Watching things for bad reasons

Posted by Maggie June 27th, 2006 at 10:14am In All Things TV Guilty Pleasures

1. Hex, BBC-America. Reason I watched it: a reviewer in the New York Times said it was better than Buffy. WHAT? I said, and immediately tifauxed it in indignation. Going into it with an attitude like that… not promising. Also not promising: stories that meander and go nowhere (except very obvious places), almost no evidence of witchery or anything supernatural despite everyone being mildly scared all the time, dull as dishwater (and twice as stupid) heroine — I could go on. To be fair, I'm going to watch one more episode. But I expect my initial resentment isn't going anywhere.

2. The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, the Disney Channel. Reason I watched it: I heard it was popular with children? Honestly, I have no idea. I blame High School Musical for lowering my standards. And I guess I'm fond of the concept of a bunch of kids living in a hotel (ask me about my crappy novel). Anyway, I had no idea it was a sitcom, so that was a disappointment right away. It's about twins. That live in a hotel. Because their mother — sings there? That part wasn't clear. The janitor (pardon me, hotel engineer) is in love with their mom and apparently faints all the time, and nobody talks about the fact that he seems mildly retarded. Sharpay works for the Michel-from-Gilmore-Girls rip-off. There's a bratty Asian girl. Everyone learns a lesson. The end. The sad thing is, in fifteen years, 25-year-olds will be posting the opening credits sequence from this show and dying of nostalgia.

[Side note: Spent a long time trying to discover why Dylan and Cole Sprouse are famous. The only thing I could figure is that they were the kid in Big Daddy. To which I say: Really? That's it? Wow. They're just handing out sitcoms to any kid off the street, aren't they?]

3. Cheaper by the Dozen, TBS. Yeah, I know this is a movie. But it's been playing nonstop. Reason I watched it: It was there. Reason I continued watching it even after the commercial break, and then tifauxed it so I could see the beginning: Tom Welling. I don't even watch Smallville, but maybe I should start…

So he's slightly more beefcake than I usually care for. He's still purrrty. 

Also racing through Firefly (love, love, love it), just finished the second disk of the first season of Lost (I suspected Sawyer was a TAAGH, now I know for sure), and am taking on Undeclared over the July 4th weekend. But I'm not watching those for bad reasons. They're just good.