Yahoo Lifestyle How 25 Bad Casting Decisions Derailed Otherwise Perfect TV Shows (According To Fans)
Recently, I asked the BuzzFeed Community to share a casting choice that spoiled an otherwise perfectly good TV show for them. The people of the BuzzFeed Community DID NOT hold back their opinions. I'm sure people don't want to hate on the listed actors, but sometimes the wrong casting can derail a series for the viewer:
1."Kristen Schaal in 30 Rock...I’m sure she’s a lovely person, but her character is a one-trick pony. She ruined the later episodes she was in. I fast-forward through them on rewatch."
—Anonymous, 30
2."Elizabeth Keene in Blacklist. She is so inconsistent and just all-around a forced character. It's so profound that a character like her is in the same show as some other characters and a tragedy that James Spader's performance as Ray Reddington had to deal with her constantly."
3."Neil Patrick Harris in A Series of Unfortunate Events. Count Olaf is genuinely scary, and that should be able to come out along with the silliness. There needs to be a balance, and Harris wasn't it."
4."The actor who plays Pablo Escobar in Narcos. Although he does admittedly look like him, he is Brazilian, and his accent is so distracting, especially in a show that’s mostly in Spanish and set in Colombia. Why they couldn’t find a COLOMBIAN (or at least native Spanish-speaking) actor is baffling to me."
5."I love Catherine Tate, but when she joined The Office, I couldn’t help but think the series was starting to go downhill pretty fast. I’m pretty sure the writers even admitted that the character of Nellie was poorly written as well."
—Anonymous, 23
6."Cosmo Jarvis as John Blackthorne in Shogun. I loved the original show with Richard Chamberlain. I really wanted to love the new one as well, but I found Cosmo completely unappealing. Never finished the show."
7."Ed Sheeran in Game Of Thrones made me want to quit the show. It was very weird and random. He didn't have many lines, but I couldn't pay any attention to the character he played. Very odd."
8."I loved the show Boardwalk Empire, but I really felt Steve Buscemi, who played the main character, was miscast. Nucky Thompson is supposed to be charming and charismatic, which I did not think he pulled off. I think he's a great actor, just wrong for this part."
9."I love Mulder, but has enough time passed for us to admit that David Duchovny isn't exactly an acting powerhouse? Someone else in that role could have elevated the show to legendary status among non-X-file fans."
—Anonymous, 54
10."Eliza Duschku in Dollhouse. She is not a bad actor, but she doesn't have the versatility that the role demands. There were scenes and episodes where she had to quickly switch personalities and play three different people at the same time, but she wasn't really that believable. It was specifically noticeable when sharing scenes with costars like Amy Acker, Enver Gjokaj, and Dichen Lachman, who absolutely had the range she was missing, and yet she was cast as the protagonist."
11."I believe Selena Gomez's wooden acting in Only Murders In The Building is a miscast."
12."Grey's Anatomy has had some terrible casting choices over the years, but my least favorite is Caterina Scorsone as Amelia Shepherd. The acting was not great, and the role was awful. She was the first of many reasons I quit watching."
13."Matt Lucas single-handedly RUINED The Great British Bake Off for me. I could not stand to watch him look at the camera and the bakers waiting to be acknowledged for being 'funny.' For the two episodes I watched with him, it even seemed like the cast didn’t know what to do with his comments other than a reality show version of the customer service laugh (iykyk). I adore this show, and it sucked having this out of my lineup while he was a host."
—Anonymous, 38
14."Rob Lowe in 911: Lone Star. The show revolves around him so much that it makes an already somewhat cheesy show not work well for me. Almost every scene is about him, and each heroic act is performed by him— add in his inauthentic acting and health guru diet jokes, and he takes me out of each scene he hogs. We barely get to know the other characters."
15."I know I’m going to get hate for this, but Rob Lowe in Parks and Rec. He just wasn’t funny and didn’t match up to the rest of the cast."
16."Chris Rock as Frank Gathers in Empire. Just the mere mention of his name would send Lucius and Cookie into a state of fear, but when he showed up I feel like Rock didn’t embody the menacing figure he was made out to be."
17."When Dick Sargent replaced Dick York as Darrin on Bewitched. There was no chemistry between him and Elizabeth Montgomery. He was a cold fish."
—Anonymous, 68
18."Kirsten Vangness as Penelope Garcia in Criminal Minds. I get the quirky science character and often love that, but not her. I stopped watching the show because she was so annoying."
19."I know everyone loved David Tennent in Good Omens, but he took a young-presenting character trying to be cool and turned him into an aging rocker trying to hold onto his youth. That's a horrible look on anyone. I love the actor, but he was too old for the role."
20."The casting of Mirren Mack as Merwyn in The Witcher: Blood Origin was a bad choice. She didn’t have the presence to fill that role, and it brought the whole limited series down. Every scene with her sort of ruined it for me."
—Anonymous, 54
21."Patton Oswalt as Morpheus's raven in Sandman did a really good job, but his voice is so distinctive it really took me out of the story; I kept thinking, oh, that's Patton Oswalt. Not his fault, but maybe someone less recognizable would have been better."
22."I wouldn't say the show was completely ruined, but when Noah Centineo replaced Jake T. Austin in The Fosters. I thought it was unnecessary, and they didn’t even look similar. However, I watched the show until the very end, and I watched Good Trouble afterward. The change annoyed me."
23."Kiernan Shipka as Sabrina in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, the Netflix reboot of Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Everyone seems to belong perfectly in the universe, but Kiernan Shipka was just dropped in from a Broadway musical. I cannot stand how overcoached she is; she sticks out like a sore thumb, and nothing she does feels believable."
—Anonymous, 30
24."Dustin Hoffman playing Giovanni de Medici in Medici. What the heck were they thinking? Every scene he was in was ruined for me."
—Anonymous, 62
25.And finally, "Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak in Arrow. Casting someone as skilled comedically as she is made the showrunners decide to lean towards a non-canon ship. It ruined the effectiveness of the show."
I'm sure we all have varying opinions, so share your opinion on these entries, and please share your own TV miscast!
