8 TV Shows That Were Terrible (But We Couldn’t Stop Watching)

7. Pretty Little Liars

Pretty Little Liars started out as pretty good fun. It wasn't prestige TV by any means, but then not everything needs to be: it was entertaining enough and compulsive viewing that tapped into a key audience.

The show centred around a group of high school girls whose 'leader' disappears, and a year later they start receiving messages from a figure called 'A' who threatens to expose their secrets. It wasn't exactly great to start with, and some critics did hammer it from the get-go, but the mystery formed a propulsive plot and the characters were interesting enough to keep you engaged, with the ABC Family series feeling like something ripped from The CW (for good and bad).

It was the network's most popular series, running for seven seasons with solid ratings, and has even led to a spin-off (and its success also led to more books in the series it's based upon being written too). Unfortunately the show had to continually stretch out its initial premise, running down dead-ends, bringing in different A's, having believed dead characters come back, and generally falling victim to all sorts of nonsensical, convoluted writing that ultimately ends up going against what it started out at and spinning into a decline that only worsened as the show wore on.