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Decider Lists
As we get ready to ring in the New Year tonight at midnight, it’s natural to set aside a few moments today to look back at the year that was. 2018 had many, many highlights, but we can’t help but thinking of Ol’ Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra, and this particular line of his from “My Way”: “Regrets, I’ve had a few…”
Here at Decider, we take our television very seriously, but even we find ourselves occasionally overwhelmed by the sheer volume of shows there are to watch. As much as we are driven to be completists, we’re the first to admit that there is a freeing and joyful feeling that comes with cutting bait on a show. The reasons to do so are myriad: Sometimes shows fails to live up to the hype (Maniac), sometimes they’re too emotionally draining to deal with (The Handmaid’s Tale), and sometimes they forgot what made them great in the first place (Ozark). Whatever the reason, here are eight shows that Team Decider waved “Buh-bye” to in 2018.
'This Is Us' Season 3
I was 100% in favor of This Is Us during Season 1. I went into Season 2 with the same enthusiasm but by the time Season 3 came around, I realized I could not care less about the Pearsons’ family drama. This is Us is a perfectly fine show. It has loads of meaningful moments and storylines that’ll make you sob for days, if you’re into that sort of thing. I, for one, am not. I couldn’t build up the motivation to get through another season of tears and anxiety over characters who I only kinda cared about. Also, I could never watch the show the same way again after knowing the truth about how Jack Pearson (Milo Ventimiglia) died. A crock pot? C’mon, man!—Lauren Garafano
'Maniac'
Patrick Somerville and Cary Joji Fukunaga’s bizarre miniseries should have been a slam dunk for me. It starred two actors I typically enjoy, Jonah Hill and Emma Stone. It had amazing music. And on top a guest starring role for one of my new faves Julia Garner, it was a trippy and emotional sci-fi rollercoaster. As my love of Legion and Black Mirror has proven, these types of shows are my jam. But Maniac always felt like it was trying a bit too hard to be “the weird show,” not unlike Season 2 of Mr. Robot. I meant to watch more, but then the new season of Doctor Who premiered and King of the Hill landed on Hulu and I stopped caring.—Kayla Cobb
'Ozark' Season 2
It’s with the benefit of hindsight that I realize that that first season of Ozark was the streaming equivalent of a summer fling for me. The show’s first season moved at a breakneck pace, burning through three or four seasons worth of plot in 10 action-packed episodes, and I couldn’t wait to see how Jason Bateman and Laura Linney would deal with the reckless assassination of their primary connection to the Mexican drug cartel. It’s fair to say that my anticipation levels for Ozark Season 2 were Off! The! Charts!
However, from the very first moments of the second season’s first episode, it was apparent that the sluggish pacing of other Netflix Originals series had managed to infect Ozark; I swear the entire first episode revolved around the couple trying to arrange a meeting with a politician. Did it work? I’m not even sure. I tried getting on its wavelength on two or three different occasions during the month of September, but I never managed to make it through that first episode and now realize that I never will.
'The Handmaid's Tale' Season 2
It’s not that I didn’t like Season 2 of The Handmaid’s Tale. (I actually loved it) However, it hit Hulu in the midst of a bleak spring. Between the weather, and the awful news alerts, and tragedy in my own life, I just didn’t have the emotional bandwidth to put myself through the emotional torture of following June through her trials in Gilead. Instead, I wanted escapism, comedy, and light. I’m sure I’ll get back to The Handmaid’s Tale eventually, but maybe after I invest in one of those artificial lamps that keep you from bugging out in the winter.—Meghan O’Keefe
'The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina'
There was a lot to love about The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, the supernatural step-cousin from the Riverdale televisual universe. Series star Kiernan Shipka made for a strong, sympathetic central witch whose foot-in-both-worlds plight, while not exactly novel, was relatable even for those of us whose fathers weren’t high priests in the Church of Satan. Obviously I loved Miranda Otto and Lucy Davis as aunts Zelda and Hilda. But the further the show waded into Dark Baptism territory — the ins and outs of the Satantic Hogwarts-esque boarding school Sabrina attends and the Wizarding World-esque hierarchies she had to navigate — the more I longed for the show to let Sabrina have adventures with her human friends at her human high school. Ultimately, that frustration led to disinterest, and in 2018, disinterest is a deer standing still in the road, ready to get creamed by the next new TV series speeding around the bend. Sorry, Sabrina. You have an incredibly hot, gay cousin who should consider a spinoff. —Joe Reid
'The 100' Season 5
I would stare at the episodes slowly building up on my DVR, and the thought of jumping into them felt like a chore. It’s not that The 100 wasn’t always deadly serious, but it used to be thrilling to watch the teens and adults of the show get thrown into increasingly precarious scenarios. By Season 5 it’s just sort of same old, same old. The actors are still great, the writing is solid, but the thrill of discovery is gone: once Clarke (Eliza Taylor) and company figured out what caused the death of (most of) the human race, they figured out everything that needed to be known. Now it’s just danger after danger, with no real worries. If a character dies, they die, no big, there’s like a hundred other characters around to replace them, or people who were secretly in space the whole time. Maybe I’ll go back and try it again some time; but for now, I think I’ll just let those episodes keep piling up.—Alex Zalben
'The Alienist'
We all know that TNT knows drama–like Frankin & Bash and Rizzoli & Isles. But this was the year that TNT got a prestige TV makeover with The Alienist, an expensive looking period thriller with starring a trio of movie actors: Dakota Fanning, Luke Evans, and Daniel Bruhl sporting the beast beard of 2018, full-stop. That lush facial hair and 19th century British style piqued my curiosity and I tuned in for the first half of the season. Watching handsome men in handsome clothes sounded like a good way to spend an hour a week! But therein lied the problem. My to-watch list kept growing between Alienist episodes and I couldn’t keep up. Bruhl’s beard got my attention but it couldn’t hold it for the week between episodes. Now I couldn’t finish it up if I wanted to without dropping quite a few dollars! Note to TNT: you know drama and now you know prestige drama. Maybe 2019’s the year you let those dramas be bingeable?—Brett White
'UnREAL' Season 4
Honestly, I think the fourth and final season of UnREAL pulled an anti-Beyonce on me. When it surprised dropped on Hulu all at once, instead of its former home on Lifetime, I was excited about the ‘Bachelor in Paradise’ style premise it was presenting, but the lack of anticipation made me think, “Ah, it’s all there now, I’ll finish it someday.” Well, that someday has still not arrived. I had just made it through the third season a mere weeks before this drop, a season that was an improvement on Season 2, for sure, but not SUCH an improvement that I dropped everything to finish watching another full season. Maybe I will over the holiday break? UnREAL is best enjoyed as a binge, and I would like some closure to the ride that this show became, but again, I will finish it, just like the handsome suitor that is sure to come along, someday.—Lea Palmieri
