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Sure, watching these shows is a blast — but would you actually want to live there? Join us as we count down the most terrifying, oppressive, and downright miserable fictional TV universes you'd never want to call home. From zombie-infested wastelands to dystopian theocracies and superhero-ruled dictatorships, these worlds make our reality look pretty great by comparison!
Transcript
00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the fictional universes from television that are fun to
00:05watch, but that will be awful to live in.
00:07When you play the Game of Thrones, you win, or you die.
00:12There is no middle ground.
00:15Number 10. The Boys.
00:17For everybody who has wished that superheroes were real, well, be careful what you wish for.
00:21In the world of The Boys, supes are generally entitled narcissists, whose heroism is just another product pushed by a
00:27major corporation called Vought.
00:29But you are under a misconception that we are a superhero company. We are not. What we are, really, is
00:36a pharmaceutical company. And you are not our most valuable asset.
00:41The public are just as likely to suffer deadly consequences from the collateral damage of supes fighting crime, or each
00:47other, than they are to receive any real benefits. And that's when things are normal.
00:51You ain't alone, son. It means a lot more than you think. Supes lose hundreds of people each year. It's
00:56a collateral damage.
00:58No, no. Come on, that'd be all over the news. People would be screaming bloody murder.
01:01Towards the end of the show, Homelander turns the United States into a dictatorship, glorifying himself and other supes. Just
01:08being the average person in this world would play havoc on our mental health at best.
01:12Have you seen the memes about me? Posting them should be a crime.
01:19Number 9. Battlestar Galactica. This sci-fi series starts with the Cylons wiping out humanity's colony worlds with nukes. And
01:26it somehow goes downhill from there.
01:29Yes, we're tired. Yes, there's no relief. Yes, the Cylons keep coming after us time after time after time. And
01:37yes, we are still expected to do our job.
01:40The survivors on the planets are left in irradiated apocalyptic wastelands, constantly hunted by the Cylons.
01:46Meanwhile, the ones in space are packed into a handful of ships, including the titular Galactica, and are constantly hunted
01:53by the Cylons.
01:54Lack of food, space, and other poor living conditions are the best case scenario.
01:58There's also frequent power struggles between the ad hoc government and the military.
02:02One fights the enemy of the state, the other serves and protects the people.
02:08When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people.
02:16Even their brief stint on a new colony world isn't great either, since the Cylons find them and brutally oppress
02:21them for a while.
02:22And their reward at the end of all this? Going back to basics on prehistoric Earth.
02:27Uh, yay?
02:28I have to say, I'm shocked at how amenable everyone is to this notion.
02:34Would have thought to be a general uprising at the idea of losing whatever little creature comforts we had left.
02:39We hope you'll go back to the basics by joining us on WatchMojo's 24-7 livestream.
02:44Scan the QR code on screen to join us for non-stop TV fun.
02:47Glad you could join us, Admiral.
02:49Lieutenant Hoshi suits me just fine, sir.
02:52Admiral's stars turned out to be a little heavy.
02:56Happiest day of my life when I saw that raptor jump into the rendezvous point.
02:59Number 8. Doctor Who Franchise
03:01The whole world is stinking.
03:04How could anything be worse than me?
03:07Trust me, we need the Doctor more than ever.
03:09I've...
03:11I've been pulled across from a different universe, because every single universe is in danger.
03:15While the titular Doctor may sweep their companions and the audience off their feet by showing them the wonders of
03:21the Hooniverse,
03:21it's easy to forget that a lot of it would be terrible to live in.
03:24This version of Earth is constantly being invaded by aliens throughout its history.
03:29Look in the sky.
03:30There's a great big alien invasion, and I don't know what to do, alright?
03:34I've traveled with him, and I've seen all that stuff, but when I'm stuck at home, I'm useless.
03:38Now all we can do is run and hide, and I'm sorry.
03:42Likewise, the rest of the universe is filled with galactic wars, dystopian future colonies, and universe-ending threats.
03:49Although the Doctor does all they can, they're still just one Time Lord in an increasingly chaotic universe.
03:54They can't save everyone, and the times and places when they aren't around are decidedly bleak.
03:59We did it, but how many died down there?
