The Worst TV Episodes Of 2023

With the absolute onslaught of television shows that hit the airwaves and streaming platforms every year, there are countless episodes of everything to watch. But even among the best (and worst) shows, some installments stand well above — or below — the rest. It's worth chronicling those episodes that truly astound. This list, though, is focused not on the episodes that distinguished themselves as the cream of the crop, but the ones with the dubious honor of being the absolute bottom of the barrel.

Some of the worst episodes of this year don't come from the worst shows. The notoriously awful "Velma," for example, was so poorly reviewed that it's difficult to identify a single installment as the worst. Thus, we've put together a list — in no particular order — of episodes that weren't just terrible, but so bad that they stood out from the rest of the pack. Sit back, grab a hot compress, and take two Tylenol, because this is a list of the worst TV episodes of 2023.

"The Witcher" made waves in 2022 when it was announced that Liam Hemsworth would be taking over the leading role of Geralt from superstar Henry Cavill. But before that, there was still Season 3, which would serve as Cavill's swansong. Reviews were mostly positive, save for one massive clunker. That episode was "Out of the Fire, Into the Frying Pan," which features almost no Geralt at all.

For fans, the lack of Geralt was surely frustrating, as this season was the last we'd ever see of Cavill. But even if it weren't, it was a strange detour, following young Ciri (Freya Allen) on her own journey in what almost feels like a backdoor pilot. The fact that most of the action takes place in an empty desert doesn't help.

In the episode, Ciri finds it difficult to control her powers, and major revelations are made about her ancestry. At the same time, she begins having visions of long-lost warriors in her family tree who help guide her. It's an interesting idea, but one that doesn't entertain, and feels more like filler to buy time until the more exciting season finale that followed.

With "Euphoria" a massive hit for HBO, it was no surprise when they tapped showrunner Sam Levinson to create another series. The result was "The Idol," a drama about a pop star named Jocelyn, played by Lilly-Rose Depp. Unlike Levinson's previous series, "The Idol" wasn't quite so beloved, meeting with harsh reviews from both critics and audiences. There's still one episode that stands out ankles and feet below the rest: The finale, "Jocelyn Forever."

That episode sees the singer getting ready for a stadium tour when she becomes increasingly controlling of those around her. The episode poses plenty of new questions, too, as discoveries are made about Jocelyn's past, in particular regarding a man she used to date. But with each episode of the season seemingly worse than the last, the finale is the bottom of the barrel for a show that almost nobody liked. And even for those who did watch, it doesn't seem that anyone wanted more, with IndieWire's roast of the episode openly begging HBO not to give the show a second season, content with it ending on something of a cliffhanger.

Fronted by Nathan Fillion, "The Rookie" follows middle-aged John Nolan, who moves from a small town in Pennsylvania to Los Angeles, California, and starts a new career as a cop. "Double Trouble" is arguably the fifth season's lowest point, and regrettably sits among the worst episodes of any show in 2023. It's an episode that's — to put it bluntly — "a waste of time," as described by Fangirlish.

Here, Officer "Dim" Bradley goes missing. But while the police are trying to do their job, a documentary film crew is following them around, creating an added wrinkle for the investigation. The biggest issue with this one is its "reality TV" approach. It's not the first time the series has tried it, but fan reaction to previous attempts like the Season 3 installment "True Crime" was overwhelmingly negative. Why they keep returning to that format, nobody knows, but they still haven't gotten it right. 

Oddly enough, though, the story itself isn't actually a bad one, and that's what makes the documentary approach all the more painful. If they'd just gone with a more straightforward episode, maybe it would have worked better. Oh, did we mention there's also a Lance Bass cameo? As random and needless as it is, it might actually be the lone highlight of this debacle.

Over the years, "Family Guy" has devolved, often becoming more of the ordinary, run-of-the-mill animated sitcom it was originally lampooning. Now the show sits remarkably in its 20th season, and reviews of new episodes have been mixed. But even with modest reactions, "Old West" was a huge step-down, cratering an otherwise innocuous year of stories.

