Guilty Pleasure TV Viewing

[[mp...]]

As my tolerance withdrawal closed its ugly fist around me, I wanted to be with others less and less. Outside of work, I started to stay in and watch TV, bad TV.  During withdrawal, it became my virtual lifeline, and now I must admit, I'm pretty hooked on some of these shows.

 

I do feel the allure is starting to wear off. I know that once I go back to work (once I find work  ) I will return to days of enjoying many things other than TV. Here are "my" shows", in no particular order:

 

Smash.  Could someone please lend Debra Messing some clothes that fit?

 

Real Housewives of every city that's available. Glad DC is gone, never watched Miami.

 

Dance Moms.  Not Miami, just the original and boy am I guilty about this one!!

 

All the shop channels, they mesmerize me for some reason. Glad I don't have the $$$$$ to spend.

 

Idol, Voice, Dancing. I watch some shows through streaming online if there's a time conflict.

 

Bachelor (ette).  Wow, I hate to admit this one! 

 

Apprentice, Big Brother, Amazing Race.  Love to hate Brenchal.

 

Survivor.  Don't they know by now to wear better underwear? 

 

Project Runway.    Somehow I make it work.

 

Desperate Housewives.    Bye bye for now.

 

Nurse Jackie, The Big C.   

 

Magic City, Boarwalk Empire.  Oh for those simpler times. 

 

David Letterman, Jimmy Fallon. 

 

and yet, I can never find anything to watch!   

 

How about you?

 

M.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[[Mi...]]

Toddlers and Tiaras oh my gosh I am soooo guilty.  There's just something so ghoulish and parasitical about parents making a full time occupation of living through their young daughters when the goal is to make them look like hookers and pay a fortune doing it.  I can't look away!  Have you noticed how very bad the mothers usually look?

 

MiniMinnie

[[mp...]]

:laugh:   oh mini, you are so brave to admit to this one!  you are soooo right, the mom are just awful. In fact, I will guiltily admit I watch really, just for the moms!  And not just for how they look, the horrifying way they act!  This pleasure is just down right wrong, right?  :laugh: :laugh:

 

M.

 

Oh, and thank you for being my first guest here on my new thread, I thought more folks would jump on in, I know people are watching some bad TV,

[[Mi...]]

I also lurve Project Runway.  The most recent "Allstars" version wasn't as good.  I missed Tim and Heidi!

 

House Hunters and House Hunters International  Love seeing how peeps live around the US and the world.

 

Chopped - they use ingredients I've never heard of.

 

Good Eats  Alton Brown need I say more?

 

HATE Sweet Genius, its just creepy.

 

Americas Next Top Model  OMG I can't believe I really watch that sometimes.

 

MiniMinnie

[[Ch...]]

In the depths of withdrawal misery, I confess to watching   Hoarders...

I'm not signing my name.

[[ad...]]

In the depths of withdrawal misery, I confess to watching   Hoarders...

I'm not signing my name.

 

Hahaha! Guilty. After I watch it, I start trying to throw everything away at my house.

[[Ch...]]

I know!  That's the one show that never fails to make me feel better about myself... 

[[Mi...]]

Hoarders is the one show I had to stop watching.  It always makes me anxious.  I absolutely positively can not stand clutter in my home environment.  Generally humans fall into one of two categories.  The pack rats and the obsessively neat.  I am the latter.  I absolutely have to have a neat clean attractive peaceful environment or I don't function well.h

 

Though I think my best friend is a hoarder.  She rarely lets me inside her home.  You cannot walk through it because there is no clearpath.  She keeps saying "I am in the middle of remodeling" but its been that way for the whole 3 years I've known her.  She has a storage facility and her garage is so full the cars cannot fit in there.  Oh, and she has collected 16 cats.  All but 2 are outside cats but doesn't this sound like hoarding?  Her husband has a condo elsewhere that he spends a lot of time at.  I sometimes think I sould confront her about it.  Would you guys?

 

MiniMinnie

[[mp...]]

How could I have forgotton Top Model, it kinda icks me out though, especially when Tyra lowers her chin and whispers, "you're not in the running to become America's Next Top Model". The woman takes herself sooooooo seriously, it's 

 

Hoarders, Oh my! I feel so badly for the animals. Don't barf, I even felt sorry for the rats. Sometimes I have to look away because of wounded pets.

 

I have occasionally seen My Strange Addiction, man who eats TV remote, girl who eats toilet paper, girl who is addicted to pink, etc.  Early on in w/d, I kept running a check list to make sure I was neither hoarding anything (I even asked mom if she thought I was a hoarder) or was I addicted to any "strange" behaviour? 

 

Bad TV is fun!

 

M.

[[Mi...]]

