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Worst series in sitcom?

Started by rue the polywhirl, January 09, 2021, 04:24:35 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

lankyguy95

Quote from: Catalogue Trousers on January 10, 2021, 09:31:06 PM
No mention of Derke?

Okay, in fairness, that was so blatantly shite that it became paradoxically entertaining, but it was still absolute shite.
Got to pick one series though. First or second?

Probably second. I think the bit where he's wrestling a resident on the floor for no discernible reason is on that one.

neveragain

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on January 10, 2021, 08:19:17 PM
Royle Family stuff after Nana died.

Quite right. Despite (what Jockie says and) one scene of Jim overacting towards Antony, I think Queen of Sheba holds up as an episode and would have been a fine finale. Yes, it's sentimental but I find those moments effective, dare I say earned. They should have stuck to the real-time, one-setting format (only breaking it to go to hospital near the end - how great a shock would that have been?) but they didn't and we have to live with that.

Avril Lavigne

It's Red Dwarf Series 8, no contest. Unmitigated shit.
https://youtu.be/ws4sDuAt978

Apologies for the quality of this clip but then it doesn't really matter.

Ornlu

Quote from: Avril Lavigne on January 10, 2021, 11:40:17 PM
It's Red Dwarf Series 8, no contest. Unmitigated shit.
https://youtu.be/ws4sDuAt978

Apologies for the quality of this clip but then it doesn't really matter.

What was that shit? That clip's 4m35s, so that's like a fifth of the episode, more or less. And they're just standing around repeating the same words. Not even jokes, really.

jobotic

I know it's not popular here but I loved the first series of The Mighty Boosh (and the radio series).

Second series was a step down but still fun.

Third series was fucking dire.

Vince was the difference. In the first series he was engagingly silly and we were meant to laugh at his vanity and superficiality.

By the end he was just Noel Fielding and we were meant to be in love with him as much as he was.

St_Eddie

#35
Quote from: neveragain on January 10, 2021, 11:24:06 PM

Quite right. Despite (what Jockie says and) one scene of Jim overacting towards Antony, I think Queen of Sheba holds up as an episode and would have been a fine finale. Yes, it's sentimental but I find those moments effective, dare I say earned. They should have stuck to the real-time, one-setting format (only breaking it to go to hospital near the end - how great a shock would that have been?) but they didn't and we have to live with that.

100% agreed.  I thought that 'The Queen of Sheba' was a superb finale for the show.  Absolutely belting stuff and it never fails to make me well up when watching the scene of Barbara crying behind her Mum, knowing that they won't have much time left upon this Earth together, as she brushes her hair.  As you say; the sentimentality was more than earned by that stage.  I also fully agree with just how perfect it was that the one solitary time that we actually left the confines of the Royle household was for the family to say their goodbyes to Nana in the hospital.  I remember thinking at the time that it was quite possibly the greatest final episode of a sitcom I'd ever seen.

Then they announced another special and then another and then another.  Everything which followed was not only unnecessary but also unbelievably terrible.  They turned a grounded sitcom, reflective of everyday lower-class life into a broad farcical comedy.  It beggars belief as to what they were thinking with the last few specials.  That scene where David takes a bath with the defrosting Christmas turkey?  Just mindbogglingly wrongheaded writing for the type of show it ought to have been.  David was a bit dim, sure but he was never a certifiable moron.  I don't believe for one second that any grown adult without severe learning difficulties would bathe with their defrosting food floating in the water with them.  That scene had no business being within an episode of The Royle Family, which up until then had managed to maintain a believable, grounded reality to proceedings.

Then there was 'Joe's Christmas Crackers' where the family all hide out of view, coaching Joe (who is now no longer a stern, silent and somewhat imposing figure but instead a lovable, cuddly old out of touch fool... for some reason) on a succession of ridiculous dates without allowing themselves to be seen by said dates, by waving sign language at Joe and him misunderstanding their messages... with "hilarious" results.  It's a well trodden premise straight out of a traditional, old fashioned, lowest common denominator sitcom.  What the fuck was such a premise doing within an episode of The Royle Family?! 

