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TWoP 10: Off-the-Beaten-Path Shows We Love

by Angel Cohn July 2, 2009 11:47 AM
TWoP 10: Off-the-Beaten-Path Shows We Love

There are a million TV channels out there these days, so when summertime comes around, we really have time to explore the vast world of random television programming. While we dig big shows like True Blood and So You Think You Can Dance, it's the more quirky, niche shows that really have us hooked this season, even if their names may garner blank stares from most folks when when we mention them. Below are some shows that may be off your radar but are worth checking out.

1. Attack of the Show
If you are into video games, comic books, gadgets, movies, technology or just general pop culture, G4's Attack of the Show is the perfect daily round up to watch. Hosted by Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn, who are both enthusiastic about their subject matter, this show really covers material that you aren't going to see on Access Hollywood or The Soup. Instead they love to show off iPhones, gush about comic books and discuss video game stats. It's one-stop shopping for nerds... like us.

2. Jesse James Is a Dead Man
Fans of Jesse's Monster Garage days should love this show where the soft-spoken host throws himself into ridiculous and potentially life-threatening situations. Who willingly drives into a parked car? Jesse. Who willingly sets himself on fire? Jesse. It's insane, but after watching him be all mild-mannered on Celebrity Apprentice, it's great to watch him in his element.

3. Better Off Ted
Technically this is a sitcom on one of the big networks and probably shouldn't merit a spot on the list. However, its been shuffled around and really not-hyped much at all... and it is really good... so we made room. If you thought that Dunder-Mifflin had a crazy staff, you really haven't met the folks at Veridian Dynamics, who have a more sinister motivation than just selling paper. It's weird, often very wrong and it's airing in the summer on ABC when all our favorite comedies are in reruns, so we get to have some fresh new laughs.

4. Ruby
We don't watch a heck of a lot on the Style Network (occasionally we watch that Topanga version of The Soup) but we adore Ruby. She's the most refreshingly genuine person on reality TV. Last season Ruby weighed 500 pounds and showed how she was going to lose weight through diet and exercise, instead of surgery. She's back now and she's shed 100 pounds, but she's still the same sweet southern gal who lusts after pizza and longs to be able to fit in an airplane seat. Sometimes the world (and people) get her down, but she's got an effervescent spirit that keeps her going... and keeps us watching.

5. Is She Really Going Out With Him?
If you've ever seen that site Hot Chicks With Douchebags, this is the live-action version of that. MTV has found some truly disgusting guys who are totally full of themselves and don't even realize that there is anything wrong with their ridiculous Ed Hardy wear and incomprehensible playa slang. They also think that they are total catches and can't understand why their girlfriends are fed up with their attitudes. But what makes the show so great is the narrator, who totally rips on these guys and their assy ways and the genius editors who craft each scene to best display the douchebaggery in its full effect.

6. How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?
This British import was the precursor to that terrible Grease: You're the One That I Want series that aired here. Now we get to see how it was really meant to be, and though we have to look at David Ian's smug and irritating grin, staring at an enthusiastic John Barrowman (Torchwood, Doctor Who) for two hours more than makes up for it. Here, a group of young girls are desperately vying for the title role in Andrew Lloyd Webber's production of The Sound of Music. The best part (aside from Graham Norton's groan-worthy puns) is that each episode appropriately ends with the contestants singing "So Long, Farewell" to the eliminated girl.

7. It's On With Alexa Chung
There are so many daytime talk shows out there, we didn't think there was room for another, but Alexa Chung has won us over. Maybe it is her British accent, maybe it is the fact that she doesn't just let her guests sit around and hype their projects, she actually makes them compete in a stupid game or asks them bizarre questions. Plus, her format isn't set in stone -- sometimes she chats up guests then looks at Facebook videos, sometimes she lets people play music, and then does news. It's a little chaotic, but we like the interactive opportunities and the fact that this fresh 25-year-old knows how to reach her audience.

8. Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern
We're grossly fascinated by this Travel Channel show, and Andrew's ability to eat pretty much anything. It's amazing. Those food challenges on I'm a Celebrity... that would make a normal person recoil in horror are just a part of his everyday diet. Bull balls, bugs, offal. You name it, he'll try it. God bless him. The show just finished up its season, but there are reruns galore, so you can easily catch this gastronomically brave host in action.

