Joe Schmoe, new fake reality tv show on SpikeTV (formerly TNN). In a nutshell, the premise is that it’s a typical reality tv show/contest in which 9 people live and compete with each other in a mansion for a pile of money. The only catch is that it’s all staged, and everyone is an actor, EXCEPT for Matt Gould, the titular Joe Schmoe who doesn’t realize it’s all set up.
After the first 2 episodes (shown back-to-back), I’d have to say I’m probably hooked. I love the way they rig the contests to push certain storylines, or how they all react when someone fucks up some character backstory or when Matt reacts in a completely unplanned-for manner. I love how the actors all think they’ve blown it at various times and Matt will realize it’s all fake, only he’s too dense to figure it out.
Great quote from the first 2 eps: During the elimination ceremony, where 1 “contestant” is voted out of the house, the purposefully overly smarmy host says something to the effect of, “One of you will leave the lap of luxury [the fake show’s name is “Lap of Luxury”] and return to your mundane life, WORKING FOR THE MAN.” Just classic.
On one hand, the show is creepy to think about, considering the whole time they’re messing with Matt’s head and playing him for a fool, like a reality-show parody crossed with a real-life Truman Show. But I CAN’T. STOP. WATCHING. Seriously, I expected to check it out for a few minutes then change the channel, but I found I couldn’t wait for the commercials to end to see what happened next.