The Guilty Pleasure TV Shows of 2011

TV Show: Aqua Unit Patrol Squad

Network: Cartoon Network

Cast: Dana Snyder, Carey Means, Dave Willis, Matt Maiellaro, George Lowe

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Display Width: 200Aqua Unit Patrol Squad
Cartoon Network

Aqua Teen Hunger Force always defied and redefined expectations. Along with South Park and the seminal Simpsons, it stood as one of television’s best and brightest experiments in anarchic animation. The premise originally was to spoof Saturday morning cartoons from the ’60s and ’70s, shows where unusual objects (cars, monsters, cavemen) acting like detectives, solving mysteries and righting wrongs. Quickly dispensing with such a limiting foundation, creators Matt Maiellaro and Dave Willis decided to expand and pervert the Aqua Teen’s universe. Now, they’ve even changed the name, not that much else has been altered. We still get the classic characters doing their subversive, surreal bit. But with the beefed up moniker, many hoped for something more… serious? Thankfully, it remains the silliest show on TV. Bill Gibron

 

TV Show: Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives

Network: Food Network

Cast: Guy Fieri

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Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives
Food Network

When someone says the words “food porn,” they are more than likely referring to a show like this. Host Guy Fieri, he of the spiky dyed white do and Jimmy Buffet meets beer barrelled polecat persona, travels around the US looking for the best, most gluttonous food one can purchase on the fly. Avoiding most fancy restaurants for what he calls “funky joints,” the results offer up mouthwatering (and waste expanding) examples of America’s love affair with early onset diabetes. Everything looks so good, so appetizing, and so artery clogging that a single sampling isn’t enough. Food Network obvious knows this. Along with the various Housewives of differing urban locales, Fieri is a daily fixture on flatscreen across this great land of ours. Bill Gibron

 

TV Show: Outsourced

Network: NBC

Cast: Ben Rappaport, Rizwan Manji, Sacha Dhawan, Rebecca Hazlewood, Parvesh Cheena, Anisha Nagarajan, Diedrich Bader

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Outsourced
NBC

In September 2010, NBC’s “More Colorful” advertising slogan caused a stir in the sense that the network seemed to be both admitting its prior lack of diversity and none too subtly trumpeting their small correction of course with shows such as Undercovers and Outsourced. Both shows have been canceled after one season, and it’s a shame they were framed by the debate surrounding the motives of NBC. Outsourced, in particular, could be called a guilty pleasure because its first season used ethnic jokes as a way of expressing the clash of cultures between outsourced Midwestern manager Todd (Ben Rappaport) and his call center employees in Mumbai. Yet that early establishment of the cultural divide was merely the gateway to a season full of heartening (if often bawdy) lessons in the ambitions, passions and pitfalls that bridge us all, regardless of background. The supporting cast including Parvesh Cheena, Rizwan Manji, Anisha Nagarajan, and Diedrich Bader consistently stole the show from its leads, and their characters almost certainly would have grown in depth and humor had the show been given a second season. Thomas Britt

 

TV Show: Holmes Inspection

Network: HGTV

Cast: Mike Holmes

Damon Bennett

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Holmes Inspection
HGTV

Mike Holmes was an unobtrusive Canadian building contractor on a personal (and professional) mission. Wanting to address the wrongs in his industry, he agreed to a TV series where he would investigate bad workmanship and, as he loves to put it, “Make It Right.” Now, nearly a decade into his career as a major media darling, the defiant construction king has taken on a new challenge — the bad home inspector. Coming in to save families who’ve been fooled/foiled by idiots within the occupation, he discovers faults and flaws that would make any new homeowner blush. With his crack team, he tears down and rebuilds — and in the process, proves that not every renovation has to be a question of unpainted walls and cracked tiles. Sometimes, someone does it correctly… that is, as long as Mike Holmes is giving his guarantee. Bill Gibron

 

TV Show: Burn Notice

Network: USA

Cast: Jeffrey Donovan, Gabrielle Anwar, Bruce Campbell, Sharon Gless, Coby Bell

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Burn Notice
USA

It’s sad that it’s come to this. For its first three seasons or so, Burn Notice was a plain old pleasure. It was a fun action show with a great hook, as burned spy Michael Weston (Jeffrey Donovan) tried to clear his name while helping out ordinary people. But now, five seasons in, the series is showing its age. The weekly plots aren’t nearly as breezy as they used to be, and it’s getting harder and harder to care about Michael’s quest to rejoin the CIA. Still, this year was enough of a rebound from the lackluster season four to at least make the show watchable again. Reducing the role of fourth wheel Jesse (Coby Bell) made him a more likable character, and finally putting Michael and Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar) together as a couple ended their annoying will they-won’t they subplot. It was also a good decision to have Michael finally get to the bottom of the conspiracy, only to run afoul of the for-real, honest-to-God (we think) man who was behind it all, played by the unsettling Jere Burns. Still, even this season’s improvement wasn’t enough to really recapture the fun and excitement of the show’s early years. Chris Conaton

