The Worst New TV Shows of 2023

Created by the Gossip Girl team of Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage—and based on the 2015 novel by Garth Risk Hallberg—this Apple original centers on the shooting of an NYU student (Chase Sui Wonders) in Central Park in the summer of 2003. She, in turn, is connected to a wealthy real estate family with secrets to hide, the downtown music scene, and a mysterious string of fires that have been plaguing the city. Wyatt Oleff, Jemima Kirke, John Cameron Mitchell, Nico Tortorella, and Ashley Zukerman also star, but neither their performances nor the messy scripts set the critic world on fire.

"The acting is abysmal and cliched, but I don't want to pick on anyone individually because the writing is so bad that I'm not sure they had a chance." —Shane Ryan, Paste

The second installment of Netflix's African Queens anthology from producer Jada Pinkett Smith arrived in May preceded by controversy over its casting of a Black actress (Adele James) as the legendary Egyptian monarch Cleopatra. (Netflix promoted the casting as "creative" while an online petition questioned its historical accuracy.) Like the Njinga-focused season before it, Queen Cleopatra blends documentary elements with fictionalized reenactments over the course of its four episodes. But unlike that previous season, Cleopatra met with poor reviews, with one critic dismissing the series as "History Channel lite."

"[I]t's too soapy for serious history fans, and not enough of a soap for viewers who like juicy historical dramas." —Anita Singh, The Telegraph

Unrelated (aside from the general setting) to the recent videogame of the same name or to any of producer Greg Berlanti's other DC shows, The CW's latest (and last?) DC Comics series is set in a chaotic Gotham following the murder of Bruce Wayne. Filling the void left by the fallen superhero is a team of mismatched fugitives consisting of the offspring of Batman's enemies and Wayne's own adopted son Turner Hayes (Oscar Morgan), a new character invented for the series. Critics deemed it a bore.

"With the lone exception of Misha Collins' Harvey Dent, every main character manages to be bland and uninteresting. The by-the-numbers mystery plot and the meager action scenes do little to take advantage of the rich tapestry that is the Batman mythos." —Jesse Schedeen, IGN

Sarah Michelle Gellar, Rodrigo Santoro, Armani Jackson, and Bella Shepard are among the stars of a series adaptation of Edo Van Belkom's book series about a supernatural force awakened by a California wildfire. The Paramount+ series comes from apparently lycanthrope-obsessed Teen Wolf creator Jeff Davis, but while that previous series scored decent reviews, Wolf Pack was instantly deemed a failure by critics. The series appears to have attracted viewers, however, and while a second season hasn't been greenlit, it remains a possibility.

"Nothing about Wolf Pack works for us, and there's not nearly enough of Sarah Michelle Gellar to redeem everything else that's wrong." —Joel Keller, Decider

The second adaptation of Irish novelist Josephine Hart's 1991 book Damage (following a well-reviewed 1992 Louis Malle film), Obsession is a four-part Netflix miniseries that follows a successful, married London surgeon (Richard Armitage) who begins an all-consuming affair with his adult son's girlfriend (Charlie Murphy). Critics found the erotic thriller dated and shallow.

"A show that fundamentally misunderstands its own main attraction—hot, steamy sex!—by instead delivering some of the most tepid, lifeless sex scenes in recent memory. ... The premise of Obsession is as ludicrous as it is lurid." —Barry Levitt, The Daily Beast

It's another prestige series about WWII—minus the prestige. Netflix's four-episode adaptation of Anthony Doerr's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel comes from Shawn Levy (who directs every episode) and Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight. Newcomer Aria Mia Loberti—discovered through a worldwide talent search and definitely not the cause of the low review scores—stars as Marie-Laure, the blind French teenager whose path collides with a German soldier named Werner (Louis Hofmann) in Nazi-occupied France. Mark Ruffalo and Hugh Laurie also star, but don't be fooled by all the big names attached to the project: Critics found it overly melodramatic, hacky, and misguided.

"[All the Light We Cannot See] isn't just inferior to the book; it's a schmaltzy, incompetent, borderline offensive mess whose mere existence tarnishes the book's legacy." —Judy Berman, Time

Peacock's six-episode narrative/reality hybrid produced (and, for one of its episodes, directed) by horror film legend John Carpenter explores real-ish frightening tales from "seemingly perfect American hometowns" through a combination of firsthand accounts from the people who experienced these horrors, archival footage, and dramatic re-enactments. But critics felt that the horror/reality balance skewed heavily toward the latter, to the show's detriment. And a clearly miniscule production budget certainly didn't help.

"Suburban Screams doesn't have the sophistication to present any of this on a compelling level. Real life is scary enough; this is just a collection of insipid frights." —Jarrod Jones, The A.V. Club

ID's three-part January docuseries looks back at the checkered legacy of the one-time Fox hit musical series Glee, which saw three of its cast members suffer tragic deaths. But it does no favors to its subjects thanks to its "icky" treatment of the Glee "curse," according to CNN's Brian Lowry—and that sentiment was echoed by other reviewers.

"The program is, as expected, a tawdry and slight exercise in misery porn, a rehash of tragedy told largely by talking heads, crew members, and people who call themselves friends of the deceased." —Kristen Baldwin, Entertainment Weekly

A rare HBO misfire—and quite possibly the worst series the prestige network has ever aired—this provocative, five-episode music industry drama comes from Euphoria's Sam Levinson and Grammy-winning pop star Abel Tesfaye (aka The Weeknd). Debuting in June following a Cannes debut and plagued by lengthy delays, a swelling budget, and reshoots caused by a late director change, The Idol follows an up-and-coming pop star (Lily-Rose Depp) who suffers a nervous breakdown while on tour and then attempts to restart her career with the help of a mysterious nightclub owner (Tesfaye). The sprawling cast also features Troye Sivan, Dan Levy, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Eli Roth, Hari Nef, Suzanna Son, Jane Adams, Moses Sumney, Rachel Sennott, Elizabeth Berkley, TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe, Blackpink's Jennie, and Hank Azaria, plus the late Anne Heche in her final TV performance.

Few shows in 2023 attracted as much press as The Idol, but virtually none of that coverage was positive. Critics deemed it shallow, chauvinistic, nasty, poorly acted, and lazy—heck, they didn't even like the music—and HBO canceled the series just weeks after its finale aired.

"Perhaps 'The Idol' was meant as a satire about the excesses of fame, the absurdity of celebrity worship and the recording industry's shameless objectification of underage talent […]. But it's hard to tell since the show celebrates all three of these things with little to no sarcasm, nuance or clothing." —Lorraine Ali, Los Angeles Times

Metacritic's Official Worst New TV Show of 2023

The year in television reached its nadir just a few weeks into January when TLC debuted a dating series that was basically nothing more than a 30 Rock sketch come to life (but nowhere near as fun as that sounds). MILF Manor—and if you don't know what the acronym stands for, there's certainly no point in looking it up now—follows eight 40- and 50-something single mothers brought to a fancy villa where they'll have a nine-episode chance at romance with younger men. There, they meet their prospective dating pool … which is composed of their own adult sons. Even with episode titles like "MILF Said Knock You Out" and "I'll Always Love My MILF," MILF Manor failed to land a single Emmy nomination.

"Might be a new low for reality TV, perhaps even a rock bottom. ... 'MILF Manor' is not just a May-December dating show but a May-December dating show haunted by the spectre of incest. This is certainly a disturbing choice in and of itself, but even worse is how coyly the show plays with its own gross premise. ... Though I watched until the bitter end, I could sympathize with a friend who told me, 'I felt so ashamed I was watching that I turned it off after thirty minutes.'" —Naomi Fry, The New Yorker