c/bad-tv-reruns

Shoutout to the show I put on just to have background noise while I deep cleaned my fridge

Last Saturday in Austin I was scrubbing old salsa off the bottom shelf and threw on a season of 'Zoo' because the plot is nonsense but the sound is steady. Halfway through I realized I had stopped cleaning and was just staring at a guy trying to fight a lion with a net. It hit me that these terrible shows work better than any podcast or playlist for getting me through chores because I don't care enough to pause. Now I save the worst episodes for laundry day on purpose. Anyone else got a garbage show they only watch while doing stuff that needs zero brain power?

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theas28•3d ago

Rant: The 'Lost' finale was high art and I'm tired of pretending it flopped at my watch party

I staged a full series rewatch for 6 friends last month and lost 14 hours of sleep defending the island's light cave to a guy who still thinks the polar bears were a plot hole. Has anyone else actually appreciated the ending once you stop expecting every mystery to get a bow on it?

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carr.abby•3d ago

Bought the complete series of a show I hated just because the box set was $3 at a garage sale

It was some 2005 sitcom with a laugh track that sounded like a dying goose, and I watched 4 episodes before donating it last Saturday. Has anyone else impulse-bought a trash show just because the price felt like a dare?

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kai_chen2•5d ago

It took 14 years for me to realize I was watching Cheers wrong... the laugh track

I've been watching Cheers reruns since like 2010, always on late night after my shift. Thought it was a great show that just happened to have this loud studio audience. Then last Tuesday I watched an episode with headphones on, and I finally heard the crowd reaction in the background of Norm's entrance. That's the whole joke. The pause, the wait, the buildup. I had been fast forwarding or half watching for over a decade and missing the timing. It's like the show is built around the silence before the laughter. Has anyone else had a show where you missed the core thing for years, just because you were watching it wrong?

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angela_morgan•6d ago

Why does everyone love that show with the talking dog lawyer?

Last month my friend group made me watch 'Justice Paws' because they swear it's the funniest thing on streaming. I sat through 4 episodes of a golden retriever objecting in court and somehow winning cases based on scent evidence. I kept waiting for the joke to land but it never did. Three years ago I would have turned it off in 10 minutes, but now I catch myself humming the theme song at work. Is this what comfort TV does to a person, or am I just losing my standards? Has anyone else been dragged into a show they hate only to secretly start liking it?

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zara_sanchez•8d ago

Why does nobody talk about the fake playoff highlights on that sports drama

I blew $40 on a box set of "Gridiron Heroes" from 2008 because I remembered it being hilariously bad. Turns out the later seasons just reuse the same touchdown footage with different jerseys painted over. I counted 12 repeats in one episode and now I can't even rewatch it for a laugh. Has anyone else gotten swindled by a nostalgia bait TV purchase?

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richard_young80•10d ago

Lost 14 hours of my life to a show so bad I rewatched it twice

I sat through all 3 seasons of that CW show about the haunted lighthouse diner last weekend. There's no way it should work, the acting is like a high school play and the plot holes are big enough to drive a truck through. But somehow I couldn't stop. I even got my roommate hooked and we binged the finale at 3 AM. Has anyone else fallen into a show that's objectively terrible but you keep coming back like it's a favorite meal?

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amy_martin•11d ago

My VCR repair attempt turned into a bigger mess

I tried fixing my old Panasonic VCR last Saturday because it kept eating tapes, and I thought it would be a fun little project. After taking off the top panel I realized the pinch roller was totally dried out, and my attempt to clean it just made it wobble worse. Now the whole thing makes this grinding noise and I'm pretty sure I snapped a gear somewhere in there. I usually watch old sitcom reruns on this thing every weekend, so now I'm stuck with my laptop and a fuzzy antenna signal. Has anyone else ruined a perfectly good bad-TV machine by trying to fix it yourself?