5 – 1

TV Show: An Idiot Abroad

Network: The Science Channel

Cast: Karl Pilkington, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant

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Display Width: 200An Idiot Abroad
The Science Channel

Executive producers and show creators Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant had very different stated goals for their travelogue An Idiot Abroad. Merchant wanted their friend and series’ star Karl Pilkington, a notoriously uninformed homebody, to experience other cultures and open his mind a bit. Gervais, on the other hand, expressly went into the show hoping that Karl had as terrible a time as possible, thinking it would make for great tv. The end result was something in between. Pilkington traveled to each of the Seven Wonders of the World and was mostly unimpressed by them. But the bulk of the episodes were filled with the sorts of uncomfortable situations that are Gervais and Merchant’s stock in trade. It became like a reality tv version of The Office with Pilkington as the butt of the jokes. A couple of episodes of watching Pilkington suffer on a bus full of burping, farting Chinese people or stuck in a noisy hostel crowded with college kids in Rio during Carnival was enough to make me feel guilty about watching the show at all. Gervais and Merchant seemed to want us to laugh at Karl’s miserable travails, but I found myself hoping that the guy would start to enjoy the trips, at least a little bit. Chris Conaton

 

TV Show: The Sing-Off

Network: NBC

Cast: Ben Folds, Shawn Stockman, Nicole Scherzinger

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The Sing-Off
NBC

A cappella music is, at most, a guilty pleasure in itself. In a TV landscape dominated by reality singing competitions, throwing your lot in with the one that focuses on a cappella is downright square. But it’s not actually the vocal percussionists and soaring harmonies that are the big draw to The Sing-Off — it’s the judges. Unlike on those other shows, Ben Folds, Shawn Stockman, and, to a lesser extent, Sara Bareilles actually talk about the way the music is arranged — and they crack each other up, too, which is always good for a cheesy chuckle. Marisa LaScala

 

TV Show: American Horror Story

Network: FX

Cast: Dylan McDermott, Connie Britton, Evan Peters, Taissa Farmiga, Denis O’Hare, Jessica Lange

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American Horror Story
FX

I give creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk lots of credit for this twisted invention of delectable entertainment. No, American Horror Story isn’t groundbreaking in its themes. Instead, Murphy and Falchuk paired the brave decision of making a horror television series with the safe hook of melodramatic intrigue. American Horror Story is basically a mashup of entertainment staples: frights and sex. Yes, the latter can be somewhat disturbing, but the soap opera-esque twists are made unique by the leeway provided from the former.

“Ben’s mistress is pregnant!”… Seen it before.

“The creepy neighbor killer her!”… Wait. What?

“SHE CAME BACK AS A GHOST TO HAUNT BEN AND HIS WIFE!”… WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THIS SHOW?!?

Hence the pleasure attained from the devilishly diverting AHS. Ben Travers

 

TV Show: The League

Network: FX

Cast: Mark Duplass

Nick Kroll, Katie Aselton, Paul Scheer, Stephen Rannazzisi, Jon LaJoie

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The League
FX

Despite its spots of brilliance, FX’s misanthropic comedy It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has waned in terms of quality over its later seasons. (Then again, it is hard to top The Nightman Cometh). Fortunately, those looking for a show with fantastic improvisation, witty banter, and all-out crazy situations, The League fills that niche perfectly. The premise of a show centered on fantasy football may put off those who don’t participate in the highly competitive game, but the show is not really about fantasy football. Instead, it’s about the lives of people so engrossed in fantasy football that their lives reflect their obsessive lunacy. The show features a consistent set of hilarious performances, but two stand out: the lovable idiot Taco (watching him in a children’s TV show character costume holding a gun doubling as a bong is one of the third season’s best moments) and the deranged Rafi, whose plans invariably involve killing someone. For edgy, intelligent, and outright hilarious comedy, FX has established itself as the forebear, and The League is the star player on its lineup. Brice Ezell

 

TV Show: Family Guy

Network: Fox

Cast: Seth MacFarlane, Alex Borstein, Seth Green, Mila Kunis, Mike Henry

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Family Guy
Fox

Though lacking in the sharp wit and clever writing of South Park, Family Guy shares one similarity with the long-running Comedy Central series: as long as the ever-burgeoning American culture keeps spitting out things to lampoon, the show will likely stay on the air. The show’s standby sources of humor are still constantly present: Peter’s garish Boston accent, his inevitable lapses in logic (in one episode, his attempt to get off his addiction to Redbull involves him substituting said drink with kerosene), Stewie’s weird homophobia, and the frequent cut-scene jokes. Some might say that the show’s hallmark comedic gags have worn over nine seasons, but in truth the show has never lost its pace. Some new plot devices don’t work as well: the show’s attempts to take episodes into dark turns (such as one involving Quagmire exacting bloody revenge on his sister’s boyfriend) usually don’t stick, but its off-the-wall humor usually does. Ten seasons in, and this zany family from Quahog still haven’t lost the ability to remind us that we all can be just as stupid as Peter Griffin, even if we don’t realize it. Brice Ezell