Since the phrase "peak TV" refers to quantity and not quality, it's no surprise that if there were 600+ scripted television shows in 2019, there'd be more good TV than ever before, and also more bad TV.
Equally unsurprisingly, Netflix leads the way on my list of TV's worst shows of the year — or, more accurately, most disappointing shows. Netflix has three shows in this negative list, but it also has three shows in my Top 10, so that's all pretty reasonable. These things happen when you drop two or three new shows nearly every weekend.
As ever, to make this list I had to have watched at least a few episodes of a show. It's not enough to just have a bad pilot. After all, sometimes bad pilots are followed by better series. The pilot for The Morning Show is definitely one of my least favorite things of the year. The subsequent series? Up and down, but definitely better. Since a colleague reviewed Netflix's What/If, I watched one episode and said, "Nope. Not for me." I skipped Netflix's Another Life entirely.
This list includes beloved failures that went off the rails, several literary adaptations that completely missed the point, a couple network shows that couldn't settle on a tone and, of course, The I-Land. This list is in alphabetical order, but if it were to be ranked, it's really tough to top The I-Land.
