OK its that time of the year.....the end. So in honor of that I've put together a few lists of the best and worst in movies and television that I've seen this year. Now before you go sending messages about omissions and such let me clarify. This is a listing of movies and TV I've actually seen this year. While there may be better movies or shows out there since i didn't see them yet they're ineligible for this list. Anyway now that's we cleared that up here's my list of top 5 worst TV shows of 2016!
5. Fear the Walking Dead
It may seem like kicking a wounded animal at this point but is there a more pointless, unnecessary and unwanted show on TV right now then "Fear the Walking Dead"? This spin-off started just as the fandom on "Walking Dead" was dying down and had an interesting premise, what was it like when the outbreak began? Sounds like an can't miss idea right? Nope sorry turns out you can when you focus on family drama, heroin addiction and do the whole thing on a small budget so you can't show anything large scale. Instead of a zombie show we get a family drama with zombies in it full of unlikable characters and ludicrous decisions. Wanna know another good idea? I feel like the writing room had to sound something like "How about a time jump halfway through the season to skip over all the good stuff people want to see? Then we'll put them all on a boat with no zombies at all for half of the next season, sounds awesome right?". No guys it wasn't awesome at all. Apparently it got slightly better in the second half of the season but I'd long since checked out by then. Just stay away
4. Vinyl
Martin Scorcese, Mick Jagger, Terrence Winter and Bobby Cannavale all combining for a show set right in the middle of the 70's rock explosion, sounds like a can't miss prospect right? Well it did miss, it missed big time. Despite all the money, all the marketing and the fact HBO really wanted this show to work audiences couldn't have cared less and frankly who could blame them. After teasing a hyper kinetic, energy filled show through all the previews we got a slow and deliberate pacing, considering Winter's involvement something we should have expected, which pretty much killed it right off the bat. Its the ultimate case of promising one thing and delivering another. The show couldn't find its footing or any momentum in that first episode and that was pretty much that. Viewership continued to drop and poof it was done. The show is well acted there's no doubt there but it almost seems like the show leans to heavily into its setting instead of building the world out from there. True its a work of "faction" so you can't stray too far from the source but guys give us something to work with here. By the time the show got mildly interesting and it seemed to decide a direction it was going in it was already the end of the season, too far in for decisions that should have been made from the start. Its a wonderfully produced and acted show but the plot and what this show actually is leaves way too much to be desired and the show deserved to be the failure it was.
3. Flaked
Some actors just aren't lead material, "Flaked" is a show that demonstrates that Will Arnett is one of those actors. Don't get me wrong, Arnett can be hilarious in smaller or supporting roles. The style of humor he excels at is undoubtedly funny but really doesn't work in the long run as his characters tend to grate on you the longer you're around them and that's one of the central problems with this show. Arnett plays another version of his man child routine but since he's the star he can't play it up too much as he has to be a straight man of sorts. Basically what that means is you get a selfish, self absorbed slacker jerk as your main character who floats from one self inflicted issue to another with little regard for his actions effect on other people or himself. Frankly he's just an unlikable jerk that one wonders why the creators thought he'd be compelling protagonist. Another problem with "Flaked" is that its a dramedy, a genre which itself is always a questionable choice. This means that anytime something kind of funny or amusing happens we get smacked with some melodrama that throws cold water on any excitement we may have gained watching. The whole concept of this show is just begging to go fully in either the comedy or drama direction where maybe a better show can emerge. Being stuck in the middle basically means it can't excel at either one. Between the unlikable characters, middling plot and mixed tone i can't see any legit reason at all to watch this show.
2. The Ranch
Remember when Ashton Kutcher was the next big thing in Hollywood and Danny Masterson seemed headed for big things as well? Well let me tell you those two now are begging for the production value of "That '70's Show" now that they're stuck on this god awful piece of Netflix trash. How Sam Elliot and Debra Winger got sucked into this show is simply amazing as its way below either of their talents. This entire show is the epitome of laziness. From the premise to the way its shot to to the lighting is just so generic its mind numbing. You know exactly what this show is before you even watch a frame, think a low budget version of "Two and a Half Men". Not surprising considering not only Kutcher but all the Executive Producers came from either that show or "Mike and Molly". Basically this is a show that was deemed to boring for CBS.....think about that. Solidly acted but if I'm gonna watch half-hour comedies on Netflix I'd rather go with "Frasier" re-runs, seems more original.
1. Bordertown
A Seth MacFarlane animated show on FOX that was so bad it was cancelled in less then one season.....just think about that for a second. How awful does a show need to be that even the man behind "Family Guy" can't get a full season order. Whatever you imagined just now i assure you its still a better show then "Bordertown". MacFarlane's other shows, despite their over reliance at times on crass humor and shock laughs, at least developed unique and multi layered characters to deliver those jokes. In "Bordertown" they don't even bother and pretty much think of every offensive stereotype you can think of, turn the volume to 10 and call it a character. I imagine the writing process for this show boils down to taking a "topic of the day", imagining what a poorly educated high schooler would find humorous about it and then forming a narrative around that. Its humor at its most desperate. Even the way the show is animated is just ugly to look at and screams of the least possible effort being put into it. "Bordertown" is easily the worst show of 2016, just stay away everyone......stay far far away
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