The future is often thought of as an unknowable, inscrutable web of possibility and promise. To try and know the future is foolish, and to claim to know it is a sign of madness. Yet, repeatedly through the years, people have tried to see what the future holds for us, in everything from politics to sports to tech.

Most of these endeavours fail. The keyword here is “most.” Every now and then, a correct prediction is made, usually as a joke that turns into a serious affair. It’s almost enough to make you think the universe must be aware and have a wicked sense of humor. Several incidents on the following list will definitely make you consider the possibility!

10 Book Predictions That Really Came True

10The Simpsons—3 Eyed Mutant Fish

It’s no surprise that having been around for over 30 years, The Simpsons has made its fair share of predictions, and most are flat-out wrong. The weirdest by far, however, has to be the prediction they were never trying to make in the first place: 3 eyed mutant fish.

Long-time fans of The Simpsons will surely remember Blinky, the 3 eyed nuclear fish that lives in the pond outside Mr. Burns’s nuclear factory. The glowing runoff from the plant mutated the little goldfish into a bug-eyed monster!

In 2011, Blinky came to life in Argentina as a pair of fishermen caught a 3 eyed wolf fish in a reservoir fed by a nearby nuclear plant. Mr. Burns, however, was nowhere to be found. Blink thrice if you need a rescue, Blinky!^[1]

9Person of Interest—Snowden

In 2012, the writers of rel=”noopener” target=”_blank” hit on a great idea: what if we wrote about a boyishly handsome young CIA agent who discovers that the U.S. government is spying on American citizens illegally and tries to tell the world? In the show, he had to dodge assassins and agents as he met secretly with reporters to spread the word of the government’s dirty dealings.

In real life, it was much the same, as Edward Snowden ran from the government, roaming country to country after exposing the U.S. Government for the illegal mass surveillance of its citizens and citizens of other countries.

Truth is usually stranger than fiction, but sometimes the two collide and sync in the worst possible areas.^[2]

8Quantum Leap—Super Bowl XXX

Quantum Leap, as a show, was all about predicting the future. In it, a man named Sam has his mind thrown through time and into the bodies of others, each time with a task to complete—to improve the life of the person into whom he has leaped. This made for some quality television and oodles of predictions about the future, almost all of them wrong.

Almost all. There was, of course, the Super Bowl XXX prediction.

The episode “All Americans,” which premiered in 1990, opens with Sam watching Super Bowl 30, a game that wouldn’t be played until 1996. He mentions, casually, that the Steelers are playing and are trailing by 3 points. Simple set dressing, until 1996, when the Steelers not only played in the Super Bowl but were trailing by 3 points halfway through.^[3]

7Legends of Chamberlain Heights—Kobe Bryant’s Death

Although not a well-known show, the cartoon Legends of Chamberlain Heights was a well-enjoyed show for the short time that it ran. A Comedy Central product, it had its share of dark and tasteless jokes. One such dark joke featured Kobe Bryant in a helicopter, which then crashed to the ground, killing him (but not before he tried to crawl out from underneath it).

The episode, which aired in 2016, predicted almost perfectly the startling and brutal death of the basketball legend in 2020 in, as portrayed, a helicopter crash, which also took the life of his daughter GiGi.

Out of respect for the dead, Comedy Central has removed the episode, but the scene in question is being circulated around the internet.^[4]

6The Simpsons—President Trump

No discussion of predictions could be complete without noting one of the most infamous predictions ever made by a television show: the rise of President Trump.

One of the jokes in the episode ‘Bart To The Future,’ at the time a humorous impossibility, was that Lisa Simpson had taken over the presidency from Donald Trump. This was, according to the writers, originally a placeholder name, but the idea that billionaire businessman and reality TV star Donald Trump would not only run but win was so funny to the writers that they decided to keep it in. The joke drew a chuckle from audiences and was then promptly forgotten for 16 years.

Then, as we all know, the 2016 election happened, and Donald Trump not only ran but won, which has had the effect of making The Simpsons episode increasingly more hilarious with time. What was once considered an outlandish gag line had become a reality, and I, for one, could not be laughing harder, though I suspect Hillary Clinton skips this episode when she binges the show!^[5]

10 People Who Claimed To Have Traveled To The Future

5Scrubs—Osama Bin Laden Location

Scrubs, a comedy-drama about the day-to-day happenings at a fictional hospital called Sacred Heart Hospital, was known for a character without a name—known simply as the Janitor. Prone to wild stories and insane theories, the Janitor was a semi-creepy comic relief character and minor antagonist who would make insane claims—his wife’s hand sewed his pants despite only having pinkies and thumbs or that his parents were also his siblings.

So, it was no surprise to anyone that the Janitor would say something as strange and seemingly nonsensical as suggesting that Osama bin Laden could be found in Pakistan instead of Afghanistan.

Imagine the surprise when he was actually found hiding in Pakistan! Thanks for the tip, Janitor!^[6]

4Friends—Facebook

A year before Facebook would be unveiled to the world, the fondly remembered tv show Friends made a prediction about a site like MySpace and Friendster that would focus on college alumni. The episode focused on themes of connecting with old friends, childish pranks and comments made over social media, and setting up satirical pages for friends.

The episode culminates with a Memorial Page for one of the group, which draws only two former classmates to their staged funeral. While it’s a disappointing turnout, the fictitious site proves to be useful in reconnecting people and allowing them to rekindle (or permanently break) old relationships from across vast distances and gulfs of time.

The site would turn out to be extremely similar, in fact almost identical to what would become Facebook—the most successful social media site to exist to date, which would grow and amass such a large user base that it is still used by over 2 billion people more than a decade later. It is written as nothing more than a joke, but it is still an incredible prediction of what was to come only a year later.^[7]

3Parks and Recreation—Cubs Win

A more positive future prediction comes to us from Parks and Recreation, a show about the day-to-day workings of a small government-run public spaces department in Indiana. The show came to us with what many of us felt to be a ridiculous but sweet prediction: the Cubs winning the World Series for the first time in over a century. Many of us, especially the sports fans, are aware of the various jokes about the Cubs curse, which states that the Cubs will never win the World Series. For a time, it seemed the Cubs truly were cursed, as they didn’t have a championship title win for 108 years.

Until finally, in 2016, the Cubs beat their curse after it was predicted in 2015 by a Parks and Recreation episode.

The episode, airing in 2015, depicted the Cubs breaking their curse, a victory that actually came about in 2016 but which Chicago was still feeling well into 2017. The show’s co-creator is credited with having made the prediction and has even been featured on Grantland and NBC Sports to talk about it since the win. He said all he did was track the Cubs minor league system.^[8]

2Spooks—London Subway Bombings

This BBC drama—the title is a colloquialism for spies—followed a team of British secret agents devoted to stopping terrorists before they could strike. If only life was like this, where the good guys always prevail, and terrorist attacks can be stopped before they happened.

In June of 2005, the show filmed an episode about terrorists trying (and failing) to bomb train stations in London. Exactly a month later, actual terrorists attempted the same thing; only they succeeded in killing 52 people and injuring more than 500. Even more chillingly, the fictional terrorists in Spooks tried to detonate a bomb at Kings Cross Station, the same spot the real terrorists chose for one of their deadly attacks. The creators were so disturbed that they briefly considered pulling the episode completely but eventually opted to include a disclaimer at the beginning, assuring viewers that what they were about to see wasn’t based on actual events.^[9]

And it seems, other “predictions” have also been seen on episodes of Spooks. Maybe the writers have access to a time machine after all.

1Star Trek—iPad

Arguably one of the most well known and important sci fi shows of all time, Star Trek gave us a view of the future that gave us all hope for a better life among the stars in a few hundred years. Although many of the show’s moments are ingrained heavily in American pop culture, few know that Star Trek predicted the invention of the touchscreen computer tablet about 23 years before Apple made the now famous iPad.

The touchscreen device, known in the show as a PADD (Personal Access Display Device), was a small, flat and touch-based device with rounded corners and no keyboard, connected to the Star Trek equivalent to the internet and used by nearly every officer, including medical staff and the captain.

Of course, the PADD was also the product of a small prop budget, and what better way to save money than to make a flat, rectangular slab with no knobs or blinking lights. The iPad itself is not a direct replica, but it’s still pretty amazing to see that we’ve already come far enough to have a small, rectangular slab of plastic, metal and glass that works on touch and can tell us anything we want to know with just a series of swipes.^[10]

10 Predictions From ‘The Simpsons’ That Weren’t Predictions At All

We don’t know entertainment. Sure, we have our TV shows and our movies, but we’re not living up to our potential because one little thing is holding us back: basic human morality.

In ancient Rome, they didn’t share our hang-ups over human rights. At the Colosseum and the Roman games, the Romans acted out every sadistic, twisted thought they could imagine—and turned it into first-rate entertainment.

10 Criminals On Seesaws Slaughtered By Animals

The people who organized the Roman games came up with some strange ideas. The weirdest one was probably a device called the petaurua. This was a gigantic seesaw that could lift people 5 meters (15 ft) into the air. Criminals were brought out naked with their hands tied behind their backs. They were placed on massive seesaws, where they could bounce each other into the sky like kids on a playground.

Then wild animals were released. The animals couldn’t reach the person on the top of the seesaw, so the criminals would desperately try to bounce the guy on the other side to the ground.

The audience placed bets on who would live longest, but nobody got out unscathed. As soon as your seesaw partner fled, you’d crash down to your doom.

9 Wild Animals Popping Out Of The Floor

The animals released into the Colosseum didn’t come neatly out of cages. They would surprise you, popping out of the ground beneath your feet without a moment’s notice.

The Colosseum was littered with trapdoors, powered by a system of 24 lifts. These lifts were designed to carry 270 kilograms (600 lb) of weight because they had to lift massive, wild predators to the surface. Lions, wolves, leopards, and bears were all put into these things, ready to jump out at the condemned people above when they least expected it.

It took eight men to turn the wooden shaft that brought the animals out, and they had to do it perfectly. If things didn’t go as planned, the technicians were thrown into the Colosseum with the criminals.

8 A Naked Emperor Fighting Animals

Emperor Commodus was a big fan of the games. Swept up by his love of the sport—and probably his debilitating mental illness—he would waltz into the arena himself, usually naked, and fight for the amusement of his people. Most of the time, the naked emperor slaughtered exotic animals like lions, ostriches, hippos, elephants, and giraffes in front of a crowd that was required to applaud.

Other times, he would fight people, although he wouldn’t kill them in the arena. He let them surrender. In private, though, Commodus murdered people for practice, getting ready for the games. Disgusted, his people plotted against him. In the bath one day, Commodus met a fitting end—strangled to death naked by his wrestling trainer.

7 Dwarfs Fighting Each Other With Meat Cleavers

While Commodus was in power, it wasn’t just criminals who got sent to their deaths. Cripples and dwarfs were, too.

Commodus once gathered up every dwarf he could find and dragged them off to the Colosseum. There, each one was given a meat cleaver and set loose for the amusement of the crowd, forced to fight until the last man.

Another time, Commodus gathered up people who had lost their feet to disease and had them tied up in a row in the center of the arena. The emperor himself came out and walked down the line, bashing in their heads with a club.

