There are some shows that always seem to be in the most popular section of the streaming app that just don’t resonate with some audiences. We’ve all turned on an episode of a highly rated show only to find out that everything from the acting to the dialogue is terrible.
But to each their own! Some people really enjoy all of the shows listed below, and other people would only count them among their guiltiest of pleasures. One thing is for sure though, these shows have definitely polarized their audiences.
“Pretty Little Liars"
“So no one has said this, but Pretty Little Liars.
my girlfriend at the time said it was the best show and what not. the plot is ridiculous, their clothing and makeup would never be allowed at a school, a bunch of 16 year old girls surely cannot have so many secrets that they can be blackmailed to such an extent. the police cannot be so ineffective and stupid. There cannot be sone crazy stalker person thats getting off on tormenting the lives of a bunch of teenagers and their friends.
In saying all that, its my guilty pleasure and i love watching it for the exact reasons i pointed out, as well as pointing out those reasons its a [bad] show.” - Reddit / skylmingakappi
“I feel exactly the same way. I'm binging my way through it so I can finally find out the answers to the mysteries yet I often find myself getting frustrated with how they behave. It's ludicrous that they wouldn't reach out to an adult through all of this. But still I watch…” - Reddit / kalo56
“The L Word”
“The L Word. I watched two full seasons to give it a chance.
SO BORING. EVERYONE CHEATS ON EACH OTHER. THE END.
And for what it's worth, I am a lesbian lady myself and still found the show boring as hell. Just wasn't my thing.” - Reddit / Raediv
“You forgot to mention: all straight women are straight until they encounter a lesbian.
Case in point: Shane shows up at a house to do hair for a bridal party, only to be chased around by the lusting bride, her mother, and the bridesmaids like they were zombies pining for live flesh.” - Reddit
“Scandal”
“Scandal. I can't enjoy it cause I feel like everyone is over-acting” - Reddit / labradorz
“Scandal: if you're angry and self-righteous enough, you can make a loud speech and then everything goes your way.” - Reddit / CleverBandName
“the part that grinds my gears so much is her APARTMENT.. she's been kidnapped from there, others have been kidnapped from there, it's been broken into countless amounts of times, national televsion has broadcast her building, paps have hounded her there multiple times... yet the president with SS shows up there all the time (super safe??) and she's lived there throughout the entire series.... MOVE AND MAYBE ALL THIS STUFF WOULDNT HAPPEN” - Reddit / definitewhitegirl
“C.S.I. Cyber”
“C.S.I Cyber. It was/is terrible,I cringigly watched 3 eps but couldn't take any more after that. Recommended by an acquaintance whose advice I wont be following again any time soon.” - Reddit / sorfak
“Quick tag their packets and we'll track them back through the intertubes using this handheld packet sniffer, hackers call it pinging them.” - Reddit / bigschmitt
“I like to imagine that character is just highly lazy and uses techno babble to obfuscate their passing off 15 minutes of work and 3.75 hours of web browsing as 4 hours of work.” - Reddit / funkyb
“Life After People”
“"Life After People" The first few episodes, I thought it was fascinating, then I realized every single episode was exactly the same.
"What happens to the Eiffel tower without people? Oh, it rusts and falls apart."
"What happens to the Statue of Liberty without people? Oh, it rusts and falls apart."
"What happens to Big Ben without people? Oh, it rusts and falls apart."
