10 TV Shows That Are Unbearable From Start to Finish

There are shows that are messy but still watchable because something keeps pulling you back. These are not those shows. These are the ones where you give it an honest shot, then you hit that point where you realise you are not curious anymore. You are just waiting for the episode to end. Time starts dragging even when nothing important is happening.

For me, a series becomes unbearable when the premise is clear, the hook is right there, and the writing still refuses to build momentum. Characters stay flat, scenes repeat the same argument, and big moments land like placeholders. If you have ever kept watching just because you hoped it would finally click, you will recognise the feeling. When it comes to the 10 shows listed below, the patience runs out long before the season does.

10 'The Idol' (2023)

I tried to meet The Idol on its own terms. It is a pop star spiral story with industry people circling like vultures, and that should be enough for tension. The problem is that the show keeps circling the same scenes without adding new information, so you never feel like you are learning who anyone is. It gets repetitive fast.

Once Tedros (Abel Tesfaye) takes over the focus, the episodes lean on the same power dynamic again and again, with very little progression. Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp) never gets enough interior life for the chaos to mean anything, so the shock is just noise. By the time the season ends, it still feels like it skipped the part where it earns your investment. Nothing pays off in a satisfying way.

9 'Invasion' (2021– )

The concept is solid. Invasion follows an alien event through different ordinary lives around the world, so the early promise is dread and scale. The issue is pacing. Scenes stretch, conversations loop, and the show often refuses to answer basic questions that would keep you engaged. It moves too slowly for the stakes it wants.

Even when the threat becomes clearer, Invasion keeps falling back on long stretches of characters reacting without making meaningful choices. That is where it starts to feel like homework. You are watching people wander through the aftermath while the story keeps holding back the fun part, which is the mystery actually changing. The mystery stalls instead of tightening.

8 'Another Life' (2019–2021)

A first-contact mission should be tense by default, which is why Another Life is frustrating almost immediately. The crew drama is louder than the sci-fi problem, and a lot of conflict feels forced, like people are arguing because the script needs noise. The result is that the ship never feels like a real working environment. The tone feels off from episode one.

When the plot finally offers bigger ideas, Another Life keeps undercutting them with thin character decisions and rushed revelations. Niko (Katee Sackhoff) is doing what she can as the captain, but leadership never feels credible when the writing keeps making the crew act like strangers to their own job. You stop believing in the mission, which kills everything. It never clicks as a serious space story.

7 'Emily in Paris' (2020– )

This one is not unbearable because it is light. It is unbearable because it mistakes the surface for the whole point. Emily in Paris is built on culture clash and fantasy charm, but it often plays like a loop of the same misunderstandings, with everyone behaving conveniently so the next cute moment can happen. After a while, the episodes start feeling interchangeable. The jokes repeat instead of evolving. It’s trash television and I get why some people like that.

There are flashes of a sharper show in the supporting cast, but Emily in Paris keeps resetting relationships the second they get interesting. Emily (Lily Collins) is written as if consequences are optional, so the stakes never stick. It becomes background TV that somehow still irritates you because it acts like it is saying something when it is really just coasting.

6 'Secret Invasion' (2023)

The pitch sells itself. A shape-shifting infiltration story inside the MCU should feel paranoid and urgent. Secret Invasion starts with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) coming back to a mess he helped create, and that should be personal. Instead, the show often feels muted, like it is afraid to commit to its own concept. The tension stays low when it should spike.

When you are dealing with Skrulls, the fun is not just twists. It is the fear that any scene can flip. Secret Invasion rarely uses that fear in a satisfying way, so the reveals land soft. Fury and Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) deserved a story that builds to something sharper. Instead, it drifts, then ends with choices that feel disconnected from the emotional setup. It wastes its premise more than once.

5 'Batwoman' (2019–2023)

There is a version of Batwoman that should have worked as a pulpy Gotham spin with its own identity. But there isn’t. Early on, the show leans into big comic-book beats, but the writing often feels rushed, like it is sprinting through arcs without earning them. That makes the emotion feel thin. The writing feels messy right away.

The biggest problem is consistency. Tone, character motivation, even the core identity of the lead keeps shifting. Batwoman asks you to invest, then changes the rules on you. Kate (Ruby Rose) has moments that work, and later Ryan (Javicia Leslie) brings new energy, but the show never stabilises enough to build real momentum. You end up watching out of habit perhaps but never out of absolute interest till the end.

4 'Iron Fist' (2017–2018)

This show is a prime example of how a superhero concept can feel slow and oddly small. Iron Fist has a rich setup on paper, a mystic fighter returning to a corporate world, but it spends so much time on boardroom arguments and circular feuds that the momentum keeps dying. The early episodes feel like they are stalling for time.

Danny (Finn Jones) is hard to root for because the writing keeps making him reactive instead of compelling, and the action rarely saves it. Colleen (Jessica Henwick) often feels like the character the show should be following, which says a lot. The drama feels padded and the stakes never rise the way they should.

3 'The I-Land' (2019)

The hook is familiar in a good way. Strangers wake up on an island with no memory, and you expect the mystery to tighten every episode. But The I-Land wastes that hook almost immediately with random tone shifts and revelations that feel like the show is changing genres mid-sprint. It becomes hard to take anything seriously because the rules keep moving. It becomes confusing in a bad way.

Instead of letting the characters drive the mystery, The I-Land keeps throwing twists that do not build on what came before. Chase (Natalie Martinez) and the rest of the group never get enough grounding for you to care who survives. By the end, it feels like a bunch of ideas stacked on top of each other, not a story that knows where it is going. You stop caring because the show stops earning it.

2 'Velma' (2023– )

I can handle a fresh take on a familiar property when it has a clear point of view. Velma feels like it is trying to be edgy first and coherent second. The humour is aggressive, the character dynamics are mean, and the mystery elements are not strong enough to carry the tone. It is exhausting quickly. The vibe turns sour almost immediately.

Velma (Mindy Kaling) is written with a constant sneer that makes it hard to care what she wants, and the show rarely balances that with warmth or payoff. When the plot tries to turn serious, it does not land because the world has not earned emotional space. The tone never clicks with the mystery.

1 'La Brea' (2021–2024)

The premise is pure binge bait, and it still fails badly. A massive sinkhole opens in Los Angeles and drops people into a prehistoric world. So with that context set up beautifully, La Brea should have been survival pressure and discovery. Instead, it quickly turns into repetitive family drama with characters making the same bad choices, then acting surprised when it goes wrong. The momentum never stabilises and the show gets frustrating fast.

Even when the show introduces new factions and bigger mythology, the writing keeps leaning on convenient coincidences and thin dialogue. Eve (Natalie Zea) and Gavin (Eoin Macken) spend so much time in the same emotional loops that the sci-fi becomes background. You end up watching the premise get wasted episode after episode, which is exactly what makes it unbearable.