So much of my job involves looking out for good series to recommend. It’s an optimistic pursuit, scanning for perfection or something close to it. But right now, I’m going to turn negative with a look back at some of the year’s most disappointing TV. There may be some spoilers ahead.
“The Morning Show” on Apple TV+ was a not-hot mess in season 2. The writers had a Mitch problem, since he was still in the cast but no longer part of the network action. They strained to keep his story line alive while he was on retreat in Italy, even (ridiculously) having Alex show up at his door. But ultimately, they accepted defeat and killed him off — before they had Jennifer Aniston ACTING but looking great as she suffered through COVID.
“Clickbait” on Netflix got to me, because I liked the idea and invested in the story of a man being held hostage on video who’ll be killed when the video hits 5 million views. The end, though, was a big bust, which is particularly irritating when it’s for a plot-driven whodunit.
“Coming Out Colton” on Netflix is meant to be about the dramas after former “virgin Bachelor” Colton Underwood comes out as gay — but it plays more like a superficial portrait of an entitled dude looking for more attention (and hero status, too) to keep his reality plotline alive. Oh, and to rehab his image after he allegedly stalked his former “Bachelor” girlfriend. Conveniently not explored: the blackmail threat that forced him out of the closet in the first place.
“Clarice” on CBS takes one of the foundations of the contemporary TV procedural, the brilliant “The Silence of the Lambs,” and makes it into a lousy TV procedural set a year after the movie. The dialogue is flat, each character is reduced to a single trait, and the cases are solved sloppily.
I was sorry that Showtime’s “American Rust” was excessively bleak, lacking in urgency, and, in its denouement, unsatisfying, but Jeff Daniels and Maura Tierney were worth watching. I hated seeing one of my favorites, Kyra Sedgwick, caught up in the formulaic, broad empty-nest sitcom “Call Your Mother,” but relieved that it won’t be back so she can be in something better. And I was quickly annoyed by the plot chaos of NBC’s “Ordinary Joe,” as the writers failed to master the three timelines, but happy to see network TV reach for something beyond franchises.
Matthew Gilbert can be reached at matthew.gilbert@globe.com. Follow him @MatthewGilbert.