• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, 2 hours ago

Almost under the radar, basic cable seems to have upped its game with a slew of docu-reality series that are like video Velcro, a phenomenon in which your eyes find these shows and become stuck on them.

The current crop has forebears such as A&E’s “Hoarders” and the addiction docuseries “Intervention,” and “Hoarders: Buried Alive” on TLC, to name just a few.

Today, such shows abound. A&E has law-enforcement shows from far-flung locations such as “Alaska State Troopers,” “Ozark Law,” “Desert Law” and “Southern Law.”

The network has a slew of shows with the word “Wars” in the title: “Customer Wars,” “Neighborhood Wars” and “Road Wars,” which curate home video and surveillance video to present the bad behavior of ordinary people.

Also worth sampling are cable’s addictive smuggling reality shows, including “Border Security: Australia’s Front Line,” “To Catch a Smuggler,” “TCAS (To Catch a Smuggler): Tropical Takedown” and “TCAS: Mediterranean,” all on National Geographic Channel.

I challenge anyone to look away from any of these shows after watching them for five minutes.

Now, a new docu-reality show premiering Tuesday on A&E seeks to take its place in this reality pantheon, and it just might succeed.

The show has the one-word title “Squatters,” which refers to criminals who take up residence for months at a time in homes they do not own, often protected by idiotic states' laws that make it very difficult to dislodge these brazen trespassers.

You would think that all you would have to do is call the cops and the trespassers would be forcibly removed and arrested.

But the conmen and con women to commit these crimes know exactly what they have to do to avoid eviction and prosecution.

Who ya gonna call? For this show, A&E called Flash Shelton (above photo), whose profession is getting rid of squatters for a clientele of desperate homeowners.

As he explains at the outset of each half-hour episode of “Squatters,” Shelton first encountered the issue of illegal squatting when it happened to his own mother.

Since then, Shelton has been in the business of evicting squatters with a small crew, some of whom are family members.

To be successful, Shelton has found a few ways of his own to drive out squatters without putting himself in position to violate the law.

One of his tactics is pretty simple: His homeowner clients give him a legal lease to rent and therefore occupy their homes even when a squatter is still in residence.

So, basically, Shelton and his team then take up their own residence in the homes and the squatter -- who has no lease or any other legal permission to be there -- has no choice but to live with them.

After a while, however, the squatter almost always leaves because of the intrusion of these new roommates. 

In one episode of “Squatters,” Shelton learned that a female squatter hated snakes, so his team brought a snake into the house to live with them.

In other instances, Shelton and his colleagues make noise all night. Shelton even turned a thermostat up to 90 degrees to drive one squatter out the door.

To win these battles, all Shelton really has to do is stay inside the house because if he leaves, the squatter can lock him out. So, it becomes a waiting game, which the squatters end up losing.

From a viewer’s perspective, the biggest challenge Shelton and his team face is keeping the situation peaceful and nonviolent.

When challenged, these squatters yell and scream and sometimes make threats. At times, a viewer wonders how the members of Shelton’s team can resist just throwing out these people bodily.

Watching “Squatters” can be an intense, uncomfortable experience. But that is why it is so attractive. 

When watching the show, it is easy to root for the good guys and loathe the bad guys. The payoff is usually a happy ending: The good guys win.

“Squatters” premieres on Tuesday, March 12, with two back-to-back episodes at 10 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. on A&E.