Television's Guilty Pleasures

Discuss TV shows old and new.
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mfunk9786
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Television's Guilty Pleasures

#1 Post by mfunk9786 » Sat Jul 17, 2010 11:54 pm

So I wanted to post about my latest TV obsession, Pawn Stars, and rather than be foolhardy enough to attempt to give it its own thread here, I figured this would be a nice way to post about it. Everyone's encouraged to post about things that they can watch impulsively for hours that they might not necessarily be all that comfortable advertising that they watch impulsively for hours.

Anyway, onto Pawn Stars - it's down-homey without feeling obnoxiously red state, and is a very light and breezy way of melding brief history lessons with "what would I do if I hit the lottery" we've-all-thought-about it financial fantasy. Watching people come into the shop and converse with the appealing and occasionally amusing owners about what they think they have (or more interestingly, don't realize they have) is a great format, but the show really shines when someone comes in to appraise an item and shed light onto exactly what makes the item so valuable or in some cases, worthless. I'd highly recommend that anyone (really, anyone - no indicators here) takes an hour or so and watches a couple of episodes. It airs on the History Channel on Monday nights, in case you haven't heard of it.

Okay, well. Have at the thread. It should be a fun read if people contribute recommendations/defenses of their favorite shows.

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domino harvey
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Re: Television's Guilty Pleasures

#2 Post by domino harvey » Sun Jul 18, 2010 12:11 am

Have I not talked about my love of Pawn Stars on here? It is probably the funniest non-scripted (well...) show on TV. The interactions between the three generations are a riot.

As for my own choices, well, I will defend these to the death: Dharma and Greg and Two Guys and a Girl were just two of the funniest sitcoms ever

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Re: Television's Guilty Pleasures

#3 Post by mfunk9786 » Sun Jul 18, 2010 12:16 am

I'd have given Dharma and Greg a try by now if I could even remotely stomach Elfman's loopy free-spirit schtick for longer than a minute.

But as long as we're talking conventional sitcoms, I'll defend Home Improvement, Boy Meets World, and The Big Bang Theory to the death.

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Re: Television's Guilty Pleasures

#4 Post by domino harvey » Sun Jul 18, 2010 12:31 am

Big Bang Theory and Dharma and Greg were both created by Chuck Lorre, maybe you're missing out on the best thing ever!!!

J/K, if you can't buy into Elfman, you won't get very far. But to my mind it's almost a perfect example of a classic sitcom in that the characters are all surface cliches salvaged entirely by the combination of adept comic acting and terrifically funny scripts. But I have a long history of thinking this show is funny and convincing no one

Two Guys and Girl is even harder for me to defend, though I think it's even funnier, because I don't know what to say other than that I can watch an episode and laugh almost consistently, even when the jokes aren't that great, because I buy into the performers completely. I don't even know if it still comes on in syndication anywhere, but I bought a bootleg series set from iOffer and probably watch it more than a lot of the shows I know are technically "better"

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Re: Television's Guilty Pleasures

#5 Post by Polybius » Sun Jul 18, 2010 12:59 am

I honestly don't even believe in this concept. If you like something you like it. I know that's a little Popeye Zen-ish, but I find it to be true.

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Re: Television's Guilty Pleasures

#6 Post by domino harvey » Sun Jul 18, 2010 1:20 am

Then approach the topic as something you enjoy that few others do

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Mr Sausage
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Re: Television's Guilty Pleasures

#7 Post by Mr Sausage » Sun Jul 18, 2010 3:51 am

Tho' I'm not truly guilty about it, I could easily watch Gordon Ramsay scream obscenities and insults at people for hours. That's why I watch Hell's Kitchen every week. Fantastic show.

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Cold Bishop
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Re: Television's Guilty Pleasures

#8 Post by Cold Bishop » Sun Jul 18, 2010 4:39 am


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Re: Television's Guilty Pleasures

#9 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sun Jul 18, 2010 9:05 am

I love Pawn Stars enough not to consider it a guilty pleasure. It's like Antiques Roadshow meets Top Gear. And the interaction between the generations makes for good television.

