The Guilty Pleasure Thread

[toastghost]

We all have those things or pieces of media that we know aren't very good, but we like anyway just because it scratches a certain itch in our brains. For me, I've been getting into a lot of early 2010s drama shows, specifically Glee and Pretty Little Liars. The plot lines that these shows would have and usually play it entirely straight is insane.

 

[Daren]

Space Jam (the original).
It was one of the first films I saw in theatre as a young child (maybe the first--I can't fully recall) and there was a ton of hype for it at the time.
When I got older I noticed many flaws in it, but I'd be lying if I claimed I still don't enjoy the heck out of it's goofy charm.

 

[CynthiaLover]

Beast Wars.

The models are dated by today's standard and there are plenty of flaws in it (poor Airazor really didn't get much attention or development, especially compared to Blackarachnia despite being just as capable), but dammit, it's just still so good. The story is well-developed (although the Vok subplot just kinda vanished after Tigerhawk gained both Tigatron's and Airazor's sparks), the humor is spot-on, the emotions it can bring truly pull at the heartstrings (Dinobot's heroic sacrifice being a standout), the characters get great development (well, most of them, like the aforementioned Airazor getting the shaft, and Tigatron to a degree), it had the universe's perfect whipping boy in the form of Waspinator, it started the mythos regarding Sparks that became a mainstay in Transformers since, and the dated models are part of its charm. After all, it was revolutionary for the time (especially compared to the other Mainframe CGI show, Reboot), and I consider it the best Transformers show ever. G1 and all the others can't hold a candle to it.

While Beast Machines isn't quite as good it did complete the story, including giving Cheetor, my favorite character, a very meaningful bookends (first line in Beast Wars, symbolizing his status as a rookie, to the last line in Beast Machines, showing his growth into an capable commander). Plus, later shows, like Cybertron and Energon, paled in the animation department of both Beast Wars AND Beast Machines, which is almost jarring when you go from very expressive faces and camera angles to "open mouth, close mouth" all over again. I won't deny Beast Wars is clearly showing its age but I also can't deny at just how much I love it.

 

[stunning_cyan]

Those fashion haul videos on YouTube. They are bad for environment and create unrealistic idea of how many clothes you must own. But... I am not American, I am much poorer than people over there and don't have access to many clothes in my size over here so it's very interesting to see people who do have all that. I am critical of everything I see but the freedom to create your own style when you have the means is incredible. From watching them I learned about the variety of styles I never knew existed. Also, from the logical point of view, they are not 'dumb' because there is useful information about image, color combinations, styles so I wouldn't even say it's that 'mindless' compared to cheap drama of some tv shows

 

[Emmy]

"Mamma Mia", I adore the film - I don't care what anybody says.

 

[Insanish Danish]

Miraculous Ladybug. It's not very well written and inconsistent and kind of a mess, but god do I adore the everloving shit out of it despite all my issues with it. It's just so much fun.

 

[Arceusgjengen]

Hip hop.

 

[Aulos]

Any 80s song I actually like (aside from those that are not following the trends of the time like the band Bridges) is a guilty pleasure for me because I've made it quite known that I do not like 80s music. lol.

 

[hanecco]

The Idolm@ster (a game about managing a troupe of japanese pop stars).

The idol industry is incredibly exploitative, even when the "idols" are 2d characters played by voice actresses. But the game is really fun! It has great artwork, the songs are catchy, and the gameplay is pretty unique.

 

[Aozora]

I guess... olives for me. They're really high in salt so I don't eat any more than one serving of them (which is like 3 olives) per day, but man they are so good.

 

[Handy Man]

Sonic ‘06. Everything about it is so hilarious that I can’t really bring myself to hate it.

 

[Emmy]

Sonic ‘06. Everything about it is so hilarious that I can’t really bring myself to hate it.

I will say, something about that game that isn't a guilty pleasure is the music. Such an unironically good soundtrack which was sadly wasted in that game.

 

[MightyAphrodite]

I will say, something about that game that isn't a guilty pleasure is the music. Such an unironically good soundtrack which was sadly wasted in that game.

All that because they didn't want to miss the PS3 launch and Christmas. The sad thing is that even if glitches, bugs and long loading times weren't the biggest issue, the story is just a hot mess.

For my GP, it's preschool shows like Bluey, Spidey and his Amazing Friends and Santiago of the Seas.

 

[ToxicWhiskers]

Death in Paradise.

Yes, it's typical cheesy murder-mystery fare in places, the episode plots can get a bit silly (being set in so many different places on a fictional supposedly tiny Caribbean island) and the cast gets changed around every few years to keep it fresh (that and some of them struggled with working in the Caribbean heat), but it does have a real mix of humour and drama and has occasionally featured the odd dark story line.

Also Bluey. My cousin's kids watch it and I have to say it's really funny and well-written for a preschool cartoon. It's even touched upon subjects that would normally be considered taboo to mention around little kids, like animal deaths and one of the characters being implied to have a younger sibling that was born prematurely.

