Like Crack: Bad Girls

There are some shows that you just know aren't good for you but like crack, you can't kick the habit. One of my favorite and guiltiest pleasures of them all is a show called Bad Girls. It used to be shown on BBC America but got yanked due to presumed low ratings but, luckily for us die hard fans, LOGO picked the series up and not just where it left off but from the beginning. We are now on Series 6 and just when you think you have seen it all, the show outdoes itself with one of the most awesome crossovers I have ever seen on television!

Just to give you a little background about the show, it is a women's prison "drama." Set at HMP Larkhill, it follows the inmates and, of course, the screws that watch them, kind of like a locked up dysfunctional family. It was touted to be a female version of HBO's OZ but after about the second season, the drama was often riddled with outrageous plot twists and as often is the case with British television, much humor. The official Bad Girls UK website even has outlined the classic one-liners for each episode.

Now a women's prison show being campy is nothing new. Some of you might remember the classic Australian "drama" Prisoner Cell Block H. From what I know of it, it was a huge underground classic because it was just so bad that it was great. How outrageous does Bad Girls get, well, season 5 opened up with Shell Dockley, one of the most notorious inmates who not only escapes prison but finds herself working the strip clubs of Amsterdam all the while heavily pregnant and donning a giant penis when who, of course, walks into the club during a stag night but her arch nemesis, Fenner, whom she stabbed with a bottle. This is just one tiny example of how outlandish this series can get.

But this isn't the moment that left me speechless. Oh no, that moment came this week when we meet one of the new criminals checking into Larkhill, Tanya Turner. You might recognize that name. She was the evil ringleader of that other guilty pleasure, Footballers Wives. Seriously, how the hell did they manage to meld the two? The writers should be knighted for pulling this stunt off. Just as a refresher in case you weren't hooked to FW, Tanya managed to kill off her husband via a little Viagra overdose, switch babies with a little help from a bottle of fake tan and snorted enough cocaine to help fund the Colombian economy. Turns out it was the latter drug addiction that landed her in the pokey and she's having none of it. It's almost cute when she gets introduced to jail life what with the screws advising her to remove her jewels before she goes into G Wing or that room service isn't an option but before you start feeling sorry for her, remember this is Tanya we're talking about. Wherever she lands herself, trouble is often right behind her.

So let the games begin because honestly, TV really doesn't get better than this. In case you want to catch up on former episodes, Logo airs reruns at 3am every night with new episodes on Thursdays at 7pm.