‘The Great British Baking Show’: Here are the best Netflix guilty pleasures
If your idea of heaven is turning off your phone, ordering a sharesize feast for one, and watching the trashiest TV known to mankind, Netflix is your holy grail. The streaming service is stacked with some wonderful & ungodly guilty pleasures, the likes of which you probably won’t want to share with anyone else.
We’ve got ten other essential Netflix guilty pleasures you need watch in the meantime. So throw on your sloppiest pair of sweats and let’s do this!
Terrace House: Boys and Girls in the City (2015 – )
If you’re going to start your Netflix guilty pleasures journey anywhere then it should be with the first season of Terrace House. A changing set of six young people live in a lush apartment in Tokyo where they enjoy a series of shy dates with each other and argue about minor (and major) indiscretions.
Terrace House is one of Netflix’s best hidden gems made all the better by the meta-layering of the show, in which six comedians offer continual witty commentary about the events of the house.
Undercover Boss (2010 – )
Undercover Boss is shamefully watchable. This fairly long-running reality series follows the head honchos of chain businesses as they pretend to be a lower level worker at one of their own stores. Sometimes this results in heartwarming epiphanies, other times it achieves some cringe-tastic comedy, and often it’ll make you thrill at the cluelessness of supposedly smart, powerful people.
Ultimate Beastmaster (2017 – )
If you love to chug a six-pack with an entire bag of chips while watching top athletes achieve incredible physical feats, Ultimate Beastmaster is for you.
Following eighteen competitors as they battle through an intense obstacle course to “tame” the beast of the title, this Sylvester Stallone (Rocky) produced show is high energy and low rent – in the best possible way, of course. Plus, the ever-wonderful Terry Crews (White Chicks) hosts!
Man vs. Food (2008 – )
Host Adam Richman (and subsequently Casey Webb) travels around the U.S. eating gargantuan volumes of fast food like a rampaging real-life Pac Man who should probably have his blood pressure checked daily. While watching him compete in local eating challenges, you’ll find yourself wondering why it’s so satisfying to see a sweaty, grown man consume a 50-foot pizza in five minutes.
Real Life Wife Swap (2004)
If trash TV is what your grubby little heart sings for, Real Life Wife Swap might be just what you need. This docuseries profiles suburban swingers and their taboo sexual customs. While some of it is sensationalist garbage (you know you love it, though) some of the profiles are genuinely fascinating and occasionally offer thoughtful commentaries about monogamy and swinging.
Queer Eye (2018 – )
Frankly, no one should feel guilty for enjoying this spectacular show. The Netflix Originals reboot of the early 00s makeover show is an emotional blast of feelgood ideas, queer pride, and tearful revelations. Weep openly as Bobby Berk, Karamo Brown, Antoni Porowski, Tan France, and Jonathan Van Ness teach men how to be their best selves.
Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives (2006 – )
Food Network’s Guy Fieri looks like a 90s Smash Mouth roadie and he acts like one too. But that’s part of the dreadful appeal of this food show in which Fieri profiles the best diners, drive-ins, and dive bars of the U.S., interviewing folk about food and sampling dishes with the same ravenous enthusiasm of a man with just one hour to live.
Skin Wars (2014 – )
Hosted by Rebecca Romijn (X-Men) with the magnificent RuPaul as a featured judge, this hour-long competition show seeks to find the greatest body painters in the U.S. The series is surprisingly addictive and is brimming with the sort of wit & feelgood platitudes we all crave from trash TV.
The Great British Baking Show (2010 – )
You will never root so hard for amateur bakers as you will during this twee British reality series. Although you’ll stress over the remarkably high pressure of the whole thing, ultimately you’ll find yourself staying (and returning) for the polite camaraderie of the UK contestants & hosts.
Fixer Upper (2013 – )
Intensely perky married couple Chip & Joanna Gaines flip mediocre, crumbling homes into dream abodes in Waco, Texas. You’ll wish they could work the same magic on the mediocre, crumbling home of your actual life, too.