"Old West" has Peter and the gang seeking out the father of Mayor Wild West. The episode sees the return of Sam Elliott as Mayor West, and guest star Gerald McRaney as Old West. Bland, lifeless, and rote, the episode feels like a pale imitation of its old self, produced only to add new episodes to its library on Hulu. Even the normally impressive Sam Elliott feels like he's just going through the motions, reciting dialogue off a piece of paper that he doesn't understand or care about.

While even the worst episode of "Family Guy" has a couple of decent laughs, this one offers fewer than most. The jokes that are there are repetitive and tired, and frankly the episode is just plain pointless.

From "Full House" to "MacGyver," Hollywood has been rebooting classic '80s shows ad nauseam, and 2023 has been no different, seeing the launch of a new version of "Night Court." With John Larroquette returning, it's set in the same after-hours courtroom, this time presided over by Abby Stone, the daughter of Judge Harry T. Stone from the original series. Much anticipated, the first season did well enough to earn a second season order.

Some fans struggled to get behind the relaunch, though, feeling it lacked the acerbic bite of Harry Anderson's original. But it's the episode "Justice Buddies" that really disappoints, sending the season into the sewer. In classic sitcom style, the episode has a narrative gimmick, with a group of kids visiting the court to learn about the system. But their visit has a twist, because their real goal is to protest on behalf of a graffiti artist who vandalized a Christopher Columbus statue.

Politically sensitive topics are always easy fodder for critics. In this case, the message was a noble one, especially as it explored the under-used character of Gurgs, weaving in themes of racial prejudice and social justice. But the episode seemed to anger those on one side of the issue who felt it went too far, while those on the other felt it was half-hearted in its resolution. Ultimately, it tried to have it both ways and failed miserably.

Love for "The Mandalorian" has been nearly universal among "Star Wars" fans, but Season 3 — which followed the disappointing and disjointed "Book of Boba Fett" — wasn't quite as beloved as the previous seasons. Part of that was attributed to the episode "Guns for Hire," which had a bizarre tone and left-field guest stars that left audiences cringing, earning it the unfortunate status of the lowest-ranked episode of the series on IMDb.

Sticking to formula, the episode begins with the Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu on a quest, this time with Bo-Katan (Katee Sakhoff). As per usual, before they can get what they need they have to go on a mission for someone else, this time the Duchess of Plazir-15, who wants them to stop a small army of droids. On paper, it has all the trappings of another thrilling adventure, but in practice, it doesn't work as well as the rest of the series, mostly because it dips its toe a little too far into broad, slapstick humor.

It's true that the franchise has had its elements of humor, even a few goofy moments, but "Guns for Hire" often feels like it's going for a full-on farce. It tips its hand when pop star Lizzo and comedian Jack Black make a cameo at the end in one of the most divisive moments of 2023.

"The Flash" ended its run in 2023, making it the longest-running live-action comic book series since "Smallville" went off the air in 2011. Though praised for most of its run for its fast-paced adventure and light-hearted humor — not to mention its sprawling stories — its final season wasn't quite as celebrated, with a number of disappointing episodes. There's one, however, that sits as the year's lowest point: "The Good, the Bad, and the Lucky."

There's nothing good or lucky about this episode, only bad, and it's almost impressive in its putridness. For starters, the episode takes its two lead characters, Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) and Iris West (Candice Patton), and sends them off on vacation, all but removing them from the story. To lose the two main characters is all the more insulting considering the season's truncated episode count. What we're left with is Khione (Danielle Panabaker) absurdly trying to figure out her powers, and Becky — back after being killed off — more annoying than ever as she boasts about how lucky she is before her boyfriend falls into a coma. 

Simply put, the episode feels like it's treading water. A comedic subplot involving a baby shower is the icing on the cake of the garbage sundae.

