It's the 6 biggest TV flops of 2020
For all the high highs, there are low lows
Look, I’m not out here trying to end anyones careers. It’s very hard to make a TV show, and I respect anyone who can pull it off. That being said, humanity is more than often bonded in hate than in love. So I’m here to talk shit and be a total bitch. Sorry!
Too Hot To Handle
After my early year obsession with shows like The Circle and Love Is Blind, I was so looking forward to more Netflix reality shows. This one, however, really soured me.
I don’t know if everyone on this show was the absolute worst, the fact that they all got a happy ending, or the vague rules of the game (who was supposed to win? what were the rules?), but this show was definitely not worth the watch. Which was a shame, I think the premise has real potential to fuck up hot peoples lives. But I don’t wanna see Francesca be absolutely gaslit into believing she’s wrong, and then have Harry (the guy who started it all) come out and be like “sorry for denying your reality, lets lose a bunch of money!” The only couple that was worth it was Sharron and Rhonda, and they didn’t even last!! Also, you can’t tell me Matt wasn’t the absolute worst and most pathetic on the show. He definitely left because he realized he wasn’t gonna get any and bounced.
Though I could probably watch a mini series on Bryce’s music career (also, his indie film career?!) and a Chole spin-off (she definitely made the best TV, and had the most emotional growth), Too Hot to Handle didn’t live up to what it was promised.
Emily In Paris
I mean, what can I say that I haven’t already said on my podcast or on Twitter. I think it was the combination of all of us not being able to travel and marketing of the show, but it really didn’t hit the way it thought it would.
I will say, this show did provide a brief respite of joy because the collective of the internet bashed it. Maybe if they had released it at the beginning of the year, when we all weren’t so starved for content, it might have gotten a better treatment. But the malaise and absent-mindedness with which I watched this nothing show only added to the confusion. If I was busy with work (haha, remember that?) or a social life (hahaha, remember THAT?!) I maybe might have ironically watched it but secretly enjoyed it. But now I hate watch it; which is FINE, but even I don’t think it really deserved the entirety of Twitter tearing it apart.
It might have been a flop for me, but my mom did LOVE the show, which… Is fine. Anyways, I will be watching the second season, so stay tuned for that one.
Space Force
This show was definitely the culmination of a bit that went way out of control. Even with it’s all start cast of emerging and established comedic talent, Space Force never really took off the way I expected it too.
It’s a thin satire with tired old Twitter jokes and creaky single cam comedy staples. Throw aways that don’t really go anywhere, plots that go outlandishly wrong, it’s not anything we needed to have made. Which sucks. I do see a version of this show being good! I mean, Steve Carrell? Jimmy O. Yang?! Tawny Newsome?!? John Malkovich?!?! This is an all star cast! Even the cameo’s they managed to secure; heck, Lisa Kudro was in there for half the season! Even the team of writers was a solid pick, and who knew Greg Daniels could go this wrong (clearly people who haven’t seen Upload [though I do love Aasia LaShay Bullock, and she deserves better]). I know I keep complaining about the lack of original content out there, but this ain’t it.
I think, as a group, we just need time to recover from this horrid presidency before we start to churn out B-list comedies about the inner workings of the administration. Our Cartoon President started a horrible trend of trying to assess this trauma.
Quibi
Okay, less of a show and more of a concept, I’ll give you that. but we can’t talk about the biggest TV flops if we’re not going to address the 6:45 elephant in the room.
I want to make it clear that I don’t think the content on Quibi was bad, I actually enjoyed most of what I got to experience with my three month free trial. Gayme Show, Dummy, Nightgowns, Nikki Fre$h, these were all good shows. The problem with all of them was that they weren’t long enough!!! While I appreciate the work they tried to do to support up and coming talent, and I do feel for them launching an app you’re meant to use commuting during a pandemic but… This was not it. No one was going to pay you 6.99$ to watch a bunch of web-series during the decline of the web-series when YouTube is right there. Also, you purposefully kept cutting shows down so you didn’t have to pay your writers union wages? I don’t think so…
I hope all the shows on this app get another chance on a network somewhere who will actually give them the shine (and money) they deserve.
AJ and the Queen
RuPaul’s really been out here trying to pivot the success of Drag Race into his own success. But what he (and by extension, this show) get wrong is that the reason he has any success comes from the queens on Drag Race, not necessarily him.
It’s undeniable RuPaul is a talent and a hard worker, he wouldn’t have the longevity he’s had if it weren’t for that fact. But AJ and the Queen was just a slog fest trying to pass itself off as a single-cam, when it needed a multi-cam set up and laugh track for any of this to make sense. Also, we already see through the facade of the public appearance with the transphobia and the fracking of it all (though the new copy for season 13 was SUCH a GAG hunty, slay!!!!!!! [I’m gay]). The writing was all over the place, the humour was… attempted, and the sincerity/deeper meaning it was trying to pass off was so overt that it came off very disingenuous. This show’s biggest downfall was that Ru couldn’t let anyone else shine brighter than him. Which is fine, if it hadn’t been for the fact that he phoned in the entire show. Izzy G, while bratty, made for a pretty good kid sidekick, and I think Michael-Leon Wooley could’ve been good if he hadn’t been given such an awful character to play. And the queens that make cameos in this show were the most entertaining part. But no, we have to suffer through Ru living out his fantasies for a dive bar of 3 people (which I think accurately represents the amount of people that finished this show [myself included]).
RuPaul, again, undeniably a star; but he definitely gets in his own way when it comes to his creative projects. This has hindered any real growth he could achieve if he just let it go a little more and not succumb to his… inner saboteur…
The abundance of low budget/squiggle/lo-fi cartoons
As someone who spent most of their quarantine summer watching Daria, the amount of these cartoons are a sharp stab in the stomach.
I get the appeal of making these shows; they’re low budget, opportunity for high comedic potential, and the ability to play off the success of other shows of this ilk. But nothing has truly been able to capture the charm or pace that the older versions of these shows offer. Like, there’s already a Bob’s Burgers, we don’t need more about a basketball team, a low-income apartment, or central park. Take the little bit of budget you’re sinking into these shows, take down the animation quality a touch, and hire writers who can actually utilize the medium effectively. I don’t need a bunch of cartoons build by straight bros trying to strike a balance between Rick and Morty and Family Guy. It’s animation, everyone… Be more inventive.
I am a sucker for cartoons, because I will never (EVER) grow up. But I need you guys to step it up in the animation department. Especially you, Netflix. You cancelled Tuca and Birdie and decide to churn out this mess?! How dare.
Dishonourable mentions
Warrior Nun — Could’ve been the next sexy teen sci-fi show, but no, you had to be slow and boring as fuck.
Cursed — Had the potential to be the next Witcher, but not enough sex, SORRY!
The Dutchess — Canadian squandering her chance at a TV show? Throw it in the Creek with the rest of the trash.
Love Life — Probably would’ve made the list if I bothered to watch… Anna Kendrick, respect yourself!
Any show about COVID — just… NO!
I’m excited to see what fresh hell awaits us on the other side of 2021. It’ll probably be more of this, and I’ll be here to report on it all!