Shows we love to hate & hate to love

Brittany Goldfield-Rodrigues
Editorial intern
Two-dimensional characters, predictable plotlines and love triangles, squares and pentagons – television gets more and more ridiculous as the decades pass. Intellectual
and artistic programming is falling through to make room for the same old dance competitions, cooking shows and dreaded teenage dramas.
Take, for example, Pushing Daisies – it could have accurately been titled Law and Order Lite – with its genius bit about a man who could wake the dead with a single touch, but kill them again with another. Definitely great programming, but go figure – it lasted all of two short seasons.

Here’s the catch: we all love TV’s most horrible shows. We can’t help going ga-ga over Gossip Girl, hanging onto the thread of the rich and – let’s face it – abnormally beautiful characters. We’re all thirsty for more Vampire Diaries, and teeter on the edges of our seats when someone (surprise, surprise) dies.
The exceedingly good-looking Salvatore brothers fighting over the equally stunning Elena, your typical ‘damsel-in-distress-who-won’t-stay-put’ character, has all watchers coming back for more each week. And more than anything else, we all watch the campy, predictable, two-dimensional Glee.
My confession? I watch all of these shows, too, on a weekly – if not daily – basis. I feel withdrawal if I don’t get my daily dose of Chuck and Blair, or if I don’t know who is turning into some supernatural being in Vampire Diaries, or if I don’t listen to the Glee cast’s auto-tuned albums.
Why do we love these so obviously predictable shows?
Glee has a way of balancing out its flaws. One week there’s a bad plotline, but the songs are done exceedingly well. The next week’s episode will be gripping with great writing, but the songs will be outdated and nothing special. Glee is a light and fluffy show to which people can turn to make them laugh, cheer them up and get them to get up and dance. There is truly something to be said about a mash-up of singing in the rain and Rihanna’s infamous “Umbrella.”
The opposite rings true for Gossip Girl and Vampire Diaries watchers. Those who find themselves in a funk and tired of work and schoolwork can get away by putting themselves in the brand new worlds of the Manhattan elite, or the world of the supernatural where werewolves and vampires are all the rage.
There is something really gripping about these shows, despite the fact they’re critically and technically awful. They just keep reeling in audiences with characters you love to hate, along with characters that are just meant to be together.
We all share these guilty pleasures, but there’s no shame in admitting that (paradoxical, I know). Whether we keep it secret or not, we all love the dark and mysterious Chuck Bass, the sweet and sensitive Stephan Salvatore and the cocky diva that is Rachel Berry.

It’s the fact they’re so “bad” in their own quirky, stereotypical, “lame” ways that they are ultimately, strangely, pretty good. At the very least, they are extremely entertaining.
“What awful TV shows do you watch?”
Valeria Rivera
Third–year marketing
“One Tree Hill! I own all seven seasons. I really like the characters
and you can relate it to our own life […] I think it might be a little cheesy, but I like it anyway.”
Mary Smith
Third–year psychology
“I like to watch Vampire Diaries because Damon is really hot when he is shirtless and professing
his love to Elena.”
May Tsang
Third–year psychology
“I love to watch Glee because the guys are hot! I like the one dude…Kurt. I’m a Kurt fan; that’s the only reason I watch Glee. I actually don’t like the songs, don’t really like the show, but I watch it anyway because I have no life. It’s a good time waster.”