Best of 2013: ‘Betrayal,’ ‘Teen Mom 2,’ ‘Real Housewives of New Jersey’ among ‘best’ of the worst

We’ve been fairly nice to most of the entries in the Best of 2013 series, and for good reason. Most of them are legitimately good. Even the Most Disappointing Show nominees were not all necessarily terrible shows.

But, these are the shows that left us with the worst taste in our mouths of any that aired across all the networks within the past 12 months, including one that was a previous favorite. They were either unwatchable, infuriating, or a downright insult to viewers. Sometimes, they were all three. Sometimes, TV shows need to be told, just like some people with too much booze in them, that they shouldn’t be stumbling around the room spouting off about whatever nonsense is in their heads. The need to sit down, sober up, and realize where they went wrong. This is what we’re here to do.

“Betrayal” (ABC) – Basically, watching this show is a betrayal to all that is good with TV watching. There are so many little things that it does wrong from beginning to end, but the biggest one is probably acting like anything on this show is that shocking considering that this is the same network that airs “Scandal.” It feels like the show wanted to capture that early “Revenge” following and also some “Fifty Shades of Grey” fans, but failed at both.

“Dads” (Fox) – There are a number of things that are funnier than “Dads,” which includes ironically watching a Uwe Boll movie, and that guy on Reddit who trolls during AMAs. This show is just brutal, offensive, and stuck somewhere in a time portal. It’s like something that would’ve aired for five weeks in 1989. Now, it’s get the opportunity to air for a full season and probably get canceled once it’s first season is over.

“Dexter” (Showtime) – This one was really, really hard for us, since it’s a show that for many years was one of our favorites. But you just cannot excuse the worst ending for any once-beloved series we have ever seen. At least there are some people out there who liked the “Lost” ending (we’re one of them), but there’s just nothing redeemable about the way that Dexter Morgan’s journey ended. It didn’t pay off, and in fact made us angry at the show for putting this much investment into something with no benefit coming back to us.

“Lucky 7” (ABC) – It lasted for two weeks. In some ways, we think that is all you really need to say. But basically, to keep the “Lost” comparisons coming, someone decided that Hurley’s backstory was worthy of an entire show … minus Hurley and everything else that made it cool.

“Super Fun Night” (ABC) – Every thing that we listed as funnier than “Dads” is also more fun than “Super Fun Night.” The best way to have fun watching this show is to mute it and re-watch “Modern Family” on your iPad. This also may win the just-created-in-our-mind award for biggest waste of a great talent in Rebel Wilson. We’d rather see her reenacting all of her lines from “Pitch Perfect” for year than deal with a show that is just unfunny and forces the issue. It would have been a million times better as a movie, and we seriously mean that.

“The Real Housewives of New Jersey” (Bravo) – A lot of these shows on this list are new, and haven’t had an opportunity to “find itself.” This show, meanwhile, had forever to find itself, and decided that that identity was going to be going to be a family reunion when all of your family hates each others, fights over stupid things, spreads rumors, and yells “YOU’RE RUINING THE FAMILY” two billion times. Remember when this show used to be fun? So long as both Teresa Giudice and Melissa Gorga are both on this show together, it’s always going to be about them and little else. For two years now, it’s been going downhill to where we are now.

“Teen Mom 2” (MTV) – Even though it may have aired early this year, this is one mess that we just could not forget about. “Teen Mom 2” is one part exploitation, one part drama, and two hundred parts terrible. We don’t necessarily think that the show inspires teenagers to get pregnant and be famous, but it does offer an outlet for a select few who do find themselves in that position … and there’s no way that “reality” can truly feel real. Plus, after the first year or so the stars become aware of the cameras and their fame, then take a turn for the significantly worse.

“The X Factor” (Fox) – One of the worst singing competitions ever, made even worse by the fact that no one really seems to care. Neither Simon Cowell nor Paulina Rubio took the time to know their contestants’ names, which shows they probably see them for around two minutes a week. Also: Tired song choices, terrible hosting, overwrought editing, and a set that sounds like you are constantly at the coliseum waiting for someone to send out the lions! We’re too busy losing our mind.