So how far down the scale of trashy reality TV do you allow yourself to go? What show won’t you watch because you feel it is below your dignity?
I like a lot of reality TV. Cops is probably my favourite reality show, followed by Project Runway, a lot of the Lifestyle channel shows where people are building houses or buying houses – the UK version of Location Location Location is excellent, so is Grand Designs, Property Ladder, Escape to the Country.. I love looking inside other people’s houses. I think this was because I was a deprived child whose parents never took us to open houses.
There’s one reality show which I am a bit disturbed by. It’s quite an old show but I’m seeing it for the first time on fox8 and now googling for it I’ve managed to spoil myself. It’s called Playing it Straight and there’s this woman on a ranch with 14 guys, she has to pick who is gay and who is straight.
Saying it like that it sounds completely horrible and realistically the concept is terrible and quite offensive however it is very interesting for a lot of reasons – one being that it truly shows you never to judge a book by its cover, and another being there’s no real indicators of a person’s sexuality – it’s not about how they dress or how they do their hair or if they can shop. All the stereotypes are pretty much shown to be useless and stupid, which is a good thing this show manages to achieve, I think. So 9 of the guys in the show were gay, and only 5 were straight!
There’s a lot of wedding related television these days – Bridezillas, Whose Wedding Is It Anyway which is really interesting about wedding planners. I think spending huge amounts of money on one day is a really bad and stupid idea but it sure makes interesting television to watch it. ;)
My mum is addicted to Big Brother yet again. I don’t have that channel on my TV and am very thankful for that. What a complete waste of time that show is and it gets worse every year. Gretel is looking worse than ever, and who gives a shit about those people? They’re mostly stick thin wanna bees. I don’t find those people interesting at all.
Chani asked the other day in the comments – what about Australian TV? There’s not much of it, what little there is seems to be junk like big brother and a couple of long running soapies mixed in with Aussie versions of Dancing with the stars and Idol. I cannot name one decent show, maybe some of the Aussies watching this may be able to. I don’t have any of the free to air channels except the ABC because it is a part of the satellite pay tv package and the reception on the non satellite channels is terrible, so I don’t bother with them seeing as there isn’t much to watch.
So what would you never watch?
The thing that drives me insane with Aussie reality tv is that half of the shows are not even our versions. American Idol, American Biggest Loser, and all those Survivor shows and similar. At least Big Brother is our version only. That is the only positive side. There is far toooo much reality tv.
http://psychmumble.blogspot.com
Here’s what Australian reality shows gave me: Competition in the Google results for “aluminum underpants,” which is MINE. But apparently some Aussie Big Brother guys once wore some, on TV. They are my biggest threat. That and the Colorado legislation specifically criminalizing the wearing of aluminum underpants. I kid you not.
In television, with “24” over, the only relevant question is, “DO YOU GET NINJA WARRIOR?” Because, dang. That is some compelling television right there.
I will never, never, never watch American Idol or Survivor. Or — oh, vomit — America’s Top Model. Or — even though I think the hostess is hilarious in a different context — Charm School, which has strangely captivated my very smart, rather dignified true love. Oh, he laughs and laughs, while I secret myself away in my studio where I cannot hear why.
That said, I am an absolute slave to Top Chef and Project Runway and drank up every minute of Work Out.
Do you get that last one down under? It’s about a tall, beautiful, lesbian gym owner in Beverly Hills and manages to be both embarrassingly narcissistic and tear-wrenchingly uplifting at the same time! Impressive! I can only aspire to such achievements in my own life.
I’m gonna need to find that missing bag of tortilla chips, first. Now, where did I put those?
Big Brother is on my ‘never watch’ list now. And any ‘reality TV’ that cons the people on the show.
‘Beadle’s About’ was a Never Watch with me.
Abusive ‘get your life in gear’ type shows.
Dragon’s Den, and anything similar.
Also (quite often) anything that steals its title from something else, or uses a close variation on it – e.g. Panic Room; Dumb and Dumber.
When I was in Australia, I still saw all the same things I saw in the US so I guess we are all seeing the same version of things. Somehow I expected to see a lot of local shows but didn’t.
Almost like when I was watching Australian channels on my PC.
http://pc-satellite-tv.info