The Worst TV Seasons! (Comedy Edition)

I have been re-watching my favorite one of my favorite television shows of all time, Gilmore Girls, for the seventh time (or more).  I am an avid TV watcher and I have a lot of TV seasons on DVD.  When I go to watch certain shows there are always seasons I dread getting through.    With my favorite shows I can easily pick out the worst seasons.  I can pick out the worst with other shows I watch too, but I think being a popular culture fanatic its better when you can recognize the worst in your favorite.

I am in the middle of my least favorite season of the Gilmore Girls, the sixth season.  At the beginning of the sixth season the famed mother daughter team Lorelai and Rory have stopped speaking.  Rory was told my by her boyfriend Logan's father that she doesn't have "it" to be a journalist and she steals a boat with Logan in the fifth season.  Rory decides to leave Yale and then the mother and daughter stop speaking.  Throughout the first eight episodes Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel rarely share the screen and thus the loses its charm.  When Lorelai and Rory finally reunite in episode nine their freakish mother daughter connection is strained for a while.  I understand why the creators Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino went down this road, but the show lost a lot throughout this entire season.  The sixth season also brought the worst character this show ever saw, April.  April was Luke's daughter.  Luke was never told April was his and when he finds out he keeps it a secret from Lorelai.  Luke also pushes Lorelai aside as he tries to get to know April on his own terms.  April was a terrible plot device that eventually broke up Luke and Lorelai, and forced a stupid and pointless break up.  I love this show but I this is one of my least favorite seasons.  The Gilmore Girls ended in season seven but the show rebounded and had a better season to close out the show.
Friends ran for ten seasons and there were some seasons that were amazing, some that were uneven, and some that were just plain not that good.  In season eight Friends rebounded and had one of its best seasons ever!  The show was on top of its game it won the Emmy for Best Comedy Series and Outstanding Lead Actress in Comedy Series for Jennifer Anniston.  The show added new depth to Joey and Rachel's pregnancy was hilarious.  The show was coming off an uneven season seven, and the six were considering walking away from the show, then season eight happened and they reconsidered.  I often wonder, should they have ended at season eight?  The true fan boy in me says "Hell NO!" and the critic in me says "Tough Call."  The season after season eight is there worst season.  In season eight Joey liked Rachel, but she rebuffed him.  Season nine rolls around and all of sudden Rachel ends up liking him.  They Joey and Rachel story was a stupid sideline, and season nine did nothing to make any Ross, Rachel, or Joey grow and they were at the forefront of a lot.  Monica and Chandler working to have a child was good, and Phoebe finally finding a steady man in Mike (Paul Rudd) was the best part.  This season was filler to get to the end and I hate to say it added nothing to this show.  Friends ended in season 10 with story lines that did not to be spread out amongst two seasons, but I still love the heartfelt last episode.

Will & Grace had a lot of uneven seasons toward the end but non worse than season six.  Apparently when a show hits season six the show starts to lose steam.  In season five Will & Grace added Grace's boyfriend and soon to be husband Leo played by Harry Connick Jr..  When shows add to their core cast the addition can either bring some fun new dynamic like with Lilith in Cheers or take away like Leo did in Will & Grace.  Leo's character was boring and bland, sure the actor is hot, but I do not get the appeal in the show.  In the sixth season the was one episode that was brilliant "Last Ex to Brooklyn" which is about Leo's ex coming to a dinner party, and she happens to be the only girl Will had ever slept with.  That was episode two of the season, and the season went down hill after that.  The show tried to save things with guest stars and gimmicks and that failed.  The season finale centered around Karen's wedding in Las Vegas was just painful.  One of the other flaws within this season was that Debra Messing was pregnant and was not featured in a lot of the episodes.  The show needed Grace to balance out the foursome, but she was sadly not in many episodes.  The show started to rebound and find its center in seasons seven and eight but it never got back to the greatness of the beginning.