10 TV Shows Everyone Loves That Are Actually Bad

It’s generally easy to root out the good TV shows from the bad ones. One easy method is to look at how many seasons a show has; single-season shows are typically not that great (though there are, of course, exceptions to this rule). More seasons usually indicates that whatever a given show is cooking, it’s probably pretty good.

And yet. Sometimes we’re tricked. Sometimes we think we’re watching something good, and everyone around us is telling us we’re watching something good, and suddenly the thing we’re watching is winning all kinds of prestigious awards, so it must be good, right? Wrong! Sometimes hugely popular shows aren’t nearly as good as the hype would have you believe. Some of these shows are even (deep breath) kind of bad.

Because we love to antagonize as many people as we can all at once, we’ve decided to tell you which of your favorite popular shows aren’t as good as you think, and we’ll break down exactly why. From political dramas to superhero adventures to animated comedies, dystopian dramas, and nostalgia bait sci-fi shows, nothing is safe from THE TRUTH. (Ultimately, these things are all a matter of personal taste, which is why we’ve done the opposite with this list of unfairly maligned shows that actually rule.)

Let’s be honest: We’re not telling you not to like these shows, merely suggesting that some of your faves might not be the best in the world. That said, some of these are downright terrible. We’re not saying which, though.

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