Contributor: Paul Asay

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

House

UPDATED REVIEW: You want Dr. Gregory House around when you stop breathing or can’t stop bleeding. But he’s a lousy dinner guest.

Black Jesus

Jesus hung out with sinners all the time. But He never sinned. Cartoon Network’s Black Jesus, on the other hand, hangs out with sinners and sins with them.

Bones

UPDATED REVIEW: While the show may feel in some ways “lighter” than some of its procedural pals over on CBS, the camera’s certainly not shy about showing us all things dead.

The Michael J. Fox Show

Michael J. Fox is back on TV full-time, talking honestly and humorously about Parkinson’s in this NBC sitcom. Are his antics something your family should be tied to?

Everything Sucks!

If only this Netflix’s show’s main failing was its tone-deaf sense of nostalgia. Alas, that’s just the beginning.

Allegiance

Alex O’Connor just got a plum job as a CIA analyst, and his higher-ups tell him he has a bright future. Hmmm. Maybe the Americans don’t know his parents are Russian spies.

Pandora

This CW show is bad. Just plain bad. But in terms of its content, it’s not as bad as it could be.

Greek

ABC Family’s ‘Greek’ fits right in with the cable network’s don’t-expect-traditional-values slogan, ‘A new kind of family.’

Catastrophe

This show’s title is fitting in more ways than one.

Happy Town

ABC’s Happy Town is anything but—not with kids going missing, a killer on the loose and gallons of blood being shed.

Fargo

Nearly 20 years after they made a serious cultural impression with a morbid movie named Fargo, the Coen brothers are on television with a continuation that is both as great and awful as the original.

Dancing With the Stars

One, two, three, kick! Dancing With the Stars has waltzed to the top of the Nielsen ratings, but does the show stumble in its family friendliness?

South Park

UPDATED REVIEW: Ever since it launched in 1997, South Park has been lauded for its biting satire and loathed for its wildly foul—and often blasphemous—content. It’s not mellowing with age.

Jessie

UPDATED REVIEW: An 18-year-old Texas transplant moves to Manhattan to take care of a penthouse full of crazy kids. The result? A Disneyfied nanny boo-boo.

Julie’s Greenroom

What do you get when you cross The Muppets with Glee and scrub it clean of content? Maybe something like this little gem of a show.