap opera and comic book. At the end of last season, they leaned too heavily into the former; then they tried to course-correct this season by leaning too heavily into the latter. So now it’s all about stunts, trick arrows and new costumed heroes to make the comic book fanboys happy, but if you like character development and interactions between your favourites, you’re screwed. And their treatment of the few female characters left has become abysmal: Felicity is now a pod person, Thea is marooned on her own Scandal-lite show, and Laurel just pops up randomly to bait canon worshippers.

Nicole: I have crazy superhero fatigue! Arrow is the only one I’m still watching and frankly, it’s hanging by a thread. I don’t really care about any of the new people on the team and that’s a problem.

Jen: I’m less invested in The Flash so I’m less disappointed in it, but damn can that show figure out another threat besides evil speedsters?  I’m also bummed that Iris’ new relationship with Barry (which I don’t buy for a second) has somehow made her less of a character. She’s now been reduced to a pep talk vending machine. The only highlight of this season is that everyone is FINALLY calling out Barry for being a selfish jerkwad.

Nicole: I find that I’m dropping shows because they’ve gotten just plain boring. I love a good procedural but Elementary is just yawns now. If Person of Interest hadn’t been ending they would have lost me. TV can be so good now that I think I need more of a challenge.

Jen: Speaking of boring, I’m pretending The X Files revival didn’t happen, with the exception of the “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster” episode. Every other one, though? Just didn’t exist!

Nicole: I had such high hopes for UnREAL after last year. Are you kidding me with showing a police shooting from the perspective of the white girl?!?! I think the characters were too unlikeable and not funny enough this season. I’m giving them two more episodes and then I’m out.

Jen: Yeah, I’m with you on UnREAL, which experienced such a brutal sophomore slump. It’s like they forgot that the magic of that show is watching Quinn and Rachel together, and kept them apart nearly all season. Speaking of dropping shows, I’m not sure if I’ve ever quit a series as fast as I quit The 100 after they killed Lexa like such a gross afterthought. The only silver lining: it led to a widespread #buryyourtropes conversation about TV’s treatment of gays and minorities that’s still reverberating.

SADDEST CANCELLATIONS:

Jen: The loss of Agent Carter sucked, especially since Hayley Atwell immediately jumped to a far inferior ABC show (Conviction) that was promptly cancelled.

Nicole: I can’t say I’m heartbroken about any cancellations this year, but I do hope Haley Atwell finds a place to land.

Jen: I’m also still mourning the cancellation of The Grinder. That show was so funny and I’m totally stumped about why it couldn’t find a larger audience.

DISHONOURABLE MENTIONS:

Shows that suffered bummer declines in 2106: The Fall, Mr Robot, Sleepy Hollow, The Affair, Poldark

Check out our Best TV of 2016 picks

Natalie Portman & Michelle Williams Remember Being Child Actors

portman-williams-variety

-The excellent Actors on Actors clips continue to roll out, with Viola Davis and Tom Hanks talking about acting in stage vs. film, and Natalie Portman and Michelle Williams discussing playing famous historic women and being child actors.

–Mariah Carey‘s new reality series is actually getting good reviews(!), with critics saying it has a “surprising sense of humor and humility.” What?!

–Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, Uma Thurman and Robin Wright appear unretouched for the 2017 Pirelli Calendar, and their photos are stunning. Said Moore,  “I walk in, no makeup on and wet hair. [The photographer] said, ‘No, no, no, you are perfect.'”

-I love Gilmore Girls’ Matt Czuchry low-key shading about how the revival did his character dirty. My favourite soundbite (of many): “I think Amy and Dan see Logan as Christopher from a story perspective. For me as an actor, that’s not something actionable that I can play.”

–Alexis Bledel was on Fallon last night, where she ranked her favourite characters and defended her ability to hold everyday objects.

-I wholeheartedly agree with this article on how Rory Gilmore proves we need better fictional journalists.

–Leah Remini has been a vocal critic of Scientology since leaving the “church,” but she’s learned not to criticize Tom Cruise. She also revealed that Cruise pressured 60 Minutes to kill a piece on Scientology.

–Tom Hanks finally cleared up that confusing Bill Murray look-alike photo.

-With everything that’s happening to Kanye West, GQ wonders if Jay Z is a bad friend.

-Even Lin-Manuel Miranda can’t convince me that developing movies and TV shows simultaneously is a good idea.

-I love that Questlove just randomly makes a cameo during Lin‘s Drunk History ep (which airs tonight).

-Meanwhile, Hamilton hit a new record buy grossing the most amount of money in a week for Broadway. Great boycott, guys.

-Super Girl hits a new ratings high last night (for their CW run), but that was probably only because it was promoted as the start of the 4-show crossover, which only happened in the last 40 seconds of the episode. My Twitter TL was pressed.

