Top 20 Terrible Episodes That Almost Ruined Great TV Shows
#19: “The One in Barbados”
Top 10 Terrible Episodes That Almost Ruined Great TV Shows
“Friends” (1994-2004) The finale of “Friends”’ ninth season, this two-parter is the point at which some critics and fans believe the show was starting to run out of ideas. The episodes feature not just a love triangle between Phoebe and her suitors Mike and David, but also a love rectangle between Ross, Rachel, Joey and Charlie. Although the former is arguably more interesting, the latter is a major focus of both episodes, culminating in Rachel and Joey starting a relationship; one that’s destined to be brief, due to the characters’ limited chemistry. And yet, it has slightly more mileage than all the jokes about Monica's hair... albeit barely.
#18: “Shades of Gray”
“Star Trek: The Next Generation” (1987-94) This beloved sci-fi series had very few weak outings over its seven seasons, which makes this season two dud stand out even more. After contracting a deadly virus, Commander Riker is put in a machine that causes him to dream about past events aboard the Enterprise. This framing device was used primarily to cut costs, as the show had run out of money near the end of the season. Even by clip show standards this is a painful hour of television. Making matters worse, the series only had two seasons-worth of episodes to mine for clips at the time. Thankfully, this was the first and last time The Next Generation attempted a flashback episode.
#17: “Chapter Fifty-Four”
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“Jane the Virgin” (2014-19) Taken on its own terms, this mid-season finale is an excellent piece of television. Driven by the shocking death of Michael Cordero, this is a tragic, heartfelt episode that forever changed the series. Unfortunately, it didn’t necessarily change for the better. While received positively at the time, “Chapter Fifty-Four” is pointed to by some as the episode that “killed” the series … or at least marked a decline in quality. The sudden three year time jump at the end of the episode was bad enough, as it glossed over the emotional fallout of Michael’s death. But bringing Michael back from the dead the very next season retroactively made the twist pointless. Talk about a cop-out.
#16: “Into That Good Night”
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“Roseanne” (1988-96; 2018) Long before the Connor family’s ill-fated revival in 2018, Roseanne fans witnessed a different kind of trainwreck in the form of this late 90s series finale. The ninth season of this once beloved show was panned by critics and fans alike, due to an unbelievable storyline that saw the Connors win the lottery, and a shocking reveal in the two part finale. After a series of increasingly bizarre adventures, the finale undid it all by revealing that the Connors never were millionaires. It was all a dream of Roseanne’s; a fictional world to help cope with the sudden death of her husband. While a bold storytelling choice, loyal viewers weren’t exactly happy that the show had wasted their time with a season of off-brand weirdness before being told none of it actually mattered.
#15: “The Farm”
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“The Office” (2005-13) By its final season, this NBC comedy was largely running on fumes. Following Steve Carell’s departure in season seven, an increased focus was put on the remaining cast members but no one was quite able to fill Michael Scott’s shoes. Case in point: Dwight Schrute, who takes center stage here in an episode set at his beet farm. “The Farm” was originally intended to be a backdoor pilot for a proposed Dwight spinoff series. NBC ended up passing and it’s not hard to see why. As great as Dwight is, his antics work best when contrasted against his co-workers. While there’s fun to be had at Schrute Farms, it’s hard to imagine anyone wanting to watch a whole series about Dwight and his oddball family.
#14: “A Million Little Fibers”
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“South Park” (1997-) Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s foul-mouthed animated series has maintained a high level of quality for over two decades. But around the tenth season, there was some cause for concern that the show had lost a step. This episode — which sees Towelie write a memoir and go on Oprah — is arguably South Park at its worst. It’s an absurd setup that leads to the shocking visual of Oprah’s genitalia taking hostages at gunpoint. While it’s pretty incredible this episode actually made it to air, the humor just doesn’t work and isn’t up to the show’s high standard. Even the show’s creators have admitted it’s bad, with Stone admitting he’d “erase that one” if he could. On that, we can agree.