For 2 seasons.” - Reddit / TestZero
“Terra Nova”
“Netflix told me to watch Terra Nova. Dinosaurs? Time travel? [Bad] acting? I'm sold! Halfway through the first season, I discovered that it was the only season that will ever exist. Now I am angry and regret ever watching it.” - Reddit / eveolene
“Empire”
“Empire. I work in the music industry, and that show doesn't reflect anything I know. Also, I think the characters are horribly one-dimensional. Cookie, who we're lead to believe is a great feminist character, represents some of the most unfortunate stereotypes of African-American women: Bad temper, beats up her kids, etc. I watched like four episodes and gave up.” - Reddit / eatcheeseordie
“The Walking Dead”
“The Walking Dead. I'm half way through season 2 and giving it a fair shake. But so far...zombies attack. Let's get out of here. But we need supplies. Ok...you go get food. You go and I'll stay here. Ok. We'll meet up over there. (Meet up.) Where Bob? I lost him on the way. Let's split up and find him. We'll sneak around these zombies. Ok great. (Meet up.) We found Bob. He's been eaten by zombies. We found Larry and friends but we lost Sue. Ok. Let's find Sue. We'll split up. Ok. (Meet up.) We found Sue. She's been eaten by zombies. We lost Larry but we found Harry….” - Reddit / Bordo12
“24”
“24. After his daughter was kidnapped for the third time in the same day I was done.” - Reddit / RogueThree3
“True Blood”
“True Blood. Good god what a disturbing embarrassment of a TV show.” - Reddit / plotrcoptr
“Same here. Very, very guilty pleasure. As in, won't admit it out loud in the company of any person I value the respect of unless they know me well.” - Reddit / JosefTheFritzl
Jackie Chan Movies
“I think you should be asking "what movie did Netflix recommend to you that turned out to be really good?" Alot harder than it sounds.” - Reddit / EpicWindz
“I watched a Jackie Chan movie and Netflix recommended numerous other Jackie Chan movies, as well as Kung Fu Hustle. All of them were worth it” - Reddit
“The Clone Wars”
“It got better as it went on, but I almost gave up on The Clone Wars around Season 1, Episode 6. The animation, lighting and textures were just off, the episode looked unfinished.” - Reddit / RocketTasker
“Yea if you watched the whole show multiple times like I have you'll see that the animation and story arcs get significantly better. By midway of season 2 I'm also guessing the creators realized that most of their audience was actually teenagers and adults and not children.” - Reddit / Rakirs
“Doctor Who”
“Dr Who. I tried, several times. I just couldn't get into it or understand why people go nuts about it.” - Reddit / mmuoio
“It's incredibly hit and miss. Some episodes are fantastic, with interesting concepts and fun moments. Others are truly awful. I'm looking at you 'Love and Monsters’.” - Reddit / andysniper
“Prison Break”
“How does Prison Break have five stars?” - Reddit / throwawayallday87
“first season. honestly once they broke back into prison i had to literally walk away from the tv and phone a friend to yell.” - Reddit / sevendeuce
“Dexter”
“Dexter. The female lead (his sister iirc) really ruined it for me. I'm not sure if it was just bad acting, or scripted, or a mixture. Anytime she cursed it was like hearing a 5yo saying it because she just learned it.” - Reddit / SeducesStrangers
“She ALMOST turned me away from the show when I was just getting into it. Luckily I toughed it out a bit. Unfortunately, I toughed it out so far that I got to see the final season :*(
Just to be clear, these are not tears for what happened in the end but how bad the last season was. Makes me tear up thinking about it.” - Reddit / Jwagner0850
“The Following”
“The Following. My roommate got me to watch it and it is easily the worst show I have ever seen. It is the same [stuff] every episode. For some reason Kevin Bacon is in a stand off in EVERY SINGLE EPISODE. They have the classic mash the keyboard to hack, guns firing round after round with no reloading, bad guys narrowly escaping yet they always have time for a monologue, Kevin Bacons backup is always seconds too late and somehow he is always alone even though they are chasing a cult of serial killers. And not to mention that every house has a secret escape route that will get you out of the grasp of the FBI in seconds. The serial killers kill like dozens of people yet they send like 2 cops after them and backup always arrives just a moment too late. The plot is just so wildly unrealistic that it makes this show wildly unrealistic. 2/10 would not recommend” - Reddit / Richards2041
