TV you hate that 'everyone' loves?

Image Credit: Ray Mickshaw/Fox; Robert Voets/CBS; Barry Wetcher/HBOPopWatchers, ain’t love grand? Last week, I wrote a post asking about the TV shows you love that everyone else hates. You bravely responded with a list of supposed travesties (Shasta McNasty), forgotten curiosities (Strange Luck), and much-insulted reality shows. (I’m so glad to discover that I’m not the only person who unabashedly enjoys the trash-tastic Real World/Road Rules Challenge series.) However, one thread on the comment boards turned the question upside down with a slightly more insidious question: What shows do you hate that everyone else loves?

Quite a few commenters turned their attention to one show in particular: Glee. Sam said, “I hate hate hate hate Glee. I don’t see how anybody about the age of 12 could stand watching it.” Strong words — but arguably harsher were ex-Gleeks like Janet, who said, “Glee is hands-down the worst show on television, and this is coming from someone who enjoyed the first season.” (All the anti-Glee feeling reminds me a little bit of the counter-buzz that developed during the sophomore seasons of The OC and Heroes. Although we can all agree that Glee hasn’t reached the depths of Bisexual Marissa Cooper and the Terrible Tears of Death…right?)

Perhaps unsurprisingly, since comedy is a highly subjective art, most of the other shows mentioned were sitcoms. The perhaps-ironically-named commenter Liz didn’t like 30 Rock (“It’s awful but everyone seems to love it.”) Glory expressed a bit of sorrow over her pick: “The Big Bang Theory. I WANT to like it. But it’s never made me laugh. Not once.”

Boy, do I know where she’s coming from. Everyone around me loves the HBO comedy Bored to Death. And I should love the show. I dig all three of the lead actors, I adore all the guest stars, and I’m an avid fan of the show’s creator, Jonathan Ames. Plus, it’s a show about writers living in New York and hanging out in awesome dive bars. Hey, I’m a writer living in New York, and I aspire to hang out in awesome dive bars!  The show literally seems to have been grown in a factory purely for my amusement. But I just can’t get into Bored to Death — even though literally every three days someone whose taste I trust will tell me that it’s their absolute favorite show.

PopWatchers, drink some haterade and join the discussion! Are there any much-loved shows currently on the air you just can’t stand?

Darren on Twitter: @EWDarrenFranich

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'Harry Loves Lisa' review: Hamlin and Rinna, deflating those lips, inflating ... - Entertainment Weekly

The new reality show Harry Loves Lisa follows Harry Hamlin and Lisa Rinna as they try to keep their careers from sputtering to a halt. Hey, nothing wrong with that: Who’s not trying to do the same thing these days? It’s just that most of us don’t do it with cameras recording our every dull comment, our every banally expressed desire, most of them issued through silicone-inflated lips. The duo has been flogging Harry Loves Lisa wherever possible, and managed to get some unintended publicity by getting a phone call, live on The Today Show, that their house was being burglarized. The HLL premiere on Wednesday night was a half-hour of hodgepodge, with everything from Rinna addressing her perceived slam of Heidi Montag to Harry Hamlin doing stand-up comedy in order to make himself more marketable. I ask you: Would you hire this guy if you were a TV producer?

That clip doesn’t include the lispy jokes about a gay director Hamlin says he worked with on Equus. After watching that, I lost what sympathy I had for Hamlin’s attempt to get “back in the game” — i.e., another TV job. The one element of the episode that sounded interesting, Hamlin auditioning for the role of an airline pilot and receiving feedback that “I gave a bizarre read and I freaked everybody in the room out” — well, darn, wouldn’t you know it, the cameras weren’t there to record that.

Much of the rest of the time, Rinna is rightfully obsessed with the career damage done by her excessively-enlarged lips, which turned her into a tabloid joke. Since you know that she’s already had reduction surgery, are you going to hang around to watch what looks like, from the coming attractions, weeks of doctor appointments and discussions with her gal-pals as to whether she should get the procedure?

Hamlin and Rinna seems as though they like each other, their two daughters are adorable. Their show fits the TV Land mold, in that it’s not excessively crass. But it’s a bore.

If you watched, will you watch again?

Follow: @kentucker

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