6 Mythical Deaths Played Out On Stage

The myths of ancient Rome would be played out for an audience. These weren’t literary works performed by actors; they were massacres, with criminals playing the roles of the doomed.

One show played out the torture of Prometheus by having a criminal nailed to a cross with his stomach cut open. A bear was then released to finish him off.

Another criminal thought he got off easy. Cast as Orpheus taming the beasts, he was sent in with a lyre and ordered to play it for an arena full of animals. These were tame animals that wouldn’t hurt him—at first.

Watching a man walk around not getting murdered was too boring for the Roman audiences, so they deviated from the source material a bit. Halfway through the show, a starved bear was sent in to kill Orpheus.

5 Animals From Every Corner Of The World

The games were the best place to see animals. The first giraffe ever to set foot in Europe was displayed there. It had been captured by Julius Caesar and was dragged into the arena with a chain around its neck. The crowd was impressed by its exoticness but not so much by the animal.

Of course, this was Rome, so just showing off animals wasn’t enough. Exotic animals—including elephants, rhinoceroses, hippos, and giraffes—were pitted against one another in combat. Other times, hunters would be set loose to slaughter the animals for the amusement of the crowd.

According to one source, Nero managed to get an elephant to walk on a tightrope for the delight of the audience, although we don’t know the technical details of how his people pulled it off.

So many animals from so many places were brought in that it created its own ecosystem. At least 684 unique species of plants have been found there, birthed from the droppings of animals from every corner of the globe.

4 A Free-For-All Animal Slaughter

In AD 281, Emperor Probus had his people plant trees in the Circus Maximus until it looked like a forest. Then he invited the city to the circus for an event that would never be matched.

Instead of being stuck sitting in the bleachers, the people were invited to walk into the arena itself. There, a horde of herbivores was let loose. A thousand ostriches, a thousand stags, and a thousand boars were released into the crowd—along with a scattered slew of whatever animals they had on hand.

The entire audience was allowed to run wild with the animals, free to hunt them any way they chose—and they could take home whatever they killed.

3 Women Murdering Each Other

It wasn’t always just men in the arena—women were sent in, too. One show started with a woman dressed as Venus standing before Emperor Titus and declaring, “It is not enough that warrior Mars serves you in unconquered arms, Caesar. Venus herself serves you, too.”

This was more than just a ceremony; it was a signal to the audience. Today, they wouldn’t just see men beating each other senseless. They would see women kill each other, too.

Titus’s brother, Domitian, was really into the idea. When Domitian took over, he had more women fight than any other emperor. Unlike the men, these women were usually untrained, beating each other or being pitted against dwarfs in savage, desperate battles.

The men loved it. “What sense of shame can be found in a woman wearing a helmet,” one Roman wrote, “who shuns femininity and loves brute force!”

2 A Live Naval Battle

There are about four confirmed times in history when the Colosseum was filled with water to stage a full-scale naval battle. These were incredible technical displays. Crewed by condemned prisoners, full fleets of ships were put inside and would battle for the amusement of the crowds.

The first was staged by Julius Caesar, and it included 4,000 oarsmen and 2,000 fighters aboard full-size ships. It was so popular that people were trampled to death trying to get a good view.

That was just a small show, though. They got bigger and bigger until Claudius set the record by having 100 ships and 19,000 soldiers fight in a massive artificial sea.

His show almost didn’t happen. At first, the prisoners aboard the ships refused to fight. Claudius sent in his imperial guard to demonstrate exactly what would happen to the prisoners if they didn’t die for the entertainment of his audience. Then the show began.

1 A Prisoner Forcing A Lavatory Sponge Down His Throat

The prisoners weren’t too happy about being sent to death for the amusement of the Roman people. For many, going through these horrors was a fate worse than death—and some did everything they could to end their lives before they were forced onstage.

The night before they were to face the arena, one group of 29 Saxon prisoners took turns strangling one another to death, which was believed to be a mercy compared to the horrors of the Roman games. Another prisoner shoved his head between the spokes of a spinning cart wheel to snap his own neck.

The most extreme was a desperate German prisoner. With no other options, he grabbed the lavatory sponge from the communal toilet and thrust it down his throat, choking himself to death.

The Romans just saw it as another great extension of the games. Upon finding out about the suicide, the philosopher Seneca wrote, “What a brave fellow! He surely deserved to be allowed to choose his fate! How bravely he would have wielded a sword!”

Comedies are often seen as simply light entertainment, and awards are rarely given to comedy programmes. Which is a shame, because, when you get a good one, they have the power to change the world, one giggle at a time.

While it might be a stretch to say that watching comedy shows is educational, sometimes we can learn some really important life lessons while having a laugh.

Here are 10 things you might have learned from watching comedy shows on TV.

10 Comedy Acts That Went Horribly Wrong

10 It’s OK to Be a Woman

I Love Lucy was a ground-breaking show in more ways than one. For starters, it was her show, and her real-life husband, Desi Arnaz, who played her on screen husband, was always only a supporting act. Which, in the 1950s, was unusual. Arnaz did manage to get second billing by the time the late 1950s, when the show was reinvented as The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show. Which isn’t quite as catchy.

When their marriage ended in 1962, Lucille Ball bought out her ex-husband to own the production company outright, one of the few women to do so at the time. She was also one of the first women to appear on TV while pregnant, although she was not allowed to use that term. She was only allowed to be ‘expecting’, which was considered a much more seemly description.

The show featured a kooky Lucy doing silly things, while her straight-laced husband tries, and fails, to make her act like a married woman should. While those around her were sipping wine, she was having fun stomping the grapes the made it.^[1]

Sounds like much more fun.

9 It’s OK to Be Gay

Before Ellen Degeneres was a talk show host, she had her own sitcom, Ellen, which was incredibly popular. And then, in 1997, she told the world that she was gay. Almost at the same time, her TV character also announced that she was gay.

It’s probably fair to say that the announcement received a mixed reaction. The now famous ‘Puppy Episode’ where the announcement was made, led to her receiving death threats. It also won her awards. The show was picked up for a 5th season, but each episode now began with a warning that the comedy featured ‘Adult Content’.

Despite eventually being scrapped, the show has been widely applauded, and credited with paving the way for shows such as Will and Grace, which increased the representation of gay people on screen. Her contribution was rewarded by a Medal of Freedom, presented to her by President Obama in 2016.^[2]

Her show may have been cancelled, but Ellen Degeneres went on to become one of the most successful talk show hosts in the world.

8 It’s OK Not to Have a Life Plan

Friends changed a lot of things. The show made drinking coffee, in boutique coffee shops kind of cool. It made the term ‘on a break’, the subject of a million arguments between couples around the world. It gave a whole new meaning to the term ‘pivot’. But most of all, it said, it’s OK to be 30 and not have your life all mapped out.

With the exception of boring old Ross, all the friends had a go at a number of different careers before finding something that they loved. It was OK if they were broke, or out of work, or doing menial jobs to get by.

None of them (except Ross) knew what they were going to be doing in 5 years’ time, and they were OK with that. Sometimes its just nice to hang out with friends.^[3]

In a coffee shop.

7 It’s OK to be Bored at Work

Sometimes work is boring. And sometimes it’s REALLY boring. The Office did more than any other programme set in a workplace to show just how dull work can be.

So dull, in fact, that you might be compelled to hold your own Office Olympics.

With 8 hours to fill, and an endless supply of paper balls and coffee cups, what else are you going to do?

Not work, that’s for sure.

The Office showed that it is OK not to be enthusiastic about your job. You are there for the money. You are not really a team player. Don’t worry. No one else likes doing Team Building Exercises either.

Except, of course, Michael Scott.^[4]

And that’s OK too.

6 It’s OK to Be Neurotic

Seinfeld has regularly been voted the best sitcom ever. A fantastic achievement for a ‘show about nothing’. Despite the fact that almost every character on the show is neurotic in one way or another, the characters appear to be universally loved.

A group of psychiatry students ‘studied’ the programme, and concluded that Seinfeld himself suffers from OCD, with his obsessive compulsion for neatness, and Kramer probably has a schizoid personality disorder, while George is ego-centric to a fault. And then there is the original single-white-female “social justice warrior”, Elaine. She certainly has anger issues, but then she is the child of an alcoholic, which is a common trigger.

Apparently.

Despite the fact that the characters display some alarming mental health issues from time to time, they all seem to manage just fine.

Which is reassuring to the rest of us.^[5]

And it’s funny, too.

10 Hilarious Attempts To Rephrase Controversial Things

5 It’s OK to Be Pretentious

A programme about a couple of pretentious psychiatrists whose hobbies include wine-tasting, opera and not getting girls, doesn’t sound like the perfect recipe for a hit show. And yet Frasier, the most successful spin-off show ever, made it through 11 seasons of fierce sibling rivalry, classism, and constant references to Frasier’s Alma Mater (Harvard, just in case you didn’t know) in order to win an impressive 37 Primetime Emmys.

Despite living with his working-class ex-cop father and even more working-class British housekeeper, Frasier never quite manages to enjoy the less fine things in life. At the end of the 11th season, Frasier and Niles were just as pretentious and just as competitive as they had been at the beginning of season one.

There was that time they decided to write a book together. Or run their own restaurant. Or join the wine club. Every social occasion became an opportunity to get one over on each other or, even better, on someone else.^[6]

Despite that, the Crane boys were extremely likable, and painfully honest.

If only Frasier could manage to hang on to a relationship.

Happily, we can look forward to more from the hilarious brothers, as Frasier is set to return to our TV sets in a new series, date TBD.

4 It’s OK to Be a Nerd

The Big Bang Theory is said to have done more than any other TV programme to make scientists cool. Which is strange, considering that the cast consists of one genius with anti-social tendencies, one genius with anxiety issues, a genius who would like to be cool but knows he’s not, and an engineer.

Although they do share an unhealthy interest in dressing up like superheroes, watching science fiction and playing improbable games of chess, The Big Bang Theory really celebrates being smart.

And not only is it OK to be smart. You can also be a nerd. It’s OK to have your own spot on the sofa, or knock 3 times on a door. The characters bring academic rigor to the most banal situations, testing out theories that, really, just don’t need to be tested.

But it’s not just the characters who like to get the science right. The show employs scientific consults to ensure that the science is accurate. Because of this the show has regularly featured guest appearances by real-life scientists, including Stephen Hawking, who appeared on the show in Season 5 and had an entire episode named after him.

The show was so successful in making science look, if not cool, at least interesting, that interest in Physics received a huge boost in classrooms around the world.^[7]

3 It’s OK to Be a Dysfunctional Family

Although animated, The Simpsons is a classic sitcom based on the lives of a working-class American family. Having completed 32 seasons, and almost 700 episodes, the family have suffered almost every disaster it is possible to imagine. The father is lazy, a poor father and a worse husband. His wife doesn’t seem to notice. Possibly because she is so busy keeping the home and the children together, which, considering the children she was blessed with, is no mean feat.

Not only was The Simpsons the story of a family, however, it was also the story of an ever-expanding community of neighbors, work-colleagues, churchgoers, politicians and the media. Luckily for production costs most of the actors plays several characters, and celebrities compete for the honor of guesting on the show and being turned into a yellow caricature.

