We know shows like The Sopranos and Mad Men are good for us, but what about those that aren't? The ones we secretly tune into - and hate ourselves for loving? Here are a few guilty pleasure admissions from the Herald's entertainment team.
Jersey Shore
It's been two sad years since I've seen Ronnie down a batch of pink 'Ron-Ron' juice. Two long years since I've heard Pauly D yell, "T-shirt time!" and "Cabs are here!". And two lonely years since I've seen Snooki binge on an entire jar of pickles. As an entertainment journalist, it is a bottomless well of shame to admit that I've seen every single episode of Jersey Shore - but I've never finished The Sopranos.
The cast from MTV show Jersey Shore.
I'd argue the complicated interpersonal relationships between the overly tan cast of Jersey Shore cause just as much tension as that between Tony and his mobsters. Even better, these guys were real - well, as real as you can get from a staged reality show. That time jealous Ronnie trashed Sammie's bedroom and smashed her glasses! That time the Situation headbutted a wall! That time J.Woww punched The Situ! Oh, the memories. Oh, the guilt. It's been two years too long you guys. I miss you. Surely it's time for a reunion season? Doing my 'GTL' without you just hasn't been the same. - Chris Schulz
Shamefully some of my favourite TV shows are guilty pleasures: Roswell, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel, Teen Wolf. But recently it has been the incredibly melodramatic teen drama The Vampire Diaries that has got me squirrelled away, watching in a dark corner. At one point in time I swore that I would never watch the post-Twilight TV series and yet, here I am binging the show on Netflix.
The Vampire Diaries.
The show follows the misadventures of Elena Glibert and her new vamp buddies Stefan and and Damon Salvatore - along with all of their other messed up friends. My favourite part about The Vampire Diaries is that EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER has died and come back to life at least once during the show's six (soon to be seven) seasons. There are often multiple resurrections within one episode. Anyone would think it was a zombie show. Then of course there are the love triangles, battles with vengeful vampires, plans falling to pieces in the last moment. Ah, such drama. The show's story-lines are so ridiculous and tangled that it's like a supernatural Days of Our Lives. And don't even get me started on the equally trashy spin-off show The Originals. All in all The Vampire Diaries is truly awful, but I love it. - Rachel Bache
Survivor
Host of TV show Survivor Jeff Probst.
Survivor has screened for 30 seasons. That's 15 years of buff babes eating nothing but beans and rice while undergoing extreme physical challenges and occasionally scoffing a Mars Bar in secret. Sounds like your average Crossfit class. I don't do Crossfit, but for eight seasons of Survivor I interviewed every single contestant that appeared on the show. Once a week, I'd get a phone call from a nice lady called Sandy at CBS who would introduce me to the latest starving sucker with dollar signs in their eyes who'd had their flame snuffed out by Jeff Probst. At first, I was underwhelmed. I didn't care. But, over time, I got personally involved in their daily scuffles. When someone I liked got backstabbed, it felt like they were backstabbing me. When someone went crazy and destroyed an entire tribe's food stash, it was like someone had just cleaned out my pantry. And when someone got eliminated, it was like I was right there, starring Probst in the eye, starving, breathless, hangry and desperate to dunk chunks of chocolate into a giant jar of peanut butter. I got hooked. I was addicted. I binged, Googled, talked, wrote and dreamed Survivor. It was my life. Then I changed jobs. And I stopped doing the interviews. But I still secretly, shamefully tune in every season. If you don't watch it, you won't understand. But it's still good. - Chris Schulz
Nashville
Hayden Panettiere and Connie Britton in Nashville.
I know it's melodramatic and emotionally manipulative and the songs can be terrible and the outfits fairly horrific. But I can't help it, I got sucked right into Nashville, I think partly because in some remote part of my brain there's a fantasy about being a country music star and singing duets with Deacon Claybourne. Actually the idea of singing in public terrifies me, but there's so much guilty entertainment to be had in Nashville, once you're in it's hard to stop. The cowboy boots, the guitars, the sequinned dresses, the low-key nights at the Bluebird Cafe. Sigh. No really, the writing isn't half bad. Hayden Panettiere's sassy wee character Juliette Barnes gets some great lines, there's plenty of political intrigue with Rayna James' father and husband playing each other for turkeys, Scarlett O'Connor and Gunnar Scott might be a little soppy but there's always something appealing about an underdog storyline, and of course the 'will they ever get back together?' storyline of starcrossed lovers Rayna and Deacon is just about as good as Mulder and Scully (except for the destructive alcoholism aspect). What happened to Michiel Huisman's excellent bad boy producer/rock star character though? Bring him back I say. - Lydia Jenkin
The Real Housewives of Melbourne
The cast of Real Housewives of Melbourne
Despite the predictably high levels of ridiculousness present in this Australian extension of the venerable reality franchise, it still feels grounded next to its American counterparts. In the lamentable absense of The Real Housewives of Takapuna (please somebody make that), this is the closest thing we've got to a local version, and while there's more than enough bad behavior on display for a good old fashioned hate-watch, I can't help but feel genuine affection for these shrieking harpies. Currently viewable on TV3 Now. - Dominic Corry
Keeping Up With the Kardashians
I actually played the Kim Kardashian game before I even watched the show. I hadn't paid much attention to the famous family, but when the game dropped and everyone seemed to be talking about it, I gave in and downloaded it. I'm ashamed to say I wasted so much study time last year trying to get my pitiful character to the A List. After the finding the game so compelling, I couldn't help but give the TV show a go. The first thing I noticed was it was actually exactly like the game. Same locations, same activities, same people. I found myself falling into a trance as I watched episode after episode - it's so formulaic that it's actually quite relaxing. And after hearing all the haters talk about how shallow and awful the family was, I actually ended up finding them quite likeable - especially Kim and Caitlyn. - Eli Orzessek
This viewing pleasure was so guilty that you may as well lock me up and throw away the key. I Love New York is best described as The Ghetto Bachelorette and was basically the best worst show to ever screen on television.
It played by the reality love show rules; there were dates, rose ceremonies, there was talking to camera. Where it differed, and what made is so, so great is that New York, aka Tiffany Pollard, was a totes cray, ghetto diva and the 12 fella's competing for her heart were the biggest d-bag tools in America. Throw into this mix New York's even more nutty preacher mother Sister Pollard and you have television gold.
The show was hilarious. When a guy tried his smooth moves on she would sass them by saying things like, "Don't play with me! I ain't *nothing* to be played with!". She didn't eliminate contestants, she destroyed them by saying things like "See, your thoughts are coming from your ass right about now. 'Cause you DAMN sure ain't better than New York! Raise up!". The show also spawned my fave TV line of all time: :"We got a butt naked, perpetrating ho running around this house". It took New York two seasons and 24 dude's to find her true love. I only wish it'd taken her longer. - Karl Puschmann
Sensing Murder
Psychic investigator Sue Nicholson from the TV show Sensing Murder.
I don't really believe in the concept of guilty pleasure as applied to merely 'bad' TV or music - life is a rich tapestry, it's fine to enjoy Shortland Street as well as The Wire, you know? Having said that, there is one show I do feel guilty about enjoying, and it's Sensing Murder. This intensely compelling and endlessly watchable show - wherein psychics would attempt to provide new leads in real-life cold cases - was in retrospect quite grossly exploitative, particularly of the victims' bereaved families and their desperation for closure, new information - anything - in what were often decades-old mysteries. Of course nothing ever came of the psychic rummagings into their trauma. All the show ever really did was speculate upon the final moments of a real person's life using Crimewatch-style re-enactments and cheap horror sound effects, purely for my entertainment. Now THAT's a guilty pleasure. - Calum Henderson
