After entering the world of an ex-spy two weeks ago, what could possibly be a guiltier pleasure? Allow me to present “The Official Webpage of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK),” otherwise known as ‘the best site Kim Jong-Il could build in an afternoon with HTML code’:

Not pictured: real happiness.

That’s right, you’re about to have a very particular feeling: humanitarian guilt. On the one hand, how can we laugh at a country that has had repeated struggles with famine? On the other hand, how can a nation possibly hope to make us believe it is more than just the starved plaything of a louche despot when this video is part of their big propaganda push on the internets?

The colors of despotism? Purple and turquoise.

There are so many things wrong here. First, haven’t they heard of YouTube? Second, is there not a single modern camera in the country to film this sort of thing? Third, where in the hell is the context? Is this supposed to be a demonstration for our sick viewing pleasure, or was it held during a conference? On a site that is almost entirely in English, how could they have dropped the ball at such a crucial juncture?

In fairness, I highly recommend that you play your favorite song in the background while watching this video: it somehow makes everything poignant.

For more on why this is the greatest/worst thing to happen to your conscience in a long time, hit the jump.

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I occasionally tire of posting awesome reviews of movie trailers, so I am launching a brand new Thursday column: Guilty Pleasures. In GP, I will examine a new phenomenon — TV show, movie, video game, YouTube video, etc. — that puts the cinnamon in your applesauce while simultaneously making you feel extremely awkward when sharing it with other people.

This week, we’re starting off slow, with one of my favorite TV shows: Burn Notice.

The show stars Jeffrey Donovan as Michael Westen, a government spy (is there any other kind?) who gets mysteriously “burned” — blacklisted — without explanation and has to eke out a life in Miami, taking odd jobs while he looks for the people who burned him. He spends most of his time between his girlfriend, Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar), his friend-with-military-training Sam Axe (the incomparably great Bruce Campbell), and his doting/overbearing mother (Sharon Gless). Here’s a promo teasing the second season, which has its finale tonight at 9 pm:

So why is this show a guilty pleasure? Well, for starters, the acting isn’t particularly good. every actor hams it up like this is the last role they’ll ever play, and moments of sarcastic humor can fall flat when delivered by the leading actors. I don’t need my spy action series to attain Shakespearean levels, but sometimes the attempts at gravitas evince a rolling of the eyes, instead of a tensing of one’s buttocks.

*****

Hit the jump for more reasons why this show makes me feel guilty, the reasons I love it, and a clip of the entire spy team in action. It hurts so good.

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