In 2023, zombie spin-off "Fear the Walking Dead" saw its eighth season, which was also its last. When it premiered, audiences were in for something of a shock, discovering that seven years had passed since the events of the Season 7 finale. The status quo was fully shaken up, with the group of survivors having made it to PADRE — a remote island and a safe haven the infection hadn't reached. It's that premiere that lands on this list, kicking off the season on a decidedly low note.

One might expect that the huge time gap might be a reason why the episode fails, but that actually proves to be one of its few compelling points of interest. It allows us to see the character of Mo — just a small child a year ago — become much more interesting as an adolescent. Beyond that, though, the manufactured character conflicts are merely shrugworthy, and there's never any real tension in the story, with even a few mild walker attacks failing to have us even consider biting our nails.

While "Fear the Walking Dead" has rebounded somewhat, Season 8 has yet to reach the heights of the show at its best.

Based on the wholesome family comic book "Archie," the CW teen drama "Riverdale" threw everyone for a loop when it veered into some seriously adult stories while diving deep into science fiction and fantasy. By its final season in 2023, it had launched headlong into the bizarre, even to the point of embracing its early origins with a 1950s setting after some time travel shenanigans involving Haley's Comet (yes, you read that right). It went even further in the episode "Archie: The Musical," and the results are sadly one of the worst episodes of television we've seen this year.

If you think "Riverdale" doing a musical episode sounds strange, well, it's been done many times before. None of them were very well-reviewed, but "Archie: The Musical" might be the worst of them all. It starts with Kevin (Casey Kott) convincing the school to let him spearhead a new musical, and all his friends get in on it. As they sing and dance, they also do a lot of self-reflection in typical teen drama fashion — with absolutely nothing new to show for it.

An episode full of old cliches, tired plot beats, and over-the-top campiness that's extreme even for "Riverdale," it has little going for it beyond the gimmick of the song and dance numbers. And sadly, those are sorely lacking, leaving audiences rolling their eyes till the end.

"The Changeling" begins with Apollo Kagwa (LaKieth Stanfield) and librarian Emma Valentine (Clark Backo) falling in love and welcoming a baby boy named Brian. The plot takes a quick left turn when Emma begins to feel their baby may have been abducted and replaced by an otherworldly being.

Most of the middle of the season sees Apollo hunting Emma down looking for vengeance after she appears to kill their child. "Stormy Weather," on the other hand, is a wild divergence that focuses entirely on Apollo's mother (Adina Porter) as she rents a room in a seedy hotel in the hopes of making sense of what's going on and how it might relate to her own dark past. It even poses some interesting questions and offers new clues to the mystery that might have saved the episode had they not been so frustratingly vague.

To be fair, "Stormy Weather" isn't a bad hour of television. On its own, it's a powerful story of an immigrant woman's fight against an oppressive system and her silent, solitary struggle in a world that rarely acknowledges outsiders. It features a powerful performance from Porter, but the episode is woefully out of place. Not just because it includes a strangely off-putting musical number, but because it sidesteps the season's main story and forces fans to wait an extra week to resolve the previous episode's cliffhanger. 

"Out for Blood" sadly gives "The Rookie" franchise two of the worst episodes of 2023. "The Rookie: Feds" is in its rookie season and stars Niecy Nash-Betts as Simone Clark, a 48-year-old rookie FBI agent. It's not a bad concept for a spin-off, expanding on the idea of a late-in-life law enforcer without being too closely tied to its predecessor. That said, its first season is marred by one of the strangest bad episodes we've seen in 2023. 

Though "Feds" is a more traditional police procedural, the concept here is totally left field, as the latest case involves what appears to be a vampire. To top it off, Clark's colleague Agent Acres (Kevin Zegers), was once an actor in a long-running series called "Vampire Cop" and believes his fictional expertise gives him a leg up in the investigation. Like its parent series' flop "Double Trouble," this one also employs a documentary style, making us wonder if producers are trying to torture viewers on purpose, because this format so rarely works.

