Guilty Pleasure - Oh, (Big) Brother

Do you have a "guilty pleasure?"  Something you hate to admit enjoying, because it somehow embarrasses you?  Maybe it makes people think differently about you?  Maybe you think this particular "pleasure" is "beneath" you, or you feel like there are better things you could do with that time?

I'm not talking about a hobby, or an outside interest.  I'm talking a full-on "I blush when I tell people" kind of thing.

Mine is "Big Brother."

This CBS "reality" TV show is essentially a summer of (tame) voyeurism.  Not in the sex-y sense, but in the "fly on the wall" sense.

For those of you who have never seen it, a group of people (mostly young and attractive) are sequestered in a house filled with video cameras for the summer.  Each week, one of them gets voted out of the house ("evicted") and of the last two or three standing, one wins $500,000.  The producers cast people who will be entertaining, and clearly they prompt the houseguests to be provocative.  But they almost don't need to.  In the close confines of the Big Brother house, drama ensues.

It's weird.  When the show first premiered, I couldn't watch it.  I get so nervous watching people in conflict in real life -- watching it on TV was unsettling.  But over time, I got over this reaction for the most part.  This season, I have found my heroes, and my villains, in the house.  I watch every episode I can.  It's silly.  But for some reason, it's fun.  And, besides, Sherry is hooked, too, so it's a shared guilty pleasure.

And hey, if a husband and wife have a shared guilty pleasure, how bad can that be?