Don't even get me stared on the 'Golden Egg Cup' episode, where the show had by now completely dropped any kind of pretense of even so much as acknowledging the entire original point and premise of the show being set entirely within the confines of a single household - by having the family go on a holiday to a caravan site.  It was as though the show had been taken over by an entirely new set of writers.  I don't understand how Caroline Aherne and Craig Cash thought that this material was of an acceptable standard.  Were they secretly replaced with pod people in the night?  I fail to comprehend how they could have possibly been the same duo who wrote and starred in the previous classic episodes.

I have to confess that a small part of me was relieved when Caroline Aherne passed away because it at least pretty much guaranteed that we'd never have to face the indignity of seeing the show being sullied any further.  That's how bad those final few episodes were; they genuinely made me a little bit glad that a comedy legend had died of cancer.

checkoutgirl

Have we done Roseanne? Decent series until the last one (ninth?). They win the lottery and jetset around the place hobnobbing with celebrities like Eddie and Joanna Lumley from Ab Fab. Ruins the backbone of the show based on a blue collar ordinary American family. I suspect Roseanne was bored by that stage and wanted to fuck about with the formula. Or they were completely out of ideas. I'm not even sure if I finished the last series.

Avril Lavigne

Quote from: checkoutgirl on January 11, 2021, 01:34:00 AM
Have we done Roseanne? Decent series until the last one (ninth?). They win the lottery and jetset around the place hobnobbing with celebrities like Eddie and Joanna Lumley from Ab Fab. Ruins the backbone of the show based on a blue collar ordinary American family. I suspect Roseanne was bored by that stage and wanted to fuck about with the formula. Or they were completely out of ideas. I'm not even sure if I finished the last series.

Roseanne had actually tried to get a US remake of Ab Fab off the ground but it didn't work out with the higher ups, so she kinda spitefully twisted 'Roseanne' into the show she was hoping to get made.

buttgammon

The thing with The Royle Family is that the later episodes are so bad that they've put me off watching the first (very good) three series. Ab Fab got very bad but not bad enough to write off the first three or four series, which I still really enjoy.

Quote from: St_Eddie on January 11, 2021, 01:20:42 AM
Then they announced another special and then another and then another.  Everything which followed was not only unnecessary but also unbelievably terrible.  They turned a grounded sitcom, reflective of everyday lower-class life into a broad farcical comedy.  It beggars belief as to what they were thinking with the last few specials.  That scene where David takes a bath with the defrosting Christmas turkey?  Just mindbogglingly wrongheaded writing for the type of show it ought to have been.  David was a bit dim, sure but he was never a certifiable moron.  I don't believe for one second that any grown adult without severe learning difficulties would bathe with their defrosting food floating in the water with them.  That scene had no business being within an episode of The Royle Family, which up until then had managed to maintain a believable, grounded reality to proceedings.

I watched that episode with my family and we collectively agreed to turn it off at that point. It was too sad to see these nuanced characters turning into unfunny caricatures before our eyes. It's similar to late Simpsons, where these characters that were so human have become so entirely one-note - particularly Homer - that years of delicate groundwork has been destroyed for some cheap gags that aren't even funny.

Botty Cello

Quote from: checkoutgirl on January 11, 2021, 01:34:00 AM
Have we done Roseanne? Decent series until the last one (ninth?).
So bad that even the ScreenPeekers diatribe about series 9 struggled with viewing figures:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HtapcjT088&t=95s

Jockice

Quote from: St_Eddie on January 11, 2021, 01:20:42 AM
100% agreed.  I thought that 'The Queen of Sheba' was a superb finale for the show.  Absolutely belting stuff and it never fails to make me well up when watching the scene of Barbara crying behind her Mum, knowing that they won't have much time left upon this Earth together, as she brushes her hair.  As you say; the sentimentality was more than earned by that stage.  I also fully agree with just how perfect it was that the one solitary time that we actually left the confines of the Royle household was for the family to say their goodbyes to Nana in the hospital.  I remember thinking at the time that it was quite possibly the greatest final episode of a sitcom I'd ever seen.


It must just be me then, because I thought it was utter bollocks. And both my parents had died by then, so it's not as if I wasn't familiar with the scenario. But having read what I've read about what happened afterwards I'm so glad I decided to boycott it from then on.

Quote from: Ornlu on January 09, 2021, 07:04:38 PM
The animated series of Trailer Park Boys is an atrocity. It's shameful what they do to those characters, you hate to see it.