While The Simpsons are not the sort of neighbors you would want to live next to in real life, (what with the dog barking, saxophone playing and constant yelling), they have come to be one of the most loved families in America.

The show spawned a million memes, most of them beginning with Homer’s favorite word ‘D’Oh!’, but the phrase that made it to the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations was one of Groundskeeper Willie’s. He described the entire French nation as ‘cheese-eating surrender monkeys’.^[8]

Le ouch!

2 It’s OK for Old Women to Like Sex

In 1985 any sitcom that starred 4 women, was unusual, but a main cast of 4 old women was unheard of. The Golden Girls was a ground- breaking show. The 4 friends were all, one way or another, single, and, shock horror, they all quite liked sex.

They talked about having sex, about not having sex, good sex, bad sex and boring sex. Sex in all its forms, in fact.

The show was just as novel discussing gay issues, same-sex marriage, porn, and sexually transmitted diseases. Though the subjects were often thought to be controversial at the time, The Golden Girls managed to explore them with a mixture of innocence, interest and irony that made the show less threatening to many viewers.

Some audiences found the idea of people watching porn uncomfortable. But group of elderly ladies sitting in their living room watching a porn movie seemed somehow disarming.

Until, that is, one of them suddenly stood up, pointed at the TV and said, ‘I did that once’.^[9]

1 It’s OK to be silly

In 1969, Monty Python’s Flying Circus was like nothing ever seen before. In fact, the show is still considered to be the wildest, funniest, strangest sketch show ever made. Only 45 episodes were ever made, but they spawned a new brand of surreal comedy that inspired a generation.

The show has been a particular inspiration to astronomers, who named 7 asteroids in honor of the Pythons, and to paleontologists, who discovered a dinosaur-python fossil, and named it “Montypythonoides Riversleighensis”. John Cleese even had a woolly lemur named after him.

The term ‘Pythonesque’ was defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as “resembling the absurdist or surrealist humor of Monty Python’.
Their lasting legacy, however, is the popularization of a word that does not describe an asteroid, a dinosaur, or a lemur. The word, certainly, is a Pythonesque one, that is used daily by millions of internet users to describe something that is unwanted and unappealing.

Thank you, Monty Python, for giving us Spam.^[10]

Top 10 Mandela Effects (Movie And TV Edition!)

TV, they say, reflects society, but sometimes, what it really reflects is the ideas of TV execs.

Some TV execs are obsessed with diversity, equality and the future of the planet.

Which is a very good thing. Sometimes, however, TV execs are just aware that these ideas are trendy, and think they can use them to boost ratings. That’s sort of OK too, we guess.

Top 10 TV Shows That Predicted The Future And Got It Right

But, instead of creating new shows to explore these important themes, they try to make their current TV shows reflect them instead, even when they’re not a comfortable fit. And the screen writers, who have to do as they’re told, don’t seem to put much effort into it, either. It’s almost as if they don’t really care.

Here are 10 ways in which popular TV shows were ruined by someone’s bright idea.

10 Hey, Transgenderism is Trendy, Let’s Do That

Transgenderism is a hot issue. Everyone seems to have an opinion on it. So why not introduce a transgender character in every show? We can show that transgender people are just the same as us, and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.
Great.

Oh, but wait. What if we have a show where none of the characters treat anyone with dignity and respect? Like Shameless, for example. The story of an alcoholic father, and his dirt-poor family, Shameless was famous for being unwoke. Even the show’s gay characters find ‘way-out-there’ concepts like bisexuality difficult to deal with.

Never mind, press on. We can make the transgender character explain transgenderism to the gay guy, in a nightclub, while he fondles a prosthetic penis. That will get the dignity and respect message across.

And if you’re confused about gender pronouns and want to know more, check out the video above and all will be clear . . . or not.

9 Diversity is good, Here’s a Lesbian

When TV characters abruptly change their sexuality, viewers are apt to find it a little bit disconcerting. Sure Ellen Degeneres did it on her show, but then that was a sit-com based on her life and personality, and Ellen came out in real-life at the same time, which is understandable (although her show was cancelled a season later).

But Veep’s motives seem harder to fathom. Sure, its tough being the daughter of a Vice-President. Makes dating difficult. Maybe it was that.

Or then, again, there aren’t too many laughs to be got from a heterosexual relationship.

I know, let’s make her a lesbian.

Sarah Sutherland’s character swerves from being engaged to a man to dating her mother’s female security guard without any character development in-between, and barely pauses for breath before the affair is spun to benefit her mother’s political career.

It’s almost as if the writers had some really funny gay jokes and just needed a gay character to hang them on.

Surely not?

8 If stupid is funny, stupider must be funnier, right?

You create a character with an idiosyncrasy, and its funny. Ned Flanders is a nice but slightly holier than thou neighbor – let’s make him a rabid bible-thumper. But it isn’t just The Simpsons who have been guilty of flanderizing their characters.

Take Kramer in Seinfeld for instance. Kramer is eccentric. You can tell that by his funny hair. In fact, each year his hair gets funnier. Or at least higher. And his behavior moves from the merely eccentric to the downright bizarre.

Does that make it funnier? Maybe. Maybe not. But it’s more likely that some lazy writers mistook a personality trait for a personality and exploited it for all it was worth.

7 I know, Let’s Do Politics, We All Agree on That

Some programmes are born political, and some have politics thrust upon them. When your program is a buddy sitcom with a straight, and vapid, Jewish interior designer and her WASPy gay, and obsessive, lawyer roommate, the politics aren’t always obvious. A life-style comedy, about living in ’90s New York, Will and Grace was smart and funny and successful for 8 seasons.

And then they brought it back. For one night only, Will and Grace did politics. Up until then the show was, if anything, anti-political. The characters were too self-centered to be politically active, though they occasionally pretended to be.

The awkward 10-minute Will and Grace special made the assumption that their audience were all progressive Democrats, and the show was proudly anti-Trump. Which is a bit of a leap. While previous shows had dropped in the occasional joke about conservative attitudes and politics, this reboot was a flat-out party-political broadcast.

While the reboot was a special, and not a regular episode, no one looked comfortable. The humor, where there was any, was forced, and even the canned laughter seemed strained. Which was unfortunate, because the special was the beginning of a Will and Grace reboot which tried very hard to tone down the politics but couldn’t quite manage it for two whole seasons (with a third coming up). Not surprisingly the total audience for the politicized series’ was less than one third what it had been for the original ’90s series’.

6 Hooray, We Reached Our Goal, Now Let’s Pretend We Didn’t

Some TV shows have concepts which are open-ended. Others have a clearly defined goal. Take Prison Break for example. Series 1 is all about 2 brothers trying to break out of prison. The concept is in the title, for goodness sake. So when, at the end of season 1, they manage to break out of the prison, it’s job done.

Switch off the lights and go home.

But the series was a success, and a successful series cannot stop at season 1. So, what do the writers do then?

They have a season of Lincoln and Michael being on the run, and then for season 3 they stick them right back in prison again.

At which point, the audience switched off in droves.

Prison Break is not the only show to fall for this. The premise of The Mentalist was that Patrick Jane, as played by Simon Baker, is helping the police with their cases, whilst also using them to help him catch the man who brutally murdered his wife and child. Every few episodes, he reminds the team that that is the only reason he is there.

Half-way through season 6, they catch him.

Well done.

Then Jane takes a holiday, and comes back to work for another 27 episodes.

Why?

10 Episodes That Were Banned From Television [Videos—Seizure Warning]

5 I am Woman Hear Me Roar

Feminism. It’s been around for a while, but it still seems to confuse screenwriters.

Take Supergirl, for instance. Already on dangerous ground, for calling her Supergirl rather than Superwoman (OK, that’s down to the comic book creators, so we’ll give them a pass) portraying Kara Zor-El, Superman’s cousin, as a strong independent woman, should be easy.

After all she’s superwoman (sorry, girl).

So why does everyone on the show need to keep making speeches about how strong and independent she is? Strange.

But it’s not just the superhero shows that feel the need to portray their female characters as badass. Being a feminist always seems to mean being Strong. Male characters can be strong, too, of course, but they can be other things too.

Women just get to be strong.

And talk about it. A lot.

4 Just Say No, No, No.

Remember The Fresh Prince of Bel Air? That streetwise kid from Philly who goes to live with his rich relations in Bel Air? Will Smith knows the ways of the world. He has been brought up on the Mean Streets. He knows what’s what.

And then, 3 seasons in, he is tempted to take drugs. Not so that he can party, but so he can study. Of course, he doesn’t actually take them, because he is Too Smart, but his cousin accidentally swallows some, thinking that they are vitamins, and ‘almost dies’.

The episode is even called Just Say Yo, clearly referencing Nancy Reagan’s ridiculously simplistic Just Say No campaign, and the episode feels as if it has been written by the same people who wrote her slogans.

The Fresh Prince is not alone. Programs aimed at teenagers often have characters considering taking drugs but ultimately thinking better of it, while those aimed at adults have characters who let their hair down. But only once. They smoke a little weed, and they giggle a lot, before, ultimately being sick/paranoid/locked-up, whereupon they give themselves, each other and us a little lecture about the dangers of drugs.

None of which is entertaining. Although Carlton dancing on amphetamines is.

3 They’re Bound to Cancel the Show Before We Have to Explain What’s Going On

Ah, Lost. That great writing experiment, when the writers hit on the wheeze that they didn’t have to tie up loose ends, at all. Someone noticed that TV shows get cancelled, and when they’re cancelled, no-one tells you how it ends.

Why not make the most of that?

Keep throwing in weird stuff, polar bears, for example, time-travelling conundrums, or a vague and ill-defined Sickness. Don’t worry. You won’t have to explain it.

What about some random numbers? Chuck those in too. That will keep them guessing.

Lost was not the only series where the writers pulled this trick, but they were certainly the most blatant. For 5 seasons, they allowed fans to believe that all this weirdness would actually add up to something, while they counted their money. Unfortunately for them, instead of cancelling the show outright, the network announced that there would be one final season, so that the writers could tie all those loose ends into a nice neat bow and gift them to their fans.

Oh dear.

2 I’m not racist, I know an Indian/Asian/Middle Eastern guy

Diversity in TV is good. But the Token Asian Friend, not so good.

The Token ethnic Friend is always smart – usually a computer programmer/math genius/astro-physicist. He is always shy, retiring, and ridiculously deferential to people who are in no way his superior. And, most importantly, he never gets the girl.

Take The Big Bang Theory, for instance. Raj Koothrappali, as played by Kunal Nayyar, can’t even speak to women for 6 whole seasons. He is reduced to doing a dumb mime whenever one appears in the room. He is the last character to find a mate. Even Sheldon, the human robot, gets coupled long before Koothrappali sees any action.

Or how about Community, a sitcom based in a community college. Abed Nadir (played by Danny Pudi) is a middle-eastern film student. Which means he makes film references instead of talking to people. Because, of course, he can’t speak to people. He’s too shy.

