As TV audiences continue to fracture, the definition of a hit show is constantly evolving,
and with every success, there's always a clunker waiting to be axed.
Some critics feel that 2017 has brought some of the worst shows in recent history.
With that in mind, we've rounded up the eight worst shows of 2017.
Emerald City
Just a few years ago, Uproxx reported on five vastly different Wizard of Oz TV adaptations
in development.
Only one of those made it to air.
Emerald City was director Tarsem Singh's first foray into television.
It was clear that NBC was hoping for their own Game of Thrones, but while Emerald City
was both beautiful and violent, no amount of Singh's signature special effects could
compensate for a weak storyline.
According to The Hollywood Reporter,
"...the silly merges with the violent, fumbling the tone on down the Yellow Brick Road (which
here is made of opium)."
Even its stellar cast - featuring Adria Arjona, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, and Vincent D'Onofrio
- was not enough to keep audiences interested.
With all those effects, the show couldn't have been cheap—which meant that low ratings
quickly doomed the 10-episode season.
After premiering the show in January, NBC canceled Emerald City in May.
APB
When sci-fi satire APB premiered on Fox, it had a lot of potential.
The series took aim at America's police state in the making—but it felt more like a comedy
than the drama it really needed to be.
APB followed tech billionaire Gideon Reeves, played by Justin Kirk, and explored privately
funded police forces equipped with drones, mobile apps, and tech gadgets.
However, too much focus was put on flashy technology, leaving no room for actual character
development.
The Hollywood Reporter called the show
"Just an empty, run-of-the-mill cop show."
"It's just stupid."
Heavily relying on style over substance, APB buckled under its own distorted morality.
Earning a 35 percent rating at Rotten Tomatoes, it was canceled after 12 episodes.
Taken
NBC tried to tap into a particular set of skills with Taken—a prequel series to Liam
Neeson's popular film franchise--but unfortunately, Neeson had nothing to do with this spy drama.
"I don't know who you are."
Clive Standen stars as a young Bryan Mills, giving audiences a perspective into the past
of Neeson's hardened espionage agent.
Regardless of its prequel status, Taken was ultimately just a procedural that struggled
to live up to the kinetic pacing and compelling action of the movies that inspired it.
As The Hollywood Reporter explained:
"What Taken actually proves to be as a series is just another NBC action drama in which
a government team faces a different limited threat each week."
Poor reviews aside, Taken performed well enough, prompting NBC to order a Season 2.
According to Deadline, only Jennifer Beals and Standen will return—which means some
well-needed restructuring has definitely TAKEN place.
Training Day
While Taken was renewed for a second season at NBC, CBS's small-screen adaptation of Antoine
Fuqua's Training Day wasn't so lucky.
Coming in at 22% on Rotten Tomatoes, the show was plagued with horrible reviews as soon
as it premiered.
Vulture called the show a
"...hackneyed, dreadfully written carbon copy of every crummy cop show you've ever seen."
Flipping the script on the 2001 film's original story, the series paired rookie Kyle Craig,
played by Justin Cornwell, with seasoned officer Frank Rourke, played by Bill Paxton.
It was an intriguing but risky move for CBS, who relied mostly on Paxton's acting chops
to carry the series.
But Paxton's talents couldn't save Training Day from overused exposition and slow pace.
The show was at risk as soon as it premiered, and after Paxton's untimely passing in February,
TV LINE reporter that it was moved from its Thursday night time slot to Saturday.
Deadline then reported that Training Day was officially canceled months later.
Star
Due to the massive success of Empire, Fox brought another hip-hop-themed drama from
Oscar-nominated director Lee Daniels to the small-screen.
But audiences quickly discovered Star was nothing like the network's lavish Lyon family
drama.
The series follows the melodramatic aspirations of Star Davis as she aims to get famous—or
die trying.
With scandalous storylines abound, Star might not have been granted a second season without
big-name talent like Benjamin Bratt and Queen Latifah.
The one-dimensional characters, cheesy storylines, and over-the-top music video segments make
it difficult to take Star seriously.
The guilty pleasure angle may be the show's selling point, setting up Star as a fun chaser
to the more serious Empire.
According to Variety, a two-hour crossover between the two shows helped boost Star's
second season ratings.
But only time will tell if it will make it to a third season.
Disjointed
Chuck Lorre knows a thing or two about sitcom success, bringing Two and a Half Men and The
Big Bang Theory to CBS—two comedies that were regularly panned by critics while still
garnering huge ratings.
Moving from network TV to Netflix's streaming platform, Lorre has continued doing his thing
with the pot comedy Disjointed.
The show stars Kathy Bates as Ruth Whitefeather Feldman, the owner of an offbeat medical marijuana
dispensary in Los Angeles, and used Lorre's signature three-camera setup to explore the
misadventures of the shop's staff.
"Stoned, I am getting!"
The Daily Dot reported:
"Just as real nerds tend to reject the heightened, shrill versions of themselves they see on
The Big Bang Theory, real pot smokers are likely to reject or even be offended by their
portrayal on Disjointed."
The series may be summer 2017's weirdest new show.
According to The Wrap, it was also the summer's worst.
Marvel's Iron Fist
Marvel and Netflix have proven to be a worthy partnership over the past few years.
From Daredevil to Jessica Jones, fans had grown accustomed to edgy comic book stories
mixed with a heaping helping of action and intrigue.
That all came to a halt with Marvel's Iron Fist.
The conflict came slow, the fight sequences fell flat, and Finn Jones' performance as
Danny Rand failed to live up to expectations.
Jessica Henwick's portrayal of Colleen Wing breathed some much-needed life into the series,
but it wasn't enough to lift Iron Fist out of the muck.
Indiewire said the series felt
"...incredibly inessential, even boring at times.
It just… didn't need to happen.
Marvel could have taken a pass on this one, or found a more interesting take on it."
Entertainment Weekly reports that second season is underway, promising a full-on comic-style
team-up between Danny Rand and Luke Cage.
Here's hoping their partnership can lift the series out of the Netflix doldrums.
"Sweet Christmas."
Marvel's Inhumans
Scoring just 10 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, Inhumans comes in as Marvel's worst-ever comic
book adaptation.
Indiewire called it, quote, "the worst thing Marvel has done in decades."
ABC backed the series with a Disney budget, and even gave it an IMAX limited theatrical
release, but not even the star power of Anson Mount and Iwan Rheon seemed to help.
Box Office Mojo reports just $2.9 million in ticket sales for the theatrical release,
and TVSeriesFinale reports the show averaged just under 2 million viewers.
In this case, however, poor reviews and dismal viewership might not lead to a cancellation.
Marvel's original plan for Inhumans called for a big-screen MCU blockbuster, so Disney
might still greenlight more episodes on ABC's behalf.
On the bright side: if more seasons do come, at least we'll get to see more of that cute
giant dog.
(Inhumans' only redeeming quality)
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