This is not Bad Television but good TV.  My favorite show is The Closer.  I love Brenda Lee Johnson.  I love her mixture of hard and soft, her disarming southern drawl and her razor sharp focus and her vulnerability and klutzy behaviour.  Love Fritz and her Georgia parents.  I am heartbroken that it is the last season.

 

MiniMinnie

[[mp...]]

Challis and adtyler,  :laugh: you both are just great, oh how I enjoy laughter again!

 

Mini, I do believe your friend is exhibiting some actual hoarding. I think it's been established that it's an anxiety disorder sometimes a result of PTSD?

 

I can share this with you, I had a very dear friend who was a heavy "social drinker". I started working at a different place, so I only saw her a couple of times a year. About 5 years had gone by and I went to her work place to take her to lunch. She was drunk. We went to a little fast food place and I know she was shaking from - I forgot what it's called - but its w/d.

 

Later that year she got on the same bus I was on, but she wouldn't make eye contact with me. She was carrying a huge bag from the liquor store. I started to see her at least once a week, and each time she was either drunk or shaking from w/d (I think there's a word...). I did not know what to do. I sought advice from older, wiser people that I really respected who knew both of us. I was not so secretly hoping someone, anyone would tell me they thought it would be a good idea for me to bring it up. They didn't. They told me to continue to be her friend and be there for her if she wanted to discuss it.

 

I had agonies over it for a long time. I moved away and pretty much lost contact with her, I haven't seen or heard from her in about 10 years.

 

I have conflicted feelings to this day.

 

So, I say this, if you are prepared to lose your friendship over it, do bring it up. Be prepared for her to tell you to mind your own business or worse. If she breaks down and wants help, be prepared to offer it.

 

And I guess I would ask, might you want to bring it up because it makes you uncomfortable, what is your true motive?

 

I know I have been a load of non-help here. I always thought when I "grew up" I would have a lot more answers. I was wrong.

 

But back to more fun things.............................

 

M.

 

Mini, this just in. My own edit of my reply to you. I think you are wonderful. I do not in anyway want to sound negative or judgemental about your true, good intentions toward your friend. In my fragile battered state, I was instantly brought back to my dilema over my friend - I will not get over feeling guilty with my issue, sorry if that colored my attitude in this post. I will not erase it though as I am living a true life now. M.

[[Mi...]]

Divine Ms M

 

I so understand your point of view!  I have also read that hoarders hang onto things because of losses they have endured.  This certainly describes my friend.

 

Her mother died when she was 5.  Her first husband dies at age 37 from chemical poisoning, he worked in pest control.  Her daughter committed suicide at age 32 after a long history of mental illness.  Just last year her 42 year old son died suddenly from a massive heart attack.  Both her two children have predeceased her!  That is just unnatural  So from this standpoint I do so understand.  I think her hoarding does complicate her life.  Her husband doesn't like to be in the home and he can't get her to do anything different.  She cant/doesn't have people over although she is very social. I worry about it being a unsafe environment and a health hazard.  But probably I will just ignore it like I've done up until this point.  It just feels like the right thing to do.  But maybe not.

 

MiniMinnie

[[mp...]]

Oh Mini, how awful! Now if she were on here for being prescribed about a half-dozen benzos, well I would understand! This poor, dear woman needs a vacation from her life, which is exactly why some people do illegal (and legal, lets face it) drugs. 

 

I guess what I would do, if appropriate, is try to watch an episode of Hoarders with her and just listen/watch for her reaction. It may just give you the "in" you need. She obviously needs some help, gee. We are indeed a world of people living lives of quiet desperation, aren't we. Some of our secrets are silent, like benzo use, some of them are "out loud" like your friends hoarding. 

 

Oh how I wish I had the brights to solve things like this! 

 

I'm sure you are the best friend you can be with the limits that she has most likely set.

M.

[[mp...]]

New bad TV alert: This might be the worst idea for a show ever. I just saw an advert for "Mrs. Eastwood" . A reality show about Clint Eastwood's wife? I can't believe he would agree to something like this. 

 

M.

 

Just for the record, my favorite show is not bad.....it's MAD MEN  baby, been a devoted watcher since day 1.

[Guest [pa...]]

the big bang theory

i cant not watch it

[[Te...]]

I don't watch a lot of TV but I tend to Tivo shows and watch later so I can zip through commercials.  I hate TV commercials.  The shows I tend to watch are "The Voice", "Dancing With The Stars", "The Good Wife", "Celebrity Apprentice", sometimes "The Mentalist" and the home decorating shows on HGTV.  I really hate shows like The Hoarders, and all of the Kardasian crap and have never watched any of the "Real Wives shows".....I could care less about those type shows. 

