Terrible episodes of great shows.

[Biggirl]

@TroutMan

The infamous Chicago episode “The Lost Sister” of Stranger Things season 2 is universally reviled for good reason.

Came in here specifically to mention this episode. Runner up: Leonard and Penny’s Wedding II. Such a waste of so many great guest stars. So not worth the build up. Just terrible.

[John_DiFool]

The Angel episode where some of the regulars turn into Muppets. That so severely nuked my suspension of disbelief to atoms that I stopped watching until tuning in for the finale.

[Mahaloth]

@silenus

Any show that did a boxing episode. Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica are the offenders that come to mind first. Total crap from series that were generally excellent.

Here is the thing. The BSG boxing episode was bad in the version that aired on TV. However, the full edit is on the DVD, Streaming, Blu-ray and so forth and that episode is great. In fact, it’s amazing and a real high point. It just got chopped WAY down for the TV over-the-air edit.

[Pantastic]

@terentii

Right. Every planet in the Galaxy should have an all-white population (with or without latex appliances). :rolleyes:

Or maybe, just maybe, planets where the aliens fit a negative stereotype about an actual race on earth should not all be colored to code for that real-world race. There are a lot of skin colors that you can use that don’t hit that particular marker, or you can just give them human skin colors and use a mix of actor races. There are so many options that are as easy or easier than what they did in the show that don’t run into that particular problem.

[nearwildheaven]

A couple years ago, “60 Minutes” had an episode that started off with a segment about the use of nerve gas in Syria; the entire episode should have been devoted to this horrific story, but no, the final segment was about a guy with photographic memory who had a whole fantasy football league in his head. :smack: Not good timing, folks.

The recent death of Philip McKeon also reminded me of the “Alice” episode where he went on a camping trip with a group of men, one of whom Alice found out was gay, and upon Tommy’s return, she asked him if “anything happened” and why. I know times were different back then, but c’mon.

[SenorBeef]

@Dallas_Jones

As I sit here watching The Next Generation Star Trek, I would have to say ANY episode that uses the Holodeck. I cannot remember a single one that made a good use of the program.

I thought the Moriarty episode Ship In A Bottle
is pretty decent. It’s an actual sci-fi story, rather than an excuse to use the cast in a different sort of story. It deals (a little bit) with the implications of AI, and has some fun plot manuevering with the deceptions.

[terentii]

@Pantastic

Or maybe, just maybe, planets where the aliens fit a negative stereotype about an actual race on earth should not all be colored to code for that real-world race. There are a lot of skin colors that you can use that don’t hit that particular marker, or you can just give them human skin colors and use a mix of actor races. There are so many options that are as easy or easier than what they did in the show that don’t run into that particular problem.

I wouldn’t know. I’m not obsessed with it.

[Dale_Sams]

@CastletonSnob

Just about every long-running or critically acclaimed show has at least one major stinker in its run. It’s just inevitable when you have so many episodes, some of them are gonna be duds. Sometimes, these episodes can be just as well-known as the great episodes.

I’ll start with Code of Honor from TNG. Everything, from the racist undertones thanks to the baffling decision to make the actors playing a primitive alien race who lust after strong women black to the terrible fight scene makes me wonder how anybody involved thought this episode was a good idea.

Code of Honor?? The pilot was terrible!!

[Dale_Sams]

@ZipperJJ

**Letterkenny **is a near-perfect show but for some reason in their first season they put out an episode called “Fartbook.” It’s Facebook for farts. The episode is terrible and skippable.

I thought it was great satire.

[Dale_Sams]

@RealityChuck

“Family” from Next Generation. Cliche upon cliche. Worf’s Jewish parents are a tired stereotype and the Wesley’s father being all noble and nonsensical.

But Picard was the worst. The estrangement with his brother was by the book and the mud wrestling resolution just ludicrous. The fact that Picard had a British accent while his brother had a French one needed an explanation, at least.

The production team wanted to try doing an episode without space battles and “Family” was so derided that they decided they needed to always include a space battle or the like. But they drew the wrong conclusion: I think the fans would have accepted more interpersonal drama (despite the fact that ST:TNG wasn’t supposed to have any), but it had to be more compelling than a soap opera plotline.

I don’t know what timeline you came from but nearly everything in that statement is false.

[zbuzz]

I’m going with an oldie here, but any episode of the usually excellent Dick Van Dyke Show that includes Buddy or Sally padding out the runtime with filler from one of their tired (real life I guess?) vaudeville acts is a pisser.

[Asuka]

@Pantastic

IMO shows tend to make terrible episodes if they grab a passing fad and try to force the characters into it. Like “TKO” in Babylon 5 where they had an Thai kickboxing fighting tournament just because it was popular at the time, threw in a heavily recycled plot, and seasoned it with an alien abjudicating the tournament who sounds like a standard “oriental villain”.

I’m not sure that clip shows qualify as ‘terrible’ in the same way as some of the others here - they worked when the primary way of seeing shows was broadcast or syndication. In a modern show they are terrible because people will generally have access to streaming if they want old episodes, but in the old days they worked pretty well.

