Bad TV is like junk food. You know it’s not good for you, but sometimes, you feel compelled to consume too much of it anyway. In this week’s Roundtable, we reveal some of the TV shows we’re a little embarrassed to admit that we watch.
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Both past and present shows are fair game for this topic. Are you a secret ‘Baywatch’ fanatic? Do you watch every episode of ‘The Bachelor’ with rapt attention?<\/p>\n
Shannon Nutt<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n I’m going to shock a lot of people with this one, and perhaps lose the few loyal readers I may have gained, but I confess to being a fan of ABC’s daytime soap ‘General Hospital<\/strong>‘. I got hooked back in the ’80s and ’90s when the show was more about spies and the Mafia than the daily routine of Port Charles’ hospital. There were great characters (and some talented actors) back then, including Luke Spencer (Tony Geary), Robert Scorpio (Tristan Rogers), Anna Devane (Finola Hughes) and Frisco Jones (Jack Wagner). Around the turn of the century, the show took a nosedive in quality, and most of the stars I loved exited and found other careers. However, due to the fact that ‘GH’ is celebrating its 50th Anniversary right now, the show has brought a bunch of fans’ favorite characters and actors back, including all the ones I listed above, for both short- and long-term stints. Both the writing and the pacing of the show has increased tremendously, and I must confess to being hooked once again.<\/p>\n Daniel Hirshleifer<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n People snicker at me when I admit that I watch ‘The Vampire Diaries<\/a>‘, but I maintain that it’s one of the most surprising and compelling shows currently on TV. It has nothing in common with ‘Twilight’ and its mediocre ilk. Yes, there’s teen drama on display, but it’s balanced by a ferocity and unpredictable nature that keeps the audience constantly guessing. When you start an episode of the show, you genuinely won’t know who will be alive or dead (or dead and resurrected) by the end of it. It moves at such a breakneck pace that three or four episodes cover more material than some full seasons of other titles. It still manages to surprise and enthrall me every time I watch it. Truly, the only show I find more tense and unpredictable is ‘Breaking Bad’. The Vampire Diaries’ is such pulpy fun that I shouldn’t have to feel guilty about loving it.<\/p>\n Luke Hickman<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n I don’t get around to watching as much television as I’d like, so there aren’t many series that I get to follow. However, there’s one series that I’ve loved since it first began its run in 1989. I don’t consider it a guilty pleasure, but not having seen an episode of it until she met me, Mrs. Hickman has labeled it just that: ‘Quantum Leap<\/strong>‘. With a guilty pleasure, I’m typically ashamed or embarrassed to admit that it’s something I enjoy, neither of which I feel about ‘Quantum Leap’. But according to my wife, it’s a series that I should be more than embarrassed to admit enjoying. Sure, it hasn’t aged as well in the area of special effects, but it’s still a solid episodic drama with characters worth caring about and great big heart. I still watch it now, and that’s definitely not going to change.<\/p>\n Adam Tyner (DVDTalk<\/a>)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Hey. My name’s Adam (“Hi, Adam!”), and I’m a ‘Pretty Little Liars<\/strong>‘-aholic. My descent started last June when I mainlined a bunch of episodes on a cross-country flight for a wedding. Before I knew it, I was standing in the middle of the Bella Terra shopping complex in Huntington Beach, California, furiously texting with my bestie about who we think the sinister “A” is and who our favorite characters are and OMG can you believe Lucas just did<\/em> that? All of a sudden, I’d turned into a 14-year-old girl. At my lowest point, I even started reading a ‘Pretty Little Liars’ fashion blog. ‘Pretty Little Liars’ is one of the most ridiculous series on TV, but that doesn’t stop it from being wildly addictive. From the girls dressing up as candy stripers to break into a morgue for the eight hojillionth time, to howlingly clunky hashtags like #thewrongfitz that keeping popping up on-screen, ‘Pretty Little Liars’ is my guiltiest guilty pleasure. Admitting that I have a problem is the first step.<\/p>\n Tom Landy<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n This will probably sound truly, truly, truly outrageous<\/em>, but when I was a kid, I used to watch ‘Jem and the Holograms<\/strong>‘. Now let me be clear: This animated TV series wasn’t something I’d rush home from school to watch or anything like that. (Honest!). However, the feminine-charged show about exciting adventure, fashion and fame aired right after ‘G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero’ or ‘Transformers’, and since there really wasn’t anything else on to watch at that time, my younger brother and I just ended up watching ‘Jem’. After a while, I started getting into this show, and to this day I still remember most, if not all, of the lyrics to the theme song. JEM! Jem is my name!<\/p>\n Mike Attebery<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n ‘Felicity<\/strong>‘. That’s right, ‘Felicity’. When my wife and I first moved in together, we were a couple years out of college, working unfulfilling cubicle jobs, and the absurd romantic entanglements of the frizzy haired girl who always said “Hey”<\/em> (who, by the way, didn’t seem to be the brightest bulb in the box), seemed to be the perfect tonic after a day of soul deadening corporate servitude.<\/p>\n Aaron Peck<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n I’m ashamed to admit that most of my guilty pleasures are “Reality” TV shows that are obviously scripted or staged. I don’t know why I watch them, but I do. I even posted about my addiction here back in 2011<\/a>. I still watch ‘Gold Rush’, which I find oddly enjoyable even though most of the people on it seem like dimwits. The other shows have been replaced by the likes of:<\/p>\n So, yeah… My name is Aaron and I’m addicted to crappy Reality TV. Are you happy?<\/p>\n\n