The Top 6 Scripted Guilty Pleasure Shows

We've all watched a TV show before and wondered, “What the hell am I watching this crap for?” I tend to avoid things like reality television, game shows, or anything Tyler Perry has ever made, so my guilty pleasure shows are all actual scripted shows that in one way or another are a guilty pleasure. I will be spoiling potential plot twists in the shows below so read at your own risk.

6. Lost – I don't even really know where to begin with Lost. It's half the best show ever created and half the stupidest thing I've ever watched. It seems like everything the show does well it also fails at.

It's one of the more dramatic and suspenseful shows I've ever watched but it's also the most overdramatized thing maybe ever on TV. By the 6^th and final season of the show every time the scary music would cue and the LOST emblem came across the screen I'd roll my eyes. I don't know if I can think of a show that has tried to make it's introduction be as dramatic as Lost and it's a powerful vehicle in the beginning of the show but loses its luster by the end.

The acting is also completely hit or miss. Michael Emerson (Ben) and Terry O'Quinn (Locke) are some of the best TV actors I've ever seen but the show also had Harold Perrineau (Michael) and Evangeline Lilly (Kate) who might be the worst of all time. Every time Michael or Kate were on screen it's a painful experience and Kate is one of the key characters in the show for some reason I still can't figure out.

I've never seen a show like Lost where one week you can think it's fantastic and then the next think it's the worst show you've ever seen. The writers were convinced they needed to keep the viewer “lost” so the writing ended up being either legitimately intriguing or unnecessarily complex. A lot of this had to do with the flash-backs (or flash-forwards) that focused on a different character each episode. The Locke, Jack, Ben, Sawyer, and Desmond flash-backs were always awesome TV but unfortunately there were flash-backs for Michael, Kate and the rest of the mediocre cast as well.

I would attempt to analyze the plot of lost but it's just too much effort. It's convoluted and not very good, okay? If you go into the show knowing that there's going to be a lot of things you're going to have to explain by just saying, “the island is magic,” then you'll enjoy the show a lot more than trying to analytically break down each plot hole.

Lost is awesome and terrible at the same time, and it's most definitely a guilty pleasure show. At no point do you think, “Wow this is really all starting to make sense and come together.” It's definitely a pretty stupid show and has a million plot holes but it's one entertaining ride.

5. Sons of Anarchy – My friend recommended I watch this show and after seeing all 4 seasons, I'm not sure why I like it. I can't relate to any of the characters and find most of the things going on in the show to be absolutely stupid. Something about SAMCRO keeps me coming back for more despite all this though.

The main issue I've had with Sons of Anarchy so far is that I don't see why anyone would find these bikers cool at all. Outside of Jax, every character in the show is pretty stereotypical “biker dude.” Somehow these douchebags get all these hot girls to come to their bar and get involved with Mexican cartels and stuff. It just doesn't make any sense at all but I can't stop watching.

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These guys are such douches but I can't stop watching

Also, you mid as well skip the 3^rd season of the show because it's just a pile of crap. They go to Ireland in one of the stupidest plot turns I've ever seen and basically put all the drama that had been building in the first 2 seasons aside. It's like a gigantic sidebar from the rest of the show and it's not only terribly done, it's retarded.

The 4^th season is much better and I'm for no reason eagerly awaiting the 5^th season. Even though I don't really like any of the characters or relate to what the show is about at all, I can't stop watching.

4. Law and Order SVU – I can't say I religiously watch this show like some others do but I've seen enough episodes of this with my girlfriend to safely say it's a guilty pleasure show. They should change the name of it to Stereotypical Victims Unit because pretty much every episode of it is based on some ridiculous stereotype or something that has come straight out of a sensationalized media headline.

Yes, it doesn't make any logical sense or actually follow what real law enforcement would do, but it is extremely funny and entertaining to watch. There is usually an absurd plot twist coming from out of left field and it's almost always entirely implausible. It's not the worst show on TV but I can't say I ever watched SVU and said, “Wow this is quality TV.”

I don't know why this show appeals to me at all considering I hate cop dramas for the most part. There's something about just how absolutely ridiculous every episode is that you can't stop watching. You know it's stupid and implausible but you just can't stop.

It also has Ice T, and he's just amazing. It's not that he's a good actor or anything but literally everything that comes out of his mouth makes me laugh. He's hysterical and worth the price for admission by himself. If a show with Ice T isn't a guilty pleasure show then I do not know what is.

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Ice T is the man

3. Weeds – Weeds might be the worst show on TV right now. It's extremely disappointing because its first 2 and debatably 3 seasons are great. It started as a satire of the suburbs by portraying Nancy Botwin, a widowed mother who starts selling weed as a last resort to maintain her family and suburban paradise. While she may be doing something illicit she always seems to be doing it to support her family. The writers decided this just wouldn't do and wrote themselves into such a corner that they burned down the entire suburb that they lived in and basically started the show over again.