Mine would have to be NCIS. Considering how some people here think of (and rightly so) The Wire as the greatest thing ever, it is a little daunting for me to mention that I love this network-caliber crime drama. I look at it this way, if CSI is equal parts charm and gloom, this show has the charm while Criminal Minds is all gloom. Plus, Mark Harmon was born for this kind of role and brings depth to what otherwise would be seen as cookie-cutter.
Last edited by flyonthewall2983 on Sun Jul 18, 2010 6:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Television's Guilty Pleasures

#10 Post by colinr0380 » Sun Jul 18, 2010 9:29 am

I'm loving Mongrels at the moment (and that's the first time in a while that I could say that about a BBC sitcom, though it might just be that the puppets are cute!), despite it being tucked away on the BBC's 'youth' channel.

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Murdoch
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Re: Television's Guilty Pleasures

#11 Post by Murdoch » Sun Jul 18, 2010 11:53 am

Mine is probably Rescue Me, which I have yet to determine whether what I think of even though it's been on for like six seasons and is a guilty pleasure mainly because Denis Leary is such a despicable jerk on it yet I can't get enough. Its portrayal of alcoholism is brutal, and its probably the most pessimistic show on any station, yet there have been many hiccups in the show that just turned me off for a while - a weird dream sequence last season, the rape scene. But I will say it's the best show dealing with post-9/11 PTSD, alright it's actually maybe the only one.

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Re: Television's Guilty Pleasures

#12 Post by kaujot » Sun Jul 18, 2010 12:04 pm

Anyone a fan of Good Eats? It's solely responsible for my renewed interest in chemistry and physics. And, you know, you can eat your experiments.

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domino harvey
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Re: Television's Guilty Pleasures

#13 Post by domino harvey » Sun Jul 18, 2010 12:35 pm

I was a huge Good Eats fan in high school, haven't seen it lately though.

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Re: Television's Guilty Pleasures

#14 Post by Napier » Sun Jul 18, 2010 1:49 pm

I love Bonanza! Can't, stop, watching.

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Re: Television's Guilty Pleasures

#15 Post by willoneill » Sun Jul 18, 2010 6:47 pm

My guilty pleasure, I'm not ashamed to say, is The City, the Hills spinoff. This season especially, I find it to be a very accurate portrayal of office and industry politics.

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Re: Television's Guilty Pleasures

#16 Post by Polybius » Mon Jul 19, 2010 2:45 am

flyonthewall2983 wrote:Mine would have to be NCIS. Considering how some people here think of (and rightly so) The Wire as the greatest thing ever, it is a little daunting for me to mention that I love this network-caliber crime drama.
No need for trepidation. Several of us are big Law & Order fans. I watch NCIS from time to time and I like it just fine. I've liked Harmon for a long time (Summer School is terribly underrated) and I like the way Weatherly cheerfully puts up with being the butt of so much humor. That line about him being unlikely to get a date with Jessica Alba was classic.

If food shows count, then I'll mention the Travel Channel's Man Vs. Food. I've learned a lot about regional derivations and origins of food (the whole hot dog/coney thing; the Minneapolis Jucy Lucy controversy) and about regionally famous restaurants that I wouldn't otherwise know anything about.

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Re: Television's Guilty Pleasures

#17 Post by LQ » Mon Jul 19, 2010 7:47 am

Polybius wrote: If food shows count, then I'll mention the Travel Channel's Man Vs. Food. I've learned a lot about regional derivations and origins of food (the whole hot dog/coney thing; the Minneapolis Jucy Lucy controversy) and about regionally famous restaurants that I wouldn't otherwise know anything about.
My personal favorite food/travel show is Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, although Man Vs. Food is also beloved in the LQ-Mfunk household. We've actually travelled pretty far distances to attempt some of the more memorable challenges involving extremes of spiciness.

