By this time in 2023, Netflix was swimming in a wide variety of original shows almost on a weekly basis. Things are very different in 2024 because of last year’s Hollywood strikes and subsequent production delays. Netflix has been far more reliant on acquired series like Dexter and Lost, while originals have been few and far between.
The good news is that most of this year’s meager crop of Netflix shows has been pretty decent, although I feel that Baby Reindeer gets a disproportionate amount of attention simply because there haven’t been a lot of other new series to stream. However, not everything is destined to be good, and that’s why we’ve put together this list of the five worst Netflix shows of 2024 so far.
There’s every chance that most of these series we’ve picked could be displaced from the top five worst Netflix shows at the end of the year. But somehow, we suspect our choice for No. 1 will have the same ranking at the end of December 2024.
5. Avatar: The Last Airbender
Netflix has yet to learn the lesson that just because a show was successful in animation, it doesn’t mean that a live-action remake is necessary or welcome. Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s animated series was one of the very best of the 21st century. But somehow, that just doesn’t fully translate to this show.
The young cast, including Gordon Cormier as Avatar Aang, Kiawentiio as Katara, Ian Ousley as Sokka, and Dallas Liu as Prince Zuko, all try their best to live up to their animated counterparts. But most of the time, the kids seem painfully aware that they’re just actors on a show rather than real inhabitants of this fantasy world. Awkward scripted dialogue sounds completely unnatural in their mouths, and the stakes of the series just don’t land with the same impact that they had in animation.
Considering that Avatar‘s animated series had 20 episodes per season, everything seems a bit rushed when the first book is crammed into eight episodes. Make no mistake, this show has a better take on the material than M. Night Shyamalan’s 2010 adaptation, The Last Airbender. But that’s damning it with faint praise.
Don’t watch Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix.
4. Alexander: The Making of a God
Is Alexander: The Making of a God a scripted drama or a historical documentary? It’s kind of both, but it just doesn’t do either one particularly well. But don’t blame the leading man, Buck Braithwaite, who portrays Alexander in the flashbacks that depict his rise to power. If the show had simply decided to focus on being a traditional drama, it could have been better.
Instead, the historical experts are used to provide context for Alexander’s life while skipping ahead haphazardly. Without the show’s recreations filling in those gaps in Alexander’s life, the entire thing feels like it was never completed in the first place.
Don’t watch Alexander: The Making of a God on Netflix.
3. A Man in Full
David E. Kelley had an amazing cast to work with in A Man in Full, with Jeff Daniels in the lead in addition to performers like Diane Lane, William Jackson Harper, Jon Michael Hill, Aml Ameen, Lucy Liu, and Tom Pelphrey. Kelley also had the original novel by Tom Wolfe to work from. So Kelley has no one to blame but himself for letting down these actors and actresses with scripts that give them one-note characters at best.
Daniels plays a very Trump-like real estate tycoon, Charlie Croker, who is on the verge of losing everything after some disastrous financial moves. Raymond Peepgrass (Tom Pelphrey) is eager to tear down Charlie and take everything he has, and yet neither of them has enough spark to be interesting or compelling.
The lone actor who really does come off well on this show is Hill, who portrays Conrad Hensley, a Black man who is tangentially connected to Charlie. Conrad’s story finds him unjustly facing years in prison for defending himself against a violent cop. That part of the show resembles some of Kelley’s earlier legal dramas. The rest of it we can do without.
Don’t watch A Man in Full on Netflix.
2. Tires
Netflix gave Tires a season 2 renewal days before the show even premiered. And inexplicably, the series performed well and landed just behind Bridgerton in the streaming rankings for the week. Who knew that a sitcom that feels ripped from CBS’ 2004 TV schedule would be a hit? The only explanation that comes to mind is that series co-creator and co-headlining star, Shane Gillis, has a real following.
Unfortunately, the premise of Tires can’t seem to mine its material for enough good jokes to carry an episode. Gillis plays Shane, an employee at his family-run automotive repair business who now has to work for his cousin, Will (Steve Gerben). Shane resents that so much that he actively sabotages and undermines Will’s attempt to save the struggling business. Most sitcoms tend to give their leading characters at least some redemptive qualities. But for the most part, Shane is just a jerk and he’s unpleasant to watch.
Don’t watch Tires on Netflix.
1. Good Times
The words “dumpster fire” get tossed around so often that they no longer have the same impact they once had. But Good Times is the one show on Netflix in the first half of 2024 that has truly earned the dumpster fire description. The original Good Times sitcom ended 45 years ago, so there weren’t too many people clamoring for a comeback. And the surviving fanbase certainly wasn’t asking for an animated series that plays more like a weak clone of Family Guy and The Cleveland Show than a homage to the sitcom that very loosely inspired it.
Nothing about this show works, from the drug-dealing baby, Dalvin (Slink Johnson), to the awful character designs and art style or the uninspired and humorless stories. Seth MacFarlane was one of the executive producers for Good Times, and he should have been the first one to point out that rehashing Family Guy was a bad choice for everything that came after American Dad. J.B. Smoove (Reggie), Yvette Nicole Brown (Beverly), and Jay Pharoah (Junior) are all gifted comedic performers, and even they can’t salvage this messy attempt to be relevant. There’s been no renewal notice for this series, so don’t be too surprised if Good Times is done in one. This show used up all of its good will with lightning speed.
Don’t watch Good Times on Netflix.