Baking fails, conspiring teens, risky marriages and obsessive cheapskating… These are the guilty pleasure shows we’re hooked on.
We put together the seven deadly sins of TV that we can’t help but love. So, strap yourself in for some quality Netflix-ing because who doesn’t love a good binge-watching sesh?
Lust: Married at First Sight Australia (Channel 9)
Strangers get paired up by experts and meet at the altar for the first time. Is it a match made in heaven or a complete disaster? It’s probably the latter, but that’s probably why you’re watching with your box of MJ-approved popcorn. This show is an emotional battleground of disastrous romantic dinners, savage rejections and a lot of tearjerk. Ah, reality TV. Never too low to exploit the modern pursuit of love in a swipe-right world…
Gluttony: Nailed It (Netflix)
Nailed It delivers a middle-finger to all the MasterChef’s and Zumbo’s Just Desserts’. What if ordinary people with questionable baking skills competed against each other to win the ultimate $10,000 cash prize by attempting to replicate dessert masterpieces? This show is deliciously bad and doesn’t take itself seriously, which makes you feel less guilty for laughing at all the hopeless creations.
Greed: Extreme Cheapskates (TLC, U.S.)
The people who brought us weirdly binge-worthy shows like My Strange Addiction and Extreme Couponing are back at it again with Extreme Cheapskates, which is way better/worse than it sounds.
You know the feeling of utter financial despair that comes right after an overseas trip because now you’re broke and you desperately need to save?
Imagine that, but multiply by tenfold. In this show, you have all kinds of shameless penny-pinching behaviour: fashion bloggers who go ‘funeral tracking’ to find vintage pieces for free, mothers using their hair as dental floss to save every cent, foodies who cook ‘gourmet’ meals using lobster shells they dug out of the dumpster… You get the idea.
Sloth: Supersize vs Superskinny (Channel 4, UK)
A rare example of reality TV that isn’t just drama, pettiness and tears. Supersize vs Superskinny pairs up overweight and underweight people, compares their daily diet via a gross but weirdly satisfying food tube, and has them swap diets for a week in a bid to get them to snap out of ‘eat’ (yes, that was a pun) and start living a healthy lifestyle. Kinda evil, but kinda genius.
Wrath: The End of the F***ing World (Netflix)
Forget everything you know about the boy meets girl cliché. The End of the F***ing World is an anti-romance romance between James, the creepy guy in school who probably sees dead people and Alyssa, the potty-mouthed girl who hates EVERYTHING. Somehow, they end up leaving town together and gasp, develop feelings for each other. Did I mention James is an aspiring serial killer whose grand plan is making Alyssa his first victim? This is black comedy at its best.
Envy: Riverdale (Netflix)
Riverdale is probably the lovechild of Pretty Little Liars and Twin Peaks. It’s a nosedive into retro small-town vices and drama as ambitious and overly sexed-up teens Archie, Betty, Veronica and Jughead work together to solve a murder mystery while navigating high school pettiness and jealousy. This show is frustratingly teen angst and first world problems, but that’s how hot mess train wrecks work – you can’t help but watch anyway.
Pride: Queer Eye (Netflix)
If there’s one thing Queer Eye preaches, it’s pride, baby! The Netflix reality TV reboot follows the adventures of the Fab 5, a group of fabulous and extra AF gay men who have their sh*t together. These guys are experts of food, fashion, culture, design, grooming, and they basically help out straight guys who are on struggle street by giving them the ultimate makeover. This show may be clichéd, but it celebrates the huge strides of progress the LGBTQ community has made and the new quest for acceptance, armed with sassy quips and the feels. Yasss, queens!