The Token non-white Friend is never the Best Friend, just a friend. Sometimes they disappear for episodes at a time, and no one wonders where they’ve gone. They are not the main character, nor the main character’s best friend. They are not the protagonist, nor the antagonist. But they do tick that diversity box.

Here’s a radical idea. Why not have an Asian/Indian/Middle Eastern character who is a bit crap at math, but has great people skills, huge amounts of charisma, and always gets the girls?

1 I May Be Dead, But Boy Am I Woke

Even zombie shows can’t get away from Hollywood’s insatiable need to be on message. Take The Walking Dead, for instance. The post-apocalyptic zombie horror franchise seems to tick all the boxes.

It’s got badass (sorry Strong and Independent) women.
It’s got a militant anti-capitalist agenda
It’s got a rainbow nation of characters, both alive and undead.
It’s got a gay man and a lesbian
Even if you don’t count the zombies, the show has a high number of disabled characters
It even has an Asian friend who is more than a token.

Finally, a show that manages to put the story before message, right?

Well, maybe not. A careful analysis of the deaths in TWD have shown that as the series has developed the number of white middle-aged men being killed, has risen out of all proportion to their numbers in the post-apocalyptic society.

Is this a cynical agenda-pushing narrative? Probably.

Or, maybe it’s that the communist, feminist, homosexual, ethnic minorities are finally getting their own back?

Let’s hope so.

10 Times Virtue Signalling Ended In Disaster

“There’s nothing on.” We’ve all uttered those words, especially since lockdowns and quarantines have left most of us housebound for the foreseeable future. Click, click, click… 200 channels of rubbish.

Oh look… it’s season 7 of The Curse of Oak Island,^[1] a show where a team of questionably intelligent treasure hunters spends a full hour digging an empty hole. Meanwhile, on Showtime, Black Monday^[2] is so terrible it makes me hate the infinitely likable Don Cheadle. Perhaps I’ll catch a rerun of Big Bang Theory, which is good for a muffled laugh once every fourth season.

Why did these crappy shows get made and the following ten get cancelled? They don’t call it the boob tube for nothing.

Top 10 TV Shows That Predicted The Future And Got It Right

10 Police Squad! (1982, 6 episodes)

“Is this some kind of bust?”
“Yes, it’s very impressive. But we’d just like to ask a few questions.”^[3]

A comedy well ahead of its time^[4], Police Squad! parodied detective dramas with rapid-fire jokes. Eschewing a sitcom-style laugh track, Leslie Nielsen and company let viewers decide for themselves whether a joke was funny. While nowadays comedies without laugh tracks are commonplace (Modern Family, Veep), in the early 1980s it was a daring novelty that, unfortunately, fell on deaf ears for too many.

For starters, Police Squad! had one of the best intros in television history: a point-of-view runaway cop car speeding through various comedic scenes over the opening credits. Years later, Family Guy paid the ingenious bit homage^[5] with a scene featuring Stewie on his tricycle. The closing credits were just as good,^[6] with the main characters in a self-imposed freeze frame while the rest of the scene continues, often to their detriment.

In between, Police Squad! was… well, it was the Naked Gun movies in a TV show (the films are direct descendants of the show, down to the main character, Frank Drebin). How the hell does that gets cancelled after half a dozen episodes?

Of note, Police Squad! holds a unique distinction among prematurely cancelled TV shows: combined, the three movies it inspired have a longer running time than all of its episodes put together.

9 It’s Garry Shandling’s Show (1986, four seasons)

“This is the theme to Garry’s show, the theme to Garry’s show. Garry called me up and asked if I would write his theme song…”

It may feel a bit odd to include a series that aired 72 episodes on this list. But It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, which began on Showtime before eventually being picked up by the then-fledgling Fox Network, was among the most inventive programs ever.

It took the neurotic brilliance of the late Garry Shandling to create the first major sitcom to break the fourth wall. The concept – a sitcom that knew it was a sitcom, with the main character side-tracking to address the audience – broke the mold and paved the way for other out-of-the-box series, first among them the “show about nothing” hit Seinfeld.

His crowd is welcomed in on the act. “If you’re in a bad mood don’t come in here and take it out on my audience,” Garry tells a friend in a restaurant scene, “they’ve been here since 7 am.” The studio audience then pelts Garry’s lunchmate with rolls.^[7]

Despite deserving a longer run, the show took Shandling mainstream and set the star-studded late-night stage^[8] for his role as variety show host Larry Sanders, one of the smartest, funniest series ever.

8 Twin Peaks (1990, two seasons)

Two questions: Who killed Laura Palmer,^[9] and why the hell did the most inventive whodunnit ever get axed after two seasons?

The first question is less relevant than the latter, because if you watched Twin Peaks with the single-minded goal of learning who the killer really was, you were watching it wrong. The cryptic drama is a freak show dive into the underbelly of small-town Americana. Everyone has something to hide and nothing is as it seems. As Log Lady^[10] puts it in her maniacal monotone, Laura Palmer is but the “one leading to the many.”

Like no other show in TV history, Twin Peaks was driven by its weirdness. From marble-mouthed dancing midgets to the ubiquitous yet ungraspable Killer Bob,^[11] David Lynch’s highly unorthodox storytelling leaves viewers guessing about what’s real, what’s imagined, and what each new twist and turn down the show’s winding path represents.

When Twin Peaks left the air after two seasons, with many main characters presumably dead and the show’s protagonist possessed by an evil spirit, viewers had more questions than answers^[12] – a longing that ultimately led to the show’s brief 18 episode revival in 2017.

7 The Critic (1994, two seasons)

Some actors never reach their full potential because their ideal vehicles – that perfectly suited project taking them another level of stardom – gets grounded before it can soar. Such is the case with Jon Lovitz, whose short-lived animated series, The Critic, fell victim to a premature two thumbs down from network executives.

Smart, adult-targeted cartoons have a history of quick hooks. Notably, Seth MacFarlane’s Family Guy survived two cancellations^[13] to become one of the most successful animated series ever.

The Critic had a promising premise: Lovitz voices Jay Sherman, a balding, plump sarcastic film critic patterned after himself. Its basic schtick saw Sherman shoveling popcorn into his mouth while watching what are essentially parodies of well-known Hollywood films. “Tonight, “he quips, “I’ll be reviewing Home Alone… 5” Cut away to Catherine O’Hara on a plane, panic-stricken at having left Kevin home yet again, “…and he’s only 23!”

Above is a montage of some of the best film parodies, including Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Hanukkah” and Dennis the Menace 2 Society, in which Mr. Wilson finally gets what’s coming to him.

The Critic was a cartoon Curb Your Enthusiasm; it’s what happens when a talented comedian gets to play an exaggerated version of himself. Arrogant, bad with women and unflinchingly cynical, Lovitz as Sherman had an authenticity to it that transcended most animated series. Unfortunately, not even a 1995 Simpsons crossover episode^[14] saved it from the cutting room floor. And that, per Sherman’s catchphrase, “stinks!”

6 Mr. Show (1995, three seasons)

Before he broke bad as corrupt lawyer Saul Goodman, Bob Odenkirk was one half of a short-lived sketch comedy show on HBO that deserved a far longer run than its 30 episodes.

Mr. Show paired Odenkirk with David Cross, later of Arrested Development fame, in half-hour romps where arcane sketches ran into each other. Dialogue often creatively wove in punchlines repeated in consecutive sketches by different characters, one of many reasons the show was twice nominated for an Emmy in the Outstanding Writing in a Variety Series category.

The show’s helter-skelter approach served as a useful vehicle for the duo’s diverse comedy skillset, allowing them to play various roles often in the same sketches, such as one where a convenience store clerk goes up the management chain for permission to make change for a dollar.

Not all of the skits landed, but Mr. Show’s best sketches are among the funniest in TV history. In Monsters of Megaphone,^[15] the two flash back to a bygone era when megaphone crooning was the most popular form of musical entertainment, with Odenkirk and Cross competing to invent new gadgets and create on-the-spot jingles for a live audience. “Electric tie rack it’s so nice, moves ties from side to side,” Cross sings. “Electric tie rack, baby loves it, rackin’ up electric tiiiiies…”

In 2015, Netflix produced a Mr. Show revival^[16] featuring four new episodes in which the pair are as sharp as ever.

Top 10 Ways Hollywood Ruined Your Favorite TV Shows

5 The (UK) Office (2001, two seasons)

OK, OK, so Ricky Gervais basically cancelled the show himself.^[17] I’m still including it on this list. And unlike Dave Chappelle, who bolted without warning^[18] after signing a huge extension for his uproariously funny Chappelle’s Show, Gervais walked away a winner who went on to superstardom.

The UK Office is basically everything that the 170-episode US version of the show is, except Gervais is more talented than the entire American cast combined. Watching the American Office is like drinking generic soda: it’s fine, but having tried the real thing something is sorely lacking.

The reason is simple: The UK Office is a talent vehicle and, all apologies to Steve Carell, that talent is Ricky Gervais. Smarmy, self-assured and semi-competent, Gervais nails the sort of small-business pencil pusher so many of us find ourselves answering to. The mockumentary style, combined with Gervais’ awkward dickishness, gives the show an uncomfortable edginess that the derivative US remake decidedly lacks.

The silver lining: leaving the show freed Gervais up for stellar standup comedy, the podcast-turned-animated series “The Ricky Gervais Show,” and his current project, the widely acclaimed Netflix dark comedy, After Life.^[19]

4 Firefly (2002, one season)

How can a space Western set in the year 2517 possibly go wrong?

Firefly follows nine passengers on a spaceship, the Serenity, exploring what for humans is a new star system. On its face, the show sounds like a cheesy Sci-Fi adventure series, something the cast of Mystery Science Theater 3000 would ridicule from a movie theater in a galaxy far, far away.^[20]

But the show… well, it just worked. Writer/director Joss Whedon initially pitched the program as “nine people looking into the blackness of space and seeing nine different things.” The result is a series whose fantastical science fiction is balanced by a grounding humanity that, at its core, thrives on character development.^[21] Its premise – all alone in uncharted territory – provides more than a layer of uncertainty to the collective crew’s fate; it also allows Whedon to demonstrate how people from separate backgrounds – several had even fought on the losing side of a recent civil war – deal with fear, isolation and stress.

The show also takes a practical approach to futurism. Fast-forwarding 500 years, Earth’s resources have been used up (a near certainty considering where we are now), prompting mankind, through technology, to colonize new fertile planets and moons throughout the galaxy. The central government is a fusion of two modern-day superpowers, China and the United States, and has a decidedly expansionist mission to continue finding new celestial homes for humans. The result is a pioneering, “boldly go” mindset that often belies the experiences and bravado of the Serenity’s crew.

Unfortunately, the show didn’t receive sufficient time to develop nine characters, as Firefly was sucked into Hollywood’s black hole after just one 14-episode season.

3 Sleeper Cell (2005, two seasons)

At a time when the Western world was still reeling from 9/11, the London transit bombings and other high-profile acts of terrorism, Showtime premiered what was originally billed as a ten-episode miniseries with the tagline “Friends. Neighbors. Husbands. Terrorists.”