–Adam Driver‘s Interview chat with director Noah Baumbach is great, but the Trainspotting-inspired photo shoot that accompanies it is terrifying.

–Ben McKenzie is engaged to his baby mama and Gotham costar Morena Baccarin.

-Don’t feel bad for Brad Pitt not being able to spend Thanksgiving with his kids. He did just fine.

–Anthony Rapp being cast in the new Star Trek series is such a delightful surprise!

–Tilda Swinton is criticizing the Harry Potter franchise for romanticizing “cruel” boarding schools. That seems like a totally relatable and down-to-earth hill to die on.

–Reese Witherspoon proves she’s the queen of trolling by selling a “Wreath Witherspoon” dress.

-Another big sign that the TV industry is changing (and not for the best): executives from the big four networks and Amazon are skipping this year’s TCA press tour. Cowards.

-Female Walking Dead fans are freaking out Jeffrey Dean Morgan  with their weird ass requests.

–Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt get shirtless and sexy in the new Passengers trailer.

-I didn’t see this one coming, but I really liked the trailer for Lifetime’s Beaches remake. I know!!

Evan Rachel Wood Reveals She’s a Rape Survivor, Won’t “Stay Silent Any Longer”

evan-rachel-wood-westword

-In her Rolling Stone story, Evan Rachel Wood originally said she’d experienced “physical, psychological sexual” abuse in the past, but the day after Trump was elected (just before press time), she emailed the writer to clarify that she’d been raped twice. “I don’t believe we live in a time where people can stay silent any longer. Not given the state our world is in with its blatant bigotry and sexism.”

–Kanye West will not be released from the hospital today as originally planned. Meanwhile, sources say he’d been having nightmares about Kim’s robbery before his hospitalization and ‘wasn’t able to snap back‘ without his wife by his side.

-Every clip from Leah Remini’s new anti-Scientology show on A&E is like the fire emoji come to life.

–Naomi Watts opens up about life after Liev Schreiber, saying “change is always scary.”

-I really like the new clips that are out today from Variety’s Actors on Actors series. Ryan Reynolds charms Taraji P. Henson with a story about his “failed” audition for a Coen brothers, while Emma Stone and Molly Shannon discuss their worst on-stage nightmares.

-Here’s the first clip of Lin-Manuel Miranda talking about Alexander Hamilton on Drunk History. I hope he gets 1000x sloppier.

-This might be the best celebrity story of the decade: at a fancy British party, Princess Beatrice joked to James Blunt that she could “knight” him, and she ended up slicing Ed Sheeran’s face with a sword. I love all of those words!

–John Mayer and Mandy Moore are being all flirty on Twitter. New (fake) couple alert?

–Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas apparently spent Thanksgiving together. So that’s still happening.

–Kit Harington and Rose Leslie also spent Thanksgiving together. I always forget they’re still a RL couple.

-Aww man, Ron Glass from Firefly passed away? Suck it, 2016.

–Lupita Nyong’o talks about sleeping with goats on a new Billy on the Street segment. As you do.

–Amber Heard spoke out against violence towards women in emotional Facebook video.

-This festive short from Wes Anderson for H&M is Adrien Brody‘s best work in years.

–Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon‘s limited HBO drama Big Little Lies will premiere in February.

-Also debuting in February, Drew Barrymore’s new Netflix series Santa Clarita Diet.

-Overall I thought the Gilmore Girls revival was pretty good, though I had Issues with a capital “i” over the ending — and how terrible Rory was in general. The worst part was what a terrible journalist she turned out to be.

-Also, I love Vulture but their incessant Gilmore Girls tweets this weekend almost made me unfollow them.

-No, Scarlett Johansson. You’re not allowed to call for more diversity in Hollywood while promoting your lead role in Ghost In The Machine. That’s not how this works.

-In her new book, Kathy Griffin says that Ashton Kutcher is “rude” and a “d-bag.” Sounds about right.

-Star Wars is struggling to find a female director with proper experience, says Kathleen Kennedy. Total bs. They gave Rian Johnson a Star Wars movie and the only things he’d done before was Looper and Brick. Trevor Trevorrow got Jurassic Park after just Safety Not Guaranteed. Josh Trank got to do Fantastic Four after only doing Chronicle. White dudes who only have one or two indies in their credits get handed the keys to the kingdom, but no one will take a chance on women directors.

-Garbage’s Shirley Manson discusses feminism, beauty and aging like the boss that she is.

-Yikes. Anthony Michael Hall was charged with felony battery after an alleged beatdown and now faces a 7-year sentence.

-The new Riverdale trailer looks like the CWiest show to ever be on the CW. Who knew Archie had abs?!