God, no, Series 9 is much worse than that. At least the cartoon can be compartmentalised as it's own thing.

The Netflix revival is almost entirely dreadful, but series 9 is the nadir. Having Barb Lahey as the antagonist derails the whole thing.

Famous Mortimer

Quote from: Huxleys Babkins on January 11, 2021, 12:41:52 PM
God, no, Series 9 is much worse than that. At least the cartoon can be compartmentalised as it's own thing.

The Netflix revival is almost entirely dreadful, but series 9 is the nadir. Having Barb Lahey as the antagonist derails the whole thing.
It seemed to me like they were bored of playing the characters years ago, tried that other show (which wasn't great) then decided it was easier to monetise their rabid fanbase and just coast for as long as they could, instead of trying new things. Almost nothing from after they bought the rights to the show has been worth a damn, sadly. Their live shows are brilliant, mind.

sutin

Quote from: jobotic on January 11, 2021, 12:18:43 AM
I know it's not popular here but I loved the first series of The Mighty Boosh (and the radio series).

Second series was a step down but still fun.

Third series was fucking dire.

Vince was the difference. In the first series he was engagingly silly and we were meant to laugh at his vanity and superficiality.

By the end he was just Noel Fielding and we were meant to be in love with him as much as he was.

Almost completely agree, as I would say series one and two were more on par.


dissolute ocelot

8 Simple Rules after John Ritter died. "Let's make a sitcom with a lot of people being really depressed. And then add David Spade." Although I think there were technically 2 series, so maybe the first post-death.

McChesney Duntz

Reminds me of the post-Phil Hartman season of NewsRadio - probably not terrible, but I don't know, seeing as I can't bring myself to watch any of it past the PH tribute episode. Just too uncomfortable, not least because one of the cast members really hated one of the other ones.

notjosh

Admittedly it had been going downhill for years, but the final season of How I Met Your Mother was atrocious and spunked away any lingering goodwill from the (pretty fun and inventive) first 3-4 seasons.

Bafflingly, they had already spent the last few seasons moving the show in a completely different direction from the pre-determined ending that had been filmed around series 2 (to avoid the kids being told the story in flashback looking noticeably older). They then compounded this in the final series by setting the whole thing on Barney & Robin's wedding day, which was not only a complete drag but turned out to be totally irrelevant. Then in (literally) the last 5 minutes of the last episode they rushed through a huge chunk of exposition and a couple of completely jarring U-turns and wrapped the whole thing up in a way that might have made sense about 6 years prior but was now just incredibly tone-deaf.

Quote from: dissolute ocelot on January 12, 2021, 10:02:20 AM
8 Simple Rules after John Ritter died. "Let's make a sitcom with a lot of people being really depressed. And then add David Spade James Fucking Garner." Although I think there were technically 2 series, so maybe the first post-death.

FTFY - the later ones are decent.

bigfatheart

Quote from: McChesney Duntz on January 12, 2021, 06:30:09 PM
Reminds me of the post-Phil Hartman season of NewsRadio - probably not terrible, but I don't know, seeing as I can't bring myself to watch any of it past the PH tribute episode. Just too uncomfortable, not least because one of the cast members really hated one of the other ones.

It's better than you might expect, but still pretty mediocre. They can't really work out a character for Jon Lovitz, so they swing back and forth between his two strengths (smarmy and emotionally vulnerable manchild) without really making much hay out of either. The rest of the cast is still solid and it really doesn't show that they were making it in such bleak circumstances, surprisingly.
The biggest problem is that there's a massive turnover in the writers' room, and the new writers just aren't as good as the old ones. Plus Paul Simms was working on another show (which I think didn't get made), so he wasn't around to do his minor Larry David thing and tell the NBC executives 'no, fuck off, we're not doing an episode where they're all hippies to promote the premiere of Austin Powers'.

Long story short: it's not good but it's not bad enough to be one of the worst sitcom seasons ever.

McChesney Duntz

That sounds about right. Odd thing is, I'm pretty sure I did watch most of it when it first aired, but fucked if I can remember a single thing from that whole season (beyond, as mentioned, the Hartman/McNeal tribute episode, which really should have been the final show).

Famous Mortimer

Quote from: notjosh on January 12, 2021, 06:49:35 PM
Admittedly it had been going downhill for years, but the final season of How I Met Your Mother was atrocious and spunked away any lingering goodwill from the (pretty fun and inventive) first 3-4 seasons.

