The Worst Episodes of the Greatest TV Shows

Even the greatest shows on television can sometimes fall flat in the middle of a great season. From clip shows to ‘bottle episodes’ to plain old stinkers, here are some of the worst of the best. Is your favorite show on this list?

“How I Met Your Mother,” Last Forever

There are few finales that get the hate that “Last Forever” does. The finale undid all the good the show had done. Without giving away too much, the twist seemed to undermine the very premise of the show. Fans felt especially cheated after this finale aired.

“The Simpsons,” Lisa Goes Gaga

After 666 episodes of “The Simpsons”, it’s no surprise that not every episode knocks it out of the park. For many diehard fans, the show stopped being good a long time ago. But there’s something about ‘Lisa Goes Gaga’ that is particularly disappointing.

To many, it felt simply like an attempt to capitalize on Lady Gaga’s popularity, and lacked the humor of a regular “Simpsons” episode.

“Breaking Bad,” The Fly

Almost as bad as clip shows are bottle episodes. Bottle episodes take place in one location, and are mostly done for budget reasons. ‘The Fly’ was no exception.

As Vince Gilligan described it, “We were hopelessly over budget and we needed to come up with what is called a bottle episode, set in one location.” Enter ‘The Fly,’ in which Walter spends much of the episode trying to kill a fly in his lab.

Some fans love it, but when an episode only exists because the creators ran out of money to do something better, it likely isn’t their best.

“Community,” Advanced Introduction to Finality

You know an episode is bad if the writer says so. You know it’s really bad when that happens before the show even airs. Megan Ganz said of the episode, “Finales are generally terrible, and I am expecting that people will say this one is trying to hard, because it is.” In fairness to Ganz, after creator Dan Harmon’s departure, the show struggled to find its feet and this episode is more of a reflection of that turmoil than it is of Ganz’s talents, since Ganz also helmed some of the show’s classics.