From The Newsroom and Smash to Twilight , 2012 was the year we loved to hate.
Source: HBO
There was a time when we watched TV shows and movies because we liked them. But round about the dawn of Twitter, we wanted something else from our entertainment — namely, fodder to complain about all day and night. 2012 was the year hate-watching became our national pastime. Across the airwaves and in our multiplexes, it often seemed like people were tuning in just to find something to throw rotten eggs at. Across the landscape, we were out in force complaining about the sequels that let us down, about the cop shows that never turned over the bad guy, and the cable shows that railed away on soapboxes. America felt entertainment let them down this year, and they took to their Twitter accounts to let entertainment know it.
Here are the shows and films that inspired the highest volume of griping in 2012 and our thoughts about whether the complaints were deserved — or whether we were getting all worked up about nothing.
1. "The Newsroom"
Image by John P. Johnson/HBO/MCT
The Aaron Sorkin HBO drama was blasted by critics for being preachy, speechy, sexist, racist, anti-technology, implausible, and just flat-out annoying. Though I consider myself to be a Sorkin fan (West Wing, A Few Good Men, Sports Night, The Social Network — love them all), I felt those things too. Yet I couldn’t stop watching The Newsroom, and I looked forward to every episode. It entertained me. I grew to genuinely love Olivia Munn’s character, Sloan Sabbith, the brilliant business anchor who seems to be on the autism spectrum (as so many TV characters do these days). The rest of it — I have no real explanation for why I watched. I just wanted to see what would happen with the relentless plotting, and I liked hearing the actors talk even if I recoiled from what they were saying. I cried a few times too; I won’t tell you when, but one instance rhymes with “wosama kin plodden.” I think a lot of HBO viewers plain old liked it, cleaving from critics and hate-watchers; it drew an average of 7.1 million per week, according to HBO. The arguments around it, and the show itself, made 2012 more interesting. And I can’t wait for season two! —K.A.