Bafflingly, they had already spent the last few seasons moving the show in a completely different direction from the pre-determined ending that had been filmed around series 2 (to avoid the kids being told the story in flashback looking noticeably older). They then compounded this in the final series by setting the whole thing on Barney & Robin's wedding day, which was not only a complete drag but turned out to be totally irrelevant. Then in (literally) the last 5 minutes of the last episode they rushed through a huge chunk of exposition and a couple of completely jarring U-turns and wrapped the whole thing up in a way that might have made sense about 6 years prior but was now just incredibly tone-deaf.
My pet hate also. It wasn't just that it was cloth-eared, it was an ending they'd spent pretty much their entire run telling us was a bad idea. Ted and Robin were absolutely not right for each other, and the show beat this point into the ground again and again. Barney's development thrown in the bin, for no good reason. The oft-mentioned idea that fuck-up failed artist Lily was somehow a "catch" for the handsome future judge Marshall.

If they'd stuck the landing even slightly better than they did, Greta Gerwig would probably be wrapping up her run on "How I Met Your Father" right about now, too. 

JamesTC

I got the complete set of Two and a Half Men really cheap as it seemed like good background filler while working from home at the start of lockdown last year. The show was never great but it went so unbelievably bad late on. Season 12 is just astonishingly bad culminating in a spectacularly awful finale featuring Ratatoing level animation to revive Charlie Sheen.

That 70s Show was another I watched in lockdown. Season 8 is fucking atrocious.

I've heard Season 9 of Scrubs is really bad and the creators apologised saying they only made it to keep the production team in employment.

Botty Cello

Quote from: JamesTC on January 12, 2021, 11:12:23 PM
I got the complete set of Two and a Half Men really cheap as it seemed like good background filler while working from home at the start of lockdown last year. The show was never great but it went so unbelievably bad late on. Season 12 is just astonishingly bad culminating in a spectacularly awful finale featuring Ratatoing level animation to revive Charlie Sheen.
It dropped an octave when Charlie Sheen left, then increasingly went for the easy laugh, becoming a bit pantomimey towards the end. They also over egged the level of humiliation souped onto Alan towards the end.

BritishHobo

Quote from: notjosh on January 12, 2021, 06:49:35 PM
Admittedly it had been going downhill for years, but the final season of How I Met Your Mother was atrocious and spunked away any lingering goodwill from the (pretty fun and inventive) first 3-4 seasons.

Bafflingly, they had already spent the last few seasons moving the show in a completely different direction from the pre-determined ending that had been filmed around series 2 (to avoid the kids being told the story in flashback looking noticeably older). They then compounded this in the final series by setting the whole thing on Barney & Robin's wedding day, which was not only a complete drag but turned out to be totally irrelevant. Then in (literally) the last 5 minutes of the last episode they rushed through a huge chunk of exposition and a couple of completely jarring U-turns and wrapped the whole thing up in a way that might have made sense about 6 years prior but was now just incredibly tone-deaf.

FTFY - the later ones are decent.

Quote from: Famous Mortimer on January 12, 2021, 11:01:41 PM
My pet hate also. It wasn't just that it was cloth-eared, it was an ending they'd spent pretty much their entire run telling us was a bad idea. Ted and Robin were absolutely not right for each other, and the show beat this point into the ground again and again. Barney's development thrown in the bin, for no good reason. The oft-mentioned idea that fuck-up failed artist Lily was somehow a "catch" for the handsome future judge Marshall.

If they'd stuck the landing even slightly better than they did, Greta Gerwig would probably be wrapping up her run on "How I Met Your Father" right about now, too.

I watched the ending again the other night, and it really struck me how well it would have worked at the end of season 2. Everything about it, from the mother being an afterthought, to the blue french horn thing, to the jarring 'this is about Aunt Robin' turn, it all fits perfectly right then, and then only. Have a funny moment where Ted meets some randomer at Marshall and Lily's wedding, so we feel nothing when she dies, and then Ted and Robin are so fresh in ths mind that it makes sense when the kids immediately bring her up. The moment they started up with the yellow umbrella chain of events in the opening scene of season 3, they sealed their own fate. It only shows in retrospect, but as soon as they decided to really flesh out the 'best love story ever' grandeur of that meeting, they'd already guaranteed their ending would be a huge whiplash tonally. Every step after that - Stella, the college class, Cindy, the wedding - made that ending more and more outdated. Why they then made the mental choice to let us grow so attached to lovely Cristin Millioti is beyond me. Not to mention the agonisingly protracted storyline of Ted 'getting over' Robin, which simultaneously undermined his meeting Tracey while actually making you root against him and Robin.

