With a wide variety of excellent shows debuting on television in 2022, the Golden Age of Television is still very much in full swing. As a matter of fact, there was something for everyone to enjoy over the past 12 months, with series like “Better Call Saul,” “Stranger Things,” “House of the Dragon,” and “Only Murders in the Building” all earning a plethora of positive reviews. There are more options than ever before as more streaming services enter the market to take advantage of the constantly expanding online audiences.
Of course, not every release will be a hit despite all of the options: Both hits and misses were present in the past year. Since not every show is able to please both viewers and critics, it is important to remember this. Some shows disappointed viewers with their unclear plots and one-dimensional characters, while others were too dull and lacked sufficient action to keep viewers interested.
Here are the television programs that left viewers all over the world with a bad taste in their mouths from the previous year.
Adults Adopting Adults
Because there are so many options available, reality television has reached a stage of saturation where shows must go further than ever before to garner any traction. There’s no denying that the idea of “Adults Adopting Adults” is peculiar. It shows a group of adults—both men and women—looking for new homes who will formally adopt them. This is troubling for a variety of reasons, not the least of which being the logistical and emotional complexity of adult adoption, which varies dramatically depending on location.
The series received criticism almost immediately when it debuted on A&E. Danny Huff, who attempted to adopt a young woman from Austria, was one of the most contentious characters on the show. When it became apparent that he had fallen in love with another 18-year-old under similar circumstances, accusations that he was human trafficking and grooming the prospective adoptee arose.
Only three of the original 10 episodes actually aired before the show was cancelled. The Daily Beast called it “a bonkers and creepy reality show,” so viewers shouldn’t be too upset about missing the remaining episodes.
Blockbuster
Given that the former video rental store was essentially eliminated by the streaming service, it is odd that Netflix would order the “Blockbuster” series, but here we are. Randall Park and Melissa Fumero play two employees at the final Blockbuster location in the workplace comedy. Timmy Yoon of Park fights to keep his store open after learning that the larger company is closing.
When the comedy finally debuted on Netflix in December, it failed to engage audiences by failing to even provide a basic story or immerse them in the characters. There isn’t much to chuckle at in “Blockbuster,” which is rife with comedy cliches from earlier comedies from the early 2000s. The Netflix show, as reported by Variety, “drags on several minutes too long for its content, dragging out situations and jokes that would’ve been sharper given a more discriminating eye,” as a result of the lack of a time limit due to being on the streaming site rather than network TV.
It’s obvious that the program must be a total flop when even an outstanding cast like this fails to provide any sincere humor. Fortunately, viewers won’t have to endure a second season because, according to Deadline, the show has been canceled following its debut.
Fairview
The animated sitcom “Fairview” was created by R.J. Fried and Stephen Colbert, with the latter serving as executive producer. It debuted on Comedy Central in the start of 2022. The fact that Colbert was involved gave folks some optimism that it would have some redeeming features made the entire fiasco that was intended to be a satirical examination of small-town drama and politics in America even worse.
This show is hardly more than a rip-off of the crudely drawn cartoon; it is almost probably intended to appeal to the same audience that watches “South Park.” The fact that the show isn’t especially hilarious, though, is its worst transgression. The joke about the fools living in the small town who don’t care about their own safety is the only one in “Fairview,” according to The Daily Beast, “and it’s reprised with a particularly off-putting style of boisterous, cheerful screechiness.”
Due to all of this, it received continuously low ratings during its eight-episode run, failing to captivate consumers. The few people who did watch “Fairview” weren’t impressed because of the movie’s incredibly low user approval ratings on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes.
God’s Favorite Idiot
Fans of Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone, a married couple, may have anticipated “God’s Favorite Idiot.” The two not only play big roles in it but also contributed significantly to its construction. The series, which debuted in June on Netflix, follows a man who, after being struck by lightning, is appointed as God’s new representative on Earth and is tasked with averting the impending end of the world.