An undercover FBI agent, himself a practicing Muslim, infiltrates a terrorist cell planning a major attack in Los Angeles. While a bit PC preachy at times – the show seems to go out of its way to make sure the wannabe terrorists are racially diverse, a veritable Burger King Kids’ Club^[22] of radical Islamists – the show succeeds in exploring the dichotomy of Western life and the deceptions of religious violence, juxtaposed against an array of individual life experiences.

Through flashbacks and fast forwards, viewers see how each terrorist-in-training became disenchanted with America and determined to die for Allah. For a no-name cast, the acting on the show is noteworthy and helped lead to an Emmy nomination.

The show excels in its anti-action, intricately dropping the scattered breadcrumbs that take characters on their unique journeys toward martyrdom, and the deceptions and loyalty tests meted out by their guarded, shifty leader along the way. Sleeper Cell makes the unimaginable vividly imaginable – a creepy, “who can you really trust?” drama designed to spook an already-scared populace. Considering its premise and the limitless potential plotlines, the program’s departure after just two successful seasons sold it far short.

2 Timeless (2016, two seasons)

A history buff’s delight, Timeless was a complex show with a simple premise: save the world, one time period at a time.

There is a “man destroying itself with technology” bend to Timeless that makes it highly compelling. A genius invents a time machine, and an evil corporation steals the spare. A trio of do-gooders – a US Army Delta Force operative, a science engineer and, of course, a historian – are tasked with chasing agents of a mysterious, globally-pervasive secret organization across time and space, foiling various plots to alter history for the worse.

Immersing and intelligent, viewers find themselves in historical settings as familiar as the American Civil War to as obscure as the “Murder Castle”^[23] built by serial killer H.H. Holmes during the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. All the while, the protagonists must not only prevent history from being transformed for the worse, but also refrain from changing events for what they perceive might be the better; the Hindenburg must still crash and burn, the Alamo must still be fought and lost, and JFK cannot be spared his date with destiny.

Above, a best-of montage showcases how captivating Timeless was and, unfortunately, a reason for its premature demise: period pieces are extremely expensive to produce. Combined with sub-par ratings in a world more attuned to Dancing with the Stars than using its slowly vegetating brainpower, Timeless was nearly cancelled after just one season, and eventually ran out of time after two.

1 Mindhunter (2017, two seasons…?)

In a world where “Law & Order ran for 20 seasons and prompted no less than six spinoffs, and where the NCIS franchise has aired nearly 800 episodes,^[24] how the hell hasn’t Mindhunter been renewed after just two seasons by a carrier, Netflix, worth more money than Disney?^[25]

Inspired by the true-crime book “Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit,” the show takes viewers inside the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit in the late 1970s, where two agents and a criminal psychologist interviewed incarcerated serial killers in an attempt to understand what drives them to compulsively kill. Eerily, many of the prison scene dialogues were transcripts of actual interviews.

Mindhunter is a slow sink into a serial killer’s cerebral cortex. Among other narratives, its addiction motif – murder by compulsion, which in turn fuels that compulsion further – is especially captivating. At a time when mega-monsters like Ted Bundy and the Son of Sam roamed the streets attempting to satiate their uncontrollable urges with innocent blood, Mindhunter has a period-piece urgency to it that goes above and beyond the played-out whodunnits currently permeating prime time TV.

In January, Netflix released the cast of Mindhunter from their contracts. This doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s cancelled, but is not a good sign. Perhaps the streaming service can reallocate some shekels from the oh-so-riveting Fuller House, or stop giving every third-rate comedian (I’m looking at you, Ali Wong) standup specials? There are serial killers to catch. Priorities, people.

Top 10 Must-See Recent TV Shows With A Dark Side

Not all musical moments in TV shows happen in musical shows such as Glee, HSM: The Series, or more recently, Katy Keene. From time to time popular drama series, sitcoms or even shows about the supernatural make musical performances a part of one or more episodes. On this list are some surprisingly good (and also very bad) musical performances in non-musical shows.

10 Legendary Reasons We Have Music

10 Friends

Friends is most fondly remembered for, well, friendship, and great one-liners. The hugely popular show gave us “Smelly Cat”, Pivot!, a holiday armadillo, Chanandler Bong and so much more. There are many funny songs by Phoebe, but a truly surprisingly awesome musical moment happens when The Pretenders frontwoman, Chrissie Hynde, sings “Angel of the Morning” in Central Perk.

Chris Isaak also has a cameo role in the show and sings “Smelly Cat” with Phoebe, letting loose his incredible vocal range. He is rewarded by Phoebe telling him “you might want to pick a more masculine note.”

9 The Big Bang Theory

Love it or hate it, The Big Bang Theory is one of the most popular sitcoms of all time. It wrapped after 12 seasons and is the longest-running multi-camera comedy in TV history. The series includes some terrible music moments including Raj and Howard singing “Hammer & Whip”, Raj and Leonard singing “Bust a Move” and Howard and Bernadette singing “I Got You Babe” during a car trip. Although to be fair, it is a sitcom and all these musical moments are done in jest.

There is one stand-out performance however that somewhat tugs at the heartstrings. Howard and the rest of the group singing “If I Didn’t Have You” to Bernadette who has been quarantined in hospital. While the singing is not great, the performance has heart and it makes for a beautiful moment.

8 Grey’s Anatomy

If ever there was a musical episode that divided viewers, it is “Song Beneath The Song” from Grey’s Anatomy. Some fans loved it, while others hated it so much that they threatened to stop watching altogether. There are several performances during the episode including an all-cast version of “How To Save A Life”, “Breathe”, a toe-tapping version of “Running on Sunshine”, and “Wait”.

An outstanding rendition of “The Story” is performed by Sara Ramirez towards the end of the episode. The scenes accompanying the performance are arguably rather strange, with Sara’s character, Callie Torres, simultaneously lying prone in a hospital bed while also walking around and singing. It doesn’t take away from Ramirez’ fantastic performance though.

7 Riverdale

It would be easy to mistake Riverdale for a musical series considering there has been more than 50 music performances over its four seasons. However, it is billed as a teen drama series and one can only guess as to why so much singing happens during the show. There are several cringey performances such as “Exquisite Corpse”, “Our Love is God”, “You Shine”, and “Sufferin’ Till Suffrage.”

Some of the better performances include “Candy Girl”, “Kids in America”, “Amazing Grace”, and “Back to Black”.

This video includes a compilation of both the good and the not so good.

6 Ally McBeal

Ally McBeal is a quintessential 90s comedy-drama TV series. It’s funny, heartbreaking, weird and audiences absolutely loved it. Especially the dancing baby, The Biscuit dancing to Barry White, the butt-sniffing and the ‘getting-stuck-in-the-toilet’ scene. There were also many, many performances by Elaine and a host of celebrity cameo performances including Barry Manilow, Elton John, Barry White, Anastasia, Tina Turner, Gloria Gaynor and more.

There were several beautiful moments too, including Josh Groban’s emotional performance of “You’re Still You” during a prom scene. Some fan-favorite musical moments came from an unlikely source: none other than Robert Downey Jr. In the show, Downey plays Ally’s love interest who ultimately leaves her to move back to Detroit. He sings Joni Mitchell’s “River” during a Christmas episode and also sang Ally a song he wrote for her called “Chances”. Downey even had a duet with Sting which was intended as both a belated birthday gift and apology to Ally. On top of that he also performed a rousing rendition of Bruce Springsteen’s Sherry Darling.

10 Sublime Moments in Classical Music on Youtube

5 Once Upon A Time

It would probably have been a crime for Once Upon A Time to have existed for 7 seasons and never feature a musical episode, and this is exactly what happens in the 20th instalment of the 6th season. Some of the most beloved characters got to show off their musical talents with original songs.

Charming and Snow White had their own “Disney” moment and kicked off the episode, with the Evil Queen following soon after. Captain Hook and Emma have their own moment as well.

The Wicked Witch (Rebecca Mader) gave an outstanding performance of “Wicked Always Wins” with fans going wild over it and calling it the best song of the episode.

4 Dawson’s Creek

Dawson’s Creek has become somewhat of a joke in the years that followed its cancellation. This is thanks in no small part to James Van Der Beek, aka Dawson, and his terrible crying face which has spawned hundreds of memes. The dreadful dialogue also didn’t do the show any favors.

There were some musical moments in the teen drama too. Some quite good, others quite terrible. There was a drama-laden rendition of “Daydream Believer” that unleashed a thick cloud of teen angst and a drunken duet by Dawson and Andie that was more cringe than song.

A fitting performance in Season 1 by Joey Potter of “On My Own” from Les Miserable, had some fans reaching for the tissues. Potter was often teased about her shy and prude-like demeanor and this led to some pretty memorable music moments when she eventually let loose. In this clip she sings “I Hate Myself For Loving You” alongside Chad Michael Murray’s character Charlie, to the great delight of the audience.

3 Stranger Things

The very last thing anyone expected while watching Netflix’s Stranger Things 3, was for any of the characters to spontaneously burst out into song. But this is exactly what happened during a very tense scene in the finale of the third season. While the Mind Flayer is wreaking havoc in Hawkins and Hopper and Joyce impatiently await the code (Planck’s constant) needed to unlock a safe, Dustin and his long-distance girlfriend Suzie start singing “The NeverEnding Story” at Suzie’s insistence.

The result is a fantastic performance of the song by the two teenagers and one of the most unforgettable moments that fans still excitedly talk about as they await the arrival of the fourth season of the hugely popular series. Interestingly, this moment almost didn’t happen as the song wasn’t the first choice for that particular scene. Before settling on “The NeverEnding Story”, the show’s creators considered using the Ent’s song (The Ent and the Ent-Wife) from The Lord of the Rings.

2 Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Buffy the Vampire Slayer had a great soundtrack featuring songs by Sarah McLachlan, Joss Whedon, Christophe Beck, Garbage and Alison Krauss. The show was presented as a low-budget supernatural comedy when it first aired on The WB in 1997. No one expected much from it. Little did they know what an impact the show would have and that it would soon become a pop culture force to be reckoned with.

Naturally, the show explored a relationship between Buffy and a vampire (Angel) and later on between Buffy and bad boy vampire, Spike. Much the same as the somewhat modern-day Team Jacob and Team Edward, there was definitely a Team Angel and a Team Spike with some Angel fans leaning more towards Spike as the seasons progressed.

During the seventh episode of the sixth season, the plot centers around a demon compelling the people of Sunnydale to randomly break into song, and, in doing so, reveal hidden truths. Buffy sings of her ‘boring’ life when she performs “Going Through The Motions” and there is a big closing number with everyone singing “Where Do We Go From Here?”. There are several other hits in the episode with a fan favorite being “Rest in Peace” sung by Spike.

1 House

Gregory House is still one of TV’s most iconic anti-heroes. The show House has been nominated for several awards, including SAG, Emmys and Golden Globes and holds the distinctive title of being the most watched TV show in the world in 2008. Hugh Laurie, who brought Gregory House to life, has stated that playing the character was a nightmare and that at first, he didn’t believe that House could be a main character. Hugh Laurie is also pretty much the last TV actor you would expect to start singing at any given time.

And yet, House dons a top hat and magician-looking suit and sings a creepy version of “Get Happy” with Lisa Edelstein’s character, Lisa Cuddy. He can definitely sing, but the eyeliner and weird cinematography is hugely disconcerting.