04:03That's not your fault.
04:05You can't save everyone.
04:09Why not?
04:10Number 7. The 100
04:11After Earth has a nuclear apocalypse, thousands survive in a space station.
04:16However, the oppressive rules mean that freedoms are few, and the powerful hoard everything good.
04:21Those people locked my people up.
04:24Those people killed my mother for the crime of having a second child.
04:30Your father did that.
04:31And they've got it good by comparison.
04:33When juvenile delinquents are sent back to Earth, they encounter warring factions of survivors
04:37who fight over the small amount of habitable land.
04:40Oh, and some of them are cannibals.
04:41This land is ours now.
04:47Resist, and you will be met by force.
04:50Fight, and you will be greeted by death.
04:54Everything gets worse and worse throughout the show, with nuclear reactors melting down, leading to a second apocalypse, and even
05:00less available territory.
05:01Even the supposed good guys take drastic and genocidal actions in the name of the greater good.
05:07So there's no winners here.
05:08I tried.
05:13I tried.
05:14I tried to be the good guy.
05:17Maybe there are no good guys.
05:19Especially after they leave Earth, and they take all that infighting to the stars.
05:23Speaking of.
05:24Number six.
05:25The Expanse.
05:26Colonizing space only leads to new and bigger problems for humanity.
05:30Ceres was once covered in ice.
05:34Enough water for a thousand generations.
05:38Until Earth and Mars stripped it away for themselves.
05:43Earth and Mars are involved in constant wars, cold and hot.
05:46Earth is overcrowded and underemployed, and Mars is effectively a police-slash-military state.
05:52Residents of the asteroid belt and outer moons lack the resources of the inner planets, and are usually used by
05:57both.
05:57Every time we demand to be heard, they hold back our water, aqua-benta-noda, ration our air, and eluce
06:04-benta-noda, until we crawl back into our holes, imbobo-benta-noda, and do as we are told.
06:10Then, there's the alien ring network, which leads to hundreds of new worlds and contact with the terrifying remnants of
06:16ancient alien tech.
06:18Plus, Earth suffers a massive attack by the Belters, which kills billions, and leads to cataclysmic ecological disasters.
06:24So, the choices are, live on a ruined Earth, an oppressive Mars, barely habitable Belter stations, or roll the dice
06:31that an alien world won't kill you.
06:33Uh, pass?
06:34I wish I was down there.
06:36Have we talked about the slugs covered in neurotoxin and the ocular parasites?
06:41Well, there is no restarting a reactor, so I got a decaying orbit and a fiery death up here. Don't
06:45act like you're special.
06:46Number 5. American Horror Story
06:49Just the title alone is gonna make most people nope right out of this entire universe.
06:53No refunds.
06:55But, we need the money for the new hotel.
07:00Welcome to America.
07:01Although American Horror Story is an anthology series, each season is set within the same fictional world.
07:06It's a world where a stay in a hotel or moving to a new town is almost guaranteed to see
07:11you and or your family involved in some scary supernatural happenings that will prove deadly to you or someone close
07:17to you.
07:17You don't want to do that. You'll have a house full of spirits coming after you and they aren't all
07:22as gentle as this one.
07:26Oh, sweetie. Do you want to play?
07:29Ghosts, aliens, witches, and all manner of eldritch entities abound here.
07:34And while it's thrilling to experience them secondhand, in real life, they'd be terrifying.
07:38Worst of all, you might have to suffer through yet another eerie, slowed-down version of a popular song.
07:43Number 4. Supernatural.
07:46You'd think the whole monster of the week thing would get old after a while.
07:49But Supernatural features... let me check my list real quick.
07:52Every monster ever?
07:54Monsters are real.
07:57Some of them, yeah.
07:59And the shapeshifter, he could turn into different people.
08:04Yeah.
08:05Yeah, except this one's turning into the great monsters of Screenland, which is a new one for me.
08:10Living in a world where all monsters are real and preying on humanity is bad enough.
08:14But at least when you die, it's okay, right?
08:16Well, hell is an endless nightmare of pain and suffering, where becoming a demon is the good ending.
08:21And heaven is everybody's personal heaven.
