Television: a daily guilty pleasure

August 30, 2012 — by Aasim Naqvi

With the rising popularity of online streaming, an episode of just about any TV show can be just a click away. 

With the rising popularity of online streaming, an episode of just about any TV show can be just a click away. 
Senior Ishaan Kolluri’s guilty pleasure takes literally three clicks of the mouse. One to open the browser, another to click his bookmark for the show “Angel” and a third to choose the episode. “Angel,” a spin-off of the program “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” depicts a convicted vampire as he endures numerous murder trials.
“He was a cool vampire because he was more than a man,” Kolluri said. “He was a superhuman who had dark, conflicted feelings about his identity.”
However, Kolluri believes the overwhelmingly popular “Twilight” series has emasculated the genre of vampire fiction.
“Now guys aren’t supposed to watch vampire shows, because they’re stigmatized as flowery and emotional,” Kolluri said.
While Kolluri enjoys his world of vampires, senior Johnny Chang derives his guilty pleasure from the program “American Greed.”
“It’s a show that highlights some of the biggest corporate and white-collar crimes in history,” Chang said. “It’s an important part of my identity now.”
While many students find it difficult to find time for television during the busy school week, Chang finds a way to make an exception for his guilty pleasure.
“I watch it when I’m eating and I’m not watching the business news,” Chang said. “I treat it like an extracurricular activity.”
As the show does have a historical angle to it, Chang considers it a guilty pleasure because his intention while watching it isn’t exactly to get a history lesson.
“The show seems completely pointless,” Chang said. “I watch it to see people get incarcerated.”
While “Angel” and “American Greed” are relatively obscure programs among the high school crowd, certain popular TV shows still make students feel sheepish when they click that alluring play button on their computers. Senior Arush Shankar’s guilty pleasure is the medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy,” which has a considerable fan-following nationwide. 
Shankar considers it “a girl show,” which could make any male viewer want to keep his fandom private.
“The main character is played by a girl, and a large part of the show’s story is about her emotions,” Shankar said. 
Kolluri and Shankar agreed that programs that focus on characters’ emotions can be guilty pleasures for males; modern-day society often subliminally teaches that excessive emotion is related more to the female gender than male gender, Kolluri said.
At the end of the day, however, television is for entertainment, Shankar said.
“I watch [‘Grey’s Anatomy’] because it’s a good medical drama and a good show,” Shankar said. “It’s good. That should be the reason why anyone watches any TV show.”
1 view this week