The worst TV shows of 2024

We all love TV. It can take us to places we’ve never been before; sometimes, though, those places aren’t exactly good. A bad TV show, in our terms — is much easier to find than a good one — and this year, we found plenty. Find out what to avoid on your quest to get up to date with all the latest shows. 

— Senior Arts Editor Mina Tobya and TV Beat Editor Morgan Sieradski

“Agatha All Along”

Three things are sure to get me hooked on a show: witchcraft, Queer representation and Kathryn Hahn (“WandaVision”). “Agatha All Along” had a winning combo. With Kathryn Hahn playing the villainous witch Agatha Harkness and a star-studded cast rounding out her coven — including the formidable Patti LuPone (“Life Goes On”) — this follow-up to WandaVision nearly lived up to its predecessor’s quality. Each episode followed a “Wizard of Oz”-esque task along the Witches’ Road to test the coven in a quest for each of their greatest desires. They’re stylistically unique, adding to the mystical atmosphere of the series, but they amalgamate into a hollow attempt at character development. All of Agatha’s growth over the series culminates in her sacrifice at the end of the sixth episode in a poignant turn of events. The impact would be heavy if it wasn’t completely undone in the very next episode. The shadow this casts over the rest of the series is too damaging to overcome, marking it with a scarlet letter of one of the worst shows of the year. 

Senior Arts Editor Mina Tobya can be reached at mtobya@umich.edu. 

“Bridgerton” Season Three

It’s always a tough job to follow a great season. Season two of “Bridgerton” struck the perfect balance of wit, drama and romance, leaving viewers with the perfect enemies-to-lovers arc. With season three starring Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan, “Derry Girls”) — one of my personal favorite characters — I was cautiously optimistic. I quickly realized that I should have been more cautious.

Although “Bridgerton” is known for its large ensemble cast, the lead romance always takes center stage — that is, until season three. Penelope’s romance with childhood friend Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton, “The Lodge”) was sidelined to focus on the various b-plots, leaving the couple with a whopping 78 minutes of screen time out of a total of 475 minutes. While the leads have chemistry, there isn’t enough time to flesh out their relationship and resolve the conflicts organically. Colin’s discovery that Penelope is the infamous gossip writer Lady Whistledown is meant to be a central conflict, but the resolution is rushed and leaves viewers unsatisfied.

If you’re looking for romance, you can skip out on season three of “Bridgerton.” I can only hope that season four bounces back. 

TV Beat Editor Morgan Sieradski can be reached at kmsier@umich.edu. 

“Laid”

I’m a sucker for comedies. TV is the best medium for them. You can hyperbolize any situation, bring the characters to the worst possible conclusions and still have everything back nearly the way it started by the finale. It’s comforting. It’s formulaic. It’s easy to botch. 

“Laid” tries to lay the groundwork for a successful comedy. It has a deeply flawed protagonist in Ruby (Stephanie Hsu, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”), the typical best friend character in AJ (Zosia Mamet, “Girls”) and even a slow-building love interest in Richie (Michael Angarano, “Sky High”), but these archetypes are not enough to carry a series. Each line is delivered as believably as possible, but that’s still not enough to make them sound natural coming out of a real person’s mouth. The robotic, cliché dialogue does little to build characters an audience is willing to follow through the lulls in action — and there are a lot of lulls in action. 

What should be an interesting premise of following Ruby as she investigates the eerie, pattern-based deaths of her ex-boyfriends becomes a predictable, monotonous plot line that simultaneously drags on and moves cartoonishly quick. It has a good premise turned sour by the execution. 

Senior Arts Editor Mina Tobya can be reached at mtobya@umich.edu. 

“English Teacher”

2024 was a year full of excellent television, but “English Teacher” managed to stand out by schooling audiences on how to not make a sitcom. The show follows Evan Marquez (Brian Jordan Alvarez, “80 For Brady”), an English teacher at an Austin, Texas, high school, who takes on all issues in his classroom: personal, professional and political. The concept was certainly promising, but the show instead took the form of an out-of-touch millennial embarrassment.

Despite its attempts at humor, the show too often relies on trite clichés and predictable punchlines, rendering episodes more akin to detention than entertainment. Characters were often reduced to one-dimensional stereotypes, leaving viewers yearning for more depth in their delivery. The series also couldn’t quite decide whether it wanted to be a mocking dramedy or a satirical comedy, which made for some confusing tonal shifts. In a world where “Abbott Elementary” has raised the bar for school-based comedies, “English Teacher” felt like it needed to stay after class for some extra credit.

In short, “English Teacher” taught us that not all lessons are worth attending, and sometimes it’s okay to skip class.

Daily Arts Writer Tiffany McKalko can be reached at tmckalko@umich.edu.

The post The worst TV shows of 2024 appeared first on The Michigan Daily.