TV Guilty pleasures.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I got completely mixed up there! I meant Salvage Hunters.

[Ferris]

If you have the opportunity, watch Find it, Fix it, Flog it. Astonishing bit of commissioning with possibly the most unlikeable "loadsamoney" cunt I've ever seen on television. He oozes cuntiness. You'll know the one I mean - It's sort of impressive.

[JesusAndYourBush]

Storage Wars

There's just something appealing about seeing a bunch of grown men and women arguing and acting all bigshot billy big bollocks over a bunch of trash.  Plus the auctioneer isn't a proper auctioneer - he just punctuates his fast talking with "brrrrrrr" noises as opposed to proper fast talking.  Storage Wars Texas was just as enjoyable, but Storage Wars Canada seemed too fake, and even faker was Storage Hunters (also with an auctioneer that does the "brrrr" thing, but he's a comedian so he's probably taking the piss so he gets a pass for that), and even faker still is the UK version, with Heavy D being infinitely more annoying than he was on Celeb BB, if that's possible.

[paruses]

Storage Wars

There's just something appealing about seeing a bunch of grown men and women arguing and acting all bigshot billy big bollocks over a bunch of trash.  Plus the auctioneer isn't a proper auctioneer - he just punctuates his fast talking with "brrrrrrr" noises as opposed to proper fast talking.  Storage Wars Texas was just as enjoyable, but Storage Wars Canada seemed too fake, and even faker was Storage Hunters (also with an auctioneer that does the "brrrr" thing, but he's a comedian so he's probably taking the piss so he gets a pass for that), and even faker still is the UK version, with Heavy D being infinitely more annoying than he was on Celeb BB, if that's possible.

Storage Wars has a profit calculation only rivaled by The Apprentice's turnover projections ("First year, 25K, second year, 150K, third year, 1 million pounds") where they take the item to a "dealer" (someone who has a shop) who then says "you could maybe get 1 billion dollars for this old Remington typewriter" <bing> "Cost: $150 Profit: $1,000,000,000".

Is Storage Wars the one with the English ex-hippie or more likely antiques dealer / fleecer of old ladies with the car-crash accent? I hate him. Really hate him.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Storage Wars

There's just something appealing about seeing a bunch of grown men and women arguing and acting all bigshot billy big bollocks over a bunch of trash.  Plus the auctioneer isn't a proper auctioneer - he just punctuates his fast talking with "brrrrrrr" noises as opposed to proper fast talking.  Storage Wars Texas was just as enjoyable, but Storage Wars Canada seemed too fake, and even faker was Storage Hunters (also with an auctioneer that does the "brrrr" thing, but he's a comedian so he's probably taking the piss so he gets a pass for that), and even faker still is the UK version, with Heavy D being infinitely more annoying than he was on Celeb BB, if that's possible.

T-Money might be one of the best telly characters everywhere.

I fucking hated Dave on Storage Wars. 'Yuuuuuuuuuuup!', fucking cretin.

[JesusAndYourBush]

Is Storage Wars the one with the English ex-hippie or more likely antiques dealer / fleecer of old ladies with the car-crash accent? I hate him. Really hate him.

I've noticed one of the people they take stuff to get a valuation has an English accent, but with a slight Yank twang, perhaps because he's lived there too long.

Yeah that Yuuup guy is annoying.

I've also noticed that they often pixellate stuff, like logos on boxes.  Are US TV really uptight about that kindof thing?  It's really inconsistent too, like sometimes in a long shot they'll pixellate something and then in a closeup it's unpixellated, and in one instance they pixellated something stuck on a drawer front and then in another unpixellated camera angle you saw it was only a baseball card/sticker.  That made me wonder if it's automated like when Google Maps blurs the faces on billboards as well as real peoples faces.

The censorship is inconsistent too, like in most episodes every profanity is bleeped but occasionally it isn't, like in one episode one guy was arguing with the Yuuup guy and called him a motherfucker several times and it wasn't bleeped.  I guess that one can be explained by the US having uncensored episodes available.  Think that one went out pre-watershed at about 7pm too!

[Famous Mortimer]

Yeah that Yuuup guy is annoying.

I went looking for a link about him and his court case - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storage_Wars#Concerns_about_authenticity - but it turns out he's been back on the show since season 5? I was a hardcore watcher of that show in the early years, and even most of the spinoffs too (I liked the retro ladies in New York, and Mary in Texas, who it turns out is now in LA. I perhaps ought to get back on the bandwagon).

[Dr Syntax Head]

Shed and buried. A couple of long haired 50 somethings go around the West Country going through weird old hoarders barns looking for vintage bikes and tractors that they bid for and try to sell on. It's bloody great. With the war and all that it's making me nostalgically cry for a lost time of Fred Dibnah and steam rallys. I now also really really want an old Triumph Bonneville.