#13: “The Lost Sister”
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“Stranger Things” (2016-) Pacing is critical to a good story and when a TV series suddenly grinds to a halt, audiences notice. Taken on its own terms, this Eleven-focused episode deserves some credit for taking a storytelling risk. Unfortunately, El’s trip to Chicago to hang with a group of misfits doesn’t lead to the kind of character growth you’d expect. She returns to Hawkins, Indiana the very next episode and the only thing that’s really changed about her is her hairstyle (to be fair, it’s a really cool hairstyle). Even worse, this episode takes us away from the action in Hawkins right as it’s heating up for a final act showdown. All in all, it feels more like an intrusive diversion than an important moment of character growth.
#12: “Last Days of Summer”
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“Friday Night Lights” (2006-11) Following up a critically acclaimed first season can be tough for any show, and “Friday Night Lights” certainly fumbled the ball with its second season premiere, “Last Days of Summer.” While it does a nice job showing the fallout from the events of the previous season, things go wrong for a lot of characters, particularly Tyra and Landry, whose altercation with Tyra’s stalker leads to the stalker’s body going in the river. This in particular set off a season-long investigation arc, which feels inconsistent with what the show had been, and what it would go on to become.
#11: “The Great Divide”
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“Avatar: The Last Airbender” (2005-08) “Avatar” saw mercifully few duds over its three year run, but this one stands out as the worst of the bunch. The plot sees Aang and company decide to help two bickering rival clans migrate through a canyon. Most of the runtime is devoted to arguments, both among the feuding groups and within the group of heroes. In the end, Aang resolves the clans’ differences by lying to them, a decision that really doesn’t match his character, and acts as a really weird message to end on. Overall, “The Great Divide” adds little to the plot or the characters, making it an easy one to skip.
#10: “The Puerto Rican Day”
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“Seinfeld” (1989-98) This “show about nothing” was one of the most influential TV series of the 90s and many were shocked when creators Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David decided to end it after nine seasons. While the series finale is still regarded by some as a major disappointment, an earlier episode in the season proved just as controversial. Many Puerto Ricans were offended by the episode’s subject matter, which generally cast Puerto Ricans in a negative light (Kramer’s accidental burning of the country’s flag didn’t help matters). NBC was flooded with angry letters, prompting the network to issue a formal apology. Even setting aside the controversy, this episode isn’t very memorable and makes a strong case for Seinfeld calling it quits when it did.
#9: “Black Market”
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“Battlestar Galactica” (2004-09) This reimagined space opera series incorporated a lot of different genres, but this episode featured one that it did not pull off well: noir. The episode sees Lee “Apollo” Adama investigating a black market that has somehow sprung up in a fleet with a population smaller than an average city. Besides the glut of plot holes and narrative conveniences, trying to turn Galactica’s resident heroic pilot into a gritty detective for an episode just didn’t fly. Noir in space can work, but it doesn’t work here. Even series creator Ronald D. Moore has called “Black Market” a disappointment. But at least he could admit when they frakked up...
#8: “Freefall”
“ER” (1994-2009) Any show on for 15 years is bound to have at least one bad episode, and “Freefall” is one of “ER”’s worst. The crux of the episode’s awfulness lies in the departure of Dr. Robert Romano. A generally unpleasant man, Romano did have other sides to him, and had even received something of a karmic punishment when he lost his arm to a helicopter blade. His death, however, is just cruel and unusual. How does it happen? Why, a helicopter crashes on top of him, of course! The writers had already made the character two-dimensional by the end of his run, but did they have to make his death just as cartoonish?
#7: “Intro to Felt Surrogacy”
“Community” (2009-15) Season Four was a rough one for “Community” all around, and this episode is arguably the low point of a year full of less than stellar outings. “Intro to Felt Surrogacy” shows the study group lost in the woods, during which they eat some berries that make them hallucinate that they’re all puppets and swap secrets with each other. While “Community” is known for its stunt episodes and surreal moments, usually they’re in service of the story or characters, but that’s just not the case for this bizarre trip of an episode.