Variety criticizes how the show wastes the ability of everyone involved and claims that it may be the worst thing McCarthy has ever done in her career. It was impossible to avoid drawing comparisons to “The Good Place,” even though it couldn’t help but be seen as a less successful version of that critically lauded fantasy comedy. The Globe and Mail said, “Given the talent involved, everything about this series is jaw-droppingly lazy and unambitious.”
Netflix has already committed to 16 episodes of the show, so regardless of what happens, it seems clear that viewers will be able to see at least another eight episodes.
Hard Cell
Mockumentary television is nothing new to Catherine Tate, who had a key role in multiple seasons of “The Office” from 2011 until the end of the program. The award-winning comic sketch show “The Catherine Tate Show” is one of the comedic projects the actor and comedian has previously worked on. You may assume that her debut show, which is produced by Netflix, would be an immediate success.
In the documentary “Hard Cell,” a team follows the everyday activities in a jail in the United Kingdom and documents the activity that takes place there. Tate has various roles in the show, and she is joined by Lisa Davina Phillip, Cheryl Fergison, and Dystin Johnson.
“Hard Cell” is reportedly packed of “lazy clichés and far too many one-dimensional characters: this prison-based comedy is full of flaws, not the least of which is the absence of a real storyline,” according to The Guardian. Others criticized the sitcom for having jokes that were more appropriate for television 20 years ago, and Decider added that “‘Hard Cell’ becomes a lot to stomach, even within the first 30 minutes.”
Monarch
The number of musical television series has greatly increased over the past few years, whether it’s “High School Musical” and “Glee” or the more mature “Galavant” and “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.” The idea that Fox would produce a musical drama is therefore not entirely improbable. Starring Susan Sarandon, Trace Adkins, Beth Ditto, and Anna Friel, “Monarch” follows the life of the Roman family, a dynasty of country musicians who are doing everything in their power to maintain their position at the top of the music industry.
According to Deadline, “Monarch” actually got off to a good start but couldn’t keep up the quality during the first season. Fox’s decision to terminate the series, which prevents those who did watch it from learning what might have happened next, makes sense when combined with the negative critical reception. However, given how terrible the series ended up being, that might possibly be a gift.
Few reviews were favorable for the musical, which has a 31% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The Hollywood Reporter stated that “there’s no breakout character to be discovered in Monarch and no breakout performances,” which centered many of the criticisms on Susan Sarandon’s surprisingly short role.
The Calling
If you’re creating a new police procedural, you better have something distinctive about it to make it stand out. Since there are so many excellent crime dramas on television, they are all vying for the same viewers. In the movie “The Calling,” which stars Jeff Wilbusch, Juliana Canfield, and Karen Robinson, a police detective by the name of Avraham Avraham uses his faith to help him solve crimes in New York City. All eight of the first season’s episodes, which were shown only on Peacock, were made accessible to fans in November.
With only a 25% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, “The Calling” doesn’t really contribute anything to the genre. More than anything else, the religious angle appears put on, giving the detective a supposedly mystical capacity to uncover clues or understand a crime. According to RogertEbert.com, it also squanders the chance to go deeper into philosophical concepts relating to humanity by having Avraham simply utter a string of spiritual maxims that are insignificant in the context.
The majority of reviews for “The Calling” left critics with the impression that it had wasted an intriguing idea by failing to provide satisfying resolutions to its deeper mysteries.
The Endgame
There are a lot of crime dramas on television, so “The Endgame” already had a tough time standing out in a genre that is undeniably crowded. The series, which was written by Nicholas Wootton, a former “Prison Break” and “Law & Order” writer, and “Arrow” producer Jake Coburn, featured Morena Baccarin’s character, Elena, square off with FBI Special Agent Val Turner while pulling out a string of daring heists across the nation.
Nearly all opponents agreed that the evidence was damning. Many people criticized the criminal mastermind’s ridiculous ability to escape from every circumstance, which happened so frequently that Variety reporter Caroline Framke got tired of it after only two episodes. The Hollywood Reporter, meanwhile, claimed that the show lacked substance and that even the usually dependable main actors had subpar performances. In the end, “The Endgame” did nothing to support its own continuation, therefore its cancellation by NBC after one season came as no surprise.