08:23Except when it's not.
08:25Both upstairs and downstairs switch management often, as both frequently fight civil wars that spill over onto Earth.
08:30Gather your army and kick the candy out of each and every angel that shows up for Raphael.
08:37Are you proposing that I start a civil war in heaven?
08:41Ding, ding, ding.
08:41Oh, and there's also a new apocalyptic event basically every year, with only two brothers apparently able to stop them.
08:47Man, even God's a jerk in this universe.
08:49When you're not here, are you...
08:52watching us?
08:57Yeah.
08:59I mean, you're my favorite show.
09:02Then why don't you do something?
09:03Number 3.
09:04The Handmaid's Tale Franchise
09:05You girls will serve the leaders of the faithful and their barren wives.
09:12You will bear children for them.
09:15Dystopias are no fun in general, but the one presented in The Handmaid's Tale and its spin-off, The Testaments,
09:20is especially grim.
09:21Set in a theocratic state called Gilead, which has taken over the United States,
09:25its residents are reduced to their roles and permitted virtually no freedoms,
09:29with women especially having virtually no autonomy at all.
09:32If my right eye offends thee, pluck it out.
09:37With breeding stock, you don't need eyes for that.
09:39There's no privacy, equality under the law, or anything else that makes a society tolerable for the people living in
09:45it.
09:45While not as supernaturally terrible as many other fictional universes,
09:49it's the fact that, under the right or the wrong circumstances,
09:52we could imagine this happening in our own world that makes Gilead so awful to contemplate living in.
09:58We only want it to make the world better.
10:08Better?
10:10Better never means better for everyone.
10:12Number 2.
10:13The Walking Dead franchise.
10:14Zombies.
10:15We all know the drill.
10:16Don't you get bit.
10:18I saw your bandage, and that's what we were afraid of.
10:22Bites kill you.
10:23The fever burns you out.
10:25But then after a while,
10:29you come back.
10:30Living in a world where the dead keep going and want to kill you would be horrendous to live in.
10:35And throughout The Walking Dead and its shocking number of spinoffs,
10:38we see just how bad it can get.
10:39Our camp is running out of water.
10:42But we have resources that would benefit you.
10:44We can offer you cattle, fuel, or guns in trade.
10:48No necesitamos nada.
10:49Societal collapse means basic survival is a luxury,
10:52and the few communities that do crop up don't exactly thrive most of the time.
10:56The living are even more dangerous than the dead,
10:59as groups with petty tyrants, sadists, cannibals,
11:02and all manner of thugs are all depressingly common.
11:05So you're a good guy?
11:07You have no idea about the things I've done.
11:12You're a good guy.
11:16That's why you're gonna die today.
11:17The whole experience would be relentlessly draining on the mind and the body.
11:21Just the amount of work needed to create a sense of security,
11:23much less acquire food, feels exhausting.
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11:36Are you not entertained?
11:39Number one, Game of Thrones franchise.
11:42Everybody in Westeros has it pretty bad.
11:44We allow the Northerners too much power.
11:46They consider themselves our equals.
11:49How would you handle them?
11:51I double their taxes,
11:53and command them to supply 10,000 men to the Royal Army.
11:56The common folk are trampled on by the nobility,
11:58and used to fight their endless civil wars.
12:01But the mortality rate among the lords and ladies is unfortunately high too.
12:05They say they can't be killed.
12:08Do you believe them?
12:10No, my lord.
12:13Anyone can be killed.
12:15Betrayal is around nearly every corner,
12:17and the ones it's not behind probably have dragons or ice zombies lurking instead.
12:22Nasty, brutish, and short basically sums up life in Westeros.
12:25Best case scenario,
12:27you're a minor southern noble or a banker on some other continent.
12:30But even then,
12:31you're still going to have the life expectancy and quality of life
12:33of somebody from a middle-age style fantasy world.
12:36No thanks.
12:37Don't fight for your king,
12:39and don't fight for his kingdoms.
12:43Don't fight for honor, don't fight for glory,
12:45don't fight for riches because he won't get any.
12:48Is there a terrible TV universe you were terribly disappointed we forgot?
12:51We hope you'll live in our comments and tell us your picks.
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