“Rubber”
“Rubber....it's about a tire that comes to life and kills people. I should have known better.” - Reddit / JasonPawsUpp
“How to Get Away with Murder”
“How to Get Away with Murder. The premise and reviews I heard drew me in. So far I have a hard time getting connected to the characters. I am up to episode four but it doesn't draw me in as much as I hoped.” - Reddit / UpAtMidnight
“Once Upon a Time”
“Once Upon A Time. I actually really enjoyed season 1. Well... Most of it. Then season 2 and 3 kept retconning everything and continually tried to add to the already sufficiently tragic stories of all the characters. The show lost that dark and mysterious vibe that it had in season 1 and tried to turn it into a fantasy adventure show. Characters make important show changing decisions and then immediately back out of them for the purpose of continued drama or maintaining the status quo. - Reddit / Typist_Sakina
“Arrested Development”
“Arrested Development, the Netflix season. Rather than carry on a joke like the first seasons did this one was just like "remember when we did that funny joke?" The characters became unlikable (not like bad people but close to me not wanting to see them ever again because they just got annoying). Over all it was underwhelming and it felt forced.” - Reddit / crapartist
“Basically none of those characters are built to carry an entire 20-30 minute segment. They all need to be used sparingly, and instead they were used as center pieces. By focusing so much on each one, I feel like the show got a lot darker and less light-hearted about its antics. I still like season 4 but it definitely pales in comparison to the first three.” - Reddit
“American Horror Story”
“American Horror Story.” - Reddit
“The intros are more creepy than the show.” - Reddit / With_My_Hand
“the third season was the worst example of this. I would have LOVED if the show was about a 1700s kind of witches coven, based exactly around the intro style. Nope. Whiny teenagers and stupid plots set in contemporary America. The show sucks. Period.” - Reddit / jcwitte
“Dance Moms”
“When I was in college, every time we got drunk, this girl I was friends with wanted us to watch dance moms. I'm guessing she watched it because it was a train wreck like most reality shows and she thought it was funny. To me, it was about as appealing as watching a montage of dogs getting beaten. Like yeah it was a train wreck but the bad kind. The really bad kind. The kind you wish you didn't walk away from. It's about a coke addicted dance instructor (who I'm not entirely convinced knows how to dance) pitting small girls against each other while their alcoholic moms watch from behind a two way mirror.” - Reddit / Douche_Kayak
“Z Nation”
“Z Nation. Jesus, that is some terrible acting.” - Reddit
“They actually make a few meta jokes in a few different episodes of the show about how corny it all is. In one episode there's a tornado in the hometown of one of the main characters and one of the characters makes some reference to how the only thing more ridiculous that the circumstances they were in was if there was man-eating sharks blowing around in the tornado. They're very self-aware of the silliness of the whole series, and pretty much anything Sy-Fy Chanel makes.” - Reddit / funfungiguy
“The Ridiculous 6”
“The ridiculous 6. I swore I'd never watch another Adam Sandler movie after Jack and Jill, but this one tricked me. I was picturing a Blazing Saddles remake. I didn't realize it was a Sandler production till it started. Then I thought, "well it can't be that bad".
It could.” - Reddit / CMG30
“Orange is the New Black”
“Orange is the New Black. I understand why people like it, I can respect that, but I just didn't find it interesting. Also, I only saw the first two episodes, but Jason Biggs was the most sympathetic person in the entire show. I hear that changes, but still.
