In the golden age of content where people are constantly exposed to one form of entertainment or another, it’s common for people to get trolled for streaming shows that are unanimously seen as bad. Yet, hate-watching is a global phenomenon, and one that won’t be declining anytime soon. After all, it’s the bad shows that allow us to release those pent-up emotions and general insecurities with a laugh. Following is a list of shows that are so bad, they’ve turned into global guilty pleasures.
Riverdale
We all knew this was coming. You can’t possibly hate-watch a trashier show than Riverdale. Turgid writing prone to inducing an involuntary upchuck (“I’m cuckoo bananas for you, obvi”), stunted characters with nonsensical arcs (a coming of age story featuring characters who go from being super nice to super vile?) unrealistic plot lines (don’t get me wrong, we all love ourselves an unrealistic plot but a roleplaying game driving people to insanity?) Riverdale seems to have packed it all.
And that’s not even the worst of it. For some reason, the showrunners thought that squeezing in a musical, no matter how trashy and mediocre, occasionally would compensate for the string-on episodes that basically relied on tacky tropes. The actors clearly didn’t harbor a penchant for singing and viewers could tell. The overproduction only made it worse.
The portrayal of minors in Riverdale is another reason why the show is so heavily criticized. While showing teenagers in clandestine liaisons is culturally acceptable at this point, given a broader casual attitude towards sex and intimacy in general, showing a minor stripping in a bar full of creepy old men in a bid to become a part of a dangerous gang is not only ridiculous but also highly inappropriate. Adding a line or two about how the practice was patriarchal in nature does not change the fact that the character felt compelled to conform to the preconceived notion of a woman worthy of attention.
Let’s not even go into how mental illness is depicted in the show. Constantly bedeviled by a prevailing sense of "darkness," Betty (Lili Reinhart) creates an alter-ego, which is basically just a raunchy version of herself that likes to be dominant in sex. Still, there is no denying the fact that when the show was still hot in the entertainment world, it seemed to have taken our screens by storm. Like it or not, we all love to hate some shows.
The Vampire Diaries
Apart from exceptionally dark, brooding bad guys and sensual expressions of love that make you want to go full steam ahead in the bedroom, Vampire Diaries, despite having been a cultural phenomenon at one point, isn’t logical enough as a show about blood-sucking supernatural entities to make a great case for itself.
Elena (Nina Dobrev), for one, is too much of a scatterbrain for such a dynamic character, and for some reason, everything in the world seems to revolve around her. The rest of the characters unintentionally become pawns in her well-crafted board of stardom, mechanically doing whatever would bring her more drama and attention. The writing is often forced and cringe-worthy and apparently the only reason why people even watched Vampire Diaries back in the day was because of the one hot douchebag who could do whatever the heck he wanted to do and still rock the popularity meter. Yup. We are talking about Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder) – the age-defining epitome of a bad boy.
And while we all had qualms about Elena not being able to make up her mind between the two vampire brothers, the love triangle did spice up the otherwise mundane show and kept us hooked despite our better judgments.
The Originals
Another show that viewers cannot help but binge-watch against their supposedly refined preferences is The Originals. If Vampire Diaries was bad, The Originals made for a stale spin-off and an unnecessary one at that.
The Vampire Diaries sequel, time and time again, fails to make sense as a whole. For instance, despite Klaus (Joseph Morgan) and his family being "The Originals," there is a constant power struggle between him and Marcel (Charles Michael Davis). The fight scenes, though undoubtedly entertaining, need not have happened at all given that there was no weapon in the world that could possibly take down Klaus for good. New Orleans witches, hailed as some of the most powerful creatures in the featured universe lost their magic as a consequence of leaving their quarter – a plot element that contradicts how Finn (Casper Zafer)is still able to perform magic after he leaves the city.
All that being said, The Originals is still one of the most bingeworthy shows out there, thanks to the crazy plotlines and the peculiar character arcs, and not many shows in this list of bad shows would leave this one in the dust.
Emily in Paris
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At this point, we all know what the blockbuster show revolving around a pretty, young American girl who, despite her ineptitude and inexperience, seems to play the marketing game to the hilt is trying to do. Not only does the show seem to cast the French people in a questionable light, sexist and intolerable as a sweeping generalization, but it also depicts them as idle layabouts who basically love to lollygag all the time, even during work hours. Extramarital affairs in the office are taken with a grain of salt and are even celebrated, at times.
As for Emily (Lily Collins), fashion is not the only department she seems to be lacking in (Eiffel Tower charms? Really?). Despite making a shit-ton of mistakes, Emily fails to learn from her mistakes and maintains the same idyllic outlook on life throughout the series, which would have been impressive if only she wasn’t hurting people left and right. But why do we love Emily in Paris so much? The drama, of course! While we can always criticize Emily for showing zero character growth, it’s fun to watch her do things like betray her friend for one steamy night with the smoking hot chef and end up unemployed for not taking her job seriously enough.
Ultimate Spider-Man
Ultimate Spider-Man or a flat, zero-dimensional wannabe desperate for attention? Ultimate Spider-Man is another bad show that viewers love to hate on.
For one, Ultimate Peter Parker has practically nothing to keep him up at night. As such he is not really an underdog. Unlike the traditional hero, this one seems to be bathing in dollars because apparently making him broke would have required unnecessary effort. Moreover, Parker fails to let the unpredictability of life teach him anything. He just relies on the Avengers to level up his superhero tendencies.
Why, then, do viewers still watch this show? Because we all love ourselves some goofy, immature on-screen time, don’t we?
Dynasty
While the ever-dramatic saga of Denver oil tycoon Blake Carrington (Grant Show) and his family boasts decent writing and an impressive all-star cast, the show, as a whole, has failed to maintain the benchmark it had raised in the beginning.
Dynasty becomes more and more plot-driven down the line and the characters suffer as a consequence. Alexis (Elaine Hendrix) as an antagonist is rather flat and there is no real connection between her and Fallon (Elizabeth Gillies). Portraying Alexis as Blake’s ex-wife rather than the woman who raised Fallon and Adam (Sam Underwood) also tends to take away her power as a force to be reckoned with.
Pretty Little Liars
While Pretty Little Liars made waves the moment it took the streaming platform by storm, thanks to all the hype surrounding the new release, but we all know the show failed as a Thriller. Each episode, instead of experimenting with originality, set up a different individual as A, but ultimately they would not be the person the girls suspected. Now, thriller shows usually fall into the habit of pinpointing a number of blameless individuals as the culprit until the real target is caught, but Pretty Little Liars went too overboard in this regard and simply became boring at one point. However, the show, as a whole, still made for a bingeworthy watch, thanks to the focus on character development and romantic interests.