Reality TV thoughts and rants

What the hell was that show after Survivor last night? Whoever that guy was, he is no longer a man, and he has no soul.

And is that Bachelor Bob with a new CD out? Apparently was was in the music scene before the show, but all five star reviews!? That can’t be possible - they must be Clay and Ryan Malcolm fans.

This trend should be dying any damn minute now…

It should be, but then the “public” gets hooked on the next one. I’m surprised Survivor is still so strong. Who the hell let Joe Millioniare get so popular last year (although I think this season will kill that one off).

I truly hate reality TV. Just when I thought TV couldn’t get any more retarded…

Tromik refers to last week’s Survivor’s “Big Lie”. One of the reward challenges in every version of Survivor involves friends and relatives talking to the remaining contestants for a short period (either live or by video). Then, whomever wins the challenge gets to spend a day with that friend/loved one, or can choose to give that reward to someone else.

So last week one of the contestants gets his buddy to tell the whole group of them that his grandmother died while he was on the island. Everyone feels bad for this guy, and so whoever won gave him the reward to go with the friend so they could get the scoop on what was happening.

Of course, it was all a lie. None of the other contestants know yet.

Dude, we don’t CARE!

Dude, we don’t CARE!

No, really. What is interesting is if Robinson-Robban will do something even more stupid this year, why all the older men get the plague and/or manage to cut themselves up in some gruesome manner and which two women got it on.
Oh, we’re not caring about the Swedish version either?

Since Midnight Son asked me to find him some more in-depth reviews and discussion of last week’s Survivor, I poked around and found a synopsis for him here:

http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/story.cgi?show=47&story=5849

Don’t worry, my friend. I’ll be vigilant and scour the web to find some spoilers for you for this week’s episode.

That review made my brain hurt. Seriously, who takes the time to review something like that?
When there are shows like Utena out there, I mean.

I remember reading a novel about 20 years ago, I think it was written by M. John Harrison, which revolved around the sport of Combat Football. It was played in a section of big-city blocks, the ball carrier could have the crap beaten out him with clubs (which all players carried, apparently), players were maimed for life regularly and each team had a sniper with one bullet. I also remember a short story from about the same time that featured the Voluntary Suicide Act, so Americans could risk their lives in reality shows. You either won or died, simple as that. The hero in that one woke up in a submarine and had to figure out how to get it to the surface without flooding it. That was the preliminary; he was then chased over the US by the Mafia and had to stay alive ala’ Running Man, with the viewers regularly ratting him out.

It is not totally outside the realm of possibility that we’ll be seeing those, or something like them, in the not-too distant future. No one has ever accused Hollywood of knowing where to stop and viewers get bored eventually. Survivor may eventually live up to it’s name, in the literal sense.

Why does it run on SVT, and not some commercial channel?

It was the first one (preceded Survivor et al internationally too), so it wasn’t as much of a “thing” as it is today, and since it got so ridiculously popular, they wanted to keep it. I mean, game shows and the like have been around on SVT forever, this is just a development. And honestly, it is a bit more classy than most other shows in the genre.