Clip shows for comedies make the most sense, you’re literally making an entire episode out of the “best jokes” of the show, sort of like a “Best Of” album cover.

When non-comedies have clip shows though makes little sense, unless it’s a recap of an entire important plot arc it generally screams laziness.

[dalej42]

@Dewey_Finn

It’s been a long time since I watched The West Wing but I remember not being impressed by the “Isaac and Ishmael” episode, which was in response to the 9/11 attacks. (To be fair, it’s not an easy thing to address in a fictional show.)

I’ll also go with Isaac and Ishmael. Way too soon after 9/11. We wanted to get back to our normal lives and now we’re being smacked on the head with a very special episode that is separate from the usual timeline.

I’m not nearly as harsh on clip shows as others are. Back in the days before TiVo and online, you got basically 2 chances to see a show, once it its original airing and then once in a summer repeat. Seasons were longer then so it made sense so it made sense to have a low budget clip episode, especially during a low ratings period.

The Twilight Zone was inconsistent, and there are definitely some stinkers mixed in with the gems. The Bard was not only awful but is one of the one hour episodes from the 4th season. Maybe there’s a decent 5 minute sketch in there, but it’s painful over an hour.

[jerez]

@Ethilrist

Spock’s Brain. An alien female beams aboard, incapacitates the crew, and steal’s Spock’s brain. Kirk & McCoy go get it and put it back in, taking a robotically-controlled Spock’s body along for the ride.

Isn’t that just what happens to friendships as we get older? At least Kirk and McCoy did something about it.

[zbuzz]

@nearwildheaven

The recent death of Philip McKeon also reminded me of the “Alice” episode where he went on a camping trip with a group of men, one of whom Alice found out was gay, and upon Tommy’s return, she asked him if “anything happened” and why. I know times were different back then, but c’mon.

I just watched that episode. It doesn’t really play out the way you’re describing it. It took her a scene to come around, but Alice is ok with Tommy going fishing with Jack knowing he’s gay. When Tommy returns home, she doesn’t ask him if anything happened unprompted, in fact she appears totally unconcerned. It’s only when Tommy says “There is one thing though… maybe I shouldn’t tell you,” that she asks what happened which is a normal parent reaction. Turns out all that happened was Jack let him have half a can of beer. It’s not great that the writers went for the fakeout, but their conversation after allows Tommy the opportunity to say he doesn’t care if Jack is gay and he’s a great guy.

So I wouldn’t call it a terrible episode in that regard. There’s a few “hair decorator” type jokes, but Jack makes a poignant speech about not labeling people and respecting the rights of others. I’m guessing it was pretty progressive for primetime in the mid 70s. I mean, if it aired today, this episode would catch more shit for Jack giving him a beer.

[LLCoolL]

@KneadToKnow

I still agree with my nominations from the last time this topic came up:…

Yeah, I’m going to re-post my nominations from that thread. Cuz why not?

A few terrible episodes of Seinfeld:
[ul]
[li]“The Chinese Restaurant” - waiting for a table in a restaurant the entire episode. It’s a critical favorite, but I can’t stand it.[/li][li]“The Puerto Rican Day” - stuck in a traffic jam.[/li][li]Series finale - maybe not a bottom 10 episode, but a huge disappointment. Of course, series finales are notoriously tough to pull off well.[/li][/ul]

Law & Order: “Aftershock”. Abandons the standard L&O format of the police-procedural followed by legal proceedings. Instead, follows each of the characters in the aftermath of an execution. Both dull and depressing (and not in a good way for the latter). I understand and appreciate the effort to try something different, but it just didn’t work for me.

Cheers: “The Spy Who Came in for a Cold One”. An Englishman enters the bar claiming to be a spy, but Diane exposes him as a fraud. Everyone is mad at her, for reasons I can’t fathom. Not funny, not profound, just terrible.

[Chronos]

[Moderating]

@terentii

I wouldn’t know. I’m not obsessed with it.

People here are discussing an episode of a TV show, in a thread about discussing episodes of TV shows. That’s not obsession. Don’t threadshit.

[hogarth]

I haven’t watched the most recent season, but so far “Free Churro” is easily my least favourite episode of Bojack Horseman.

[ftg]

We’re currently watching the NZ show The Brokenwood Mysteries as our nightly bedtime drama.

The other day we watched an episode called “Tontine”. Ugh. With a title like that you know it’s going to be hackneyed. And it was. By the end I really stopped caring about whodunit.

Yet the very next episode was one the best ones.

And double, triple, a million times over about the wrongness of the Barney Miller rape episode.

[silenus]

@John_DiFool

The Angel episode where some of the regulars turn into Muppets. That so severely nuked my suspension of disbelief to atoms that I stopped watching until tuning in for the finale.

Gotta disagree. “Smile Time” was one of the best episodes they ever did on Angel. If your problem was “suspension of disbelief” while watching a show about vampires, demons, werewolves and such, well…