10 Bad Episodes Of Otherwise Perfect TV Shows

Season 1 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was unsteady in the way that debut seasons often are - for a show that had such a unique premise, it’s understandable that it took a few attempts for the minds behind it to strike the right tone. Then, after the supernatural drama had really hit its stride in its second and third years, came this clanger of an episode at the beginning of the fourth season.

In Beer Bad, Buffy is heartbroken after getting the cold shoulder from Parker Abrams, who she’s just spent the night together with. Our heroine decides to go out with some fellow students to drown her sorrows with copious amounts of beer. However, when Buffy and her drinking buddies begin regressing into violent Neanderthals, it becomes clear that this is no usual bender and the owner of the pub is putting more than malt into the beer.

Beer Bad is a corny, ludicrous hour of television from a show that had proved it could do much better. On top of this, the script was shamelessly written to catch the attention of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which funded shows that promoted an anti-drugs message. As it turned out, the ONDCP rejected their requests for funds, arguing that the premise of the episode was too divorced from the reality of actual drug-taking amongst teens. So ultimately we were left with a poor episode that failed in every respect.

However, it did win an Emmy Award for Outstanding Hairstyling In A Series. So not a total loss after all.