[Dr Syntax Head]

Old episodes of the Bill. Carver getting arrested in full DT hell was a joy to behold.

[paruses]

Old episodes of the Bill. Carver getting arrested in full DT hell was a joy to behold.

Love old Bill (The) binges. Disappeared down a rabbit hole a few months ago thanks to it being brought up on this site (possibly by you, Dr.). Could only find mid-late ones though to watch that had complete story arcs in (Roger descending into madness and Smithy now an unrecognizable Sgt - but still good, just not the dishonest and brutal character he started as).

[Dr Syntax Head]

Love old Bill (The) binges. Disappeared down a rabbit hole a few months ago thanks to it being brought up on this site (possibly by you, Dr.). Could only find mid-late ones though to watch that had complete story arcs in (Roger descending into madness and Smithy now an unrecognizable Sgt - but still good, just not the dishonest and brutal character he started as).

There's a thread somewhere but not started by me. I love how totally unprofessional they are. Back when I were watching it as a lad I thought that was how the force was actually run. Actually maybe it was. Great comfort TV though.

[newbridge]

Shed and buried. A couple of long haired 50 somethings go around the West Country going through weird old hoarders barns looking for vintage bikes and tractors that they bid for and try to sell on. It's bloody great. With the war and all that it's making me nostalgically cry for a lost time of Fred Dibnah and steam rallys. I now also really really want an old Triumph Bonneville.

Is American Pickers broadcast in the UK? Mike and Frank are the best.

[Psmith]

Heartbeat.

Wasn't interested when it first on but now I'm much older and it's on at tea time.

[Norton Canes]

Bear Grylls The Bear Grylls Island With Bear Grylls

Forget men vs women or old vs young, this time round it's 'high-earning people (with an average salary of more than £100,000) and low-earning people (each with a salary lower than the UK national average)'. So posh vs proles in other words.

[Dr Syntax Head]

I've got sucked in to Emmerdale and Corrie. FFS! FML!

[thecuriousorange]

Bear Grylls The Bear Grylls Island With Bear Grylls

Forget men vs women or old vs young, this time round it's 'high-earning people (with an average salary of more than £100,000) and low-earning people (each with a salary lower than the UK national average)'. So posh vs proles in other words.

After starting as a baddy, the Jack Whitehall guy is now a goody because he helped Mercedes the obese character. Even though he almost killed her with that idiotic boat trip and subsequent "niceness" was peppered with sexist and fattist remarks, including comparing her to an elephant.

[Norton Canes]

Yeah, he seemed to regard her as some kind of quasi-sentient pet.

[Famous Mortimer]

Back on "Storage Wars", thanks to this damn thread.

Season 6, and ten episodes in, only one person has "lost" money on a unit. Having read about the actual businesses of the people going bust, even with the amazing profit they make at every auction, one would hope they'd ask their cast to introduce a moderate element of reality into their own valuations. I feel like the early years of the show regularly had people lose money? I could be wrong.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-things-pawn-stars-doesnt-tell-you-about-auction-hunting/

[drummersaredeaf]

Stone Cold's Broken Skull Ranch.

I fucking love that shit for some reason. Think it's that bald bloke shouting.

[Blue Jam]

Gawd, I love Queer Eye. Just watching the one where the Fab Five meet a load of firemen. I think they've all died and gone to Heaven...

[JesusAndYourBush]

Back on "Storage Wars", thanks to this damn thread.

Season 6, and ten episodes in, only one person has "lost" money on a unit. Having read about the actual businesses of the people going bust, even with the amazing profit they make at every auction, one would hope they'd ask their cast to introduce a moderate element of reality into their own valuations. I feel like the early years of the show regularly had people lose money? I could be wrong.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-things-pawn-stars-doesnt-tell-you-about-auction-hunting/

In the older episodes I've been watching, even with the overinflated valuations there's always at least one person every episode who makes a loss.  What spoils it being a fair contest is that Barry will rip apart his unit looking for one 'good' item which he then gets valued, and then Dave Hester goes and takes his stuff back to his warehouse where he systematically values every last item to screw every last dollar out of it, so Barry makes a loss even though he didn't bother to value all the rest of his stuff.

[paruses]

As only an occasional consumer of Storage Wars I might be wrong but my impression was that profit-loss outcome was about 50/50 for a unit and for an episode one lot would be up and one would be down.

Re: profit calculations it always bugged me that the outcome was dependent on a valuation rather than auction or sale prices and having watched that programme where they drive round the UK in vintage cars, an expert's valuation rarely translates to a sale price (typing this I realise that the timsescales probably don't allow for this but as it's all in the edit it would be possible - guess it depends what the shooting to screening lag is).

It's entirely possible that a) I am completely wrong or b) I am thinking of a different programme.

