Post by lugnut on Jan 8, 2012 13:23:00 GMT -5
Yeah yeah, I know, there's no such thing as a "guilty pleasure" if it's something you like... But now and then something comes along that you know isn't actually very good, or at least isn't living up to its potential, that you enjoy anyway. What are your "This is crap but I like it" choices of TV shows (or movies, I suppose)?
I'll stick with TV now, but some that come to mind:
The Cleveland Show - The superfluous third Seth McFarlane show, which I really, really wanted to hate when I first heard about it. I've never got into American Dad and Family Guy usually frustrates me more than it makes me laugh these days, so when it was announced that King of the Hill was being cancelled so this could fit on the schedule I was hoping it would crash and burn. I watched the first episode hoping to laugh at how awful it was...and instead I just actually laughed. Critics hate it, ratings aren't very good, but damned if I don't usually enjoy it for some reason. 1st season was better than the 2nd, but I guess we'll see how the 3rd turns out.
Growing Pains - Yeah, Growing Pains. God help me, I'm about to defend fucking Growing Pains. Here's what you don't remember - it's not nearly as saccharine-sweet as Full House, the show it's often compared to. In fact, it's actually got some pretty clever writing here and there, at least before Kirk Cameron's Jesus-fetish largely neutered the show in its last couple years. I'm not saying it's an overlooked work of comedic genius, but when you watch it with an open mind now in retrospect it comes off as a much better show than it really ought to be. It might be the show that introduced me to the "breaking the 4th wall" joke, which it did all the time - which is why it surprises me that, to this day, critics fawn over shows that do those jokes like they're something cutting-edge. Growing Pains was doing it in 1986. You get the impression that the writers and the cast both realized they were doing a cookie-cutter family sitcom and decided to have a little fun with it instead, so even during its worst episodes you never want to hang yourself like you would with, say, a Family Matters marathon.
In the Heat of the Night - A favorite of grandparents everywhere, it seems, but for some reason I liked this show when it originally aired and I like watching the reruns now too. Being from a small redneck town may help, because it gets the setting so right thanks to actually being filmed in a real small redneck town - even though somehow the small town of Sparta, MS. seems to have as many murders and rapes on a weekly basis as Chicago does. The show's first two or three seasons are generally much better than the later years, when Carroll O'Connor was allowed to take the exec-producer position and wound up softening his character considerably, but even the stupidest episodes are fun to watch just for the over-the-top and/or awful acting from the guest stars (and occasionally from the full-time cast too). Also, the ridiculous, faux-bluesy score cracks me up - if you've seen the show, you know what I'm talking about.
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air - Much of what I said about Growing Pains applies here too - it's just a better, smarter, funnier show than it really should be. In the first season or two it hadn't quite found its footing, seeming too much like a black Full House at points, but mostly this is a show that holds up surprisingly well thanks to its cast.
Feel free to add others or mock me for defending any of the above.
