These are the most divisive TV shows of the decade. The 2010s has seen some major shifts in the TV landscape, moving from the Golden Age of Television into the Peak TV era, and with that have been changes viewers consume TV, and thus how they react to it as well.
Thanks to social media, there's been an increase in die-hard fandoms around TV shows, such as Rick & Morty, and it's never been easier for fans to express their opinion - and in particular their displeasure - about a certain TV series or specific episode. And while this decade has seen a lot of TV shows both good and bad, there has also been a number that have been controversial and split opinion, whether over their entire run or just in the final few seasons.
It might be a case that there's a TV show critics hated but audiences clearly loved, or a series disliked by fans but that received great reviews, or otherwise a TV series that absolutely no one could agree on, but everyone argued about. From 2010-2019, these were the TV shows that tore people about and proved extremely divisive.
12. The Newsroom
Aaron Sorkin is rightly revered as one of the all-time great screenwriters, especially when it comes to TV, but he couldn't please everyone with The Newsroom, no one could quite decide.
11. Hemlock Grove
Hemlock Grove's Rotten Tomatoes score at just 38%. At the same time, it developed something of a cult following, with fans enjoying its horror elements, universe building, and characters and performances, holding a much more respectable 64% audience score on RT.
10. Girls
HBO's Girls, and vice versa.
9. Roseanne
When ABC decided to revive Roseanne instead should've remained on the air, causing more division off-screen than it did on-screen.
8. The Walking Dead
Negan cliffhanger at the end of season 6, and the season 7 premiere that followed. The latter was decried for being needlessly violent, but its defenders will simply tell you that's The Walking Dead, and while the ratings have dropped off now, at its height there were long arguments about whether it was actually any good.
7. Star Trek: Discovery
Star Trek TV series in over a decade when it debuted back in 2017, so there was already a lot of pressure riding on the series from the outset. Aiming to put its own spin on Star Trek, Discovery was largely praised by critics, but its first season especially was very divisive among Star Trek fans. There were arguments that it "wasn't Star Trek", and some fans disliked new elements such as following a lead character who wasn't the captain, or just the personality of Michael Burnham in general, while others found it to be a fresh, exciting take on what's come before, exemplified by its Rotten Tomatoes scores: its 82% with critics, but just 43% with audiences.
6. Iron Fist
Iron Fist is the worst thing the MCU has produced, and others who'll say it's not even the worst of the Netflix shows.
5. Gotham
Starting off as a Batman series without Batman, Gotham's new twists on Batman lore and those who rejected it changing such core aspects of the character.
4. How I Met Your Mother
How I Met Your Mother's series finale that made it so truly divisive. By quickly killing off the Mother and having Ted end up with Robin, a lot of fans were furious with the idea that they'd wasted so much time invested in the show only for those last twists. At the same, the HIMYM finale has been defended for its story, being true to life, and nailing its other aspects too, but nonetheless it remains one of the most controversial series endings ever made.
3. Lost
Lost finale itself, which was loved by some fans, despised by others, and spent most of the decade as TV's punching bad and go-to example of a bad finale.
2. 13 Reasons Why
13 Reasons Why Netflix's most divisive and controversial series so far.
1. Game Of Thrones
It's tempting to say that all of Game of Thrones is the biggest TV show of the last 10 years, so it's not much of a surprise that it's also the most divisive TV series of the decade as well.