Top 10 Best Recent TV Comedy Series

As quarantines and self-isolation are now the order of the day, there is a lot of time for binge-watching TV series and movies—and analyzing them, of course. Although some series and movies are purely for entertainment, others try to educate the viewer as the episodes roll by.

On this list are 10 myths about people on the autism spectrum that are continuously debunked by TV and movie character portrayals. Some of those characters can be found in Rain Man, Atypical, and The Good Doctor.

Top 10 Alleged Autistics in History

10 Autistic People Don’t Want Friends

Right off the bat, this is not true. Most people just assume that those with autism have no desire for friends or close bonds because they are unable to express themselves as freely as those who are not autistic. It also takes autistic individuals longer to develop the necessary social skills to interact with other people.

This makes early social engagement very important. As with anyone who has close friendships, those on the autism spectrum benefit from a shared bond, especially if they are subjected to bullying at school or work.^[1]

In the series Atypical, the character of 18-year-old Sam Gardner suffers from autism spectrum disorder. Zahid, another teenage boy who works with Sam at Techtropolis, sees past his oddities, and the two become best friends.

They talk about girls, go shopping for clothes to attract girls, and talk to each other about their individual relationships with girls they like. Although it might sound shallow because of the constant girl talk, the two boys have a strong bond. Each accepts the other for who he is.

9 They Lack Empathy

Fans of The Big Bang Theory have a long-standing theory that Sheldon Cooper is autistic because of his lack of empathy toward other people. In real life, many people also assume that autistic people don’t have any empathy. Some even call autism the “empathy disorder.”^[2]

However, as Sheldon often exclaims in the show, it is simply harder for him to pick up on social cues and react accordingly. This does not necessarily mean that he has no empathy.

In The Good Doctor, Dr. Shaun Murphy has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and savant syndrome. Although he may have trouble expressing his feelings, it is clear that he feels empathy toward his patients when he goes the extra mile to care for them and diagnose their ailments.

A quote from author Kerry Magro, who’s on the autism spectrum, sums up the message that the show is trying to get across: “Shaun and I are not defined by our diagnosis.”

8 They Don’t Feel Emotion

Being diagnosed as a person with autism or being on the autism spectrum doesn’t make a person unable to feel or recognize emotions. Autistic people simply react differently to the emotions expressed by others and express their own emotions differently as well.^[3]

In Rain Man, Dustin Hoffman portrayed an “autistic savant” character with so much heart that the movie is still viewed as the Hollywood shining star of autism depictions more than 30 years later. Hoffman plays Raymond, who has excellent mathematical and memory skills. But he lacks the ability to pick up on social cues and has difficulty with sensory processing.

Hoffman prepared for the role by reading scientific papers about autism and watching hours of footage about savants and the autism spectrum. He also consulted psychiatrists for their personal opinions.

The result was a character who displayed much emotion, though differently than other people usually do. For instance, when Raymond is in distress, he reacts like a child because he has very little understanding of the subject matter even though he has an excellent memory. But the emotion is there, as strong as it would be in anyone else.

7 They Can’t Learn

Persistent misconceptions have given rise to the myth that those on the autism spectrum are unable to learn anything. However, ongoing studies have consistently shown that there is no difference between the learning abilities of those with autism and those without. Individuals on the spectrum simply have a different way of learning.^[4]

In Atypical, Sam Gardner learns how to deal with the real world differently than other kids would, but he learns nonetheless. In the episode “Sam Takes A Walk,” Sam’s mother reminisces about a board game she invented for the family so they could help Sam learn about coping in the real world. These included ordinary situations such as what to do when a dog barks at you or how to board a bus.

6 They Are All Intellectually Disabled

Although all people on the autism spectrum may not be Rain Man and have unbelievable memories and math skills, it is simply not true that they are all intellectually disabled. Around half of those on the spectrum have some form of intellectual disability, but many excel in music or other pursuits and have high IQs.^[5]

Dr. Shaun Murphy is portrayed as highly skilled and capable despite his social awkwardness and “perceived lack of empathy,” which we discussed earlier. This is indicative of real life as well.

Hans Christian Andersen was on the autism spectrum and is still one of the most beloved fairy tale authors in history. Susan Boyle is autistic, yet she made history when auditioning for Britain’s Got Talent. She blew away the judges with her rendition of “I Dreamed A Dream.” Similarly, Tim Burton is a massive success as a film director. But he is also on the autism spectrum.

10 Crazy Syndromes That Change The Way You See The World

5 They Are All Savants

This is the opposite side of the previous myth but also untrue. As mentioned above, many on the autism spectrum are highly intelligent. Yet few are true savants like Raymond in Rain Man.^[6]

In Atypical, Sam Gardner is highly intelligent but he is not a savant. This is true of most intelligent autistic people. They become doctors, lawyers, directors, actors, and more, but they never develop savant characteristics. Once again, not all autistic people are the same. Their abilities vary.

4 They Cannot Be Gainfully Employed

This should not even be a myth in the first place because it shouldn’t take a TV show to debunk something like this. As mentioned above, both Sam from Atypical and Shaun from The Good Doctor are employed.^[7]

What does make employment more difficult for those on the autism spectrum is the fact that they often have to undergo several more tests and evaluations than the average employee. Employment agencies are still learning how to find suitable employment options for their autistic clients and how to prepare them for success.

Steve Jobs was autistic and yet one of the most successful people on the planet. Autism should never be used by employers as a reason to reject an applicant if the job specifications fall within the scope of that person’s talents and abilities.

3 Autism Is Caused By Vaccinations

Another terrible misconception that just won’t disappear is that vaccines cause autism. To date, the cause of autism remains unknown, but researchers believe that genetics, toxic substances, and differences in brain anatomy might contribute to children being diagnosed with the condition.^[8]

The rumor that vaccines may play a role in children developing autism comes largely from a 1998 study that suggested the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine or the measles virus itself might be to blame. Although it was established soon afterward that the research used in the study was falsified—and the doctor who conducted the study lost his medical license—the rumor just won’t die.

The medical journal that published the study retracted the paper, but even this didn’t help. Despite ongoing assurances that vaccines remain safe and that there is no link between vaccinations and autism, some parents still blatantly refuse to have their children immunized.

Rain Man, Atypical, and The Good Doctor do not in any way, shape, or form contain the notion that their autistic characters had vaccinations gone wrong.

2 Bad Parenting Causes Autism

If ever a character could single-handedly bust a myth like this, it would be Elsa from Atypical. Elsa is Sam Gardner’s mom, and she couldn’t be a better parent if she tried.

She is closer to her son than her husband, Doug, is. When Doug and Sam start to get along, this leads to Elsa having an extramarital affair. But it doesn’t affect the bond with her son and the love she has for him.^[9]

After being kicked out of the house by her husband, she restlessly tosses and turns while spending her first night away from Sam since he was born. Among other things, Elsa attends a weekly autism support group and is more accepting and understanding of her son’s diagnosis than anyone else.

Although some children and teenagers on the autism spectrum may have bad parents, it is not the bad parents who caused the diagnosis.

1 Autism Is Rare

Some people refer to autism as outlandish and rare, as though it’s something to be wary of. However, it is estimated that 1 in 54 eight-year-old children are on the autism spectrum. Some children shed their diagnosis and no longer display any symptoms as they grow older. Basically, they outgrow the condition.^[10]

Shows like Atypical and The Good Doctor make a point of informing the public about all aspects of autism, including the fact that it is nowhere near as rare as some believe it to be. People with autism don’t deserve to be stigmatized, and children do not deserve to be bullied because of it.

10 Fascinating People With Savant Syndrome

There are a lot of women centric tv shows out there. Several of these shows are unabashedly, explicitly about women, their lives, their wants and desires. Today viewers are becoming more and more sensitive on how women are presented on-screen and these engaging stories are full of feminist ideas. Ready or not, here are the 10 greatest women centric TV shows you need to watch.

The 10 Greatest Women Centric TV Shows Ever

10. Lost Girl

Premiered on 2010.

Lost Girl is a supernatural drama from Canada. Highly popular and critically acclaimed, Lost Girl follows our bisexual protagonist Bo Dennis who learns that she can feed on the sexual energy of humans. After the discovery Bo embarks on a search of her origin, on her way helping those who need her help. Interestingly Bo’s sexuality plays a significant role in the show’s narrative device.

8. Once Upon A Time

Premiered on 2011.

Created by the writers of Lost and Tron: Legacy, OUAT is quiet a unique American television series. It’s a fairy tale drama where modern-life and legend collide. Set in a  seaside town of Storybrooke where resident are living unaware that they are characters from fairy tales stories doomed into this real-world by the curse of the Evil Queen.

9. Buffy The Vampire Slayer  (1997-2003)

This American television series has got a huge fandom with cult-following. Pretty evident by the name, our bad-ass lady, Buffy Summers is a vampire slayer. Bagging a number of titles like  Time magazine’s “100 Best TV Shows of All-Time”,  Empire ’​s “50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time” et al and awards such as Emmys and Golden Globe nominations, Buffy has influenced the direction of numerous other television series.

7. The 100

Premiered on 2014.

Set in a post-apocalyptic world, this American drama flourishes on an excitingly suspenseful atmosphere. 97 years after the Nuclear War that wiped off almost all life on Earth, a bunch of juvenile criminals are sent to find out exactly how habitable the Earth has become. But when you set a hundred teenagers free to do whatever the hell they want, what follows next is chaos.

Regarded as one of the “coolest and most daring series on TV”, The 100 has the first post-apocalyptic and The Cartoon Network Television Network’s first bisexual lead in a show.

6. Carmilla

Premiered on 2014.

Carmilla is a web series from Canada based on the novella of the same name by Sheridan Le Fanu.  Staring the very talented Natasha Negovanlis and Elise Bauman, the story is set at the fictional Silas University in Styria, Austria. We follow Laura, a freshman student enthusiastic journalism student trying to investigate the disappearance of her roommate and other university girls while also dealing with her new, dark, brooding and mysterious roommate, Carmilla.

The series follows a multi-platform storytelling method and is available on YouTube for free where the first season has got over 21 million views. Carmilla has been raved for its almost all-female cast and amazing representation of LGBT characters.

5. Outlander

Premiered on 2014.

British-American drama series is based on the brilliant novels of the same name by Diana Gabaldon. The story revolves around a married World War II nurse Claire Randall (played by the incredible Caitriona Balfe) who falls through time and finds herself in the Scottish highlands in 1743.

Outlander was voted as the Favorite Cable Sci-Fi/Fantasy Show in People’s Choice Award and the  Critics’ Choice Television Award for Most Exciting New Series.

4. Agent Carter

Premiered on 2015.

Agent Carter follows the character Peggy Carter, an SSR agent who in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) features beside Captain America. Hayley Atwell plays the brilliant agent who after serving in the World War II faces sexism when working for the Strategic Scientific Reserve (S.S.R.) while trying to save the world from evil forces.

The show is a real gem. A stylish drama with a winning combination of cheeky-fun, sophisticated actions and burst of excitement.

3. Orange is the New Black

Premiered on 2013.