9. Brain Rush
Traditional game shows where people stand behind podiums and answer questions are so passé. This twisted new question and answer show on the Cartoon Network takes random contestants from amusement parks and throws them on a roller coaster and forces them to answer questions. We love that the host bravely goes along and asks the questions too, but we mostly watch to see the frazzled players try and come up with answers while speeding over hills and turning upside down. Not very mature, but very entertaining. Bonus: after this airs, we get to watch Andrew W.K. help teenagers become destructive pyromaniacs.

10. Tosh.0
With Best Week Ever on hiatus, we've turned to the comic stylings of Daniel Tosh and his Comedy Central show for our wacky take on news. We especially enjoyed his recent "interview" with Heidi and Spencer, where he just screamed all of the things we've been thinking about them forever. Plus, he's as obsessed with watching ordinary people do stupid things on the Internet as we are, so we like that.

21 Comments

July 2, 2009 1:04 PM
MB
Reply

I'm sorry, but >b>Ruby is the opposite of inspiring. Have you even watched the show? The woman has a free personal trainer, shrink, obesity specialist, and ALL HER MEALS are measured and prepared for her. She has to do next to nothing to for herself and yet she whines all the damn time.
As someone who hit 400 pounds by age 26 and dropped down to 200 by age 30 through old-fashioned diet and exercise after watching half her family drop dead too early, the topic of obesity is very near and dear to me. I belong to a support group with amazing men and women who have had to endure the same struggle as Ruby without anyone holding their hand pushing their whining ass through every single step of the journey. These people who conquer the battle to save their life by themselves, and learn how to live a lifestyle completely removed from everything they know, by themselves, are the real inspirations. Perhaps to viewers who have never struggled with obesity, Ruby may seem plucky and determined, but to the rest of us, she's got as much substance as Heidi Montag.

July 2, 2009 1:15 PM
KK
Reply

MB - you're an a**hole. Congrats to you for your hard won weight loss but I would think it would make you a little more sympathetic. Anyone who has had to lose any amount of weight knows it is not easy no matter if you have all the money in the world for trainers and measured food. It still comes down to you. Just ask Oprah. Go Ruby!

July 2, 2009 1:43 PM
ileen
Reply

Shows I would have put on this list instead of all the choices but #6:
1 Beautiful People - LOGO (written about earlier in the week w/only one episode to go - what took you so long?)

2 Ideal - IFC Obese British pot dealer (Johnny Vegas) apparently never leaves his flat, but enough action comes to him to keep it interesting.

3 Z Rock - IFC Brooklyn metal band of four who earn the bulk of their money by playing kids parties. Fun cameos in nearly every episode.

4 Ladette to Lady - Sundance This season's version on Sundance means no editing - swearing & nudity on full display as young women from the UK spend time in a finishing school run by the snootiest of women, most of whom are real softies underneath. I love Rosemary Schraeger the most. This genuine article puts Charm School to shame.

5 Party Down - STARZ This is one I missed the first time around, but caught up On Demand when I added STARZ when bringing Showtime back into my life for Nurse Jackie & Weeds. I can't imagine STARZ was the first place they shopped this show, and I have no idea why HBO would have passed. It's hilarious.

6 Spectacle - Sundance I saw this the first time around, but it keeps repeating. Elvis Costello interviewing a vast array of accomplished people like Bill Clinton, Tony Bennett, The Police, Elton John, etc. There's usually a musical segment, and though music is often discussed, it's far from the only subject.

7 The Life & Times of Vivienne Vyle - Sundance
Jennifer Saunders as a daytime chat show host that shows her on & off camera. Low key, but so so funny

8 GPS w/Fareed Zakaria - CNN Airing Sundays at 1pm eastern this is the smartest one hour on television, featuring in depth interviews with global newsmakers. You owe it to yourself to watch one hour of TV a week that isn't crap.

9 NOW - PBS David Brancaccio's half hour show takes one subject and goes in depth for a half hour, often with interviews and on site reporting that put a human face on the problem.

