Hey TV – get real
What is going on with reality TV? I see very little “reality” these days.
Hey look, it’s a bunch of people using a slingshot to shoot a milk bottle with a number on it to see how many glasses of liquified pig liver they are going to have to drink!
I do actually watch “Fear Factor,” but that is not, nor will it ever be, my reality.
I also see that there is a new “reality” show on that forces, among others, Vince Neil, Emmanuel Lewis and M.C. Hammer to live in a house together. Even though they are washed up celebrities, they still go to the grocery store and people know who they are. How is that reality for the rest of us? If I want to know how a celebrity lives, I’ll go buy People Magazine or something, because I don’t need to watch Corey Feldman cry his little washed-up heart out on TV.
And anything with “celebrity” in the title means two things. One, its not reality. Two, if you actually recognize half the celebrities, you really need to get out of the house more.
As for shows like “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race,” I suppose they are a little more real, because they actually use normal people. However, watching an episode of “Survivor” still feels like I’m watching an alien National Geographic special on how far the weird species of the North American continent will push themselves towards death just to get a little time on TV.
As far as I can tell, the show “Big Brother” is the closest to actual reality, maybe because it reminded me a little bit too much of the old days of living in Morrison-McGinnis. Of course, this seems to have been the least successful of all of these shows. I guess if you aren’t eating a pig uterus or haven’t had a washed up 80’s sitcom, you aren’t “real” enough to actually hold people’s attention.
Saying this, there is one reality show that, for some reason, I can’t turn off. “Meet My Folks” might be the biggest train wreck of a show I’ve ever seen. Not only are parents spying on their kids, but it seems like the contestants are dating both the parents and the kid. I don’t know about any of you, but if I had to meet a girl and her parents at the same time on a nationally televised dating show, I think perhaps I might be a little nervous.
Not these people. They are out back taking off each other’s clothes and getting yelled at by the parents. Then, the contestants’ dirty little secrets are busted out by their “friends,” and the parents get to choose who to give a lie detector test to. This isn’t a TV show – it’s a movie. I don’t know why I like it, and I hate myself for watching it, but I can’t turn it off.
Reality TV is one of those scourges that, when I turn on the TV and see it, makes me want to poke my eyeballs out.
Go home, watch “Scrubs,” and think to yourself that all those girls on “Joe Millionaire” are going to get exactly what they deserve in the end.
