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Worst TV of 2016

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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

Everyone Struggles To Survive in The 100 Promo

-I don’t know if anything will bring me back to The 100, but this new promo sure is trying hard.

-Welp, this isn’t a good sign: People is reporting that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are at odds over Trump and their friends are encouraging them to ‘hold on.’

-Welp squared: Johnny Depp is reportedly still trying to get out of paying Amber Heard.

-According to Us Weekly, Brad Pitt isn’t sure if he’ll be seeing his kids on Christmas.

-Lots of stars are paying tribute to Alan Thicke today, including Leonardo DiCaprio: “When Alan Thicke walked in the room, quite frankly, no one was cooler. I miss him already.”

-I’m actually surprised that it took this long for a Warner Bros shakeup.

Jennifer Lawrence continues to gleefully tell stories about being super gross.

-Speaking of Passengers stars being gross, Chris Pratt says he stays connected with his Parks & Rec costars Nick Offerman and Adam Scott by sending each other pictures of their poop.

-The Bruno Mars edition of Carpool Karaoke is kind of meh. Is the honeymoon over?

-I”m kind of living for this clip of Matthew Rhys talking about almost ruining Keri Russell’s dress during their White House visit.

Susan Sarandon is now counting on Kanye West to lobby Trump on climate change. Can she just…stop?

-After Piers Morgan questioned Lady Gaga‘s rape claims, she graciously suggested they end their Twitter war and hash it out in an interview instead.

-Goodness, I am not feeling Felicity JonesRogue One photocall dress. The premiere dress is just a slight improvement.

-Judging by her latest tweet, it seems like Emmy Rossum won her Shameless salary fight.

Ben Affleck is still pressed about the media’s coverage of his romance with Jennifer Lopez and Gigli. If he didn’t like it, why does he insist on reminding us of it?

-Is it weird that I’m looking forward to CW’s Riverdale? I mean, Archie’s parents will be played by Luke Perry and Molly Ringwald. That’s perfect casting!

Sarah Paulson doesn’t want to hear your questions about catfights on the Ocean’s 8 set.

-The SAG nominations have long been considered one of the most reliable Oscar-night predictors but this year’s noms are…weird. Snubbing Oscar fave La La Land in favour of Captain Fantastic? Nominating Emily Blunt over Ruth NeggaIsabelle Huppert or Annette Bening?  On the TV side, there were lots of new faces, with the Drama Actress category featuring 4/5 actresses from freshman shows (and 4/5 on Netflix). At least Sterling K Brown  was nominated twice (and cried when he found out).

Rachel Dratch attempting to survive obstacle courses on Billy on the Street is never not funny. “Drown Jimmy Fallon in beer!” “Rachel knows all the words to ‘F*ck the Police’ because she went to Dartmouth!”

-This is a great interview with Phoebe Waller-Bridge on how she created Fleabag, one of my favourite new shows of the year.

-Meanwhile, here’s Pheobe turning the “12 Days of Christmas” into a creepy stalker story.

-How the hell does this headline get paired with this photo and no one goes “uh, guys? we might have a problem.”

-Weird casting: Sebastian Stan is joining Margot Robbie in a Tonya Harding biopic.

-Weird casting, part 2: Rosario Dawson vs Katherine Heigl in a new Single White Female meets Obsessed movie trailer.

Christopher Nolan‘s Dunkirk trailer dropped today and this does not seem like typical summer film fare.

Reese Witherspoon’s B-Day Party is the Height of FOMO

Taylor Swift, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matthew McConaughey, Robert Downey Jr., Nicole Kidman, Tobey Maguire, Jason Bateman, Kate Hudson…it might be easier to list the celebrities who *weren’t* at Reese Witherspoon’s 40th birthday party.

Drake And Rihanna took a break from being all flirty-flirt to visit a cancer patient. Then it was back to flirting.

-Also, the look on Rihanna‘s face when she let a fan sing and then realized he was outshining her is perfect.

Jeremy Renner says he would be “open” to a Hawkeye series on Netflix. Ya don’t say. He could shoot for a couple of months, make a bunch of Netflix money, and then go back to his real love: flipping houses and giving terrible interviews.

-I love this article on how every woman on TV now has the same. damn. hair. It’s crazy, especially because I’ve never seen anyone in real life pull off that style.

Mariah Carey’s manager is causing drama, right before her reality show debuts? GASP!

-Meanwhile, Mariah is complaining about how overhead lighting is “abusive.” God bless her.

-This is a really good read on how Jennifer Garner went from being named the Sexist Woman Alive to headlining Christian movies.

-Meanwhile, Ben Affleck says his giant back tattoo is fake and was just for a movie, but we all be needing proof.

-This is terrifying: Adele‘s personal photos, including baby scans, were reportedly stolen by hacker who broke into her bf’s email.

-Meanwhile, Adele is twerking it out.

-After 3 weeks of Twitter outrage, The 100’s showrunner finally broke his silence about the show’s controversial death…and his comments kinda sucked. The fact that he chose to be soft-ball interviewed by someone how isn’t Variety’s Mo Ryan (who has always been the show’s staunched defender — and now toughest critic), is telling.

-Meanwhile The Walking Dead picked a really bad month to lean on the Dead Lesbian trope.

Amy Schumer continues to be the shit.

-The Prison Break revival is bringing back more original stars. Wait, didn’t those characters all…die?

Emma Stone and Jonah Hill are set to star in a TV series from director Cary Fukunaga. I like three out of those four names!

Lexi Alexander (my favourite director to follow on Twitter) ranted about the fact that Max Landis is getting paid $3 million for a script despite a string of recent flops, and his wittle bitty feelings were hurt. Muffin!

Buffy cast reunions fill me with more joy than is probably considered socially acceptable.

-The director of the Maze Runner has given an update on Dylan O’Brien’s injuries, saying he’s been “overwhelmed with feelings of anger and sadness and guilt” but adding that the actor “is going to be just fine.”

-Allow John Oliver to explain why Trump’s border wall is just like getting a pet walrus.

-Meanwhile, George Clooney warned of Trump-like rhetoric in a letter supporting Hilary Clinton.

-The Game Of Thrones showrunners say season 6 is “the best one we’ve done.” Fingers crossed that means at least 75% less rape.

-Meanwhile, I had no idea that GoT’s Melisandre was dating Guy Pearce, let alone that they’re expecting a baby.

-A U.K. judge ruled that Madonna‘s custody hearing can move to NYC, and also warned her and Guy Ritchie against wasting the last years of Rocco’s childhood.

-The trailer for Seth Rogen‘s Sausage Party might have made us all laugh last week, but critics are calling it “a garbage movie that belongs in the compost bin.”

Prince has signed a deal to write a memoir. I’m torn between wanting to read it and wanting to shower his poor ghostwriter in hugs and Prozac.

-I will never not want to read about Freaks and Geeks.

Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman are reunited again, this time for Genuis, about a book editor who oversaw works by Wolfe, Hemingway and Fitzgerald.