 

Taz 

[[mp...]]

Dear TT,

 

Our different taste in this junky TV equivalent of fast food is what makes it so fun!

 

Love playing the music/movie games with you.

 

M.

[[Te...]]

Oh, M....I do watch "Smash"....I've read the ratings are low but I actually like that show. 

 

Taz

[[mp...]]

About Smash, I think it's brilliant because,

 

I follow it on another forum, and hundreds and hundreds of people claim they hate it, yet they wouldn't miss an episode. 

 

They list the characters they don't like:  All of them!

 

The costumes, the casting of actors, the music choice (the cover versions), etc.

 

Yet, everyone one of us on that forum is tuning in every week, I watch the musical numbers over again too.

 

Brilliant! 

[[Ch...]]

Aside from Betty White's new Rocking Chair show, I love The View.  Whoopi is my hero.

 

Challis 

[[mp...]]

Challis,

 

My favorite Whoopie movie by far is Corrina, Corrina, just love it! Excellent chemistry between actors - Ray Liotta.

 

On The View, I feel she holds back a lot, that she's thinking how ridiculous everybody is. She sits there and just lets them make fools of themselves. This is itself fun for me to watch. 

 

M.

[[te...]]

.........."Hilbilly Handfishing".............NOT....... I love t.v. shows!

Record on my ancient, but still working vcr .."Young & Restless"

Watch or record to watch later............Big Bang Theory, Mike & Molly, Two and a Half Men, Everybody Loves Raymond, Friends, That 70's Show, George Lopez, L-O-V-E  the I.D. channel, however can only see it at MOM's Will & Grace, Frasier, Cold Case, Army Wives, The Killing, Mad Men, Walking Dead, Desperate Housewives. There are probably more, but these come to mind--some are oldies and some are new.

 

My favorite Whoopie Movie is The Color Purple.

 

This is fun ................T2

[[mp...]]

Ah Teacher, one of my very favorites. We have lots of likes in common, but I don't consider a lot of our beloved comedies "bad", but still fun to talk about!

 

Many people think the Golden Age of TV was the 50's, but I have enjoyed so many series through the years: Cheers, Taxi, Maude, Golden Girls, MaryTylerMoore, Dick Van Dyke, Curb Your Enthusiasn, Seinfeld, Will & Grace, Lucy, That Girl, and many more. Granted, some of these were only watched in syndicated re-run, but so what?  I still have a vcr too. Although I only use it for its pretty clock. 

 

When I was a wee kid, I would sneak downstairs to watch "adult' things like Johnny Carson and the Alfred Hitchcock Hour.  I guess I have to say as I write this, that I am just a GUILTY TV Watcher in general, it's kind of amazing looking at this list that I had any life at all!    :laugh:.

[[te...]]

You reminded me of some more tv shows I watched/rewatch......Bewitched, Twilight Zone, The Wild, Wild West, Lost in Space, The Martian, Lassie, Gomer Pyle USMC....sounds like all I did was watch tv!

I have vhs tapes stacked in a mile high pile to watch.....Hoarders?!?!? When people say there is nothing to watch, I'm secretly thinking, there arewn't enough hours in the day to watch everything I want to. Of course am one of those people who like to watch things over and over. 

[[mp...]]

HaHa, I was going to add some of those to my prior post, but I didn't want it to read tooo off the deep end. Hahaha. 

 

In a long distance move years ago, I gave away or sold 99% of my tapes. I had around 1000.  I don't have many dvd's. I have several complete series, Dick Van Dyke, Seinfeld, Mad Men, Frasier, I know I'm probably forgetting a few.

 

I have a "cross over" encounter with celeb story about the guy who played Dr. Smith on Lost In Space.  He was in my store, looking around, looking around, looking up like he was trying to see who was looking. I was going to see if I could help him, but he seemed so odd, I just kept watching him. He went to a table where leatherbound blank journals were stacked, I don't remember the prices, most likely under $50.00.

 

He would pick up one, lay it down, pick another, look up, and so on. Finally, it looked like he found one he liked, I thought I'd be ringing it up. He put it in his jacket pocket!! I couldn't believe it. Then, he didn't leave. I had no choice, I had to call security on Dr. Smith!

 

Now keep in mind, I was quite young, because I actually told security, "Please come right away, Dr. Smith from Lost in Space just stole my merchandise, and he's still here!" 

 

Yes, I made him sound just like GoldieLocks

 

Several plane clothesmen came up, but they were very respectful and gentle. I seemed very confused. I felt just awful. I wonder now if he had Alzheimer's, this was before we ever heard of that awful thing.

 

I do not know what happened to him after they escorted him away. They did hand me the journal back.

 

Sorry, this was a sad one. 

 

M.