From the desk of Writer’s Bone contributor Lisa Carroll: "What are your guilty pleasures? Writing, television shows, movies that lack literary or screen merit that you love anyway?"
Rachel Tyner: “Charmed!”
Daniel Ford: So I made fun of my former roommate for buying the complete "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" television series and then watching said series. I'd be reading my book in the same room, convincing myself that I wasn't enjoying it. Seven seasons later--plus five more of the "Angel" spinoff series--and...well...yeah. Freaking love that show.
Matt DiVenere: I enjoyed watching “Scrubs,” which I was ridiculed over in college. And for those of you who watched the show, I refused to watch its "last season" where the main characters became teachers or something like that.
Daniel: What school did you go to where people made fun of you for watching "Scrubs?"
Lindsey Wojcik: I need to know, otherwise, I cannot contribute to a list in which "Scrubs" is considered a guilty pleasure. I hold that show near to my heart. In fact, so did the other editors at my college's student newspaper. "Guy Love" was the theme song for some of our male editors' relationships.
Matt: It was sad to say the least. It seems as though some people didn't appreciate the humor. So I watched it every night before I went to bed in my room alone. Worth it.
Cristina Cianci: “Boy Meets World” for the win! Hands down. Preferably, Seasons 1 through 5. Or any “Twilight Zone “episode.
Dave Pezza: How about every “Twilight Zone” episode. “Twilight Zone” invented television twists. Maybe George R.R. Martin should watch some episodes and take some notes. “The Twilight Zone” is my favorite television show of all time, and it is quite possibly the best written television show of all time. It earned four Emmy nominations and won two (remember that this a science fiction show created in the 1950s). Rod Serling pioneered series television writing in a way that we might never see again. He hit on controversial topics of the period like nuclear holocaust, the Red Scare, and the dangers of ubër American nationalism. Try to find a television series today that offers that kind of range. Again, all this from a science fiction show!
Robert Hilferty: “Twilight Zone” is legitimately good. No way it qualifies as a guilty pleasure.
Stephanie Schaefer: “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.”
Daniel: Does “The Princess Bride” qualify as a guilty pleasure?
Lindsey: “The Princess Bride” has a pretty large cult following, no?
Dave: "As you wish."
Daniel: I think it has a following period. I think people like that movie. But I remember watching it when it first came out and loving it. I wanted to be Ben Savage.
Lindsey: Good to see both Savage brothers made our guilty pleasure list, but Daniel, I think you're confusing them. Fred Savage was in “The Princess Bride.” Ben was the beloved Cory Matthews.
Daniel: They are interchangeable in my mind.
Lisa Carroll: Okay, “The Princess Bride” is brilliant.
I love “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” any romantic comedy (for example, “Sweet Home Alabama,” “This Means War,” “The Proposal”), and girl comedies like “Legally Blonde,” “Miss Congeniality.”
Some other favorites include “There's Something About Mary,” super-classic “Johnny Dangerously,” “Uncle Buck,” and any Chris Farley movie.
I just read the "Beautiful Mess" trilogy, which was written by a former theater student of mine (T.K. Leigh) and it's what prompted my original question. It won't win a Pulitzer, but it was engaging and smutty and had a pretty darn good twist at the end. I couldn't put it down much like the Twilight series, which I read straight through (and was once chastised by my husband for reading it while sitting on the edge of the tub while my toddler took her bath) despite my utter hatred for the vapid and shallow Bella because I needed to know how it would end.
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