But yeah, season nine definitely. Season eight was a shitshow after the quite good six and seven, but nine really fucked it. What gets me is that, for that show, setting the whole season at the wedding was a perfect, consistent idea, which they inexplicably squandered. The key to the whole show from the beginning was its timeline hopping, jumping back and forth in time to add clever twists to normal stories. That season would have been the perfect opportunity to continue that by setting different episodes at different points in their history. Have episodes set during season one, whole episodes set during Ted's relationship with Tracey (rather than just the few scenes we got), then one set during season three, then one at college. Really take in the whole show, and explore the history and future of their friendships. Instead they literally did just stay at that fucking wedding, doing dumb stories about ghosts, and egg-cooking competitions. They doubled down on Barney and Robin being awful, hateful cunts, and Ted was basically a side character in his own show.

Lame.

jfjnpxmy

Quote from: JamesTC on January 12, 2021, 11:12:23 PM
I've heard Season 9 of Scrubs is really bad and the creators apologised saying they only made it to keep the production team in employment.

It started out rough as Hell, and at no point does it bear even the slightest resemblance to actual medical school, but by the end of the series it was showing some promise.

Far worse is Season 8, with the baffling coffee shop and the new interns and JD just being fucking insufferable and the budget cuts meaning only half the cast is present per episode and the fucking GANG GO ON HOLIDAY FOR A WACKY WEDDING episodes that seemed mostly to be an opportunity for gratuitous bikini shots and the mawkish [even by Scrubs standards] finale where JD changing jobs is treated like a Huge Thing despite Scrubs showing people arriving and leaving at Sacred Heart all the fucking tiiiiime.

Phil_A

Didn't Ally McBeal spectacularly shit the bed in it's last season (yeah, I used to watch it, don't judge me). The show had already kind-of lost all interest for me by then, but I did catch a few of the final episodes and it was utterly baffling how it had got to this point. Most of the original cast gone, Jon Bon Jovi, Dame Edna and Loudon Wainwright III were now regular guest stars, and Ally inexplicably had a daughter played by a young Hayden Panettiere. Utter nonsense.

Jesus, I'd even forgotten Robert Downey Jnr was in the cast for a while, back when he was so fucked up he was constantly getting fired from everything.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: checkoutgirl on January 11, 2021, 01:34:00 AM
Have we done Roseanne?

Yes, I did mention it on Sunday, but it must have been in Roseanne's imagination.


Brundle-Fly

The third series of The Fall & Rise Of Reginald Perrin was an interesting development with the commune aspect but had lost the sparkle of the first two outings. The ending of series two was very moving so it should've stopped there. Might have to rewatch it though, as it has been many years since I've seen it. Decades even.

The Legacy Of Reginald Perrin trumps that though. Leonard Rossiter was inconveniently absent by dint of being dead, production didn't bother in contacting Trevor Adams to recreate Tony 'Great' Webster and the whole premise seemed Xeroxed from the comedy film Laughter In Paradise (1951). Great cast as always, but plum duff without the plum.

notjosh

Quote from: Phil_A on January 13, 2021, 10:09:27 AM
Ally inexplicably had a daughter played by a young Hayden Panettiere.

It was down to a mix-up at the frozen egg bank.

It's been years since I watched but my memory is that series 4 had been pretty good, and Downey Jr was a great foil for Flockhart. Then he had to go into rehab so we got fucking Bon Jovi, and Dame Edna. Nothing against the Dame per se[nb]I mean...[/nb], but the show was always dangerously close to being insufferably wacky and she just tipped it over the edge.

Quote
(yeah, I used to watch it, don't judge me)

I am judging you, and I think you're fab.

Marner and Me

Quote from: Fried Egg Sandwich on January 12, 2021, 09:18:00 AM
Game On after Ben Chaplin left.
Tbh I'd say the third series when one of the writers left. I think the second series was still good.