Monday, March 10, 2014

Guilty Pleasure

I'd like to say I have pretty discerning tastes when it comes to the television I watch.  You can divide pretty much everything I watch into three categories: Educational, Skills Competitions, and Shows That Make You Think.

On the Educational front, I watch a lot of cooking shows and home renovation shows- mainly cooking shows, though.  I've been obsessed with Food Network since I discovered my love for cooking right before I left for college.  I've memorized Food Network's weekday schedule, and I've watched enough Restaurant: Impossible to have given up any thoughts of opening a restaurant.  On any given day, I'm watching Giada or Ina or Ree or Trisha while nursing Chief and getting ready to make dinner myself.  Aside from Food Network and HGTV, Mr. Geek and I love Mythbusters and Top Gear (and yes, I'm lumping this under the Educational umbrella because at the end of the episode, you have, in fact, learned something about the feature car, even if it's just how fast The Stig could take it around the track).

When it comes to Skills Competitions, I'm a huge fan of So You Think You Can Dance for obvious reasons (namely, my former life as a dancer) and also Project Runway (including the All-Stars and Under the Gunn spin-offs, though neither is as entertaining as the original).  With my aforementioned love of cooking shows, I'm a huge fan of the competitions on Food Network- mainly Chopped, Guy's Grocery Games, and Cutthroat Kitchen.

But I do watch fictional TV shows, too- it's just the minority of my TV-watching, and it tends to be in the drama or sci-fi category and less in the sitcom category (and they are Shows that Make You Think).  If there's nothing good on Food Network and if Top Gear is all re-runs, we're definitely watching Law and Order on any given day.  I used to love Special Victims Unit, but now that I have a daughter, I find it hard to watch stories of sexual assault and child abuse.  We like crime shows in this house- we both wish Criminal Intent were still on the air, as it's the best of the Law and Order spinoffs; we love older episodes of Criminal Minds, though that show has jumped the shark lately; and we'll gladly watch reruns from the first few seasons of the original CSI.  I think we both agree that LOST was the best show to ever be on television ever, and we're planning to re-watch it (again) soon since we own the super-extra-special edition.  We started watching Once Upon a Time on our most recent snow day, and the storytelling format reminds me of LOST (though obviously it's nowhere near as good).  I'm a sucker for British television, too- Downton Abbey, Sherlock, and Doctor Who are all favorites.  We do watch pure comedy on occasion, but it's generally just South Park and Futurama which are really quite smart shows, once you get passed the poop jokes.

All of this is to say- I don't really watch what is traditionally meant by "reality TV".  I can't stomach a full episode of The Real Housewives of any city, I couldn't care less about the Kardashian clan (they're only famous because of a sex tape, right?), and I don't understand how The Bachelor still has enough viewership to be on the air.  Stupid, shallow people being stupid and shallow are not my idea of entertaining subjects.

But there is one exception to this rule.

via E!
I once fell asleep on the couch with Chief while watching a movie and when we woke up, this show was on.  And it is hilarious.  Whomever is writing the script for this show deserves an Emmy because seriously, this is some funny stuff!  All reality TV is scripted in some way, be it contrived situations, creative editing, or outright written lines, and this show definitely falls into the latter category.  This show is infinitely quotable because it's written that way- there's no way these people are that witty and clever on their own, spontaneously.  Someone please- give these writers an award!

So yes, I admit it- while I don't watch it regularly and I don't DVR it, if #RichKids of Beverly Hills happens to be on, I'm all over it. 

What kind of TV do you watch?  Do you have any television guilty pleasures?

Much love,
The Geeks

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