🔗 Share this article This Floating Excrement Was Way Too Meaningful! It's the TV Disappointments of the Year. As we consider the television landscape of the recent year, a handful of shows stand out not for their excellence, but for their spectacular shortcomings. From awkward spin-offs to bafflingly bad docuseries, here are the programmes that had us utterly bewildered or just reaching for the remote. The 'Sex and the City' Sequel How to start with this love/hate follow-up? Burdened with dreadful scripts, painful arcs (justice for Miranda!), and a paltry 71 seconds of beloved Samantha, the series struggled to justify its existence. Briefly, as the final series started, it looked like it had at last hit its stride. Then arrived an episode centered on Seema’s natural deodorant. Little surprise the showrunner announced this would be the last series. It ended on a bum note; the lingering shot of Miranda’s loo flooded with poo was just way too symbolic. Still, fans undeniably had a hoot picking apart every single “wtf?” moment. And as Carrie – once again single – twirled around her sprawling townhouse to Barry White, who didn’t let out a little sob? The Kim Kardashian Drama ‘Is Kim Kardashian an actress? The answer is a resounding no.’ But that was practically the smallest of this show's problems. The subject of a very rare no-star review, it was hard to know where to start listing the problems. The hilariously leaden writing? The mind-numbing veneration of affluence and materialism? The almost deliberate parade of tropes? Performances so poor they felt almost spiteful? Suffice it to say “each and every one” and forget about this show again. However, a second season has been ordered, so we’re probably going to have to. The Charlie Sheen Documentary Considering the legal troubles, domestic violence claims and fatherly shortcomings, it’s fair to say Charlie Sheen has been a bad boy. Not that you’d really have known it from this multi-part documentary which chuckled along at Sheen’s various bouts of reckless excess while struggling to tell us a single thing we didn’t already know. Rather, it felt as if this volatile personality was being indulged, so any pity this show might evoke should be reserved for the people who have had to endure close contact with this charismatic but dismissive egotist. The Supercomputer Drama Naturally we understood it was preposterous from the outset: a thriller about a supercomputer known as Charlie Big Potatoes that could either save the world – or destroy all of humanity. We stuck with it out of pure admiration for its leads … but by the end, it felt like even they had given up trying. One scarcely reacted when his character died, and the other ultimately hacking Charlie with an axe … in super slow-motion. That's what you call giving up the ghost. MobLand Dodgy characters meeting in empty boxing gyms? A certain band's Firestarter blaring in club scenes? The late 90s called and demands its gangland drama back. Actually, that is unfair on the crime shows of the late 90s. Many seem a little dated now, but at least they didn’t suffer the embarrassment of having to indulge baffling accents. But there were many other problems. Mainly that it was just profoundly boring; a dispute over narcotics territory between various London rogues which seemed rather simplistic. With Love, Meghan Considering the degree to which she provokes the ire of certain performatively angry commentators, it’s almost tempting to admire the Duchess of Sussex’s various forays into twee homemaking as intentional statements. But then you watch them and are compelled to concede that in this case, they may have a point. It’s like watching a homeware catalogue animated; a meme for wine o’clock with ideas of grandeur; a procession of sleeping dogs, humming beehives, Hallmark sayings and pointless crafting “tips” you’ll not remember instantly. All underpinned by immense, largely unearned wealth. Ugh. Victoria Beckham There are obviously interesting things to be discussed about regarding Victoria Beckham and her journey with vocation, identity, self-worth. But for some reason, this documentary series opted not to explore them. Instead, the experience was akin to consuming a sales brochure. She obviously has good reason to resent what she describes as her “stern” image. But sadly, she didn’t do herself any helps with this cagey letdown of a series. The Game Show It should have been the next big hit – except even more extravagant, with a famous star as a deceased benefactor and a sharp-tongued personality managing her estate. What more could you want? As contestants competed, there was plenty of betrayal and squabbling. But the rules quickly became incomprehensible: it’s still too complicated to detail what exactly was happening. Even more disappointingly, we only saw glimpses of the star via prerecorded videos. The show ended up smelling of a programme that was trying way too hard to emulate something way beyond it. The Lena Dunham Romcom How does one succeed a show that defined a generation? The pressure was enormous for this starry romantic comedy about Jessica, a rosy-eyed New Yorker who lands in London with a shattered romance. The lead actress took her biggest role by the horns and was joyous to watch, reveling in Jane Austen levels of romantic ideals. But it was all very slick and, paradoxically, was insufficient. Plus, the sheer amount of celebrity cameos involved felt uncomfortable. The Sketch Show Return Not even good enough to be ‘patchy’. Given the smart inclusion of talented emerging comics, expectations were high. But unhappily, most of it didn’t land. A recurring sketch was a single joke stretched to a husk but repeated in every episode. One star seemed too ready to slip into a well-known ranting mode. The writing room sketches, in contrast, simply inspired the idea that they should probably have stayed in there a bit longer. The Knox Dramatisation This retelling of the story of Amanda Knox was executive produced by Amanda Knox and pretty much solely presented the perspective of Amanda Knox. So, while there probably is an compelling drama to be made about the tragic 2007 murder, this was not it. The material needed to be treated sensitively. Rather, the series laboured awkwardly to find the right voice, lumbering from strangely breezy, slightly stylised farce to ultimately, real-life horror. Complex? Perhaps. A total mess? Absolutely. Prime Target We admire the star … but did we buy him playing the greatest maths genius since, a man so smart he’s on the verge of a discovery that could ruin society? No! This international thriller about secret services spying on – and killing off – academics honestly got more farcical by the second. Formulaic nonsense. The Bonnie Blue Documentary This uncritical portrait followed the content creator renowned for sexual escapades as she undertook her most extreme feat yet. What on earth would possess her? What we wanted was far greater examination of her true psychology, plus those of the men in the line. They could at least have spoken to the now-famous mum who appeared to drag her son out of the queue. What we got was horrific shots and absolutely no critical analysis of her notoriety whatsoever. And to think, the documentary-maker has a young daughter too.