No matter how great a TV show is, it is nearly impossible for one to go down as truly perfect. Even the best television series in history typically have at least one or two episodes that missed the mark. Those episodes don’t always take away too much from the overall experience of watching the show, but they will end up being ones you’d want to skip on a rewatch. To be fair, there are some shows that are actually ruined by their worst episode, like the series finale of Dexter. Either way, passionate fans often don’t even want to mention or discuss the installment because it feels so off when compared to the rest of the show. There are cases where the episode in question isn’t actually awful; it just halts the overarching story, is out of place, or maybe doesn’t vibe with the series as a whole.
These sci-fi shows are almost universally beloved and are mentioned among the best in the history of the genre. However, they all have at least one episode that even their most loyal fans aren’t all that interested in thinking or talking about again.
When people think of great sci-fi shows, they probably overlook animation, but that would mean forgetting about Rick and Morty. The show takes clear inspiration from Back to the Future, as it follows the time-traveling adventures of young Morty Smith and his mad scientist grandfather Rick Sanchez. Nine seasons in, pretty much everything the series has done has been beloved.
The episode that most often gets a negative reception from fans came from Rick and Morty Season 7. “Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie” is based on a throwaway joke from earlier seasons about Ice-T actually being an alien. Instead of leaving it as a one-off joke, it tells an entire story based around it that was seen as mostly unfunny and pretty dull. It doesn’t feel like the rest of the show, and it easily has the lowest rating for a Rick and Morty episode on IMDb at a paltry 4.4/10.
It might still be relatively new, but Severance has already carved out an impressive niche as an iconic sci-fi series. The show focuses on the employees at Lumon Industries, who have been “severed,” which means their memories and minds are split to separate their work and personal lives. It often leaves the two sides at war, and the show features some wild concepts on top of some stunning twists. Season 1 was basically flawless, but Season 2 ran into trouble with episode 8, “Sweet Vitriol”.
This is a standalone Harmony Cobel installment that takes us back to her roots. Patricia Arquette does strong work in the episode, and reviews were only mixed, rather than flat-out terrible. However, the installment features some odd character choices and pacing issues that frustrated viewers. “Sweet Vitrol” also came at a bad time, following the breathtaking “Chikhai Bardo” episode, which covered the tragedy happening to Gemma, and stopping the momentum of the show in its tracks.
It could be argued that the series finale of Stranger Things is an episode that fans don’t want to discuss, as it concluded the show with an installment that received mixed reviews. However, it’s hard to top “Chapter Seven: The Lost Sister” as the bottom of the show’s history. Stranger Things had a stellar debut season and Season 2 was doing great right up until this episode. It took Eleven off on her own adventure to meet Kali, another girl who was part of Brenner’s experiments.
The idea was promising on its own, but the end result was lackluster. The outcasts who Eleven met were unlikable, and the bond forged between Kali and Eleven never came across as believable. This also had the unfortunate timing of coming at a high point for the show and stalling the momentum, as fans wanted to see what happened with Will, the Mind Flayer, and the people in Hawkins. It didn’t help that the outcome of this story was just to give Eleven a temporary makeover and wasn’t mentioned again until Kali returned in Season 5.
There’s no denying the impact that Lost had on the world, with people everywhere debating each cliffhanger and mystery throughout the week until a new episode premiered. The show was a cultural phenomenon, which meant the showrunners wanted it to run for as long as possible. By Season 3, it was clear they were stretching the story, with flashbacks often focused on stories that nobody cared about. The clearest example of that was “Stranger in a Strange Land,” which told the story of how Jack got his tattoos.
It was a pointless tale to tell and was the definition of filler. Jack only had tattoos because actor Matthew Fox had them in real life, so there really was no need for any of this. The happenings on the island also weren’t all that interesting, dragging out elements like Jack’s imprisonment with the Others and Kate and Sawyer returning to the group of survivors. Season 3 has a few duds, yet this “Stranger in a Strange Land” has always been considered the low point of Lost.
