Guilty Pleasures

Some programs are so good, but so bad.

Here's my list of guilty pleasures I'm indulging in lately:

Pretty Little Liars

Why it's bad for you - It's on ABC Family, and I'm over the age of 13.

Why it's great to watch - It's Heathers meets Gossip Girl. You can catch up pretty quickly, it's only episode 13 as of this post. Oh, and for some reason, Chad Lowe is on it. Random, yet kind of great.

Biggest Loser

Why it's bad for you: It seems to make most women weep.

Why it's great to watch: It makes you actually want to work out. I can't tell you why I enjoy overweight people sharing their stories and being yelled at by trainers -- but it's become a show I'm excited to see on my DVR list.

I know most people are already all over, or over The Biggest Loser and I'm late to the weight loss party. But, if you've avoided it in the past, give it a shot -- but only if you have a DVR. Good lord, can someone explain to me why every episode has to be 2 hours long!?

Episodes

Why it's bad for you: It looks super awful. I mean, Matt LeBlanc?

Why it's fun to watch: I wouldn't say it's great to watch, but the supporting cast really makes this show enjoyable. The two main characters created an amazing British sitcom and are rewarded by being brought to LA son they can tear their original show to shreds in the name of 'Americanizing' it.

In short, Tamsin Greig is really the gem of this show. She gets the best lines, and delivers them wonderfully.

The Final Countdown

Last night's How I Met Your Mother was a particularly heartbreaking one. It was also very Lost-esq with it's odd countdown that I didn't really notice through my tears.
Thank goodness for other awesome TV bloggers, eh?

Click here for more information on the HIMYM Easter Egg Countdown

Bad, But So Good: 'Celebrity Rehab'

Dr. Drew has an entirely new crew of drug addicts on VH1, and if you can pull yourself away from Teen Mom or The Real Housewives, I highly recommend getting addicted to this season's group of washed up stars.

First of all, Leif Garrett is still alive! Who knew? He's trying to get off heroine and looking like an extra for The Walking Dead. But he's one of the more quiet contestants on this sobriety game show. The loud mouth, as always is Janice Dickinson. Kudos to her for getting better, especially after that Finland incident...


The true star though, has to be Jason London... or is it Jeremy? Darn twins...
It's the one who said he was kidnapped and forced to do drugs.
Um, hello, Six Feet Under did it years ago!

If nothing else, tune in for his tale of that wild ride. It's really amusing to watch 'actors' try and believe his crazy tales.

*UPDATE*
(OK, I really only like adding that because it makes me think of Unsolved Mysteries.)
The most recent episode where they're all really into withdrawal stages was when it stopped being fake, and started to get real. (Why, yes... I am too lazy to look it up that exact episode right now and decided to go with the cheap video clip joke.)
Best of luck to all of them on their road to sobriety.

The Importance of The Daily Show

This could also be titled: Why I Went to The Rally to Restore Sanity

Each generation has their news man. (It's usually a man, sorry ladies.) A man that we trust to tell us the news in a fair and balanced manner. There was Cronkite, Rather, Brokaw... the Gumbels.

My generation has too many channels for there to be anyone to trust. It started with CNN, and that was a good idea. Sure, it helped keep us informed during the first Gulf War, 24/7...but then there came a giant flood of news stations. News stations have news stations. It's ridiculous, it's biased, it's sensationalized, it's hard to believe. But from this darkness a bright light shined, and it was hilarious.

A comedy program stepped up and became a news leader of the generation. Now, I'm not talking about The Craig Kilborn Daily Show - a lot of people don't even remember that. I'm talking about The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

It's purely satirical. It's an unbiased look at the news, because no one is spared being made fun of. Best of all, it brings important news stories to the forefront in a manner that isn't meant to cause panic, but informed action.

I'm absolutely not the first to realize the phenomenon that this show has become. But, I do feel it's important to call out that perhaps this show has become the Nightly News of my generation because the way we've been reporting news is so ridiculous. There was a reason it was called "The News Hour". Perhaps we don't need continuous reports every minute. If you wanna go 24/7 report local stories, not embellished stories full of fear and clashing opinions. It's frightening that 20% of Americans actually believe we'd elect a president that wasn't an American - and the story is being perpetuated by someone who isn't even American!

To stop insanity like this, and have my opinions be heard in a reasonable manner, I went along with some friends to The Rally to Restore Sanity. It was a long trip, full of hours of waiting, epic lines, and exhaustive walking to not even get near the stage. But it was fullfilling to see that there are a lot of people looking for calm discourse. For change without screaming, for news programs to return to news programs so comedy can just be funny again.

Speaking of funny, check out our signs...

In this photo left to right: Kambri Crews, Sharon Jamilkowski, Sue Funke, Jenn Dodd, & Will Dodd