50 Worst Shows of the 21st Century : 21st-25th Most Insulting TV Shows

Bad meals, bad behavior and a bad trip fill reader's plates with indigestion in this entry.  And even one offender who was late to the party trashing the POTUS.  Networks and streamers we will binge and eat whatever they serve viewers, but fail to recognize they can smell a bad meal such as these entries and eat elsewhere.  Stay close to the toilet when reading these entries as they are sickening.

For those catching up, check out the prior 25 entries shamelessly called out which have been tossed into the fire after outraging viewers.

46th-50th: Overexposure and the Preposterous

41st-45th: Wasted Opportunities

36th-40th: Misfires and Assaults

31st-35th: Knockoffs, Imitators and the Unlikable

26th-30th: Shit for Sitcoms and Hell in Paradise

25. Emeril, NBC (2001)

A revered chef takes his knife and carves up some dialogue?  Not a shocker in the entertainment industry and quite possible.  But chef Emeril Lagasse was no actor, let alone a lead for a sitcom.  And his worthy costars struggled to prop the chef as well as working against tenuous scripting and plotting.  The series tanked after 10 episodes and as show in this list, NBC was starting to lose its touch after a long, respected run with sitcoms.  Leading Tuesday evenings with a 4.83 rating in 82nd Place showed this poorly prepared meal showed viewers were dining elsewhere.  

How could viewers pull up a chair and enjoy this undercooked meal leading off the weakened Tuesday night sitcom block and not be stuck in the bathroom vomiting by the time Frasier was on at 9:00?  NBC located its garbage disposal for the sake of being reported to the health inspector and learned a name is not enough to sustain a sitcom dinner party.

24. My Big Fat Greek Life, CBS (2003)

Speaking of bad meals...  Transitioning hit movies to television seldom works out in a network or franchise's favor.  Rare exceptions do exist like MASH, which enjoyed a healthy 11 season run.  But My Big Fat Greek Life?  CBS burnt the oregano by cooking the brilliance out of My Big Fat Greek Wedding's crisp dialogue with an expired laughtrack peppered in.  More insulting was the showrunners delivered predictable and stale dialogue.  Lainie Kazan has possessed scene stealing talents throughout her career due to her ability to read the room and deliver in proper doses.  My Big Fat Greek Life voided her skills and forced her into dated and stereotypical jokes, leaving viewers wishing Toula's family leave the room vs enjoy their over-the-top antics.

John Corbett wisely avoided this series as he was committed to FX's Lucky, missing a bad meal served to the remainder of the cast who showed up for indigestion.  If a series successfully wrangles the majority of its cast from a hit movie and tanks inside 7 episodes, one knows these cooks/showrunners need to order out and leave the cooking to the professionals.  Where numbers were concerned, My Big Fat Greek Life appeared to be a hit coming in at 29th Place with an 8.32 rating.  The trouble laid in it had 60 Minutes as a lead-in, which often delivered NFL-inflated overflow which should have had this series delivering higher.  More criminal, it damaged the reliable Becker, which degenerated to 44th place with a 7.06 rating.  High production values due to salaries were also cited as a contributing factor to why CBS slammed the cleaver down and cut losses early.

23. Lil' Bush, Comedy Central (2007-08)

Complaining about the POTUS is hardly groundbreaking on television.  Some do this artfully, which is why viewers have always enjoyed watching Saturday Night live for nearly 50 years.  Others, however, fail to recognize their viewers consist of both liberal and conservative preferences and all need to be catered ti.  The tone of Lil' Bush blatantly roasted President George Bush, hardly groundbreaking as it came late into its second term.  

Had the writers worked to balance the delivery with redeeming qualities, it could have catered to both liberal and conservative viewers.  Unlike SNL, Lil' Bush lacked sophistication and topical discussion.  Both the president and this embarrassing series were cancelled in 2008.  The president by the system which said his two terms were up, and this embarrassing series by Comedy Central who realized they had nothing left to talk about.

22. Anger Management, FX (2012-14)

Charlie Sheen, once one of the industry's strongest A-listers oozing with talent, drove his career off a cliff and was fired the prior year for tasteless tirades against Two and a Half Men's producer Chuck Lorre.  Sheen wore out his 24th chance and was fired after 8 seasons on the hit series, so FX made the grievous decision to jump into Sheen's bed and offered him Anger Management.  At the time they were testing out the 10/90 model, which dictated if a series was successful in its first 10 episodes it earned an additional 90.  A bold strategy, and Sheen tanked this generous idea by delivering the appalling Anger Management.

The trouble was Anger Management hardly discerned Charlie Sheen's strong acting skills but rather had him playing out his personal life on camera via character Charlie Goodson.  A former ballplayer with anger issues and womanizing, how could one distinguish between Goodson and Sheen outside Sheen was never a major league baseball player?  Sheen had formidable costars like Selma Blair, whom unfortunately exited in a scathing firing after a combative work relationship with Sheen.  Reports surfaced he repeatedly referred to her a a c-nt, and worsening the tone was at the time of her firing Blair privately was dealing with an aggressive multiple sclerosis battle.  That left viewers as scorned as one of Sheen's thousands of jilted bedfellows running to the free clinic for penicillin who realized he's an outright asshole, making it hard for one to enjoy reliving this vile series.

21. Disjointed, Netflix (2017-18)

Forging a relationship with heavyweight champion producer Chuck Lorre should have been a long-term arrangement for Netflix.  And the icing on the cake should have been revered legend Kathy Bates starring.  So what got viewer's noses out of joint with Disjointed?  The premise and writing could hardly spark a fire, and viewers had a hard time engaging in the weed-malaise premise.  Bates played a stereotype as a Jewish liberal fighting to legalize weed for a lifetime, which should have been comic gold.  But her caricature, Ruth Whitefeather Feldman, was a biting mean spirited harpy.  A couple stoners named Dank and Dabby did present comic gold, but the remainder of the cast was forgettable.  

The trouble was Lorre believed inserting his trademark laughtrack could work, but was fighting off extreme profanity which made viewers scratch their heads in confusion.  How can a laughtrack coexist with Bates' Ruth using crass name calling Dank and Dabby "those fucksticks."  Sound offensive in this article?  It was worse on screen.  Hopefully one day Lorre can try again with Netflix as CBS seems to be ending their longstanding marriage.  But he would be wise to figure out the tone and vibe viewers want or else Netflix will toss his joints out like a bad plant.

Did you too sit through these bad meals and trips?  Sound off and share in the comments below.

Author : The Lazy Journalist

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