And I guess, for a long time, anime and manga were one of my guilty pleasures, namely due to the endless negative stereotypes surrounding Western anime fans and anime in general. But not so much now that it's become a bit more mainstream like a lot of other nerdy stuff.

 

[MightyAphrodite]

Actually, every week I go on DisneyNOW and I currently check for new episodes of these shows:

• Spidey and his Amazing Friends
• Alice's Wonderland Bakery
• Firebuds
• Eureka!

 

[prog rocker]

Limp Bizkit

I do sincerely love nu-metal, but Limp Bizkit is almost like a parody of the genre. With two or three exceptions (and one of them is there because it has a bass solo) everything is so bad, it's good.

Jesus Freak by dc Talk

More or less same things as Limp Bizkit, but applied to a single song, and to Christian rock.

Celebrity Deathmatch

Only counting it here because I'm one of the few people that not only remembers the show, but manages to get almost all references and laughs at them. This doesn't apply to the 2005 revival nor Celebrity Deathmatch Hits Germany! (Campino and Thomas D. deserved better...).

Lux Pain

This is a DS visual novel that had potential... If they didn't have like three translators that weren't allowed to talk to each other. For example, a girl says she wants to go to Tokyo in the textbox, but the voice actress clearly says "New York", and that was one of the least problematic lines. It was messy.

Popee the Performer

There's something about this show that just screams "so wrong, it's right". It was actually pretty funny for me.

I think there's more, but I might post it later.

 

[Kung Fu Ferret]

The Lion Guard. Binged the entire series during lockdown. Got kinda dark at times for a show intended for preschool age children. NGL I think a lot of the stuff in that show would be interesting in a Kingdom Hearts game.

Edit: Also Simba acts more like a king in this show than he has in any other Lion King media. And I'm glad they introduced some good guy hyenas.

 

[Okido]

Nightcore. It's not a real genre, there is almost no effort involved in creating it, half my friends hate it and arguably it makes some songs sound worse — but I still adore it and I couldn't even tell you exactly why. Nostalgia is a hell of a thing.

To a degree, Love Live! and particularly School idol festival. I love LLSIF and I have a lot of good memories attached to its gameplay and music, but I'm also completely aware I'm playing an idol gacha game and it makes it very hard to recommend to people in good conscience lol.

And in the way of TV, probably those syndicated game shows like Wheel of Fortune or Deal or No Deal. They're totally substanceless and I get nothing out of watching them, but I'm oddly mesmerized by them nonetheless. It's like eating sugar.

 

[Welkamo]

The Lion Guard. Binged the entire series during lockdown. Got kinda dark at times for a show intended for preschool age children. NGL I think a lot of the stuff in that show would be interesting in a Kingdom Hearts game.

Edit: Also Simba acts more like a king in this show than he has in any other Lion King media. And I'm glad they introduced some good guy hyenas.

omg another Lion Guard person

Cars is a big guilty pleasure of mine. I've only seen the second movie (maaaaaybe the third?) and the spinoff series, but gosh I just love the car-acter designs. Also like... Disney Channel movies and Pixar sequels. I wouldn't say they're good persay, but like I have so much fun watching them with my sister.

 

[InfiniteBakuphoon]

I can name a few off the top of my head:

— Late 90s/early 2000s pop music. Ultra-slick, ultra-produced, and ultra-silly, but also ultra-fun. There were plenty of stinkers back then as with all pop music, but there were many songs that I unironically like, too. It also helps that, for all of its… “pop”-ness, there’s at least still a semblance of actual music with most of these songs, compared to the often tuneless electronic-laced pop appearing nowadays that I tend not to particularly like very much. The OST from Pokémon the First Movie has many wonderful samples of this kind of music (along with some of the aforementioned stinkers), which I consider to be no different from the J-pop songs that came to define the Pokémon movies’ ending themes from around the Deoxys movie onward. Speaking of which…

— J-pop is kind of this to me, in the sense that I don’t really like it that much in the same way that I like something such as, say, Together with the Wind (more “serious” Japanese songs, in other words). But that doesn’t mean that I can’t enjoy a good opening or ending anime theme from some slick, up-and-coming J-pop artist, or indeed one of the more pop-infused Japanese ending themes from the Pokémon movies. Songs like ONE, Ice Cream Syndrome, and Smile are just as much of my favorites as any of the more “serious” ending themes!
(And a lot of the English ending themes aren’t too bad either, actually…)

— The Ar Tonelico series, a JPRG trilogy (part of the larger “EXA_PICO” universe) with interesting plots and characters, outstanding worldbuilding, and some of the best music you’ll ever hear in a video game. However, there’s also a ton of ecchi humor laced throughout the game, most of which is (deliberately) juvenile and actually quite hilarious at points (for a taste of what to expect, here’s one of the more infamous scenes from the first game). But it’s still kind of embarrassing, to the point that I wouldn’t want to be playing it over speakers in case someone in the next apartment over hears it and wonders what kind of crazy pervert is living next door, haha. Thank goodness for dual audio…

— Reality television used to be this for me a long time ago, back in my middle school/high school years. Not so much anymore, though; I just find it unpleasant now.