I was flipping through the TV channels recently when I ran upon “The Brady Bunch”. On any objective opinion, it’s a horrible show; underwhelming plots, unfunny jokes, bad acting, paper thin characterizations. Yet I just had to watch the entire episode and even started hunting up episodes on YouTube!
Or take curling. Even a description of the sport is utterly boring. Yet when I find a curling tournament on the CBC on a winter weekend (you can get the CBC on cable in the Seattle are), I’m hooked on it. Anything you freely admit is awful but you still gotta see?
I work nights, and take my lunch at about 0330. When I go into the break room to eat, the TV is usually showing ABC’s World News Now. So I switch to THIS and watch Mr. Ed.
Which is really quite stupid. But not quite as vapid as watching news on TV. So I just put up with Wilbur being such a dumbass.
Although it is completed, Nip/Tuck was pretty disgusting. I also could not stop watching it.
It seemed a goal of the writers for the show was to have the series ‘jump the shark’ every episode. and they succeeded spectacularly.
to wit:
Wrapping a corpse in sliced ham for convenient swamp gator disposal
Joan Rivers wanting a computer simulation of her appearance should she have all of her plastic surgery reversed
a creepy incest plot line
a creepy mime plot line
a disturbing serial killer born without a penis
a plastic surgeon able to discern a post operative male to female transexual with the first er, um, insertion, of his manhood
a fellow surgeon with a ‘thing’ for molesting furniture
a woman seeking a nipple reconstruction after her husbands dog bit it off after she seduced it
(I could go on, but you get the idea)
Love the show, I miss it terribly, and I feel unclean . . . .
:eek:
Man, I’m stuck here waiting until the 2014 Olympics to watch Curling again and you can even appreciate what you have!
I hate to bring this up, but Denis Leary’s ‘Rescue Me’ is pretty awful.
It is essentially an all male turgid soap opera, with men emoting and drama-queening their way through failed relationship after failed relationship.
Can’t stop watching that one either . . .
I watched an entire season of Toddlers & Tiaras on Netflix. THAT, my friends, is some very bad television.
I guess I’m pretty good at changing the channel when crap comes on.
However, my wife always criticizes me when I watch Bloodsport for the umteenth time.
Well, I watched two seasons of Heroes and I’m currently watching The Cape.
God, what was with that show? It was like crack. I could feel my brain withering into a rank, diseased mass.
The compulsion to do “ripped from the headlines” episodes (my chimp ripped my friend’s face off! but he was a son to me, you understand…). And just to one-up themselves, to hang a lampshade on it by doing the same thing, all meta-like, when Dr. Whatsis became a hollywood soap opera star.
Also, I lost count of the times I said to myself, “Matt, you’re a moron,” or “Christian just raped her!”
Hated it, don’t miss it, but damn I could not get out from under. I blame the depression. 
Kitchen Nightmares on HULU. I put it on autoplay and find myself having ripped through 3 or 4 episodes in no time. It’s formulaic, stupid, and even more obviously scripted and planned in season 2. Gordon Ramsay is an ass without a single original word to come out of his mouth. I am avoiding any other shows that have him in them. Yes, I will most likely get through all the HULU seasons and start watching the damn current episodes once I run out. At least I usually do get some other stuff done while watching, though eating dinner has been a bad idea a few times. It makes me nearly fall off the couch laughing when he spits food out, though.
Chuck. It’s like a dumbed down Alias, and that’s saying quite something.
But the two lead ladies are soooo hot. And Adam Balwin is there, moodier than ever. It’s impossible for me not to watch both things.
Way back in the day I used to watch Small Wonder. That is by far the worst show I’ve ever seen in my life, but we watched it religiously. I think it was so we could MST3K the shit out of it.
I got sucked into two of the Real Housewives franchises – Atlanta and Beverly Hills. I’ve watched the Dinner Party From Hell episode five or six times.
In case anyone cares, Allison Dubois, the woman the show Medium is based on, is a right bitch. “I can tell you when you’re going to die – I love that about myself.”
I disagree with your assement of the “Brady Bunch.” It’s not Shakespeare and was never meant to be. With such a large cast they had to be a bit thin with their characterizations, but this happens in almost all sitcoms.
The new Hawaii Five-0. The plots and writing are just hideously bad, muddled messes. I can’t help it, though, because Scott Caan is so charming and delivers these bad lines with a smirk that says he’s in on the joke.
Phew, glad I never missed anything. My ex-wife was into it. I remember watching the first few episodes with her, maybe the first season. Then I can remember something utterly stupid happening and thinking ‘that’s it, I’m done’ after that, I just caught a little bit here and there, but never followed it again.
Same for Prison Break, she watched that too. I watched the first few episodes and it wasn’t for me, but over the course of the next few seasons I would catch a few minutes here and there and comment to her “Wait, why are the prisoner and the jail guard guy on the same team now?” “Why is the jail guard guy in a mexican jail?” Seemed like that show got overly convoluted.
Married with Children. It’s so lowbrow yet so good.
Beavis and Butthead. I guess you could say it’s satire, but couch fishing and Cornholio are darn funny. And the music video commentaries are hilarious.
The Jersey Shore. I watch a lot of reality shows and swore I would never watch this one but I’m sucked in.
Also, those various fat people shows on MTV.
Know that!
Those are mine too, although I watched NY, OC, and BH only. It’s awful but you just can’t stop watching, you know?
The original CSI. I thought when Grissom left, I’d be able to walk away from it, but I still can’t stop watching. They get so many things wrong it just hurts.
The last episode, they’re trapped inside a building with a bomb. They can’t get out because of the sensors on the doors. The building is a warehouse MADE OF CORRUGATED STEEL. Have the four of them pick up something heavy and punch through the damned wall. Not to mention the highly visible green lasers that surround the bomb, but they have to blow dust to see those same lasers next to the door. And saying, “that plywood won’t do much to shield you from C4,” when they’re talking about a stack of 4x8 sheets. Yeah, four feet of wood will help a bit! And Catherine burning out the video camera (I like the way it goes all staticky) with her handy-dandy pocket laser. And the fact that all of their radio signals and cellphones were blocked, but the signal for the camera still worked. And looking at the knot on the tripwire (under a microscope, of course) and being able to tell instantly that it was tied by a left-handed former sailor. And the bullet booby trap. And the tripwire that doesn’t trip when Nick pushes it, but only when it’s released. And crime scene investigators being out in front with guns in a standoff with armed killers. And convicted serial killer Nate Haskell managing to switch ID bracelets with another prisoner right after a visible trial–and the escorts don’t notice. And…
But I watched it.