Contributor: Paul Asay

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

Pretty Little Liars

Millennials behave badly here. Their parents can be worse. And all those pretty faces don’t make all that content any less ugly.

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Anne With an “E”

This reimagining of Anne of Green Gables, can be, like its title character, sweet. But it has its sour moments, too.

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Cedar Cove

If television is comfort food, this is its homemade meatloaf.

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Family Tools

Just because a sitcom includes the word family in its title doesn’t mean it’s a family show. Let’s put this another way: Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor wouldn’t even recognize this family business.

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Catch-22

Hulu’s adaption of Joseph Heller’s revered 1961 satire mingles comedy, cynicism, sex and horrific violence.

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TURN: Washington’s Spies

In terms of problematic content, James Bond would feel right at home in this Revolutionary War espionage drama on AMC.

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Amish Mafia

UPDATED REVIEW: Do the Amish really have their own mafia? Discovery says yes. So what follows here is a lesson in not believing everything you see on TV.

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Hoarders

We talk a lot about our American penchant for stuff and how we can’t ever get enough of it. But for some people, that’s not hyperbole: It’s reality. And it makes for very sad reality TV.

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Napoleon Dynamite

Can Napoleon Dynamite blow up TVs like he did movie screens back in 2004? Or will he end up getting squished like a pocketful of tater tots?

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Wipeout

Based on a handful of masochistic Japanese game shows, Wipeout pits colorful contestants against cartoonish obstacle courses.

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Awkward.

UPDATED REVIEW: When MTV premiered The Hard Times of RJ Berger in 2010, network general manager Stephen Friedman said it “speaks to where we need to go as a network.” Awkward. now puts punctuation on his statement.

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The Shannara Chronicles

Wil, Amberle and Eretria want to protect the Four Lands from the Forbidding darkness. But their show already has its own demons to deal with.

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Kevin (Probably) Saves the World

This exceptionally silly show is surprisingly good, too—and in more ways than one.

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Reign

A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse to drag this horrible show away! Or maybe write a better one! With its hooves! (Signed, Mary, Queen of Scots)

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Gotham

The glimmer of hope in all this dimness? Mr. Gordon, of course, the guy with the super-flashlight.

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