An American comedy-drama OINB is based on the memoir of Piper Kerman – Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison published in 2010.

The first series focuses on Piper Chapman who in her mid-thirties is sentenced to prison for her association with a drug runner 10 years ago. In the two following seasons, the show’s primary focus expands from Piper to over other prison-mates in the women’s federal prison as they try to make their way through the system, relishing their past lives and adjusting to their lives behind bars. In 2014, OINB was named the most watched show on Netflix and has won a slew of awards and nominations since.

2. The Legend of Korra

Premiered on 2012.

A follow-up series to ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’, Korra is created by the brilliant animation directors, Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino. Set in 70 years after the events of ‘The Last Airbender’, the show follows the next Avatar, ‘Avatar Korra’ and her quest to bring balance in a time of political and spiritual unrest in a modernizing world.

This American animated television series has been highly praised for its production quality, for addressing socio-political issues like terrorism, fascism, anarchy and unrest. The Legend of Korra has also been critically and commercially acclaimed for its positive representation of races, gender, ageism and sexual orientation.

1. Orphan Black

Premiered on 2013.

It’s a Canadian sci-fi television series starring Tatiana Maslany in lead role. Everything about Orphan Black is a potential spoiler. But without ruining the fun, let’s just know that the show follows a street-wise woman Sarah Manning with a troubled past. One day she witnesses a suicide of another woman who looks just like her. Sarah decides to assume the identity of that woman for monetary benefits, unknown to the epic mess she was getting into.

Raved by both fans and critics, Orphan Black is an edge-of-the-seat thriller that has feminist subtext interwoven into the plot. After 2014 Emmy snub, Maslany has been nominated for this year (2015) Emmy Award for Lead Actress in a Drama. My fingers are crossed.

Related

Television has never been as good as it is today. The past few years have seen it rise to new heights, and it is safe to say that this golden age of TV has no shortage of creativity. But a good idea does not always mean a good product, and in the world of entertainment, nothing is more disappointing than wasted potential. A good idea being ruined by terrible execution is a way more infuriating occurrence than a show simply being bad. Let’s take a look at perfect examples of this phenomenon. Here are 10 bad TV shows that wasted great concepts:

Top 10 Awesome Films Hollywood Ruined With Lies

10 Revenge

Revenge was a unique drama about a mysterious young woman moving to the Hamptons under a fake identity to avenge the murder of her father, who was killed in prison while serving a life sentence for a crime he did not commit. With an expertly crafted plan years in the making, the so-called Emily Thorne seeks out to slowly destroy the lives of anyone who played a part in her father’s demise.

The clever premise of ABC’s Revenge was inspired by Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel The Count Of Monte Cristo. And while the first season of the show was admittedly fun and compelling, the following seasons very quickly devolved into an overly convoluted mess that widely overstayed its welcome. Revenge was eventually cancelled in 2015 at the close of its fourth season, but it was announced in November 2019 that a sequel series is currently in development at ABC.^[1]

9 The Lying Game

Emma, a teenage foster child living a life of struggle and poverty in Arizona, finds her life turned completely upside down when she meets her identical twin Sutton, who she never knew existed. Sutton, who was adopted by a wealthy family, asks Emma to take her place back home for a few days, while she goes on a mission to uncover the truth behind the identity of their birth mother. Working hand in hand, the sisters quickly find out they are at the center of a strange and bloody conspiracy that could answer why they were separated at birth, and never told of each other’s existence.

The Lying Game had a premise for the ages. Had it been placed into the right hands, it could have easily become a modern classic of conspiracy thrillers. Unfortunately, what we ended up with was a surprisingly flat teen drama with poorly designed storylines, and a mishandled mystery constantly cornering itself into every possible cliché, all in a desperate attempt to keep itself interesting. Needless to say, people did not stay to find out what happened next, and The Lying Game was abruptly cancelled in the middle of its second season, along with all of its potential.^[2]

8 The Secret Life Of The American Teenager

Okay, this one is a given. The Secret Life Of The American Teenager is now infamous for being one of the worst TV shows of all time. But, the basic concept behind it could have made for a heartfelt and genuine tale of teen pregnancy. In a world where shows like Skins, Euphoria or Sex Education exist, showing teenagers in a more realistic light to address serious topics, it is almost inexcusable that such a lazy and superficial series was allowed to go on for five seasons.

Aside from its very simple synopsis (15 year old girl finds out she is pregnant after her first time), not a single aspect of this show is even passably decent. The writing is awkward at best, the acting is painful to watch, and looking back, the only real achievement The Secret Life Of The American Teenager deserves to be credited for is the one of putting Shailene Woodley on the map. Even if years later, Woodley herself admitted to disliking both the show’s ideals and the character she portrayed in it, revealing that she was forced to complete the five seasons due to being “legally stuck” in her contract.^[3]

7 Another Life

An astronaut and her highly dysfunctional crew have to face horrific events as they leave on a dangerous mission to discover the origin of a giant artifact that mysteriously landed on Earth. Not a particularly out of the box concept, but one strong enough to create one hell of a space opera in the form of a television show. Those are pretty rare. But that is definitely not what we got.

Another Life is a perfect example of writers taking a great concept, only to dumb it down to something that is almost insulting to the audience’s intelligence. The storytelling is at an all time low here and has very few redeeming qualities. The series premiered on Netflix in the spring of 2019 and is already regarded as one of the worst shows the streaming service has ever produced. That said, Another Life somehow got renewed for a second season in February 2020. Go figure.^[4]

6 Heroes

A group of ordinary people who mysteriously develop superpowers after an eclipse, have to find each other and act as one to prevent an apocalyptic future from happening. As they navigate through their new reality, they find themselves hunted down by a secret organization known as the Company. A thrilling ride, right? Everything about this story sounds like a success begging to be made. And it was…at first.

While its first season is widely regarded as one of the greatest seasons of television ever made, Heroes was brutally affected by the infamous WGA writer strike of 2007. As a result, NBC was forced to condense the story of the second season in a lowered total of 11 episodes, instead of the planned 24. This last minute decision caused the show to become largely uneven, and it sadly never recovered from the hit. After that, Heroes remained a broken mess with a disorganized story, up until its ending after four seasons in 2010.

A sequel series titled Heroes Reborn attempted to reinvigorate the franchise in 2015, but it was cancelled after one season due to poor ratings, effectively ending the Heroes universe.^[5]

Top 10 Worst Television Spinoffs of All Time

5 Riverdale

It is almost too easy to put Riverdale in this list. After all, no show in our time has ever been so successful due to audiences feeling some twisted sort of enjoyment in seeing how much of a train wreck it can keep on being. A show that is so shamelessly incompetent that a whole new genre of internet memes was born out of it. A show so awfully written, with plot lines that make so little sense, that its own cast members are on record, confessing in interviews that “the writers have no idea what they’re doing” and “are just randomly making things up as they go.” So yes, it is too easy to put Riverdale in this list. But here we are.

What makes it so infuriating is that, in theory, the concept of the plot (based on characters from Archie Comics) is simple and highly effective. Dark murder mysteries being solved by a group of teenagers who cannot keep themselves from putting their noses where it’s not supposed to be. How do you mess this up? Well, give the show to an unqualified show runner who could not tell a coherent story to save his life, and doesn’t respect the source material he is adapting in the slightest. As a result, you get the mythical disaster that is Riverdale.^[6]

4 The I-Land

If you know The I-Land, then you know it is not only considered to be the worst Netflix series ever made, but it is also regarded as one of the worst TV shows of all time, period. The sci-fi series is so unbelievably horrible from its very first seconds, that many audience members believed it was meant to be a parody of what it was actually trying to be. But, the further the dive, the harder the truth: The I-Land is not a parody. It is just that bad.

That said, it is fair to admit that the idea behind it had a lot of merit. Ten seemingly random people wake up on a deserted island with no memories of who they are or where they came from. As they try to figure out how to survive as a group, we learn that they are actually all convicted criminals stuck inside of a simulation. The island was created to observe their behavior and see if they would rise above their past mistakes, or revert back to their worst selves. In other words, Prison Break and Lost meet Westworld.

But the concept is where the praise ends. Not a single thing about The I-Land works — the characters feel like they were written by 5 year-olds, and the acting bringing them to life is so profoundly bad that it turns the whole thing into an accidental comedy. The storytelling does not bother to have any sense of logic or structure whatsoever, but attempts a bunch of nonsensical twists to “surprise” the audience, all leading up to an absurd ending drowned in plot holes. Thankfully, it was announced soon after its release that The I-Land would not be returning for a second season.^[7]

3 Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina

One of the most important aspects of any show or movie is the tone. A story can be great, but can still fall flat if the tone is not right. Such is the case for Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina, Netflix’s reinvention of the classic Archie Comics character, based on the graphic novel of the same name. The legendary witch was promised a grand return to form in this new adaptation, and the first look released in September 2018 confirmed an epic rebirth was coming.

The one minute teaser offered a particularly sinister take on Sabrina Spellman and her story. A dark horror ride diving into the satanic aspect of witchcraft in the town of Greendale. It was so brilliant that even the most skeptical fans immediately put their faith in the show. But, little did we know, the hype only reinforced the disappointment that ensued.

Instead of the terrifying witch story we were promised, what we got was a surprisingly dull teen drama with bland characters, awful dialog, and awkward writing with no real sense of direction. The confusing pacing creates a wonky tone that doesn’t seem to know if it wants to be campy and ridiculous or dark and gritty, making this disjointed incarnation of Sabrina feel like it was made for children, despite being way too violent to be made for children. And that is all without mentioning the boring subplots, random musical numbers and — oh, did we mention this show has the same show runner as Riverdale?

It is no surprise that Netflix cancelled Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina in July 2020, with producers announcing via Twitter that its fourth season (which started shooting prior to the Covid-19 pandemic) would be the show’s last.^[8]

2 13 Reasons Why

It’s a very rare thing to see a show’s fall from grace come from its own arrogance. But Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why has been a shining example when it comes to creators’ sense of self-importance becoming the drive behind a show with such heavy themes.

The first season had its merits. It wasn’t perfect, but there seemed to be a genuine attempt at telling a poignant story about a young girl who was in a great deal of pain. It deserved the benefit of the doubt. The narrative was also made engaging by a truly compelling plot device, in the form of tapes left behind by the deceased teenager. All the pieces were in place to make something great.

Mental health is obviously a very serious subject, and 13 Reasons Why has sadly become a spectacular demonstration on how not to address it. The show had no reason to exist beyond its first season, and the lengths it has gone to in an effort to capitalize on controversy (such as randomly turning itself into a who-done-it murder mystery in its third season) have shown its true colors. But despite the audience’s growing outrage, the people behind the show have repeatedly defended their sketchy antics. They seem to see themselves as white knights who bring the truth to the world, not realizing that they only offer a toxic vision of something that should be addressed with intelligence and delicacy.

13 Reasons Why finally ended its painful run in June 2020, at the close of a universally hated and criticized fourth season that threw any sense of values it had left out the window.^[9]

1 Pretty Little Liars

When Allison DiLaurentis mysteriously goes missing after a sleepover with her best friends, the small town of Rosewood is in a total state of shock. A year later, her friends Aria, Spencer, Emily and Hannah, suddenly start to receive strange messages from an unknown entity only known as “A”, who seems to know every single details about their lives.