July 2, 2009 2:17 PM
YayCoffee
Reply

You didn't put Merlin on this list. It's a little (or, you know, a lot) campy, but it's full of heart (and magic! and monsters! and hot boys!) It's a perfect summer guilty pleasure.

I also have to agree with ileen 100% on Beautiful People and Spectacle. True gems, both of them.

July 2, 2009 2:31 PM
Jane
Reply

I SECOND PARTY DOWN. Although it's season is already over, EVERYONE SHOULD WATCH IT. RIGHT NOW.

July 2, 2009 2:34 PM
ellen
Reply

I vote for the original programming on USA (Psych, In Plain Sight, Royal Pains, Burn Notice) - most are pretty mainstream and recognized now, but I still don't think they get the respect they deserve and the network itself still seems largely ignored. OK, so they're not all perfect, but they still make for pretty good TV :o)

July 2, 2009 5:25 PM
Tiffany
Reply

I didn't see if anyone else caught this but the Sound of Music was by Rogers and Hammerstein, not Andrew Lloyd Weber. Andrew Lloyd Weber wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat which had a BBC show trying to cast the part of Joseph.

July 2, 2009 5:25 PM
Tiffany
Reply

I didn't see if anyone else caught this but the Sound of Music was by Rogers and Hammerstein, not Andrew Lloyd Weber. Andrew Lloyd Weber wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat which had a BBC show trying to cast the part of Joseph.

July 2, 2009 5:41 PM
Cee
Reply

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? That's Canadian, dude.

July 2, 2009 7:03 PM
Lisa
Reply

Tiffany - Yes, but Andrew Lloyd Weber was co-producing a production of Sound of Music on the West End a few years ago - hence the show How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria, which was actually a precursor to Any Dream Will Do, the Joseph show.

July 2, 2009 8:25 PM
meghan
Reply

RUBY ROCKS!!!! Yes, she is getting a lot of help, but it's still ultimately up to her to do the work and figure out the mental reasons for her overeating. That's the hardest part of this kind of thing.

July 2, 2009 8:43 PM
Kelly
Reply

Yeeaah... Zimmerman is great, until he shows up somewhere your family is from. Then you realize, quickly, how inaccurate the show is - from what they portray as a normal meal, to how life is lived there, even to how the name is pronounced. After seeing him so badly butcher my father's hometown, I have been unable to watch the show with anything other than deep, disappointed skepticism.

July 2, 2009 10:48 PM
Sawyer
Reply

A reality show that lies? Now I've seen everything.
What's next, cop eating a donut?

July 2, 2009 11:04 PM
Zoe
Reply

Better Off Ted is fantastic! I was so happy when it got renewed.

July 2, 2009 11:14 PM
Bissrok
Reply

It's always great seeing Better Off Ted getting the praise it deserves.

July 3, 2009 1:05 AM
Mitch0046
Reply

The Deadliest Catch on Discovery is a really enjoyable show. You get to see these guys working under insane conditions, live on a boat, work for upwards of 24-40 hours straight with no break - and they are a lot of fun. They joke, they completely watch each other's backs, and they are almost 100% likable. Even if you get bored with the fishing, just watching these guys is worth it. Even better is "After The Catch", where the captains all tell stories about things on the show and things you don't see. It's funny as hell.

July 3, 2009 2:06 AM
TalKal
Reply

Cee, you're right, there was a Canadian "Maria" series to cast the Toronto show, but the Brits had the original version for their own production on the West End.

July 3, 2009 2:21 PM
heckya
Reply

Leverage. Leverage. Leverage. Leverage.

"A-Team" + "Ocean's 11"= Awesome TV.

July 4, 2009 4:07 PM
anon
Reply

When you said quirky, niche shows... I was not expecting reality tv. That was about 90% of your list! I'd love more recommendations of actual written television airing this summer, though.

July 4, 2009 5:14 PM
beneduae
Reply

Party Down is amazing- watch it. You will not be disappointed.

July 4, 2009 9:12 PM
lv
Reply

Yay! I Love Attack of the Show. They're so entertaining. They review the latest gadgets and keep you up to date on tech news but you also get hot sauce shot competitions and skits about Star Trek slash. It's awesome.

I also want to second Leverage. The cast plays off each other so well.

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