Adult in Training

The writers’ strike is really starting to piss me off!  As a TV whore, I feel completely put out when I find myself without my shows for, like, two months now!  Before, I used to have to worry whenever I went home, because I don’t get some of the good channels here.  I alleviated that problem this year with the addition of a cable recording box (aka fake TiVo) so I knew all my shows would just be waiting for me when I got back to school. Except when I got back, all that was there were reruns of “One Tree Hill” – never too old for a teen drama – that come on SoapNet and a special episode of Man Vs. Wild that chronicled all the things Bear has eaten.  He can eat all the bugs and snakes he wants, and drink all the pee and elephant-poo-water he can get his hands on, I don’t care, I still think he’s incredibly sexy.  Any man that knows that much about survival can get me lost in the wilderness any day.  But, I digress.  My point is that I thought I hit a low spot in my programming while I was at home, and found myself watching “Crossing Jordan” and more shamefully “V.I.P” – Pam Anderson’s old show. 

Luckily, there are some shows that don’t require writers.  These shows are my saving grace right now.  After just finishing my 50th hometown press release, the heavens opened up and angels started singing.  Why, you may ask? Because it’s time for “American Idol”!  Some of you may be shaking your heads, and frankly, I agree with you most days.  But you are a liar if you say that you don’t enjoy watching all those people tank on national television. Or you are my mom, who is a freak.  I don’t really care about the show once they’ve collected all the good people, its boring after that.  But I will drop everything to watch these people suck out loud.   As a side note: my aunt Pauline once told me that she would give me $500 to go on Canadian Idol and bomb.  Which I totally would, because few people suck more than me at singing (and all of them can be seen on American Idol).

I didn’t think that my night could get any better.  Frankly, my standards have slipped somewhat since the strike. But I was pleasantly surprised. Only in America would they come up with the show I just finished watching; “Moment of Truth”.  For those of you that missed this gem, pay attention.  They get people to take a lie detector test, and then they are asked the same questions on national television, while their friends and family are sitting in the studio audience.  Enough said.

Is it wrong that I love shows like this?  Is it wrong that I love watching people make fools of themselves?  Does that make me a bad person?  Perhaps more importantly, what does it say about today’s society that shows like Moment of Truth are being made?