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jesse_miller•12d ago

My grandma's 2007 DVD player is the only thing that survives power outages

Last week a storm knocked out my internet for two days and my smart TV turned into a brick. I dug out my grandma's old DVD player from her closet in Cleveland, plugged it in, and it fired right up. I watched the same scratched copy of The Fifth Element three times and honestly it was better than any streaming service. Anyone else have that one ancient gadget that just refuses to die and becomes your whole entertainment setup?

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fiona_kim97•15d ago

Appreciation post: the season 4 episode where the lighting rig literally fell mid-scene

I was rewatching this old cop drama on a rainy Sunday in Columbus, and in episode 7 of season 4, a studio light crashes down behind the lead actor. He just keeps talking, doesn't even flinch, and the boom mic swings into frame for a solid 5 seconds. My roommate walked in and asked if this was a blooper reel, but honestly that's what makes it perfect comfort TV. The show got canceled 2 episodes later, but I've rewatched that moment at least 10 times. Anyone else have a favorite unscripted fail that became the reason you stick with a bad show?

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tessa_carr•17d ago

Am I the only one who ranks bad shows by how good the theme song is?

My whole rewatch of 'Secrets of the Lost Highway' from 1998 only worked because I started treating the theme song as the main event. That cheesy sax intro in episode 1 got me through 47 episodes of nonsense. I tried watching it straight once and quit by episode 3, but now I actually look forward to the 90 seconds of music before each mess. Has anyone else used a dumb trick like that to make a terrible show watchable?

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ramirez.vera•17d ago

Took me 6 weeks to realize I was watching the wrong season order

Started a rewatch of a cop show from 2009 and kept getting confused about a character who died, then showed up again. Turns out the streaming service listed seasons 2 and 3 swapped, and I was 6 episodes in before I checked. Anyone else get burned by a bad episode order on a rerun?

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david703•18d ago

My mom's advice about bad TV comfort shows backfired in the best way

She told me to watch any show with a laugh track when I'm stressed, said it's like mental chicken soup. So I picked this 1997 sitcom about a talking dog detective that aired on UPN for 2 seasons, and now I've rewatched the whole thing 4 times this month. The dog's jokes are terrible but I genuinely look forward to his bad puns after work. Anyone else got a comfort show that's objectively awful but weirdly soothing?

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young.thomas•19d ago

My uncle's 'watch the worst episode first' rule changed my whole rewatch habit

My uncle Bill told me about 5 years ago that the best way to get into a bad show is to start with the worst rated episode on IMDb, not the pilot. He said if you survive that, everything else feels like a masterpiece. I tried it with a cheesy 90s cop drama that had a 4.1 episode about a haunted vending machine. Somehow he was right, that episode hooked me because it was so dumb I had to see if the show got any dumber. Now I do that with every terrible show I pick up, and it's made trash TV way more fun. Has anyone else tried this or do you just power through the pilot like a normal person?

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jenny_lane12•19d ago

My 2AM habit of watching one specific bad episode fixed my insomnia

I used to lay there for hours flipping channels and getting more annoyed. Then a few months ago I landed on this god awful 2007 shark movie on some random cable channel, and something clicked. Now I put on the same cheesy scene every night, the one where the mayor ignores the warnings, and I'm out cold within 10 minutes. It's not even a good show, but the predictability is like a lullaby. Has anyone else turned a terrible rerun into a sleep aid, or am I just weird?

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nathankim•20d ago

The cashier at Kroger made me defend my NCIS addiction out loud

Last Tuesday I was buying a 12 pack of soda and some frozen pizza, and the cashier saw my NCIS lanyard keychain. She laughed and said, "You actually watch that still? It's been 20 years of the same plot." I froze for a second, then launched into a full defense about how Gibbs's team feels like old friends and the comfort beats the formula. She just shrugged and said her comfort show is Judge Judy reruns, so I guess we all have our thing. What's the show you've had to justify to a stranger and how did you spin it?

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