The most disappointing shows of 2024

Based on New York Times bestselling author Elin Hilderbrand's book of the same name, "The Perfect Couple" centers on the mysterious death of maid of honor Merritt Monaco (Meghann Fahy) the night before her best friend Amelia Sacks' (Eve Hewson) wedding to the wealthy Benji Winbury (Billy Howle).

The Winbury family's Nantucket estate quickly becomes the scene of a lackluster whodunit that has plenty of opportunity to create a shocking conclusion with its admittedly too many characters, but ultimately takes the easy way out (money is always the motive).

Variety and The Wrap reported that "The Perfect Couple," which was released on September 5, was Netflix's most-watched show for two weeks in a row, with 20.3 million views its first weekend and close to 2 billion after its first week.

However, even Nicole Kidman and her questionable blonde wig couldn't save this show for us. And let's be honest, the Meghan Trainor-soundtracked flash mob was no help, either.

For starters, DC should be in quotes because Hannah Jiles' West Virginia roots should've been an immediate casting disqualification, but we digress. This show has bigger issues to address.

Namely, the formatting. By now, everyone's accustomed to the fact that participants are supposed to fall in love in the pods, test their physical connection on a tropical island, and return home to face the "real world" all to answer the ultimate question: "Is love truly blind?"

But the pacing of season seven, which was released on Netflix in October, is just too slow. The pods are understandably the most important part of the experiment, but since everyone knows that the real drama and relationship testing happens outside the pods, it was disappointing that so much time was spent in them. Plus, much of the focus was on a couple — Leo and Brittany — who we never got to see in the real world.

Even when we did get to the real world, most of the drama seemed to happen off-camera, making for an underwhelming season in a show that's becoming all too predictable.

Cinemablend's Alexandra Ramos wrote, "Everything feels so overhyped for situations that don't deserve this amount of attention. And then, for the things we do want to know about, we don't get to see it. Huh? That's not how this kind of thing works."

Fans of "The Bachelorette" are trained to expect the "most dramatic season ever" as each season begins airing, but there was no preparing for the abject humiliation that the show's producers put Tran through during the May 2024 finale.

In a franchise first, Tran proposed to her final suitor, Devin Strader, instead of waiting for him to propose to her. But before fans got to watch the proposal, Tran revealed she and Strader had broken up. Then, on live TV, Strader was brought out to sit onstage with Tran, and the two uncomfortably watched the proposal together.

Viewers across the internet were outraged at the choice to make Tran sit next to her ex. On X, one fan called it "one of the cruelest things they've ever done." ABC did not respond to a request for comment.

As Vulture's Ali Barthwell put it, "I feel unmoored from reality because it all amounted to nothing."

After the events of "Scandoval" in March 2023, fans of the long-running Bravo series were excited to watch a season in which the women of the show, who have long been pitted against each other, support Madix after her longtime boyfriend, Tom Sandoval, cheated on her with a mutual friend.

Instead, we got a season filled with Sandoval trying to weasel his way back into the group. Instead of Madix's friends, Lala Kent and Scheana Shay, understanding her boundaries, they almost immediately began bending over backward to appease Sandoval.

This culminated in a May 2024 season finale in which Sandoval went on a rant about Madix not wanting to film with him, and Kent said that she had never seen "someone who gets cheated on and suddenly becomes God."

After such outcry from fans, it's no wonder the show is on an indefinite hiatus, per The Hollywood Reporter.

Season one was for Daphne and Simon. Season two was for Anthony and Kate. Season three was supposed to be for Colin and Penelope.

And yet, their story was just one of too many plotlines fighting for airtime. While it felt inevitable that Colin Bridgerton and Penelope Featherington would end up together, it would've been nice to see the issue of Penelope's identity as Lady Whistledown cause more of a ripple effect in their relationship.

Meanwhile, Francesca and Benedict get way too much attention, as parts of this season are clearly meant to lay the foundation for upcoming storylines instead of developing these characters more subtly in time.

But the biggest letdown of season three was the treatment of Cressida Cowper, who gets no sympathy from Eloise or anyone else despite the audience becoming more aware of the circumstances that led to her behavior.

Alas, season three attracted 92 million views in less than two months following releases in May and June 2024. So, despite its flaws, it's still one of the most popular shows on Netflix.

"By the end of the season the overall sense is, 'This was an unfortunate mess and I'd love to watch more immediately,'" wrote Vulture's Kathryn VanAredndonk.

When "The Umbrella Academy," an adaptation of the Gerard Way comics of the same name, dropped its first season on Netflix in 2019, it was an instant hit. It was the streamer's No. 3 show in the US that year and was nominated for six Emmys.

Viewers fell in love with the dysfunctional Hargreeves siblings, and became invested in their well-meaning, if catastrophic, attempts to save the world.

The season three finale in 2020 left our characters in a parallel universe where they were missing their superpowers, an exciting cliffhanger to be sure.

Two years later, the fourth and final (and abridged) season hit Netflix in August, and one plotline really upset fans; namely, that Five (a 58-year-old man in the body of a 15-year-old boy) and Lila (an adult woman and the wife of Five's brother, Diego) fell in love.

Besides that, there are lots of other loose ends that are never resolved, most of the other siblings don't have much to do, and the ending is underwhelming at best.

As Autostraddle's Valerie Ann put it, "This is the way 'The Umbrella Academy' ends, not with a bang, but a whimper."

While "The Bear" received plenty of praise for its first two seasons on the awards circuit, season three was a bit of a downer for fans and critics alike, following its June 26 release on Hulu.

With Carmy finally out of the fridge, season three saw him on a mission to get The Bear a Michelin star.

Business Insider's Olivia Singh compiled critics' reviews, which painted a picture of season three as much slower than its predecessors, with the added frustration of unresolved plot lines and an unnecessary indulgence in cameos.

"Everything and everyone is left unresolved, something that could've been avoided with even just a little advancement for the main characters. Storer and company have left themselves with so much to unpack and address in season four," wrote IGN's Tara Bennett.

The bright point, though, has always been the work of actors Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edibiri, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach.

It might seem dangerous to criticize HBO's "House of the Dragon," a "Game of Thrones" prequel, for moving too slowly. In fact, one of the most common criticisms of "Thrones'" final two seasons was that it rushed through plots like it was a race.

But come on. By the time the credits rolled on the season two finale in August 2024, it became clear: This season was essentially an eight-episode trailer for the war that's to come between Rhaenyra and her half-brother Aegon.

The season has its defenders, of course, but the prevailing sentiment online was that the finale (and the season as a whole) was underwhelming.