9 Worst Times TV Shows Went Meta
7. Baywatch Knows It's Terrible
The cheapest trick in a screenwriter's book is drawing attention to the absurdity of a plot point for a cheap laugh - critics have even given it its own term: 'lampshading'. It is a hallmark of lazy writing, and an easy shortcut; the writer didn't know how to fix their script, so they just hung a weak joke on it, as if that alone absolved them.
There are too many instances of this trend to count (here's a supercut for the curious), but one of the most egregious examples of recent years arrived when producers resurrected Baywatch as self-aware, Frankenstein monster of a movie. Almost everything about the original series belonged in the distant past of the early-'90s, and Seth Gordon's attempt to relaunch it in a contemporary, naturalistic style was doomed from the start.
No amount of lampshading could fix this project, although that didn't stop the writers from trying, including a conversation in which the characters dismantle the entire premise of the TV series.