The Pentaverate
Mike Myers used to be almost a given when it came to creating a successful comedy. After his time on “Saturday Night Live,” he enjoyed a streak of triumphs, including roles in films like “Wayne’s World” and “Austin Powers.” He continued his career in the early 2000s by providing the voice of Shrek in DreamWorks’ well-known animated franchise. But he has essentially been away from Hollywood for the past ten or so years. When he wrote and acted in the Netflix series “The Pentaverate,” which was based on the 1993 movie “So I Married an Axe Murderer,” everything changed in 2022.
Myers portrays multiple identities in the comedic series, including news reporter Ken Scarborough and the top official of the covert group The Pentaverate, as is the case with many of his productions. The drama, which centers on the secret organization run by five influential individuals around the world, has welcomed actors like Ken Jeong, Keegan-Michael Key, and Debi Mazar to the cast.
In addition to missing humor, most of the characters in the show, according to Salon, were merely modified copies of those Myers had previously played in his earlier works, “whose humor feels crustily out of date in 2022.” Given that “The Pentaverate” failed to have a significant influence on viewers, it raises serious doubts about Myers’ capacity to produce something truly hilarious or profitable.
The Terminal List
When “The Terminal List” was published this year, it had a lot going for it. The action thriller series stars a number of well-known actors, including Chris Pratt, Constance Wu, and Taylor Kitsch. It tells the tale of a Navy SEAL who struggles to protect his family while looking into the enigmatic circumstances surrounding an ambush on his patrol that claimed the lives of many of his coworkers.
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The history of “The Time Traveler’s Wife” was impressive. After all, Steven Moffat, the creator of Netflix’s “Dracula” and shows like “Doctor Who” and “Sherlock,” created it. As a result, it was entirely reasonable for viewers to have high hopes for this HBO series. Theo James and Rose Leslie, both former cast members of “Game of Thrones,” play the two primary parts. The two play a couple who must deal with the fact that James’ character unpredictably travels across time on sometimes during their relationship, causing them to meet out of order.
The series, which is based on the Audrey Niffenegger novel, aims to answer some challenging philosophical queries about free will and what it means to have power over your own life. The issue is that “The Time Traveler’s Wife” mostly fails to adequately address such concepts, and its storylines get muddled way too soon. While The Hollywood Reporter critiqued the two protagonists’ lack of chemistry and the show’s inconsistent tone, TV Insider even said, “If only time travel were real, they could use it to go back and do it right.”
The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On
With release after release coming to the streaming site over the past few years, Netflix has gone all in on reality dating shows. “The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On” was a 2022 standout for all the wrong reasons. In this reality TV show, soon-to-wed couples are forced to put their romances to the test as they are partnered with other couples and must choose whether to stay with their partner or try something new.
The entire idea of “The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On” may have been too extreme for a dating show, in the eyes of many. The idea is unclear in that there doesn’t seem to be any justification for this “social experiment” other than the fact that it would make for good television. According to The New Statesman, the entire situation was obscene and crude, leaving young people in the awkward position of witnessing their loved ones and long-term partners flirt, or occasionally do much more, with total strangers. The show is “extremely bad,” in The Guardian’s words, and should be avoided at all costs, even by diehard fans of reality television.
It shouldn’t have been possible to create a boring series with those stars and such an intriguing idea, yet “The Terminal List” on Amazon Prime has managed to achieve just that. From the uninteresting action scenes to the story that consists mainly of “saccharine family scenes and a paint-by-numbers conspiracy that gets more intricate but not any more exciting,” TVLine considered practically every part of the show to be uninteresting.
There’s no doubting that the show is full of confused moments and doesn’t really go anywhere, even though some people, like Jack Carr, the author of the novels on which the show is based, thought that the bad reviews were caused by claimed left-wing bias in the media. Though viewers continued to check in to watch the show, none of that prevented it from advancing up Amazon Prime Video’s rankings, and there will undoubtedly be a second season for the few who actually like it.
