{"id":227549,"date":"2025-12-11T14:35:28","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T14:35:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/227549\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T14:35:28","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T14:35:28","slug":"the-11-worst-tv-shows-of-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/227549\/","title":{"rendered":"The 11 worst TV shows of 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a marvellous year to be a couch potato. The Celebrity Traitors<\/a>, The Studio<\/a>, Adolescence<\/a>, Severance<\/a>, The White Lotus<\/a>, Last One Laughing<\/a>, Leonard and Hungry Paul, the final series of Big Boys \u2013 2025\u2019s TV at its best has been thrilling, agenda-setting, devastating and blissfully, joyously silly. <\/p>\n

Unfortunately for me, whose job it is to sit through a programme, good or bad, there have also been considerable abuses of the form. Several shows have given new meaning to the word \u201cchallenging\u201d, and thrown my patience, funny bone, morals and will to live into question. With absolutely no joy whatsoever, I present to you the worst television of the year.<\/p>\n

All\u2019s Fair <\/p>\n

Disney+<\/p>\n

\"ALL???SKim Kardashian and Naomi Watts in the abominable All\u2019s Fair (Photo: Ser Baffo\/Disney)<\/p>\n

For this legal atrocity, Ryan Murphy inexplicably rounded up Glenn Close, Naomi Watts, Teyana Taylor and most importantly Kim Kardashian<\/a> and asked: \u201cWhat if women lawyers?\u201d The answer was: \u201cNo.\u201d And if you don\u2019t think any of that makes sense, I assure you it makes more sense than the drama, the purpose of which I cannot identify.<\/p>\n

It was obviously never intended to be actually entertaining, or it might have a script or some plots or some tension or some acting. But it also seems an incredibly expensive exercise in rage-baiting. Is it just that Kardashian has exhausted every other vehicle to notoriety, and being the face of something so proudly awful and destined only for trolling was the only recourse she had left? <\/p>\n

I am beyond caring, because while there has always been bad TV and there has always been boring TV and there has always been lazy TV, this \u2013 whose opening episode features the line: \u201cFrom cocktails to cock rings all in one 24-hour period\u2026 God I love my job\u201d, and yet isn\u2019t even funny \u2013 appears to exist as a talking point and nothing more. And talk everyone did. Yet another artistic medium is dead. Series two has of course been commissioned.<\/p>\n

Hostage<\/p>\n

Netflix<\/p>\n

\"TVSuranne Jones was about the only good thing about Hostage (Photo: Des Willie\/Netflix)<\/p>\n

This absurd drama<\/a> started with the abduction of the prime minister\u2019s husband in French Guiana and in just five episodes managed to cycle through right-wing nationalism, an Anglo-French diplomatic crisis, spies, corruption, NHS shortages, defence spending cuts, electoral blackmail, more kidnap, an incest-adjacent affair and the explosion of No 10 Downing Street. And if you can believe it, I haven\u2019t even given away the preposterous finale.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m trying to remember why it is I watched and rather enjoyed the whole thing, given my very low threshold for bad drama, and I think it must be purely down to Suranne Jones<\/a>, who is excellent in everything even when the material is at best naff and at worst actually an act of treason.<\/p>\n

Because as with so many Netflix shows, engineered to appeal to the absolute maximum number of people around the world, this was lowest common denominator stuff and its depiction of Britain and its politics was offensive \u2013 though presumably more offensive to French viewers was the constant mispronunciation of Julie Delpy\u2019s president \u201cToussaint\u201d.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure Netflix would like to congratulate itself on a drama with two strong powerful women at the centre but let\u2019s be honest, the reason this became a massive hit over the summer is because there was absolutely nothing else on. Great twists though.<\/p>\n

Nobody Wants This<\/p>\n

Netflix<\/p>\n

\"NobodyThe second season of Nobody Wants This squandered Kristen Bell and Adam Brody\u2019s sexual tension (Photo: Erin Simkin\/Netflix)<\/p>\n

I fancied the Hot Rabbi so much during this romcom\u2019s first season he nearly had me considering conversion. Alas, its much-anticipated second run<\/a> delivered absolutely no plot development, was excised of all its sexual tension and deformed its previously charming main characters into unlikeable, insufferable overgrown children. <\/p>\n

