The Worst New Series of the 2010-2011 TV Season

There's a few duds in every year. Here are the few especially awful ones.

Mr. Sunshine, (ABC) - After bouncing around and appearing in some movies post Friends, Matthew Perry came to ABC with Mr. Sunshine. The show centers on Perry, Ben Donovan, who is the manager of a sports arena. The concept is interesting enough, following Ben through all the craziness involved in running this arena, but the show just never comes together smoothly, and is rarely funny. The rest of the cast, including Allison Janney, just don't seem to add anything to the show. Janney, who I normally love, is way to over the top in a way that the humor would mostly appeal to a toddler that is easily amused by loud noises and bright colors; she's simply not believable. None of the other characters are really used, instead they kind of blend in with the crowd. While the show does tend to serve up a chuckle or two an episode, the jokes mostly fall short of their mark. Hopefully they'll bring on some new writers. Mr. Sunshine is a show I DESPERATELY wanted to love, but with each ep I'm growing more and more detached. *Guest-written by Justin "JT Money" O'Reilly*


Undercovers, (NBC) - Talk about really wanting a show to work. It had all the elements in place. Spies: my favorite genre. Exec producer J.J. Abrams: one of my favorite modern-day auteurs. And the leads were BOTH black! Yay progressiveness! Slam dunk, right? Nooooooooo! This series was more lifeless than Rebecca Black. Potential sure, but there are only so many hours in the day, and I stopped devoting some to this even before it was officially cancelled. Just a big, fat dud. Good luck in the future to newbie actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw though, she's a real, ahem, talent.


No Ordinary Family, (ABC) - Yet another show that sounded great on paper. Vic Mackey back to beating up bad guys? Darla/Rita as his wife? Comedic talents Romany Malco (The 40 Yr Old Virgin) and Autumn Reeser (who provided many of the highlights of the final years of The O.C.) are their sidekicks? Sign me up! Too bad this show never had the ambitions of being the kick-ass comic-book show that I wanted it to be. It was way more interested in being 8 p.m. fare that the parents, pre-teens and the dog could all sit down to enjoy. And I could've adjusted to that...if it was good. Pardon the easy pun but I've never seen more ordinary writing. I could literally call the whole episode by the first commercial break. The kids' plotlines: even worse. Somebody fill the superhero TV Void, and soon please.


The Cape, (NBC) - I didn't even bother. Like, seriously? No. Good Riddance. What was I saying about a superhero TV void?

Body of Proof, (ABC) - Dear, networks


At this point, we have seen it all before. Doctor shows, lawyer shows, cop shows, the procedurals come and go. You know which ones stick around? The ones with great, rich, characters. We don't really care about the cases. We want fun banter or good character beats in between them. So, ABC, congrats on the success of Castle, which has all those things courtesy of the man, Nathan Fillion. Now, this new show ya got? The lead's no Rick Castle. Excruciatingly bad. "Lost my surgeon's license, wahhhh." "Put work before family, now they hate me, wahhhh." "Now I'm a morgue examiner, aaaaand I solve crimes!" Big woop. What the fuck city does this take place in? What self-respecting cops woud let the fucking morgue doctor run around solving cases for them? Do yourself a favor, my 15 or so faithful readers. Don't watch this show. No disrespect to the MILF Dana Delany.


Sincerely,
Connoisseuraus


*The Connoisseuraus saw a screening of the Body of Proof pilot a few weeks ago. It premieres March 29th at 10 p.m. See for yourself if you're feeling masochistic.*


Can you think of 5 more awful seasons of television this year?