Of course, the real problem is its head-on drive into pure comedy, this time also tossing in horror and supernatural elements just for the heck of it. It's totally unnecessary, doesn't work, and it winds up feeling more like a tongue-in-cheek episode of "The X-Files." And not in a good way.

Like "Family Guy," it's almost become a joke how far "The Simpsons" today is from how good it was in its prime. Nevertheless, the show continues to have its supporters, and while most would agree it rarely — if ever — matches the greatness of its heyday in the '90s, there's still plenty of fun to be had. The same can't be said for the 2023 episode "Fan-ily Feud," the 18th episode of the show's eye-popping 34th season. 

Commenting on controversial subject matter has been done before on "The Simpsons," but this episode doesn't do it well. It meekly tries to address the rise in so-called "cancel culture" (which itself feels like it's well past commenting on) when Homer makes a nasty remark about pop star Ashlee Starling, whose loyal fans turn him into public enemy #1. 

The story touches on some similar themes as those in the 1994 episode "Homer Badman"  – even hitting some of the same story beats — but doesn't do as much with its concept. Perhaps its goals were too lofty for a show that has long since tried to play it safe, but the insufferable musical number doesn't help.

"Black Mirror" debuted in 2011 and proved genre-shattering, reshaping what we think of as science fiction while single-handedly bringing back the concept of an episodic anthology. Its success spawned plenty of imitators including reboots of "The Twilight Zone" and "Amazing Stories," but creator Charlie Booker has taken his time with new seasons. After a nearly four-year break, he returned to produce Season 6, which closed out with what might be the worst story in its run, the Zazie Beetz-led installment "Mazey Day."

Beetz stars as a paparazza who begins to question her role in the seedy world of celebrity gossip culture after an actor dies by suicide after she exposes sensitive information about them. Despite her misgivings, though, she decides to track another actor (Clara Rugaard) who has gone off the grid. When she finds her, it turns out the actor is not quite what she seems, and a few of her fellow photographers get their just desserts.

With a silly twist, "Mazey Day" is a story that's more like a bad Blumhouse movie than the clever sci-fi parables that Booker and "Black Mirror" are known for. It starts with the potential for some stinging social commentary but devolves into horror schlock instead.

"Futurama" is one of the best animated comedies of the last 20 years, producing a number of all-time classic episodes. It has proved so enduring, in fact, that it's survived multiple cancelations. And while the show's first new season in a decade more than lived up to its legacy, there's one episode that was a real letdown for longtime fans hoping for a flawless new year of stories.

Titled "The Prince and the Product," the episode is an anthology of sorts, with the cast turned into various lines of toys in a series of half-hearted vignettes. In these stories the Planet Express crew becomes mechanical wind-up figurines, rubber duckies, and toy cars. A handful of satirical commercials serve as interstitials. Though it may sound good on paper, it's simply not as clever as it thinks it is.

In its defense, its lampooning of kids cartoons and how they're often just glorified commercials is a good one, but they pulled it off much better in 2011's "Yo Leela Leela." And while it's trying hard to be a stinging critique of the business of entertainment, the gags are unfunny and stale, and frankly, even the best jokes are obvious low-hanging fruit. Reaction from fans was harsh, too, with some fans claiming it was pure garbage. "This is genuinely, without hyperbole, the worst episode of Futurama to date," said Reddit user Redpenguin. "I enjoyed nothing about this episode and struggled to even finish it."

Police procedurals are a dime a dozen, but shows based on firefighters are a little less common. We got a new one in 2022, the CBS action drama "Fire Country," produced, created, and starring actor Max Thieriot. It's had a decent run, but Season 2 caps itself off with the show's worst episode by a country mile — bad enough to count as one of the worst installments of any 2023 show. 

