2025 had some real stinkers on TV – literally.
The “Sex and the City” franchise ended by showing an actual turd in a toilet, for reasons that remain a mystery. It sure wasn’t crucial to the plot.
Over on Hulu, Kim Kardashian showed that non-actors really shouldn’t try to follow their Hollywood dreams.
Although the year’s TV highs soared, with excellent shows like “Severance” and “The Pitt,” the lows sank to new depths.
The worst shows had a bevy of big stars in them, including Kardashian, Pedro Pascal, and Meghan Markle.
From insipid reality shows to disappointing dramas, here’s the worst TV of 2025.
“And Just Like That” (HBO Max)
“Sex and the City” was an iconic show that changed the conversation around sex and dating – and, how TV depicted it – when it aired from 1994 to 2004. Its successor show, “And Just Like That,” literally crapped on its legacy. “And Just Like That” premiered in 2021 and ended this summer.
It followed Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte (Kristin Davis) through life in their ‘50s, sans Samantha (Kim Cattrall). It quickly became mired in controversy, first for unceremoniously killing Carrie’s longterm love interest, Big (Chris Noth), and then for its clumsy attempts to be “woke,” such as its portrayal of the nonbinary queer podcaster comedian Che Diaz (Sara Ramirez). Fans weren’t impressed. Amid the backlash, the show abruptly announced that it would end with Season 3, mere weeks before the series finale. They didn’t even tell the crew that it was ending. Everything about “And Just Like That” seemed to hold contempt for “Sex and the City,” its characters, and its audience.
The show also earned the title for one of the worst shows in 2023.
“All’s Fair” (Hulu)
It racked up an astounding 0% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and was called “the worst TV drama ever.” Could it really be that bad? Yes.
Helmed by Ryan Murphy, this legal drama had a heavyweight cast including Sarah Paulson, Glenn Close, Naomi Watts, Teyana Taylor and Niecy Nash-Betts, and Kardashian. The script felt like it was written by ChatGPT, with characters spewing nonsensical lines. Kardashian got way too much screen time for a wooden non-actress, and her mannequin-like presence did the show no favors. Even seasoned stars like Paulson couldn’t save this trainwreck, as she shrieked lines like “Why can’t you choose me, why?!” like a deranged soap opera star. Nothing about this show made sense. It wasn’t even bad in a way that was fun to watch. Naturally, it’s getting a Season 2.
“With Love, Meghan” (Netflix)
Meghan Markle’s critically panned “lifestyle” show was a pointless and odd attempt to pretend she was Martha Stewart. The show featured Markle having insipid, self-indulgent on-camera love fests with celeb pals such as Mindy Kaling and Chrissy Teigen. It wasn’t enough to get one season – as if Netflix was trying to punish us, 2025 gave us two seasons of the show (one in April, another in August) and a “Holiday celebration” special in December.
It’s hard to say what the worst part of the show was: the lack of its reason to exist, as none of her cooking, hosting, or flower arranging “tips” were anything you couldn’t easily Google. The too-obvious artifice of it all, as Markle reportedly didn’t even host it in her own home, but a staged fake TV residence. Or, merely the fact that it was dreadfully boring. “With Love, Meghan” was a show that proves that it’s not enough to be a celebrity – you need to have something to say. Otherwise, it’s bland nothingness that might as well be onscreen static, which is what “With Love, Meghan” was.
“Suits LA” (NBC)
The “Suits” franchise showed that TV execs ignore a successful show’s secret sauce at their own peril. Clearly, they thought that since “Suits” went viral on Netflix several years after its initial run (from 2011 to 2019), they could merely pull a “Suits” lever, and find success again. Unfortunately, “Suits LA” made no attempt to find what viewers liked about the original show, and why it worked.
Starring Stephen Amell, the revival show was missing the sense of fun and office dynamics that the original show had. Instead, it got bogged down in a strange dark plot about his backstory. Nobody was watching “Suits” because they cared about the characters’ overly serious backstories. It was swiftly cancelled.
“The Last of Us” (HBO)
Season 1 of the dystopian drama was a harrowing, powerful series. It centered around gruff survivor Joel (Pedro Pascal) protecting teen girl Ellie (Bella Ramsey) in a virus-torn world where society had crumbled. Their pseudo father/daughter relationship was the core of the show, and the reason to watch it. So what did Season 2 do? Ruin that. Season 2 killed off Joel, and also killed off a reason to watch the show.
Unlike “Game of Thrones,” this show wasn’t a true ensemble. Although it had other characters, there weren’t enough dynamic personalities to make it worthwhile, after it axed (or golf clubbed) the main guy. Without Joel, Ellie became a brat who was tedious to watch. Yes, Joel’s death happened in the video game it’s based on, too. But two superior dystopian HBO shows – “The Leftovers” and “Station Eleven” – were smart enough to know that TV is a different medium. Sometimes it’s necessary to depart from the source material. “The Last of Us” paid too much fealty to the game’s plot, and it simply didn’t work onscreen. Rather than invigorating the plot, Joel’s death hollowed it out.