As long as I'm confessing dislikes, I did not care for Titanic. I think the movie would have been way better if it was the misadventures of the Irish guy and the Italian guy. It really seemed like there was this whole other movie about the two of them getting into hijinks on the Titanic that's happening behind the scenes, but we only see bits and pieces of it. I'm sure they had goals and dreams. They probably got to know the orchestra playing on the deck. The Captain probably hated them, but secretly they reminded him of his own sons. Maybe they met a couple women who were both very clever and equally rogueish in their own rights. The four of them, with the combination of their skills, smarts, and connections they'd made on the ship, tricked a wealthy yet horribly racist couple out of their priceless gold and jewels (they were probably stolen) AND survived! PLUS they managed to get that door open to save more people, abandoning their loot in the process. They buried the few items of treasure somewhere in Alaska!! And the sequel is their descendants trying to find it, like in Uncharted or Indiana Jones! It could even be the next National Treasure movie, marrying two franchises AND delivering a sequel to the most successful movie in history!!!! Where's that movie James Cameron? WHERE'S THE BUDDY ACTION/COMEDY WITH SEQUEL POTENTIAL SET ON THE TITANIC???” - Reddit / pipsdontsqueak
“The Flash”
“The Flash. Holy [moly] the dialogue. There's a difference between being deliberately campy and bad just like there's a difference between a fake plastic poop and real stinky turd.” - Reddit / crappyroads
“About 7% of the show is really great unabashed comic book action and I love it. The other 93% is hackneyed, cheesy, CW-style teen soap opera drama, with non-stop teary eyed monologues and it makes me laugh my butt off. It's a winning combo for me.” - Reddit / jsabbott
“Archer”
“Time for the downvotes to come my way, but I couldn't get into Archer. The first few episodes are so "Meh" and I couldn't bring myself to keep watching.
If you kept reading past "Archer" congrats because you'll be happy to know someone showed me the episode with the Canadian terrorist and that changed my mind. Archer is pretty good stuff. If you want to give Archer another chance because like me, you watched the first few and were unimpressed, I suggest "The Limited" and I've been told by many people who replied that "Skytanic" is also a wonderful first season episode, so start with those two!” - Reddit / thedudethedudegoesto
“Arrow”
“Arrow. Jesus Christ. I can get why someone who doesn't know about the characters would like it, but coming from the DC animated stuff and having background knowledge of the character and quality DC usually puts out, I was just disgusted with how it turned out.
Why did Green Arrow become an angsty [dude] who is somehow at Batman's level? Why is the dialogue so forced and cheesy? Why was the fight between Flash and Arrow so cringey? Seriously, the CGI was so bad and there really shouldn't be any reason Flash lost to Arrow, even for the excuse they put that "oh Oliver has experience blah blah blah" and they somehow ended up in a "tie". Not to mention Barry looks like a teenager still in high school and I just could not take his look seriously. I couldn't watch the Flash's show because of it and the Supergirl TV show looks even worse after that trailer. It seriously looked like an amateur YouTuber did that trailer.” - Reddit / Visual217
“John Dies at the End”
“John Dies at the End. I took it as a personal insult that I was told it was exactly my type of film.” - Reddit / mister
“Bojack Horseman”
“Bojack Horseman. Really struggled with the first few episodes and gave up, someone on Reddit said it gets better and becomes some sort of extensional piece. So I watched through Season 1 and part of Season 2; still couldn't do it. I don't know what it is, but I just really struggle with watching the show.” - Reddit / g3istbot
“It's odd, I'm a big fan of the show, but I see it more as a drama. It never really makes me laugh, but I can't stop watching it.” - Reddit / Awesomekip
“Fear the Walking Dead”
“Fear the Walking Dead. I was excited to watch the first episode. Turned it on and the dialogue was absolutely horrible. I couldn't watch past 15 minutes of the first episode. It's like the producers purposefully made it bad to make The Walking Dead look better. Super cliché and very disappointing.” - Reddit / Chet_Manly90
“Hot Tub Time Machine 2”
“My buddy for the past couple weeks has occasionally brought up Hot Tub Time Machine 2, telling some jokes from it, referencing it here and there. I liked the first one ok, so I asked him if the second one was worth checking out. He said he definitely thought it was. Not that it was anything special, but he found it entertaining and said it had it's funny moments. I watched the first 30 minutes of it, and couldn't handle it any longer. What a terrible movie (not that I expected much, but I was thrown by how my buddy talked it up).” - Reddit / bojiggidy
“Weeds”
“Weeds. I thought the premise was clever, but the writing was often hackneyed. The complications were clumsily shoehorned in and nonsensical. Joke setups were sometimes telegraphed from a mile away and stolen from actual "A guy walks into a bar..." jokes.