#6: “Stranger in a Strange Land”
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“Lost” (2004-10) Although a polarizing show overall, “Lost” definitely hit a slump during its third season. Some point to “Exposé,” an episode that killed off two fan-despised characters as the show’s low point, but many are of the opinion that this episode is much worse. The flashback focuses on how Jack got his tattoos... while the Island storyline focuses on Kate and Sawyer’s return to camp, and Jack and Juliet’s tenuous position among the Others. The episode also “answers” some questions, like what happened to the people the Others kidnapped, while also raising some more. Ultimately, “Stranger” feels like filler, which, on a show this serialized, can really kill the momentum.
#5: “Beer Bad”
“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (1997-2003) High schoolers and the shows that depict them have difficulty transitioning to college, and “Buffy” was no exception. The “Beer Bad” episode depicts our heroine drowning her sorrows in beer after being used for sex by a jerk of a guy. However, some magic juju in the beer turns her and her drinking pals into cave people. Although elements of the series’ trademark wit and humor are present in the episode, they’re a bit overshadowed by the ham-handed warning against drinking and casual sex, as well as the literal dumbing down of the protagonist. In short: “Beer Bad” bad.
#4 “Remember the Monsters?”
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“Dexter” (2006-13) Showtime’s serial killer drama had been in decline since season four’s Trinity Killer arc, but nothing prepared viewers for this trainwreck of a series finale. A truly awful hour of television, this episode retroactively undoes seasons’ worth of character growth in one fell swoop. Dexter’s mercy killing of his sister Deb would have been bad enough on its own, as she deserved so much better. But it gets so much worse. After driving his boat into a hurricane, Dexter is presumed dead. In reality, he’s alive and well, living out his days as a lumberjack. While there’s surely someone out there who liked this ambiguous ending, it’s clear the writers didn’t have any better ideas for how to put this show out of its misery.
#3: “The Principal and the Pauper”
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“The Simpsons” (1989-) In this episode, Principal Seymour Skinner is revealed to be an imposter, who took the name of one of his comrades who never came home from Vietnam. Revealing a long established character as being someone else can work when done well, but the fact that the town decides to pretend they never learned this info by the episode’s end not only rendered any impact it might’ve had moot; it also made fans and critics feel betrayed and like the whole thing was pointless. Many staffers have called the episode a mistake, but its writer, Ken Keeler, has claimed it was meant to provoke and satirize fan outrage. Intent aside, the execution had everyone saying “D’oh!”
#2: “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken”
“Game of Thrones” (2011-19) Everyone knows Game of Thrones lost its way in the final season. But it hit a low point earlier in the show’s run with this controversial fifth season dud. By this stage, the series had nearly run out of source material and was diverging further away from George R.R. Martin’s books. One of the more questionable changes happens here, as Sansa Stark is forced to marry the sadistic Ramsay Bolton and violently raped on her wedding night. As hours of television go, both “The Bells” and “The Iron Throne” may be worse, but with “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken”, Game of Thrones stopped being prestige TV. Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions. “A Journey to the Highlands” “Downton Abbey” (2010-15) “Schism” “Arrow” (2012-) “Arnold Betrays Iggy” “Hey Arnold!” (1996-2004) “Warriors of the Deep” “Doctor Who” (1963-89; 2005-) “Everyone Knows It’s a Bendy” “Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends” (2004-09)
#1: “Last Forever”
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“How I Met Your Mother” (2005-14) Few series finales have insulted fans or come as close to ruining the show as a whole quite like this one. “Last Forever” features the unceremonious, off-screen death of The Mother, Tracy, as well as the divorce of Barney and Robin, whose marriage had been the focus of the entire final season. Both developments were necessary for the final nail in the coffin: getting future-Ted together with future-Robin, an outcome the creators reportedly decided on halfway through the show. For an episode whose message was that things change, its writers seemed blind to the fact that the show had moved on from Ted and Robin’s relationship: for the better.
