This Drifting Excrement Was Way Too Symbolic! It's the Television Letdowns of the Year.

As we reflect on the television offerings of the recent year, a selection of shows emerge not for their excellence, but for their spectacular failures. From cringe-inducing sequels to confusingly poor documentaries, here are the productions that left us utterly bewildered or just reaching for the remote.

And Just Like That

Where to begin with this love/hate follow-up? Plagued with dreadful scripts, painful character development (we demand better for Miranda!), and a mere 71 seconds of fan-favourite Samantha, the show struggled to justify its existence. Briefly, as the third season started, it seemed as if it had at last hit its stride. Then came an installment centered on Seema’s natural deodorant. No wonder the showrunner declared this would be the last series. It concluded on a low point; the closeup of Miranda’s toilet full of poo was just way too on-the-nose. Yet, viewers certainly had a hoot picking apart every single “what on earth?” moment. And as Carrie – once again single – danced around her sprawling townhouse to Barry White, who couldn't let out a small sob?

The Kim Kardashian Drama

‘Is Kim Kardashian an actress? Of course she can’t.’

But that was practically the smallest of this drama's issues. The subject of a very rare zero star review, it was difficult to know where to start enumerating the flaws. The laughably wooden dialogue? The tedious glorification of affluence and consumption? The seemingly wilful procession of cliches? Performances so bad they felt almost spiteful? Let’s just say “each and every one” and never speak of this show again. However, a second season has been commissioned, so we’re likely going to have to.

AKA Charlie Sheen

Given the legal troubles, abuse allegations and fatherly failures, it’s fair to say Charlie Sheen has been a bad boy. Not that you’d truly have known it from this multi-part documentary which chuckled along at Sheen’s various bouts of reckless hedonism while failing to tell us anything we didn’t already know. Instead, it felt as if this loose cannon was being pandered to, so any pity this series might evoke should be saved for the people who have had to endure proximity with this charismatic but flippant narcissist.

The Iris Affair

Naturally we understood it was preposterous from the get-go: a drama about a AI known as Charlie Big Potatoes that could either save the world – or annihilate 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 cared when his character died, and the other ended up hacking Charlie with an axe … in painfully slow-motion. That's what you call admitting defeat.

MobLand

Dodgy characters meeting in empty boxing gyms? A certain band's Firestarter jackhammering away in club scenes? The late 90s called and demands its gangland drama back.

In truth, that is harsh on the gangland dramas of the late 90s. Many look a little dated now, but at least they didn’t endure the ignominy of having to accommodate unconvincing accents. But there were many other issues. Mainly that it was just really dull; a dispute over narcotics territory between various London rogues which seemed a bit basic.

With Love, Meghan

Given the degree to which she grinds the gears of certain ostentatiously enraged commentators, it’s almost easy to admire the Duchess of Sussex’s various ventures into quaint lifestyle as deliberate statements. But then you view them and are forced to concede that actually, they might have a point. It’s like watching a homeware magazine come to life; a meme for wine o’clock with delusions of grandeur; a parade of snoozing dogs, humming beehives, Hallmark sayings and forgettable crafting “tips” you’ll not remember instantly. All underpinned by immense, mostly undeserved wealth. Ugh.

Victoria Beckham

There are obviously fascinating things to be said about regarding Victoria Beckham and her journey with vocation, self-image, self-acceptance. But for whatever reason, this three-part series chose not to explore them. Instead, the experience was akin to consuming a marketing catalogue. She obviously has every right to bridle at what she describes as her “miserable cow” image. But unfortunately, she failed to do herself any favours with this guarded non-event of a series.

The Inheritance

It should have been the next cultural phenomenon – except even camper, with a famous star as a deceased benefactor and a sharp-tongued personality managing her inheritance. What more could you ask for? As players battled it out, there was plenty of backstabbing and arguing. But the rules quickly became incomprehensible: it’s even now too confusing to detail what precisely was happening. Even more disappointingly, we only saw glimpses of the star via prerecorded videos. The show ended up smelling of a production that was straining desperately to live up to something way beyond it.

Too Much

How do you follow a show that captured a generation? The pressure was enormous for this starry romcom about Jessica, a rosy-eyed New Yorker who arrives in London with a shattered romance. The lead actress seized the opportunity by the horns and was a delight to watch, embodying Austen levels of romantic notions. But it was all very glossy and, paradoxically, was insufficient. Plus, the sheer amount of famous cameos involved felt uncomfortable.

The Sketch Show Return

Not even good enough to be ‘uneven’.

Given the shrewd inclusion of gifted younger comics, hopes were high. But unhappily, most of it fell flat. A recurring sketch was a one-note joke stretched to a dry pulp but recurring in every episode. One star seemed too ready to slip into a well-known irate mode. The behind-the-scenes sketches, meanwhile, simply provoked the idea that they should probably have remained in there a while longer.

The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox

This dramatisation of the story of Amanda Knox was executive produced by Amanda Knox and pretty much exclusively showcased the perspective of Amanda Knox. So, while there undoubtedly is an compelling drama to be made about the tragic 2007 murder, this was not it. The subject matter needed to be handled with care. Instead, the series struggled painfully to find the right tone, lurching from strangely jaunty, slightly stylised farce to inevitably, real-life horror. Complex? Perhaps. A complete mess? Absolutely.

The Maths Genius Thriller

We admire the star … but did we buy him playing the greatest maths genius in history, a man so smart he’s on the brink of a discovery that could ruin society? No! This globe-trotting thriller about secret services targeting – and eliminating – academics frankly got more farcical by the second. Silliness-by-numbers.

The Bonnie Blue Documentary

This uncritical portrait followed the content creator notorious for sexual escapades as she undertook her most extreme challenge yet. What on earth would possess her? What we craved was way more examination of her actual psyche, plus those of the men in the line. They could at least have spoken to the legendary mum who appeared to haul her son away from the queue. What we got was disturbing imagery and zero critical analysis of her notoriety whatsoever. And to think, the filmmaker has a teenage daughter too.