Every TV Show I Gave Up On This Year
Reclaiming my time
For years, when I wasn’t enjoying a TV show, I’d keep watching either because it felt like it had potential to rope me in later into the season or simply for the sake of finishing it. To close the loop, etc. I did fall out on a few shows that truly lost the plot over the years — “Glee,” “Empire,” “Riverdale” — but usually I stuck it out. Even when it seemed like everyone else I knew had given up on a show, I kept at it — looking at you, “Pretty Little Liars.” Maybe that’s why I’m absolutely one of those people who annoyingly tells people to stick with a show because it gets good after x number of episodes.
But then, over the past couple of years, the sheer amount of series being released forced me to start reclaiming my time. If I didn’t like something, just cut the shit and stop watching it. Move on to something else on the never-ending list of shows I want to watch.
And how freeing it’s been! In 2022, I gave up on 11 shows, meaning I straight up quit watching them mid-season, or I realized I just didn’t have any desire to watch a newly-released season of a show I’d watched previously.
Keep reading for my list, complete with explanations of why I dropped them. No shade.
Girls5Eva (Peacock)
I enjoyed the first season of this show about a former one-hit wonder group reuniting, but not as much as everyone else seemed to. After giving the second season a shot, I stopped watching halfway through because I accepted that it just wasn’t for me. This is the second series executive produced by Tina Fey (“Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” being the other) that I’ve given up on recently, and I’m someone who loved “30 Rock.” Sad!
Queer As Folk (Peacock)
This revival of the original groundbreaking series from 2000 had a lot of people, including me, excited, but it just wasn’t very good. It felt weighed down by everything it was trying to do and represent and accomplish from the first episode that featured a mass shooting at a drag show. Maybe it was too on the nose. I gave up halfway through the season, a decision I felt was vindicated when Peacock cancelled it earlier this fall.
Loot (Apple TV+)
A Maya Rudolph streaming vehicle where she plays the ex-wife of a billionaire techie (seemingly) based loosely on Jeff Bezos’ recent divorce? Sign me up — or so I thought. I wanted to like this one so badly, but it just did not hit for me at all.
Irma Vep (HBO Max)
Another show I really wanted to love, but I stopped watching it after two episodes. The show, which stars Alicia Vikander, felt too self-serious to me.
The Wilds (Prime)
I loved the first season of this show about a group of teenage girls who get stranded on a deserted island after a plane crash, but the second season came out at a busy time this summer and, after hearing anecdotally that it was just okay, I decided not to bother.
Wedding Season (Hulu)
Read some good things about this action comedy when it came out in September, but the pilot episode was a little too bizarre and far-fetched for my liking.
The Last Movie Stars (HBO Max)
The premise here is incredible — an ode to iconic Hollywood couple Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, told through narration by current Hollywood stars like George Clooney and Lara Linney based upon transcripts from interviews that Newman conducted for an abandoned memoir. It’s very cleverly directed by Ethan Hawke, but I just couldn’t stay awake during it, so I stopped watching.
House of Ho (HBO Max)
The first season of this reality show about a wealthy Vietnamese-American family in Houston was a fun pandemic watch, and there are a few genuinely captivating people on the show, but once the second season rolled around earlier this year, I didn’t have the urge to engage. So I didn’t.
Mosquito Coast (Apple TV+)
Another slog of a first season — long, slow episodes with little payoff more often than not. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t enjoy it enough to tap back in for season 2 this year, even if it stars king Justin Theroux.
A Friend of the Family (Peacock)
This dramatization of the true story of Jan Broberg, a young girl who was kidnapped multiple times in the 1970s by a family friend (played by Jake Lacy), was really great for the first four episodes or so, but then it started to drag. It should’ve been four or five episodes instead of nine.
Bling Empire (Netflix)
Season 1 of this Netflix reality show about a group of rich Asians in Los Angeles was amazing. Compelling personalities, real money, solid drama, over the top fashion — it checked a lot of boxes. Season 2, which aired earlier this year, started off really solidly until the couple at the center of the drama dropped out in the middle of filming and took the air out of the season. That forced the rest of the cast to proceed with drama that felt manufactured and inconsequential, leaving little desire in me to watch season 3 this fall. That being said, I will absolutely be tuning in to Dorothy Wang’s New York-based spinoff. The former “Rich Kids of Beverly Hills” star joined “Bling Empire” in season 2 largely as a launching pad for the spinoff before her move to New York, and the trailer for it looks fantastic.
So, there’s my list of shows I quit watching in 2022. Let me know if you felt differently about some of these, of if there were other shows you just couldn’t see to the end this year — I’m always fascinated by which series people lose patience for.