Though it's been written-up to death, I'm still pretty eager to see the Trials of Ted Haggard documentary airing on HBO tonight. Are you watching? You should! Apparently it's "strangely compelling."

That seems to be the party line for most of the critics' reviews, at least. The New York Times calls the film, which follows the disgraced church leader and his family during his banishment from Colorado, "strangely intriguing," Slant deems it "surprisingly compelling," while the reviewer for the Los Angeles Times says the film arrives at its most fecund points "almost accidentally."

I suppose it's some sort of pretension of good taste or something that makes us express our shock over how titillating something like this is. But the fact of the matter is, it's a no-brainer. Gayfaced wacko Evangelical leader gets caught doing meth with a gay hooker? Yes please. There's nothing wicked or schadenfreude-y about enjoying watching a hateful fucking hypocrite get exposed as a hateful fucking hypocrite. That Haggard has gone and peddled his little boo hoo wares on Oprah or that he seems like a genuinely nice guy doesn't mean jack-all to me.

I've no lack of sympathy or empathy for people with difficult internal struggles. But to capitalize on that struggle and to forge a worrisome, ugly path toward "salvation" is, you know, the height of self-righteous Christy ridiculousness. "Ridiculousness" kind of mollifies it though. It's wicked. There's your wickedness.

Anyway. The thing is only forty-five minutes long, so it's not like you'll lose a ton of time. It sounds pretty plainly compelling, plus we get to check in and see what Nancy Pelosi's daughter (the girl behind the camera) is up to.