Anyway, I know it's popular and a lot of people really liked it, but I couldn't get through the first season. But then, I thought Dexter was kind of a junk show with lazily written stereotypes, especially women. So you can downvote me for that, too! Let's just get it all out on the table…” - Reddit / monkeyleavings
“Sense8”
“Sense8. It's not bad. Just horribly slow.” - Reddit / Adobe-WanKenobi
“Yeah, the way that the storyline develops basically makes the show a really long movie. I really liked it, but it certainly does get slow at points. I did leave feeling a bit underwhelmed by how little actually happened in the first season, and how many missed opportunities there were for them to have the Asian chick kick some [butt]…” - Reddit / unknownmichael
“Supernatural”
“Supernatural. I wanted to like it, but couldn't. The 'finding the lost parent' trope didn't interest me, and the episode plots were too repetitive. I didn't care for the two (and only) main characters either.” - Reddit / Videoboysayscube
“Wet Hot American Summer”
“Wet Hot American Summer. I tried. I really did. I felt like it had enough good elements to be funny, but it NEVER got there. There were maybe 3 or 4 laughs in the first episode (iirc, they all involved H Jon Benjamin, too) but everything else was just too forced. Also, Comedy Bang Bang.” - Reddit / NoahtheRed
“I think WHAS is easier to enjoy if you watch the movie first.
I'd seen neither when it was recommended. So I went back and watched the movie, then watched the show, and enjoyed it.” - Reddit / UpperManglement
“House of Cards”
“House of Cards. Sure, it was nice to see a cat play amongst the mice, but it didn't feel like there were other cats in Washington. In the end, the whole thing felt hollow.” - Reddit / HobbitFoot
“I totally get that assessment. For me, it's important to keep in mind that Frank is telling the story. He's a megalomaniac and perhaps a sociopath. Of course he's the only cat among mice, he's the author.” - Reddit / JohnFest
“Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”
“Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. I really wanted to like it going in.
Watched the whole thing and just didn't get it. Not sure I laughed once. But it has a pretty big following, so I guess it's just a case of "to each his own.”” - Reddit / noimbuzzlightyear
Every Chelsea Handler Special
“Every time Chelsea Handler has a show or special. It shows up at the top obviously because it's a netflix original, but when it gets 1-1.5 stars... maybe stop pushing it on people who have never liked her stuff. I only watched a couple minutes of her stand up, but that's enough to judge her I think.” - Reddit / Porsche924
“Catching Nazis”
“Catching Nazis... the beginning: "time to go hunt down the nazi" (45 minutes later) "didn't get em”” - Reddit / BearofWisdom
“The way you described the show makes it sound like he goes into the woods in camouflage with a hunting rifle and setting up bait to catch a guy in full SS uniform.” - Reddit / kim_jong_un4
“I heard that one time they actually got pretty good video evidence of a Nazi. The footage was shaky but you could clearly see him goose-stepping past. He even looked back at the camera and you could just make out his little mustache. Unfortunately they recently stabilized the footage and it became pretty clear that it was just a guy in a costume.” - Reddit / PsychoNerd92
“The 100”
“The 100, hands down. I kept hearing how surprisingly good it was, and a close friend of mine especially was pushing it. Watched the first episode and was pretty disillusioned ... but I suppose I'll keep up the slog and try to see the value in it.” - Reddit / carcajada
“I've watched it twice now and trust me it gets really good. The teen angsty feel takes a back seat about 3 or 4 episodes in, while being almost completely gone by the second season. The third season is three episodes in and so far it's such as good.” - Reddit / shockwavelol