OT - What is your guilty pleasure of TV watching?

[RABid]

I have two and they are very different, yet, both reality TV.

 

1. Hiliday/Spring Baking Championship - I cook, I dabble at baking, I like watching people bake at a much higher level than me.

 

2. BattleBots - Remote control robots cars with weapons. If my high school had a robotics team when I was in school I might have done that rather than join marching band. It is like pro wrestling, but real. And no one gets hurt, except for egos and pocket books.

 

Both are on HBO Max.

[NewImprov]

My current favorites are Slow Horses on Apple TV+ and Julia on Max. Slow Horses is like a cross between John LeCarre and the British version of the office, where the British intelligence service is shown as a basically dysfunctional workspace, it's funny as hell, and a pretty great thriller at the same time. Gary Oldman is fantastic in it.

 

I've been an unabashed fan of Julia Child's cooking shows for decades, and this fictionalization of the early years of her tv series is pretty great. The 2nd season is currently airing on MAX.

[Bill H.]

Oshi no Ko: The gynecologist of a pregnant superstar singer is murdered by her stalker, then is reborn as one of her twin babies - the other twin being a former patient of his. 

 

Japanese anime can get a little weird. 

[kpl1228]

Archer. Totally dysfunctional secret agent. My god does it get me laughing.

 

[CyberGene]

We’re huge fans of Fargo with my wife, waiting for episode 6 of the current fifth season to become available later today. Not sure if it counts as guilty pleasure though. Maybe Yellowjackets does (not the great jazz/fusion band) on Sky Showtime. 

[Baldwin Funster]

I haven't watched TV at home in about 8 years when my TV broke.

If you are counting youtube 

I_am_puma is a favorite. It's in Russian though.

[JamPro]

14 hours ago, RABid said:

2. BattleBots - Remote control robots cars with weapons. If my high school had a robotics team when I was in school I might have done that rather than join marching band. It is like pro wrestling, but real. And no one gets hurt, except for egos and pocket books.

 

BattleBots is great fun - it is painless destruction and no one should feel guilty watching it.  I love it when the crumpled and broken robot bursts into flames while the victor is dancing around it.

 

My guilty pleasure is watching the "1st Amendment Auditors" on YouTube.  Most of them are bs, but I guiltily enjoy watching someone loudly criticizing cops.    

[eric]

I love Suits and The Morning Show. I also recommend Shrinking, a newer one on AppleTV with Harrison Ford doing a great job playing an aging psychologist.

 

All the Christmas movies at this time of the year. The classics of course (It's a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, etc.) and the irreverent/funny (Elf, Office Christmas Party, Christmas Vacation) and some of the newer ones such as Candy Cane Lane and Spirited.

 

I also watch Late Night with Seth Meyers and enjoy it quite a bit. I was able to attend a live taping of this last week.

[Stokely]

7 hours ago, Baldwin Funster said:

I haven't watched TV at home in about 8 years when my TV broke.

If you are counting youtube 

I_am_puma is a favorite. It's in Russian though.

Yeah, actual cable tv is pretty much never turned on (it basically is just bundled with cable) other than sports--and I've even kind of lost interest in most of those.

My guilty pleasure is watching (certain) reaction videos on youtube, the movies and trailers more than the music.   Yeah, they are contrived considering a lot of those people are making a living at it (!) and the whole idea is weird but that's why it's a guilty pleasure.

Went back to doing more video gaming in place of show watching, and I'm averaging about a movie a year.   Dune pt 2 will be next year's movie, don't think 2023 had one!

[Bill H.]

3 hours ago, eric said:

 I also recommend Shrinking, a newer one on AppleTV with Harrison Ford doing a great job playing an aging psychologist.

My siblings and I binged watched this series in two night chunks recently. It's a lot of fun - especially if you are in a group. 

 

We did the same thing with Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Getting through the whole series took a couple of years of get-togethers, but I'd hardly call it a guilty pleasure since the show is highly reviewed and loved by all. 

 

Out of curiosity I started the new Percy Jackson series last night. I'm hooked... I'll see this one through. It's a guilty pleasure I guess because it's target audience is considerably younger than me. 

[RodWichita]

currently  - anything on TCM - Going my Way with Bing Crosby and Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer and William Frawley... It was relaxing hearing Bing Crosby sing.  Don't get me wrong, I love a good battle bot show...but this time of year and since I kind of grew up on Crosby, Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, etc...

[ProfD]

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives would be the closest thing to a guilty pleasure in TV watching. 