"I Know it Feels Impossible" attempts to put a bow on the show's tension-filled season, which offers a year of action, excitement, and human drama. The main thrust of the story involves a mudslide and a gripping rescue, and all of that works well enough. The issue, though, is how the episode fails to tie up so many of its loose ends and hurriedly tries to address other dangling plot threads. The cliffhanger ending adds in even more frustration, especially for a show that seemed to be promising a satisfying conclusion.

While some fans have defended the episode's lack of answers and disappointing drama by reminding us that future episodes promise to wrap things up well, it doesn't make the episode itself any easier to swallow. In the end, this is a story that TV Fanatic knocked for setting the entire series "back to square one," as several of its plot points undo progress from earlier in the year.

2023 saw the debut of the first small-screen expansion of the Monsterverse, "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters." The series is set in two distinct time periods: 2015, after Godzilla arrives from the deep, and 30 years earlier, as a clandestine organization called Monarch investigates the emergence of otherworldly monsters from the Hollow Earth.

The series is seriously impressive, but it certainly isn't perfect. The episode "The Way Out" is a particularly massive fumble; it switches up the tone at random and fails miserably. The episode's attempt to be more thoughtful and introspective is noble, but it feels more like it's trying to be something it's not. Some critics made comparisons to HBO's "The Last of Us," as it examines what happens to life after an attack by a giant monster like Godzilla. For a show like "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters," though, the episode is curiously devoid of any monsters at all. This could have worked as a respite from the over-the-top spectacle, but it mostly feels like unnecessary wheel-spinning. Throw in the use of recycled footage from previous encounters with Godzilla, and there's an unavoidable sense that the entire episode was produced to save money. While that is certainly understandable, it didn't have to be this bad.

Co-created by "Stargate" and "Independence Day" writer Dean Devlin, "The Ark" has emerged as a worthwhile space adventure, airing on SyFy. Its debut season delivers outer space suspense, chronicling the story of mankind's attempt to colonize the stars after Earth is ravaged by war, disease, and ecological calamity. When nearly everyone but a ship's civilians are killed in a disaster during a deep space mission, the survivors must work together and beat the odds to make it to their new home on Proxima b. The series has received a tepid response, but that might just be because it got off on the wrong foot — its pilot episode is one of the worst TV episodes of the year.

Written and directed by Devlin, "Everyone Wanted to Be On This Ship" is the title of this opening salvo, and it might be the most inventive thing about it. This episode is full of tired cliches and overused tropes, with plot contrivances that strain credulity and predictable beats littering its 45-minute runtime. Audiences and professional reviewers weren't kind to the series premiere, with even its more positive reviews criticizing its groan-worthy attempts at putting a new spin on an old story.

It's hard to believe, but "Rick and Morty" has been on the air for over a decade, with its seventh and most controversial season airing in 2023. Fans were wary of the two lead characters' new voice actors, and many dinged the season for seeming like a pale imitation of the show at its best. But after a rough start, "Rick and Morty" bounced back strong with a handful of excellent stories. Unfortunately, late in the year, the series aired its worst-ever episode, "Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie."

The episode is, oddly, an extension of a post-credits gag from "Get Schwifty," a fan-favorite episode from Season 2. In that stinger, rapper Ice-T reveals himself as an alien and returns to his home planet, where an army of Numbericons attack. In "Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie" we learn that the post-credits scene was the intro to a full adventure that sees Morty and his math class recruited by Ice-T to help thwart an invasion by the Numbericons. As usual, the episode runs on an ambitious, high-concept premise — but what works as a single gag isn't really worth much when extended to a full episode.

The writers of "Rick and Morty" should be given some credit for trying to do something different, but at this point, doing something different is par for the course. Also, making Ice-T the central character while sidelining Rick entirely and focusing on an alien war with low stakes is a mistake. No wonder it sent fans into a frenzy.

