HBO continues to produce some of the best shows on TV. From The Sopranos to Chernobyl, the premium cable channel has repeatedly developed programs that dominate the cultural landscape. The network has managed to skillfully make shows of all genres, including historical epics, surrealist sci-fi mysteries, crime dramas, and even high fantasy.
Unfortunately, not everything can be a success. Some shows will be better than others, while even the best ones can’t maintain the same quality all the time. In fact, many great HBO shows would be incredible if not for a bad plot line or two. With that in mind, here are the ten worst HBO storylines of the past decade, ranked:
The Deuce: Twins
The Deuce is the brainchild of writers George Pelecanos and David Simon, who had previously worked together on Simon’s most famous TV series, The Wire. The story is set in New York during the 70s at the point adult films were becoming legalized. The show deftly addresses such complex topics as the lives of night workers, police corruption, and the stranglehold the mafia had on the economy.
One thing it did less well was its handling of Vincent and Frankie Martino, two twin brothers who were both portrayed by James Franco. While it’s cool to see twins as main characters in a show rather than gimmicky background figures, their being twins added little to the show as a whole.
Game of Thrones: Varys’ Betrayal
No one should be surprised to see some of the worst HBO stories of the past decade all came from the final season of Game of Thrones. One major character of the show was the eunuch spymaster Varys. He was committed to returning the Targaryen family to power in Westeros, using his intelligence network to manipulative events and sew discord in the land as he worked to bring home Daenerys, the last of the Targaryens.
When Daenerys finally did land in Westeros, he immediately pledged loyalty, all his work finally having paid off. Then he learned that Jon was also descended from the Targaryens and immediately turned traitor without a good explanation.
The Watchmen: Aging Adrien Veidt
The Watchmen series is a sequel loosely adapted from the Hugo Award-winning graphic novel of the same name written by Alan Moore and penciled by Dave Gibbons. While the show takes quite a few liberties with the source material, it still presents an engaging sci-fi drama with some powerful societal critiques.
And then there’s Adrien Veidt. In the show, he’s seen as a batty old man living on an estate and waited on by genetically engineered slaves whom he press-gangs into helping him with mad science (and casually kills for no reason). It’s wonky and interesting to watch, but doesn’t advance the plot much and feels beneath the dignity of the character’s comic book counterpart.
The Newsroom: Season 2’s Sting Operation
The Newsroom is a TV drama about the news crew of a major cable network. Created by Aaron Sorkin, the show’s cast of fictional characters cover real news issues (albeit from the year before the episodes’ release).
In Season 2, the overarching plotline involves the cast investigating the use of sarin gas on civilians by US military personnel as part of a mission called Operation Genoa. The story starts strong but quickly begins to fall apart. In the climax, there were mere minutes of screen time from the characters feeling 100% confident in their reporting to thinking they’d made a terrible mistake.
Last Week Tonight: John Oliver Lawsuit
While The Newsroom is a fictional drama about real events, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver is a talk show in which the host (John Oliver) discusses real news topics with both comedic irreverence and surprisingly deep insight. Some of the topics he’s covered include health insurance, net neutrality, international elections, and Japanese mascots.
At one point, Oliver did a segment on the coal magnate Bob Murray’s various illegal activities, dishonest actions, and lying about an event that killed six workers. Murray is famous for frivolous lawsuits and stayed true to form in his response. The lawsuit was petty and pointless, as was John Oliver’s response upon winning: celebrating via a Broadway-style musical number that mercilessly mocked Murray.
Boardwalk Empire: Angela Darmody’s Affairs
HBO’s historical dramas are among the most celebrated shows from the network. While Boardwalk Empire doesn’t quite live up to the legacy of other classics, this Prohibition Era crime drama had a huge fan base and did a lot of things right. Unfortunately, Angela Darmody’s affairs are not on that list.
Angela first begins sleeping with another woman after she begins to fear her common-law husband Jimmy has died in World War I. After he returns, she continues to cheat on him, even planning to runaway to Paris with her girlfriend. She and Jimmy work out their differences, but then she begins another affair. This whole storyline had a lot of potential, but it came off feeling forced and stilted with most of the plot twists being predictable.
Game of Thrones: The Death and Undeath of the Dothraki
The Dothraki are among the most warlike people in Game of Thrones. When the army of the dead descends on Winterfell, these horse-warriors wait outside, ready to charge. Then Melisandre unexpectedly turns up and ignites their blades, ensuring their now-fiery swords can kill the dead. But again, Melisandre’s arrival isn’t expected. These guys planned to charge an enemy with useless weapons.
Even with flaming swords, the tactics were are and they all die. A handful escape to rejoin the defenders, but they’re the exceptions. Despite this, a whole host of Dothraki miraculously are around to help Daenerys besiege King’s Landing.
The Newsroom: Occupy Wall Street
When Aaron Sorkin created The Newsroom, he used it as a way to explore certain political issues important to him at the time. Though the protagonist of the series, Will McAvoy, is a conservative, almost all of the other characters serve as mouthpieces for Sorkin’s liberal beliefs–something Sorkin’s fans have come to expect. One reason for the show’s success is its nuanced way of looking at issues fairly and acknowledging that not all perspectives are equally valid.
This is what made the show’s coverage of the Occupy Movement so disappointing. Characters who likely would have supported Occupy mock or deride it. In place of the usual nuance, it feels like Sorkin is an old man complaining about the whole movement like uppity kids on his lawn.
Game of Thrones: The Night King’s End
The opening scene of the Game of Thrones pilot introduces the threat of the undead wights and their lich masters, the White Walkers. While most of the show focuses on the medieval battles and Machiavellian schemes of the noble houses, the main enemy grows more and more prominent.
The Night King, who ruled the White Walkers, led his army of the dead south of the Wall to Winterfell in one of the most anticipated TV events in history. Several major characters had personal beefs with the Night King, among them Jon, Bran, and Daenerys. However, in a twist that makes no sense, Arya ends up killing him, a disappointing end to both the Night King and the battle.
Game of Thrones: The Fall of Daenerys
Almost half of the entries on this list come from the final Game of Thrones season, but none is more egregious than the surprising way Daenerys falls from grace. While it seems that the show takes inspiration from the direction that author George R. R. Martin wants to push Dany in the books, all of her changes in the show are sudden and make no sense for her character.
She’s Khaleesi, the Mother of Dragons, and Breaker of Chains. She has experience besieging cities and always helps the local populace. Yet for some reason, Dany goes mad while invading King’s Landing, massacring the peasantry. Then, the show frames her in shots that invoke fascist symbolism while she speaks of unending world domination. While the series is about dragons, the creators didn’t have to torch everything like that.
