TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Year's Worst Shows Smack Viewers With Meanness, Lack Of Morality

ADVERTISEMENT

By RICK KUSHMAN Sacramento (Calif.) Bee

Published: December 27, 2007

The holidays, the end of the year, the eggnog and all those general nice feelings in the air, they call for one of the grand traditions of American culture: top 10 lists.

Today, however, I have something at least as fun. The bottom 10. Who doesn't love a nostalgic trip through the truly wretched television of the year?

First, though, a couple of quick things. This was a year without any great network miniseries about storms or asteroids or altered historical events. Remember a few years back, how NBC had Noah getting attacked by pirates? Now that was television.

Also, this isn't one of those knucklehead rants that television is awful. For the record, the people who go in that cliched direction are as wrong as the Flat Earth Society but not nearly as likable.

There is more smart, sharp, witty, entertaining and stunningly spectacular television than ever, and it's everywhere. (That may change if the writers strike lasts too long, but for now, television is still good.)

But there is also more television than ever, so there's also going to be a healthy dose of junk, and narrowing this list wasn't so easy, either. It doesn't have room, for instance, for NBC's "The Real Wedding Crashers," and that was some seriously bad watching.

But this isn't simply the lineup of not-good shows. Nothing special about those. Our list is made up of shows that are extra-special awful.

1. "The Real Housewives of Orange County" (Bravo). First thing, none of them is real, if you get my drift. Next thing, all of them are self-centered, greedy and mean. And they're proud of it.

They brag that they can be shrewish and vengeful, and this show is like every faux documentary-style reality show following self-absorbed, useless people in gyms, salons and the hills. It sends the message that you get famous by being a jerk.

2. "The Apprentice" (NBC). Speaking of jerks. I used to applaud the raw, free-market, jungle nature of this show, but Donald Trump managed to overcome everything good about it with his relentless, trite self-promotion. He seems to be the horrific boss who wants his employees fighting and miserable so he can manipulate them.

And next, we're going to get a celebrity version, though I do kind of like the notion of Trump and Gene Simmons competing to out-insipid each other. (My money is on Simmons.)

3. "Cavemen" (ABC). The thing is, it's not a truly terrible show; it's just bland and hackneyed. (The original pilot was, indeed, terrible, but it never made the air.) But this gets a spot high on the list because, first, it's a bad idea that ABC should have seen coming and, also, because it ruined what had been a good series of commercials. I just hope ABC doesn't make a comedy with the little lizard.

4. "Kid Nation" (CBS). The child labor "controversy" CBS managed to scrape up didn't last, and the show's true, very dull nature came out quickly. I'm sure they're all nice kids, but it felt like an hour of babysitting.

5. "Nancy Grace" (CNN). Grace is merciless to every creature in her path - the accused, the victims and anyone foolish enough to speak with her. She represents every bad part of our media culture, plus Grace and CNN have shown they're willing to do anything to anyone for ratings. CNN should be ashamed. Grace, we know, has no shame.

6. "According to Jim" (ABC). One of the worst things about the writers strike is it got ABC running back-to-back episodes of this show. Can we just agree? No more shows about sloppy guys who marry smart, stunning women, then whine at them.

7. "WWE Smackdown" (The CW). Doesn't matter that it's fake; let's look at the messages: Use steroids, cheat, taunt, get revenge, and violence solves everything. Then there's the massive misogynist streak. This isn't a TV show; it's a civil rights violation.

8. "The View" (ABC). In the spring, they were screaming like a cable news show. The only thing missing was the box of four talking heads insulting one another. Worse, though, is "The View's" overall implication that all women are that shallow, petty and uninteresting.

9. "Gossip Girl" (The CW). I know it makes me sound toweringly uncool, but a show that glorifies the Paris Hilton-Lindsey Lohan world of young, spoiled people who use wealth to bully and inflict emotional torture is about as socially damaging as you can find.

The "guilty pleasure" argument doesn't hold because the message gets through, particularly to teens who embrace the notion that money trumps everything, including a moral compass.

10. "Viva Laughlin" (CBS). Points to CBS for the attempt. Seriously. The network took a bold shot. But how could it not know the show was as horrible as it was? How could it not know how horrible the music was?

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT