Guilty Pleasures – Television Edition

Also available in the ‘Vic’s Guilty Pleasures’ series: Movies, food, pastimes, clothes, books, music, computer games & ‘Things you shouldn’t eat with a spoon’.

Yesterday saw the return of one of my all time biggest telly guilty pleasures; Wife Swap.

What makes something a guilty pleasure? The fact that you know you shouldn’t be doing it. You know, for example, that sitting down to an episode of Wife Swap will make you a little dumber. You know that your life will neither be enriched or assisted by watching it, but damn, you’re going to do it anyway, because it’s SO BAD IT’S GOOD.

I can’t decide which version of Wife Swap I like better – the original UK version or the American version… the American version swaps much more extreme couples, but the original version was funnier – perhaps the narration? Who am I kidding, I’d watch them both, even if the house were falling down around me. I delight in the ‘to camera’ confessions of the swapped wives & the inevitable blow-up between the forced together families…. ahhh…. I’m evil (…in a sad, voyeuristic kinda way…).

My other guilty pleasure where TV is concerned is also ‘So Bad It’s Good’… I love it because I can’t believe it exists, that people like that exist, and my entire viewing period is spent yelling “What did he just say?!” or shaking my head in disbelief; Dog – The Bounty Hunter. If you want to see the rare sight of me running (I do warn you though – it’s not pretty), switch on Dog within hearing distance and I am THERE – just about my favourite part is the theme song… oh maaaaaaaaan, I die a little inside every time I hear that.

Not that I would ever admit to watching either of these outside of the relative anominity of blogland mind you, I mean, they’re called ‘Guilty Pleasures’ for a reason….