This apparently meant completely changing the show and re-characterizing Nancy. She suddenly makes decisions that are selfish, slutty and antagonistic to the rest of her family. Instead of somehow showing that this illicit life had changed her and turned her into this selfish monster, the show’s writers decided to try to convince us she’d always been this way. In the first three seasons we have a person who is essentially represented as a flawed but ultimately benevolent character. In the following seasons she makes absurd decisions that appear out of this character and the writers try to retroactively convince the viewer that she’s always been this way. I think the writers just hoped their audience would just be too high to notice any of this.

Outside of completely ruining the main character and destroying the entire premise of the show by moving it out of the suburbs, Weeds also is just implausible and bad. For some reason the Botwin clan can just find where to sell weed no matter where they are and in a matter of days have a weed selling operation up and running. It's like nobody on the writing staff even remotely researched drug dealing, cartels or marijuana at all. Instead they just rely on ridiculous stereotypes and hope their audience is as clueless to this stuff as they are.

I've watched 7 seasons of this piece of crap show and for some reason I have to keep watching it. It's terrible, far-fetched, illogical, and all the characters have not grown but completely changed in an irrational direction. This is a show that started as a satire of the suburbs and had the main character end up marrying the head of a “Mexican cartel” (apparently there's only one according to Weeds) and having his baby. That's all you need to know about this guilty pleasure show.

2. Entourage – This is a show that I almost left off this list but the more I kept thinking about it, the more I realized it's absolutely a guilty pleasure show. It's not good in any way other than showing shots of hollywood actors partying. Who honestly believes Adrian Grenier could be a huge actor? Why did the writers not realize that the only characters we cared about were Vince and Ari? Why did this show suck so bad and nobody realize it until the end?

Seriously, as this college humor video points out every single season of Entourage is exactly the same. Vince is up for a movie and then it flip flops back and forth from him doing the movie or not doing the movie. It always all works out and the show just follows the rest of the characters partying with star cameos in Hollywood hot spots.

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You absolutely would not be cast in this movie.

The writers also try their hardest to convince you that the other three characters in this "entourage" actually have a purpose but they all seem pretty worthless. I have no idea how E would become a manager in Hollywood without any experience and his only successful actor's career constantly being in jeopardy. Also, his drama with Sloan just seems to be to give him something to do because he doesn't actually do too much managing outside of fighting with Ari.

Turtle is even worse. He basically just fails at every business he ever does and the one time he is successful, he sells his stocks in the company. He fails to prove he's anything without Vince and that only gets further perpetuated when Vince buys the stocks that Turtle sold and agrees to help him with his restaurant. I still don't understand what the point was of any of his storylines or anything that happens in the show. At least Vince's brother Johnny Drama, is actually an actor and does stuff in the show.

Really by the end of the show the only character remotely interesting is Ari and they even decided to ruin his character. Ari is always doing absolutely over the top things to show that Hollywood agents are ruthless dicks that will do anything to help their own career and make money. In the last season he decides to say fuck that and do anything to get his wife back in a character destroying storyline. The show couldn't even let the one good character in the show keep his dignity.

After season 5 of Entourage you realize that every season is exactly the same and that the entire thing is just completely stupid. It relies on star cameos way too much and that's just because all the shows actors outside of Jeremy Piven are completely terrible. It's hard to believe all these good things could actually happen to these douchebags. Talk to most people who like Entourage and they'll tell you they liked it for the celebrities and hot girls. That's why Entourage is a guilty pleasure show. 

1. True Blood – I'm ashamed of myself for watching True Blood. I really should have stopped watching after I dubbed it the “worst show ever” after seeing the pilot. It's almost like the writers know that it's a terrible show and just try to show as much crazy shit at you as possible. It's another show where most of the acting is beyond atrocious and the main characters, Sooki Stackhouse (Anna Pacquin), Tara Thornton (Rutina Wesley) and Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), are especially terrible. I'm a sucker for science fiction like this though and thus I watch this stupid show.

As of now there are vampires, werewolves, shape shifters, witchdoctors, panther people, witches, fairies, a Maenad, and now even an Efreet. Does this seem like overkill to you? I had to research all the different creatures in this show because there are so many. It's tough to keep track of and it's just getting ridiculous at this point.

Also, True Blood refuses to kill off any character in the show. The only people who seem to die are people who are introduced that season or episode. It's like just when you think one character is gone they come back in some retarded way. For example the police chief retired and completely out of his character and for absolutely no reason at all he had to come back to be ring leader of this anti-vampire hate group. I also thought finally they would kill off Tara, who's manly and just an atrocious character, but they decided to give her a more prominent role.

True Blood is just a convoluted and ridiculous show. I'm not even sure what it's about anymore. It's basically just vampires, sex, and crazy shit. There's also like 15 times per episode where you just cringe because the writing is just so bad. There is actually a scene in it where inbred panther people rape one of the shows only human male characters. With that said, I conclude that True Blood has to be the ultimate guilty pleasure show.