The Best And Worst Shows On TV In 2016

Photo: Fox

9. The Rocky Horror Picture Show

I really, really wanted to like this. I’m not one of those grumpy formalists who doesn’t think we should remake our favorite classics. I was really rooting for Fox’s Rocky Horror Picture Show. Laverne Cox as Dr. Frank-N-Furter should have been a home run. I was soon disappointed as the musical limped along in the shadow of the original.

True, it’s unfair to compare a new production with its predecessor, but when you take on such a cult favorite, you have big shoes to fill (insert your own stiletto joke here). The 2016 version felt like it was wobbling around in its mother’s high heels and never quite found its own stride. The magic was lost in the remake, as it never really justified its own existence. Watching the anemic pair of Victoria Justice and Ryan McCartan bordered on hard to watch, and the added element of the built-in audience does the exact opposite of what it was supposed to.

Directed by Kenny Ortega, it just seemed like it never could measure up, and maybe that has more to do with existing feelings about the 1975 version, than the actual performances. It was nice to see Tim Curry as the narrator, but I think I would’ve rather seen him just get up there and do it the way it ought to be done.