10 Recent TV Shows With The Worst CGI Moments
These VFX-heavy moments stood out like a sore thumb on the small screen.
The last two decades or so have seen a notable rise in quality TV. This new Golden Age of Television or Peak TV has seen the rise of critically acclaimed shows that dominate ratings, conversations on pop culture, and the awards circuit.
Shows such as The Wire, Pose, Atlanta, and Breaking Bad are renowned for their immersive narratives, complex characters, and captivating performances. They. and others of their kind, have helped challenge the notion that TV cannot compete with film in regards to scope and narrative depth.
However, just like cinema, TV has its own limitations to overcome. For every The Wire, there are more bland, run-of-the-mill police/crime procedurals being greenlit and canceled in the same breath. In addition to this, TV budgets are not always large nor consistent and this hurts the creatives' visions from being fully realized.
Due to the latter, it is not uncommon to find a show with awful visual effects, from rushed green screen compositing to unconvincing fantastical characters. The reasons for this vary, but there is no denying that VFX companies are often pushed to their limits within unreasonable time frames, and the result is a potentially awe-inspiring moment undercut by laughably bad effects work.
10. The Deer - The Walking Dead
The Walking Dead has never been the most consistent show, with even its most ardent fans agreeing that it is a far cry from the comics it is inspired on.
That said, the show has its merits, chief among them the cast's committed performances and its bleak tone expertly conveying the nightmare of living in a post-apocalyptic world. However, its effects work are all over the place.
This is best demonstrated in "Say Yes" (the seventh season's twelfth episode) when Rick and Michonne encounter a deer in an abandoned funfair. Now, this would not be noteworthy if the deer was well rendered, or real, but the CGI used to bring the animal to life is evidently incomplete.
The deer is onscreen for a brief moment before being mauled by walkers, but this did not prevent audiences from having a field day ridiculing the digital eyesore. Seeing that a real deer was used in the show's second season, it is clear that budgeting cuts or a rushed production schedule were to blame for the distracting moment.