"American Horror Story" has been arguably the best series in its genre since its first season in 2011. Its anthology spin-off, "American Horror Stories" has been more of a mixed bag, with almost as many awful episodes as great ones. In 2023, it delivered another dreadful installment, making us wonder if the show truly has a long run in its future. The episode in question is "Organ," and was written by creator Ryan Murphy alongside franchise stalwart Manny Coto, whose previous work includes episodes of "Dexter," "24," and "Star Trek: Enterprise."

In this one, a chauvinistic man named Toby (Raul Castillo) uses a new dating app to try to meet women. His match is Natessa (Emily Browning), an enigmatic figure who sends him on a dark and twisted journey. After spending the night with her, he awakens missing a kidney. Seeking answers — and retribution — he uncovers a secret society called Magna Mater, which steals and sells human organs.

While the anthology series is no stranger to disappointing episodes, "Organ" is particularly egregious, taking a decades-old urban legend and turning it into a cheesy schlock-horror fright-fest that fails to scare. To make matters worse, it's the final writing credit for Coto, who passed away just months before the episode aired. 

A teen comedy on Disney+, "Pretty Freekin Scary" may not aspire towards Emmy-winning drama, like some shows on this list, but it does entertain with a fun mix of fantasy and horror. The show centers around 14-year-old Frankie (Eliana Su'a), who dies and makes a deal with the Grim Reaper (Siobhan Murphy) to return to the land of the living in exchange for doing their bidding on Earth. All the while, she's accompanied by a pair of the Reaper's minions named Pretty (Kyan Samuels) and Scary (Leah Mei Gold).

"Pretty Freekin Scary" generally threads the needle, but the episode "Locker Life" feels like a torture device from the netherworld. Determined to get separate spaces, Frankie and her locker buddy look for someone called the Locker Broker to help them find new cubbies in the school hallways. It's an innocent enough idea, exactly the kind you might expect from a teen comedy. But even by those standards, it fails miserably. Boring and unfunny, "Locker Life" seems to forget the appeal of the show: The fantasy and horror elements that set it apart from other fare. Without them it's little more than a bad episode of a forgettable 2000s tween comedy.

Inspired by one of Marvel's most thrilling crossover stories of the last 20 years, "Secret Invasion" was highly anticipated by fans. Moreover, it's a quasi-sequel to "Captain Marvel" and it puts Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury in a lead role. It tells a story about a Skrull dissident who attempts to start a world war on Earth. But the show makes wholesale changes to the original comic crossover, eliminating just about everything that makes it special. What fans are left with is a watered-down six-part miniseries with a downright awful finale.

Titled "Home," this installment had the potential to salvage the project, which to that point is only disappointing. Nick Fury makes a final attempt to stop the evil Skrull named Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir) from turning every Skrull into a super-powered monster, paving the way for the total takeover of the planet. But the episode simply doesn't go far enough. It's afraid to shake up the status quo, while also trying to deliver a satisfying conclusion, and it winds up being a total mess.

Putting to bed any notion that the series might be good, "Home" is instead the nail in the coffin. Grimdark Magazine may have put it best in their review, saying the episode "sadly ends up falling flat on its face."

Disney+ hasn't just been creating Marvel and Star Wars content, nor are they solely making shows for American audiences. In 2023 they revived a different kind of franchise when they released "Journey to the Center of the Earth," a Mexican-produced adaptation of the Jules Verne classic that takes wholesale liberties with the source material. This time, the action is set in Mexico, where a group of camp kids embark on an adventure below ground.

Supposedly the adventure that inspired Jules Verne to write his novel, this story sees Diego (Sebastián García) and his friends attend a camp run by eccentric adventurer Pompilio Calderon (Óscar Jaenada). But when his grandmother disappears into a strange portal in a hidden cave, Calderon and the kids go on an adventure that takes them to other dimensions. 

