Guilty Pleasures

I love it when a reviewer calls GILT a guilty pleasure.  I didn't intend to write it that way.  But there's something deliciously decadent about such a pleasure.  The term indicates something we should feel badly about - guilty - but in reality, it makes us feel better.  Like Donna's naps.  A guilty pleasure is a good thing because it brings delight, relief, escape.  Maybe it gives us a reason to laugh at ourselves.

Like my first guilty pleasure this week.  I don't watch a lot of TV.  In fact, our television does not receive signals.  At all.  No cable.  No bunny ears.  No Netflix.  Nothing.  We have a DVD player that we use sometimes to play discs we check out of the library.  Mostly, we read.

Which is why I have this hidden guilty pleasure.  Sometimes, when I'm alone in the house, I watch Hulu. And not just any program.  I watch SMASH.  The concept hooked me right away -- musical theater, backstage shenanigans, and Marilyn Monroe?  Sign me up!  I missed a few episodes while I was revising (damn that Hulu Plus), but that didn't really matter.  I watch for the stage numbers.  For the schmaltzy sentimental soap opera.  For the character interactions.  Yeah, but mostly for the theater.  It's probably the closest I'll ever get to backstage Broadway, to seeing how a script is put into production, to imagine.

(Side note: the only other show I ever watch on Hulu is Grey's Anatomy.  Those writers really know how to raise the stakes.  Plus, I always feel better when I watch that show, even if I'm crying, because even my worst day doesn't come close to what some of those people go through.)

My second guilty pleasure?  Trader Joe's dark chocolate peanut butter cups.  'Nuf said.