 

Guy Fieri's reaction and commentary to food preparation and tasting are hilarious.😎

[Docbop]

The Wire, Bosch, Orphan Black, Goliath, Killing Eve, Power, The Expanse, NYPD Blue and similar shows.  Then when I got my refurbished MBP it came with a few months of Apple TV free so I'm getting into checking out shows there.   So far I like For All Mankind a weird show on NASA but like the cable show Man In The HighTower they flip history around.  So For All Mankind the Russians land on the moon first and constant hassles with Russia.  Then they flip US history some in the background.   Then someone else mentioned Slow Horses that is real good show and a few SciFi and dystopian stories Solo, Invasion, Monarch.   The shows all have high production values in cinematography sound, costumes, sets, and sound, but my gripe is many of the show are 10 episodes or less.    But watching on my MBP with it's great screen and using AirPods Pro the spatial sound is a great experience.   I might pay for Apple TV after the free time is over. 

 

So in general I like dark TV shows not into comedy and Sitcoms. 

[Synthaholic]

Too Much Information time, but I recently sent this in an email to my brother, so I'm just copying it here.

 

I've been binge-watching The Rifleman lately, a favorite from when I was a boy. Definitely a guilty pleasure!

 

 

The Roku Channel (free) has all five seasons of The Rifleman, and it's absolutely amazing how many stars were on it. From a young, straight-eyed Jack Elam (he's in 5 over the years, and the eye starts misaligning as the seasons go on) to Batman's Adam West. Dennis Hopper is in two S1 episodes, including the debut. Ida Lupino directs an episode (S3 E26 'Assault') Richard Anderson is great in 5 or 6 , Claude Akins (3) (who I didn't know was half Indian), Warren Oates (5), Agnes Morehead (Endora, on 'Bewitched'), Lee Van Cleef (4).  Oates and Van Cleef are both is S2 E31 'The Prodigal'. Robert Culp is in two of them, the first as a very unconvincing teenager in S2 E19 'Hero'. He seems older than Chuck Connors in his manner. The second appearance is fantastic, as a bounty hunter S4 E20 "Man From Salinas". He also wrote 'Waste' part 1 and 2, which began S5, starring Vito Scotti as a Mexican bandit with the worst teeth you've ever seen. Speaking of Mexican bandits, Martin Landau plays a great one in S4 E1 "The Vaqueros". William Schallert is in a couple, Cesare Danova, Vic Morrow, Buddy Hackett (2), Sammy Davis, Jr. (the highest rated episode on IMDB)(2), Michael Ansara (Barbara Eden's husband, and famously, Klingon commander Kang), Kevin McCarthy from 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' plays a very good Mark Twain (opposite a pool shark Jack Elam), Robert Vaughn, Michael Landon and Dan Blocker, pre-Bonanza, a very young Richard Keil ('Jaws' from James Bond), James Coburn (2), Lon Chaney, Jr. I'm sure I'm missing some big ones. Richard Donner directed a handful, as did B-movie noir director Joseph H. Lewis (51), Arthur Hiller, and Sam Peckinpah. Paul Mazursky wrote some episodes.

When you watch a bunch of them, you notice the same supporting actors in multiple episodes:

John Milford - 11
John Anderson (great!) - 11
Chris Alcaide - 10
Peter Whitney - 9 - different in each one
Dabbs Greer - 8
Mel Carter - 8
Richard Devon - 7 episodes, and he's great in each. My favorite guest star.
Royal Dano - 5, including as a neighbor who thinks he's Lincoln. Dano played Lincoln a lot, and Disney used his voice for the Hall of Presidents. Another stand-out is 'The Sheridan Story' S1 E16, as a war-wounded Confederate soldier holed up at the McCain ranch.
John Dehner - 4, and he's always fantastic, too.

 

 

Told you it was too much information! 

 

 

[midinut]

Last series we binged was Lost in Space. Very Enjoyable and well done.

Series we have really enjoyed have been 1883, Hell on Wheels, Scorpion, NCIS recently.

Yellowstone is probably next.  

[RABid]

20 hours ago, Bill H. said:

Out of curiosity I started the new Percy Jackson series last night. I'm hooked... I'll see this one through. It's a guilty pleasure I guess because it's target audience is considerably younger than me. 

I also started this. The big complaint many had with the movies is that they did not follow the books very well. I wonder if this will be closer?

[RABid]

9 hours ago, Synthaholic said:

When you watch a bunch of them, you notice the same supporting actors in multiple episodes:

Star Trek was big on that. Vaughn Armstrong has the record for most roles played across 4 series. Everything from federation officer to alien.

[Ed A.]

Shark Tank, 25 Words or Less, Chopped, most things on HGTV, Forged in Fire, Pawn Stars.