Sorry for the delay, readers, I've been in Austin Texas for ACL successfully enjoying music, avoiding sunburn and staying hydrated (yes, ASG, I drank about a liter of water a day--CRAZY!) Sadly, I've been away from TV since last Wednesday and was starting to show severe signs of withdrawal (which are not at all similar to the signs of dehydration.) But don't worry, I got caught up on my tivo today and am quite ready for the season premiers...but before we have premiers we must have FINALES!!!
So, the season finale is upon us for some of my favorite summer programs and while I will miss Psych and The 4400, this blog is dedicated to my favorite summer reality shows.
First is a relatively new find: Solitary 2.0 (Saturdays, Fox Reality Network.) I actually only came upon this 2 weekends ago and found myself instantly hooked (thank goodness there was a marathon last Saturday so I could find out what happened in the 4 episodes I missed!) This is an elimination- every-episode-winner-take-all type reality show with elimination "treatments" instead of challenges. Nine contestants started out in solitary spaces (about the size of your average work cube), referred to only by numbers (of the room they are in) and with sleep and food deprivation. They are eliminated by being the first to quit a treatment (standing on a platform of nails, drinking down an increasingly nasty blended concoction of favorite foods, etc) and the "gotcha" is that they don't know when anyone else has quit (ponder: is keeping a ball gag in your mouth for 7 hours long enough or did someone quit after 30 minutes?!?) They are down to the final 3 so tune in to see who will win the $50K (yes, they are humiliating themselves on cable TV for $50K). And I'm sure there is a marathon next week for those who haven't caught an episode this season.
Second up is Top Chef (Wednesdays, Bravo.) Pretty simple concept: chefs competing for a prize of $100k (or is it $250k?), a trip to Italy (or is it Spain?) and "the title of Top Chef" (host & judge Padma Laskshmi says that at least once an episode.) If you like food and you like TV, this is a must see. Every episode I'm amazed at what the chefs pull together in their themed and time-limited challenges called Quickfires as well as their elimination challenges. There are five contestants left (spoiler alert: CJ was my favorite, but he was eliminated last week) and I'm not sure who I want to win: Casey, woman with solid performance throughout the season or Dale who is a quirky and inventive dude, yet knows how to make food people will like. The remaining contestants are: Brian, don't-know-why-he's-still-there-since-he-has-no-TV-personality-and-this-is-a-TV-show; Sara, is there because she's a woman; and Hung, is there because he's a good chef, dangerous in the kitchen (running with knives, dropping glass bottles of oil on the floor) and good for ratings. Bravo shows lots of repeats, so you can catch up on this season (and last) before the finale in a few weeks.
Third is Big Brother 8 (Finale Tuesday on CBS.) If you haven't been watching, it really is too late to catch up...but get your tivo ready for season 9 next summer! I (initially) didn't think it'd be fun to watch a bunch of spoiled reality-star-wanna-bes live in a sound stage all summer, but with 3 episodes a week (and the fast forward button on my tivo) I've been a fan since season 3. Although I didn't really care for any of the contestants this summer, it did come down to two deserving game-players. Spoiler alert: Dick and Danielle played a great game all summer, I just wish they both showed a bit more decorum when they became the final 2.
The Queen has spoken!
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2 comments:
OK queen, so nothing about your reality show choices, but have you watched your "Kid Nation" yet? Us of the less fortunate, non-tivo, kind, have to actually watch it at its scheduled time... and what i caught of it, which was probably no more than 3 minutes, was awful!!! (Top Chef was on at the same time and side note: is quite possibly the best reality show out there) Anyways, so the part i happened to be lucky enough to see was the unveiling of (drum roll please) the Golden Star!!! Yes, very dramatic! So first of all this star is "rewarded" to the kid that works the hardest, is the nicest... yadda yadda... but then they go and reward it to the 30 yr old trapped in the 12yr olds body and then find out its worth 20K... I’m sure that will really help her retirement plan! (Really, what the hell is this chic doing on this show???) But seriously, bribing children to be good, nice and work hard??? I don't care if its set in a ghost town "without" adults, if I wanted to see that, I’d head over to the local chucky cheese to see parents that are never around, that have no idea how to be a parent, bribe their kids in hopes they will turn out ok... really had they waited till the end of the show to tell the kids that had won "golden star" they would get the 20K, I think a much better lesson could have been taught through this show... Really, I'm justing looking out for the children!! (;
C-Town! First off, you referred to one of the reality shows I mentioned in the blog-so no foul there. Secondly, I love it! Old ladies posing as kids to win $20K, parents selling their kids out to get a little price break on college bills?! I think I just heard some parent say "I'll trade the little one's left arm for 4 shots of Botox!"
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