[Rolf Lundgren]

Rattled through three seasons of Hell's Kitchen USA on Netflix because they were there. You can fast forward through much of the show and just watch the challenges and dinner services because that's where the action is. The talking heads sequences are all heavily staged and follow the same pattern every time. A contestant mucks up something easy like grating a carrot which leads to another contestant screaming about how dumb they are then they promptly send a dozen raw Beef Wellington's to the pass. Repeat a thousand times a series. I think even I could make a decent pan of scallops by now.

Ramsay lays it on thick as per usual but he's already gone at this point in the show's history. The turning point was when he told all the contestants that they had a special guest at the VIP table in the shape of Jeremy Sisto.

[Famous Mortimer]

As only an occasional consumer of Storage Wars I might be wrong but my impression was that profit-loss outcome was about 50/50 for a unit and for an episode one lot would be up and one would be down.

Re: profit calculations it always bugged me that the outcome was dependent on a valuation rather than auction or sale prices and having watched that programme where they drive round the UK in vintage cars, an expert's valuation rarely translates to a sale price (typing this I realise that the timsescales probably don't allow for this but as it's all in the edit it would be possible - guess it depends what the shooting to screening lag is).

It's entirely possible that a) I am completely wrong or b) I am thinking of a different programme.

The value gotten from a locker is (apart from the "special" items) entirely dependent on what the "star" says it is - one of my favourites is the box of DVDs, which they say "$3 each, that's $150 right there". Three-quarters of that box will still be gathering dust in their shop when the heat death of the universe occurs.

I think, very rarely in the early years of the show, they would take something to get it valued and the person doing the valuing would actually buy it from them, but nowadays I presume they just sell it for much less than the valuation on eBay.

Oh, I went to check out the site plastered on the back of Darrell "The Gambler" Sheets tank-tops, and it was down (and has been for some time). But his official Facebook page has these supportive comments:

"You suck. What a little bitch. You're a little bitch ass punk!"

"All the crap you on tv is a bunch of fake stuff made for tv. As well as the fake ass actors."

"Darrell is too busy  "sheets"ing the bed to run a fb page, I mean a website —- for his tawdry wares..."

"Hey Darrell the dipshit  what did you do go broke?"

"Your site doesn't work you raspy voiced idiot"

[billyandthecloneasaurus]

Love old Bill (The) binges. Disappeared down a rabbit hole a few months ago thanks to it being brought up on this site (possibly by you, Dr.). Could only find mid-late ones though to watch that had complete story arcs in (Roger descending into madness and Smithy now an unrecognizable Sgt - but still good, just not the dishonest and brutal character he started as).

Still one of my favourite youtube videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGWBax4jjOA

great

[Blue Jam]

I was pondering starting a thread for the tenth series of RuPaul's Drag Race as I think it has enough fans here, but I'm finding this years' queens a pretty lacklustre bunch. They're lacking in polish but not in an entertaining or charming way, and none of them really stand out as original- some of their ideas, like making a dress out of police line tape, feel like they've been done on this show a million times before. I'm still enjoying the show but finding I can never remember much about it afterwards- certainly not enough to write a post about. The most memorable queen was the returning Farrah Moan, and only because she turned out to be Christina Aguilera in disguise.

I can't see Miz Cracker ("I'm Miz Cracker, as in, y'know, the racial slur?") winning this...

[buttgammon]

I agree about them being an indistinct bunch this year, although it has picked up in the last episode or two. I also considered starting a thread but can't even remember most of their names to be honest. The last episode's talk show challenge has been the highlight so far, and I'm hopeful things are going to pick up. It's a shame, because I think series nine was one of the best; maybe it was just a really tough act to follow.

[Dr Syntax Head]

Trawler wars is on. I love this show. Got to be one of the toughest jobs out there. Grizzled cornishmen, these are my brethren.

[Cuellar]

I was pondering starting a thread for the tenth series of RuPaul's Drag Race as I think it has enough fans here, but I'm finding this years' queens a pretty lacklustre bunch. They're lacking in polish but not in an entertaining or charming way, and none of them really stand out as original- some of their ideas, like making a dress out of police line tape, feel like they've been done on this show a million times before. I'm still enjoying the show but finding I can never remember much about it afterwards- certainly not enough to write a post about. The most memorable queen was the returning Farrah Moan, and only because she turned out to be Christina Aguilera in disguise.

I can't see Miz Cracker ("I'm Miz Cracker, as in, y'know, the racial slur?") winning this...

I think that on average they're a pretty good bunch, but there aren't really any standouts. Struggling to see who would win, but then they never really seem obvious do they? Aside from maybe...Violet Chachki? Bianca Del Rio?

[Gulftastic]

I've got sucked in to Emmerdale and Corrie. FFS! FML!

Much rejoicing on DS as the Corrie producer quits and the twat in charge of Emmerdale takes over from her, meaning the latter is free of the ex-Hollyoaks bellend.