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.

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.

Wizards of Waverly Place

UPDATED REVIEW: Selena Gomez has waved her wand for the last time as a teenage wizard trying to survive high school with a slouch and a shrug. What kind of spell has she cast?

The Middle

UPDATED REVIEW: The middle of what? Life? Trouble? Old-school sitcom yuks? Turns out it’s all of the above and more when Patricia Heaton’s average Midwest family tries to be … average.

Vegas

They say, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” Unless, of course, you’re talking about CBS’ new drama, in which case what happens in Vegas lands with the thud of a mob hit right in our living rooms.

Shadowhunters

Hey, if it worked for Harry Potter, Bella Thorne and Percy Jackson, why not once again? But does it work? Should we want it to?

24

Jack Bauer will stop at nothing to save the world—even if he has to torture and kill most of the folks in it. Apparently we’ve updated our review in the nick of time.

Limitless

In a age when so many people already abuse drugs so they can feel better, Limitless’ premise feels pretty problematic.