Is Kristen Bell\u2019s Joanne going to convert to Judaism \u2013 or is Noah (Adam Brody) going to love her anyway, even if it means he\u2019ll never be top dog down the synagogue? I still don\u2019t know and I\u2019m not sure I care anymore \u2013 they\u2019ve squandered the best chemistry a TV couple has had since the mid-2000s and ruined my millennial fantasy.<\/p>\n

The Genius Game<\/p>\n

ITV<\/p>\n

\"FromDavid Tennant should never have agreed to The Genius Game (Photo: ITV)<\/p>\n

The Traitors<\/a> has a lot to answer for, because now every single channel thinks they need to make a game show whose central conceit lies in deceit and betrayal. ITV clearly pumped money into its \u201cstrategic\u201d \u201ctactical\u201d \u201cpressure cooker\u201d \u201cbattle of wits\u201d because it had David Tennant at the helm \u2013 something I imagine he would like to forget, as it was a complete flop and was axed after one series.<\/p>\n

The Genius Game<\/a> brought together a load of \u201cvery intelligent\u201d contestants with clever-sounding jobs and Mensa memberships (kill me now) to solve puzzles, and form allegiances, or something, except the audience were unable to play along with it, making it no fun at all. <\/p>\n

It also felt like a relic from decades past, see also: Cheat: Unfinished Business (Netflix, hosted by Amanda Holden) and BBC One\u2019s Stranded on Honeymoon Island<\/a> (with Davina McCall).<\/p>\n

Monster: The Ed Gein Story<\/p>\n

Netflix<\/p>\n

\"NETFLIX:Charlie Hunnam and Suzanna Son in the regrettable Monster: The Ed Gein Story (Photo: Netflix) <\/p>\n

I could have gone my whole life without seeing Charlie Hunnam standing on a wooden stool, masturbating furiously while dressed in an elderly woman\u2019s underwear with a tight leather choker around his neck, but unfortunately the universe had other plans.<\/p>\n

True crime, or whatever this is, went past the point of no return a long time ago, but I really think it\u2019s high time we agreed that no more of history\u2019s serial killers need a miniseries and that Ryan Murphy\u2019s contract with Netflix is revoked. <\/p>\n

This was just about as crass as it can get<\/a> and more, and didn\u2019t attempt to offer even cursory insight into the mind of the deeply disturbed person at its centre. The problem is, they\u2019ll keep making it because there are sickos out there who want to watch people have sex with corpses. If you are one of them, seek help.<\/p>\n

Victoria Beckham<\/p>\n

Netflix<\/p>\n

\"VictoriaVictoria Beckham\u2019s Netflix doc should have been better (Photo: Netflix)<\/p>\n

Unlike her husband\u2019s docuseries<\/a> a few years before, this was a wasted opportunity<\/a> for 90s nostalgia, proper reflection on fame and the Beckham family or the camp comedy of which Vicky B is a master. <\/p>\n

It instead felt like being told for three hours how hard she works and how much she cares and how hard it was to be taken seriously in fashion. Do I believe all of it? Yes. Do I want to watch a documentary about it? No.<\/p>\n

1000 Men and Me: The Bonnie Blue Story<\/p>\n

Channel 4<\/p>\n

\"Pictured:I\u2019m still furious about the totally irresponsible Bonnie Blue documentary (Photo: Channel 4)<\/p>\n

The scene in this documentary<\/a>, in which a 25-year-old naked woman lies on her back doing a starfish on a floor littered with hundreds of used condoms because she\u2019s been getting gang banged all day, was when I decided feminism had failed.<\/p>\n

This was supposed to take us inside the mind of \u201cBonnie Blue\u201d, who claims she loves the \u201cphysical challenge\u201d of the (horrifying) infamous sex stunts she performs in the name of \u201cempowerment\u201d. I\u2019m sorry, though, but I\u2019m not having it and the doc was both grim and irresponsible.<\/p>\n

The film-maker did not sufficiently interrogate her, we were expected to tolerate the idea that her \u201ccareer\u201d \u2013 and her promotion of it to other young women \u2013 is fine because it\u2019s her choice and she\u2019s making lots of money, and by the time her mother declared she was proud of her and wouldn\u2019t want her doing anything else, I was ready to jump out of the window.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just not emotional,\u201d Bonnie Blue \u2013 real name Tia Billinger \u2013 repeats, assuring viewers she genuinely enjoys when men say \u201cmake me your slut\u201d, that she has not experienced abuse or trauma and does not require therapy. Good for her, but I needed it after watching this violently bleak film.<\/p>\n