To gel with the crux of the thread, I suppose my "guilty pleasure" would be Web Soup, which I think I actually enjoy more than the original, but am still slightly embarrassed by. It caters to a very puerile sense of humor, but sometimes there's nothing funnier than a spectacular skateboarding mishap that ends with a blow to the groin.

...Right?

Also, the "palate cleanser" is one of the greatest segments ever, especially considering what it follows. A nice set-up, that, to maximize humor. I even -blasphemy!- slightly prefer the host Chris Hardwick to Joel McHale. Slightly.

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Re: Television's Guilty Pleasures

#18 Post by Murdoch » Mon Jul 19, 2010 5:08 pm

LQ wrote:To gel with the crux of the thread, I suppose my "guilty pleasure" would be Web Soup, which I think I actually enjoy more than the original, but am still slightly embarrassed by. It caters to a very puerile sense of humor, but sometimes there's nothing funnier than a spectacular skateboarding mishap that ends with a blow to the groin.
Speaking of G4, Attack of the Show! was the mainstay of my college TV schedule. It's gone downhill with the cycling in and out of new hosts, but the days when it was just Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn were TV gold.

Also, I recently discovered this Korean show Pasta, it's a fun little show but I kept watching mainly for Lee Sun Gyun's screaming at the other chefs.

And the TV version of Weird Science is my favorite show ever!

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Re: Television's Guilty Pleasures

#19 Post by Kellen » Mon Jul 19, 2010 5:45 pm

Most of my friends hate it but I always enjoy how i met your mother.

Also, I agree with original poster on pawn stars[, I also get sucked into ghost adventures but I think it's because it is trying so hard to be serious but instead it ends up being hilarious.

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Re: Television's Guilty Pleasures

#20 Post by kaujot » Mon Jul 19, 2010 6:41 pm

How I Met Your Mother is great and in no way should be construed as a guilty pleasure.

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Re: Television's Guilty Pleasures

#21 Post by Quot » Tue Jul 20, 2010 10:44 pm

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed RuPaul's Drag Race.

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Re: Television's Guilty Pleasures

#22 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Thu Jul 22, 2010 8:46 pm

Polybius wrote:
flyonthewall2983 wrote:Mine would have to be NCIS. Considering how some people here think of (and rightly so) The Wire as the greatest thing ever, it is a little daunting for me to mention that I love this network-caliber crime drama.
No need for trepidation. Several of us are big Law & Order fans. I watch NCIS from time to time and I like it just fine. I've liked Harmon for a long time (Summer School is terribly underrated) and I like the way Weatherly cheerfully puts up with being the butt of so much humor. That line about him being unlikely to get a date with Jessica Alba was classic.
I thought mentioning it here would be guilty pleasure territory because L&O would be looked at in a better light here than pretty much all of CBS' crime drama's since Nash Bridges (with the possible exception of Michael Mann's Robbery Homicide Division which I have yet to see). My ex-girlfriend is a big CSI and Criminal Minds (the latter of which, I cannot emphasize how fucking gloomy it is) fan and I felt like Sideshow Bob watching MacGuyver with Patty & Selma watching some of that.

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Re: Television's Guilty Pleasures

#23 Post by lacritfan » Sat Jul 24, 2010 2:03 am

I have to admit my favorite moments of Pawn Stars are the ones that are clearly setups - there's no way Chumlee wasn't gonna break the glass display case with that ball and chain.

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Re: Television's Guilty Pleasures

#24 Post by mfunk9786 » Sat Jul 24, 2010 9:04 am

I don't know that the guys are necessarily great actors though - there was some genuine anger going around when it happened.

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Re: Television's Guilty Pleasures

#25 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sat Jul 24, 2010 1:39 pm

In that vein I liked the moment where Corey destroyed the toilet chair by accident.

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