From start to finish, "Journey to the Center of the Earth" isn't very good, though it may be good enough to keep some kids entertained for 30 minutes at a time. Unfortunately, the episode "Todo el tungsteno" is a particular stinker and one of the worst episodes of 2023. The kids ride a giant turtle, the story is nonsensical, and there are bad special effects, even for a series that by its very nature isn't supposed to be taken seriously. In the episode's defense, it's unlikely many fans even made it far enough into the season to see it.

"Sex and the City" has proven that you can't keep a good woman down. The series has returned multiple times in different ways since it ended in 2004, with two movies, a prequel series, and, in 2021, a sequel series, "And Just Like That." Its 2023 second season sadly doesn't feature actor Willie Garson, who died after filming Season 1, but it does feature one of the worst episodes of the year — and it's "Met Cute," the episode that kicks off the new season.

Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) is trying to balance a casual sexual relationship with her podcast producer Franklyn (Ivan Hernandez) with her search for a date to the Met Gala. Miranda, Seema, and Nya have problems of their own, with the typical sexy sitcom hijinks making up much of the episode's runtime. It's light and fluffy, like most of the franchise typically is, but it's also not entertaining, and often downright cringe-inducing, with an ending that feels woefully out-of-place.

Ultimately, "Met Cute" feels like a work of fan fiction, with contrived circumstances that aren't cute or funny. The storylines featuring the series' new supporting cast members are simply filler. Many fans talked about turning off the episode shortly after it began, or decrying it as a dismal start to the new season.

If you've not heard of "The Swarm," we're not surprised. Produced in Germany and airing on public service channel ZDF, the series isn't well-known to wider audiences. It's a sci-fi thriller that explores an emerging undersea menace, and mankind's attempts to stop it from destroying civilization. Reviews for the series have been only slightly better than lukewarm, but when it works, it's a satisfying entry in the emerging genre of ecological thrillers. Sadly, its season finale falls well below the general level of quality of the TV landscape.

This season-ender sees the crisis come to a head, as opposing ideas on how to stop the global threat from reaching a tipping point clash. The episode is difficult to suffer through, plagued as it is by weak character beats, a confusing resolution, and some atrocious performances. Gone is any hope that the series could offer up some interesting insight into the balance of man and nature — a staple of the sub-genre. Instead, it's a muddled mess that's so bad, it will have you wondering why you sat through the seven previous episodes to get to it.

"From" made our list of most underrated shows of 2023; It's a stellar horror series that delivers some of the best spooks and scares, even if it doesn't get the most attention. But as good as it is — and as much as we recommend it — there's one episode that we'll warn you is just plain bad. 

The series is set in a mysterious town that draws people in but doesn't allow them to leave. "Lost" star Harold Perrineau plays Boyd Stevens, a man who finds himself the leader of the community. Said community seeks to discover just what's really going on with this backwater town — and, specifically, what it wants from them.

"From" has been a revelation for horror fans who've tuned in, but "Lullaby" is a huge down note for the series. We're not going to get into the plot to avoid heavy spoilers, but the episode's inability to offer answers right when audiences want them most makes it a real slog. It might be the best of the year's worst episodes, but it's still bad — and it's unfortunately necessary to watch if you're hooked on the series.

Figuring out which shows to avoid can be a simple matter of looking at reviews and ignoring whatever series get lambasted by critics and audiences. But finding individual episodes that rank among the worst of the year is a tall order, and it's one we've tried hard to get right. While some of the episodes on this list come from good shows — and even a few truly great ones — you may notice that most are from shows that ride the line between good and bad. So, how did we pick them?

For starters, we took a look at audience scores across all shows on IMDb sorted by individual episodes, thus identifying a slew of low-rated installments. From there, surfing social media helped us narrow down our list. We looked for episodes that online reviewers roundly roasted — with many making claims that they couldn't even finish them. We also filtered these episodes through our own opinions, until we were left with this list. Unfortunately, given how many of these episodes are part of season-long story arcs, some of them are not avoidable. You may have to sit through one of the worst TV episodes of the year — but at least you're prepared.