To be clear, 'trash TV' isn’t just bad TV that gets good ratings (looking at you, 'The Big Bang Theory'). It’s the type of 'so-bad-it’s-good' show that breeds its own intense, devoted fandom, whose presence becomes so powerful that it develops into a cult following. People watch trash TV not just because it is so ineffably entertaining, but also because it inadvertently forms its own community.

“You need to be more aggressive.”

I nodded quietly at my baseball coach and walked back to home plate, where I attempted to muster up all the energy in my lithe, eight-year-old body to hit the ball. My helmet felt too big on my head. My milk-white pants felt too tight on my legs. I already had two strikes, and I knew that I was a swing and a miss away from my third. It didn’t even matter at that point. I wasn’t “aggressive” enough to play baseball, and I couldn’t pretend to be.

The best of times and the worst of times. This is the world we’re living in, one anxiety-inducing headline after the next.

There comes a turning point in almost every great TV show where the writers and creators have to decide what’s next for their characters.