Even a few years after the conclusions of all-time classic shows such as Mad Men, Breaking
Bad, and Parks and Recreation, we're still in "The Second Golden Age of TV," also known
as "Peak TV," also known as "There is Far Too Much Good Stuff to Watch on Broadcast
Television, Cable, and At Least Four Streaming Services."
There's just so much to watch: Game of Thrones, Westworld, The Walking Dead, Atlanta, Silicon
Valley.
Still, despite all this can't-miss TV, there are plenty of other series you can go ahead
and skip.
The following are our picks for the very worst shows of 2018… so far.
Alex, Inc.
ABC promoted Alex, Inc. as the triumphant return of Zach Braff, away from TV for almost
a decade after Scrubs finished its nine-season run.
But it didn't quite work out that way.
This is partly a typical family comedy about a goofy dad, his long-suffering wife, and
their kids.
But it's also about a guy who has a midlife crisis, starts his own company, and documents
that journey through podcasting.
Based on the true story of StartUp host Alex Blumberg, Alex, Inc. reveals to audiences
the not-very-visually-entertaining world of people talking into microphones.
While podcasts are mainstream at this point, the show treats the concept like it's cutting-edge
technology, and people treat Alex like he's a genius for making one.
Simply unbelievable.
"I hate to disagree with you.
I hate it enough to make two fists."
Child Support
Ricky Gervais is a TV legend for co-creating and starring in the original British Office,
as well as the show business satire Extras and the nursing-home dramedy Derek.
But his latest project isn't a single-camera comedy or nuanced character study.
Instead, Child Support is one part Kids Say the Darndest Things, one part overly convoluted
game show.
In a TV studio, host Fred Savage asks adult contestants trivia questions.
If they answer correctly, their responses are compared to the answers given by a panel
of adorable children.
Gervais asks the kids the same questions in a creepy-looking focus group.
It's more unusual than amusing, and as The Laughing Place has noted, the questions are
"painfully easy" and the show "tries too hard to be funny."
"Benjamin Franklin said, 'Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy,
and' what?"
Deception
The early 2000s are over, but that era's biggest contribution to television endures: the crime
procedural with a sassy twist.
The likes of Bones, Castle, and The Mentalist are all gone, but they continue in spirit
with ABC's Deception.
It's about a celebrity magician with the very celebrity-magician name of "Cameron Black."
After his career is destroyed by a scandal, he teams up with the FBI to solve crimes.
That's right, he uses his gift for "illusions" to somehow get into the minds of criminals,
which is a pretty weak premise.
But winning over viewers is one magic trick Cameron has not managed to pull off.
Add in meaningless supporting characters, and what's been described by Variety as "a
fatal lack of surprises," and there's not much left to watch.
Life Sentence
The breezy CW dramedy Life Sentence offers up basically the same setup as the 2001 Disney
movie Max Keeble's Big Move.
But in this case, it's about a young woman named Stella who thought she was dying of
cancer.
For years, she lived everyday like it was her last, only to have her cancer cured, leaving
her to deal with the ramifications of her impulsive decisions.
There's a decent premise here, but the execution just feels too cruel to its main character,
while leaving other moments overly sentimental.
Ultimately, it's just an uneven mix.
Living Biblically
Based on humorist A.J.
Jacobs' book The Year of Living Biblically, this CBS sitcom is about a critic who decides
to live out every last detail of his life according to the Holy Bible.
While that's a refillable premise, it's difficult to make religion funny and palatable to a
broad audience.
Secular audiences are alienated, while the show also skirts offending the faithful, never
really finding an audience.
Ultimately, Living Biblically commits the cardinal comedy sin of just not being very
funny.
The Resident
Matt Czuchry stars as Dr. Conrad Hawkins, a medical rogue who plays by his own rules.
Dr. Hawkins makes rash decisions and ignores directives from his superiors because he has
gut feelings about what crazy medical procedures to use.
Except he doesn't come across as heroic; just arrogant and smarmy.
Instead, he's just another antihero who thinks he can get away with anything like we've seen
so many times before.
And that is The Resident's biggest flaw: it doesn't offer anything new to the TV landscape.
Sweetbitter
This Starz series follows naive Tess, who leaves her hometown behind to move to the
Big Apple.
New York is unexpectedly tough, until Tess is taken under the wing of colleagues at the
fancy restaurant where she finds work almost immediately.
She reminds them of themselves, only younger and more optimistic.
Except cliches are a big problem on Sweetbitter, a very slow-moving show where nothing much
happens beyond a woman working in a restaurant and making friends.
Robert Lloyd of The Los Angeles Times called it:
"A meal that looks great on the plate but makes little impression on the tongue."
Splitting Up Together
This ABC family sitcom is at least an innovative, if not vaguely depressing, twist on an old
format: Mom and Dad are in the process of divorcing, but rather than have one of them
move out, both parents stay in the house, keeping separate living quarters so as to
still provide their kids with an uninterrupted and stable home life.
While that's a modern and progressive solution, it's a hard sell for a silly little sitcom.
And according to the Orlando Sentinel,
"It feels like a long, forced push to get [the main couple] back together."
Here and Now
Set in the progressive city of Portland, Oregon, Here and Now is about a progressive family
made up of a philosophy professor, his therapist wife, and their four mostly grown children,
adopted from around the world.
Their one biological child is in high school, where she encounters many didactic conversations
about social issues, offset by weird dreams and prophetic hallucinations.
Basically, imagine if Portlandia wasn't a comedy, but was instead just as serious and
ominous as The Leftovers.
According to Joel Keller of Decider,
"Here and Now is so overwrought that it makes The Handmaid's Tale look like a light-hearted
romp by comparison."
Dark.