As they race against the clock to find out who is now blackmailing them, the girls make shocking discoveries. Not only is the entire town of Rosewood full of people with something to hide, but it looks like Allison DiLaurentis was in reality a quite shady, manipulative, and even dangerous young woman. A young woman with a lot of secrets, a lot of power, and a lot of enemies.

The concept of Pretty Little Liars is simply perfect. It is almost impossible to figure out how such a flawless setup was turned into one of the most poorly written mysteries ever put to screen. Instead of focusing on the dark intrigue that could have been treated to the level of a Gone Girl or a True Detective, show runner Marlene King and her team of writers delivered a terribly thought out semi-thriller more interested in useless and never ending romantic storylines, within a gigantic cast of boring characters devoid of any sense of depth.

This stretched out mystery went on for seven seasons, thanks to a number of random subplots constantly taking over the story. The plot turned into an afterthought that only served as a cheap device to keep audiences watching for “answers” that would ultimately never come.

Pretty Little Liars is now infamous for its awful writing, especially after what is now considered to be one of the worst finales in television history. The backlash over the show’s botched ending was so vast that Marlene King herself had to do a 30-minute interview on Entertainment Tonight to attempt to tie up all of the plot holes and unanswered questions the finale miserably failed to address.

A sequel series titled Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists attempted to give new life to the franchise and regain the love of the fans in 2018. But it ultimately failed at doing so and was cancelled after its first season, effectively rendering the Pretty Little Liars universe dead.^[10]

Top 10 Ways Hollywood Ruined Your Favorite TV Shows

About The Author: I write about the entertainment world.

Television has reached a level of quality that often exceeds major Hollywood films. And with so many shows reaching a level of recognition and acclaim that transcends pop culture itself, it is easy to stop paying attention to the underdog. Some of the best TV series out there are hidden gems that mainstream audiences probably don’t know about, due to a wide variety of reasons. Not every show can be as famous as “Game Of Thrones” or “Breaking Bad”, so let’s shine a light on 10 criminally underrated shows that anyone can go and binge right now:

Top 10 TV Shows Cancelled Too Soon

10 MISFITS (2009)

This British dark comedy tells the story of a group of five delinquent teenagers in community service, who find their lives completely changed when a mysterious thunderstorm strikes them, giving them supernatural abilities that reflect elements of their personalities. As they try to navigate their new reality, everything takes an even darker turn when the consequences of the storm lead to an accidental murder they now need to cover up.

The beauty of “MISFITS” stands in its ability to take a cliché premise and flip it on its head in order to tell a truly unusual story. The show has some of the best writing we have seen in this type of plot, with incredibly charismatic characters, clever humour, and a twisted style of storytelling that manages to leave you at the edge of your seat more than once. “MISFITS” is unapologetically weird and fun, and while the last couple of seasons are not as perfect as the first three, the show is still an absolute blast from start to finish.

9 The OA (2016)

When a young blind girl named Prairie Johnson suddenly goes missing from her little town, her family is broken. However, seven years later, she reappears under mysterious circumstances, and everyone seems really happy to get her back. Her return is considered to be a true miracle, but something is strange: not only does Prairie refuse to tell anyone where she has been for the last seven years or what happened to her, the town is also stunned to discover that she is no longer blind.

This Netflix original, created by Brit Marling (who also stars as Prairie), is as weird and innovative as it gets when it comes to storytelling in American shows. The ideas it presents are unlike anything we have seen before, which is refreshing in a world of comic book adaptations and franchise reboots. It is a highly artistic, intelligent and original show with world class performances from a fantastic cast. Unfortunately, “The OA” fell victim to the infamous Netflix Cancelling Curse, and it was axed after only 2 seasons, leaving both fans and the show’s cast heartbroken.

8 Penny Dreadful (2014)

In 1891 England, a mysterious woman named Vanessa Ives seeks the help of an American gunslinger to track down and stop a vicious killer that has been terrorizing the streets London at night. As they investigate further with the assistance of a hunter carrying his own motivations, they come to the shocking realization that what they are up against is not exactly human.

Good horror television is quite hard to come by these days, but “Penny Dreadful” definitely justifies the need for the search to keep going. With a dark, twisted, and at times disturbing story, the show uses its gothic 19th century setting to perfection, and develops a very specific atmosphere that quickly becomes somewhat of an artistic signature. With classic horror characters like Count Dracula, Abraham Van Helsing and Victor Frankenstein being reinvented in this creepy world, “Penny Dreadful” is a high energy descent into madness that will leave you begging for more.

The show came to an end in 2016, after three critically acclaimed seasons, and a spin-off series titled “Penny Dreadful: City Of Angels” (starring Game Of Throne’s Natalie Dormer) premiered in 2018. However, despite favorable reviews from critics, the spin-off ended up being cancelled after only one season due to poor ratings.

7 The Good Place (2016)

When Eleanor dies in a freak accident and wakes up in The Good Place (AKA Heaven), she is introduced to Michael, an angel who reveals to her that she has been granted an eternity in his perfect utopia, as her reward for living a righteous life as a good-hearted lawyer. However, Eleanor knows she was sent to heaven by mistake — she is not at all an ethical person (or a lawyer), and she has spent her entire life being a rude and manipulative crook, to her great pleasure. But, in a final show of selfishness, Eleanor decides to play along and stay, tricking everyone into believing she is a kind and loving individual with a big heart.

“The Good Place” was created by legendary producer Michael Schur, the man behind masterpieces of comedy like “Brooklyn Nine Nine”, “The Office” and “Parks & Recreation”. It’s an intelligent and surprisingly inventive show with a very specific sense of humour that never fails to crack up. With Kristen Bell, Jameela Jamil and Ted Danson leading the cast, “The Good Place” gets better every single episode, up until its fourth and final season, which wraps their highly engaging story with a perfect little bow.

6 Skins (2007)

“Skins” is a poignant and intense anthology series that tells the story of various groups of British teenagers who are trying to navigate their messy lives in Bristol, South West England. From the darkest and most challenging parts of their lives (dealing with drugs, sex, mental health issues, family and bullying), they try to find some level of comfort into one another, but often end up affecting each other in tragic ways.

Praised for its extremely realistic and sinister representation of teenagers (something American TV seem to struggle with), “Skins” is a wild ride for start to finish. Its commitment to writing pragmatic and flawed characters makes you feel like you are watching real people interacting, which is only made better by the incredible talent that is showcased in the series. It is the show that revealed actors like Dev Patel, Kaya Scodelario, Nicolas Hoult and Hannah Murray to the world.

“Skins” introduces the concept of “generations”, meaning that the cast changes every two seasons to tell a new story, with some characters being somewhat connected to previous ones. It is an incredibly atypical show that many tried to replicate and failed — MTV notably tried to make an American version of “Skins”, but only delivered a weak copycat that lacked all of the guts that made the original so dark and realistic. It was cancelled after one season.

Top 10 Ways Binge-Watching Is Ruining Your Health

5 Ergo Proxy (2006)

In a post-apocalyptic future where humanity is forced to live in gigantic domed cities in the sky, Re-L Mayer, an extremely talented detective, has to investigate the emergence of a mysterious virus that causes androids to become self-aware and develop emotions. As her investigation leads her to darker corners of the city, Re-L realizes something is seriously wrong with this affair when she is suddenly attacked in her home by a Proxy, a rare and enigmatic species of humanoid beings that people venerate as gods.

Japanese animation is no stranger to deep philosophical exploration (just take a look at classics like “Ghost In The Shell”), but “Ergo Proxy” definitely puts a spin on it that makes it as fascinating as ever. It is a grim, infinitely weird and ambitious story that is only made better by its inventive cyberpunk visuals and experimental narrative structure. While some might find it too complex for its own good, the show still does an incredible job at rounding out a unique concept in a way that remains consistent throughout its 23 episodes.

4 You’re The Worst (2014)

This brilliant comedy tells the story of Jimmy, a pretentious and selfish writer from England, who meets Gretchen, a dishonest and manipulative publicist, at his ex-girlfriend’s wedding. After a very random one night stand, they begin to develop feelings for one another, and despite their utter disgust of love, we watch as this extremely toxic and self-destructive couple decides to attempt having a romantic relationship.

“You’re The Worst” is probably one of the best written comedies ever made. It has the ability to make you root for characters who are awful (and enjoy it) against all odds, and it succeeds at making their relationship incredibly real and engaging, despite its highly dysfunctional nature. The show was also praised for its painfully realistic depiction of mental health, being handled in a way where the natural humour of the show never feels like it is making fun of the dark themes it tackles. And with award-winning performances from Chris Geere and Aya Cash, “You’re The Worst” deserves way more recognition than it already has.

3 The Marvelous Mrs Maisel (2017)

“The Marvelous Mrs Maisel” tells the story of Miriam “Midge” Maisel, a Jewish-American housewife who finds her life flipped completely upside down when her husband Joel suddenly leaves her for his secretary. Having to face the hard reality of her situation, Midge goes on a journey of self-discovery when a drunken incident leads her to reinvent herself as a standup comedian, while dealing with her status of single mother in 1950’s New York.

This Emmy Award winning series is one of the biggest surprises television has seen in a very, very long time. “The Marvelous Mrs Maisel” is a drop-dead gorgeous masterpiece with fantastic writing and unbelievably vivid dialogue. It also has one of the most talented casts in modern television, and the storytelling is on a whole other level of originality. Many believe that the show will eventually go down in history as one of the greatest of all time, and it’s not hard to see why.

2 Banshee (2013)

Coming out of prison after a 15-year sentence for stealing $15 million worth of diamonds for a Russian mob boss, a nameless and enigmatic ex-con makes his way to the small town of Banshee, Pennsylvania, where he assumes the identity of a murdered sheriff to attend some unfinished business unbothered.

“Banshee” is the show that put actor Antony Starr on the map, who most people now know as the terrifying Homelander in Amazon’s “The Boys”. Created by the original maker of HBO’s “True Blood”, the show is an amazingly fun ride that is 100% carried by its outstanding cast of characters. “Banshee” ran for 4 exceptional seasons, ending its run in 2016, but due to being a Cinemax original, it never quite got the audience and recognition it deserved.

1 DARK (2017)

The small town of Winden in Germany is completely shaken when a young boy suddenly goes missing in the woods. Police, family and neighbours alike all work together to search for him relentlessly, but, when a series of similar incidents are revealed to have been occurring every 33 years, they make a horrifying discovery that raises more questions than it answers: the boy might still be in Winden…but in a different time.

“DARK” is a masterpiece. The German Netflix original is considered by many to be the greatest time travel story ever told, with an attention to details that has never been equaled. The show is virtually perfect, with grandiose storytelling, incredible performances and a sinister sense of mystery that will make you crave answers in the most intense of ways. The story is treated like a trilogy, ending after its three seasons in an absolutely mind-bending finale that still has people talking. On all accounts, “DARK” is not only one of the most underrated shows ever made, it also deserves a place in the conversation for the being one the greatest TV shows of all time.

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