The Paper<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

\"TheDomhnall Gleeson in The Paper (Photo: Aaron Epstein\/Peacock)<\/p>\n

Oh, my hopes were high for this mockumentary, from the team behind one of my favourite comedies, The Office (American version), and set in the same universe but this time at a local newspaper.<\/p>\n

Alas I didn\u2019t laugh once \u2013 recycled gags, an over-reliance on in-jokes from The Office that didn\u2019t land, no subtlety and the feeling that everyone is just going through the motions. If you want a decent mockumentary that does manage The Office\u2019s combination of heart and laugh-out-loud absurdity, watch Abbott Elementary instead.<\/p>\n

Katie Price: Making Babies<\/p>\n

Channel 4<\/p>\n

\"Pictured:Katie Price and Carl Woods really did not need cameras following their IVF journey (Photo: Channel 4\/Captive Minds)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s really time we stopped encouraging Katie Price. I\u2019ve always rather liked her and I believe her heart\u2019s in the right place, but it takes only a passing consciousness of the tabloid press to know that we shouldn\u2019t be sticking cameras in front of her face every time she comes back from Turkey with a set of new teeth or starts warring with her ex-husbands, and should perhaps instead nudge her towards a darkened room with a pair of noise-cancelling headphones and some transcendental meditation tapes.<\/p>\n

Anyway, far be it for safeguarding to get in the way of a Channel 4 documentary<\/a> (see also Vicky Pattinson: My Deepfake Sex Tape<\/a> \u2013 another of 2025\u2019s lows) and so to this two-part series<\/a> following Price as she attempted, against the advice of physicians, to conceive a sixth child via IVF with her estranged partner Carl Woods.<\/p>\n

It purported to show us an emotional journey but it was so irresponsible and in such poor taste that it is hard to imagine anyone struggling with their own fertility (and its expense) will have found anything to relate to. Leave Price alone \u2013 and, for that matter, her existing children, two of whom, Junior and Princess Andre, are clearly suffering with the trauma of life in reality TV\u2019s glare, as documented on another ill-advised commission this year, ITV Be\u2019s The Princess Diaries<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Assassin<\/p>\n

Prime Video<\/p>\n

\"EdwardKeeley Hawes (pictured with Freddie Highmore) can do much better than The Assassin (Photo: Prime Video\/Robert Viglasky)<\/p>\n

Keeley Hawes<\/a> is quite obviously better than this ludicrous addition to the bloated \u201cwomen can be badass too\u201d genre of action-crap<\/a>. She plays a retired contract killer whose second act is as the resident British crank on an idyllic Greek island. <\/p>\n

When her estranged son comes to visit, and the two of them get caught up in a sniper shoot-out that is more bloody and more ridiculous than Game of Thrones\u2019s Red Wedding, it becomes clear that there\u2019s no such thing as retirement and you can only hide from the Bulgarian mafia for so long\u2026 The whole thing is both ludicrous and contrived, which is fine if a drama is sufficiently entertaining. Unfortunately, this was not.<\/p>\n

With Love, Meghan<\/p>\n

Netflix<\/p>\n

\"WithWith Love, Meghan was appalling. But I think I\u2019ve got Stockholm Syndrome (Photo: Jake Rosenberg\/Netflix)<\/p>\n

Back in March, I was dismayed at Meghan Markle<\/a>\u2019s indefensibly terrible and embarrassingly outdated daydream<\/a> of edible flowers, \u201csurprise and delight\u201d moments and ladybird crostini. I said she was living in the past, a millennial parody, promoting a perfect \u201caspirational\u201d lifestyle vision far, far removed from our era of authenticity.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m afraid that by the time she made a broccoli wreath in her Holiday Special<\/a> I must have been lobotomised because I now feel not only that we should live and let live but also that I want more. I want to watch her make soap. I want to see what D-list celebrity Netflix have invited over to her rented Montecito house to be her friend for the afternoon. <\/p>\n

I want to watch her empty plastic bags of peanut butter-filled pretzels into other, newer plastic bags. I no longer care that she is detached from reality because I must concede that hers is a better reality than mine.<\/p>\n

\t\tYour next read<\/p>\n


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