The Real World

I used to watch a fair amount of TV growing up.  We didn't get cable until I was in high school so the options were limited.  One thing I could always count on was reality shows.  A bunch of people always talk about how much they hate reality TV but they are more than likely lying.  How can you not love watching people make complete idiots of themselves on national TV?  
   
Thanks to people breaking numerous copyright laws by uploading them onto YouTube, I got to binge watch a ton of reality TV shows this week.

I'm more partial to the competition reality shows so for this week, here are 3 that are highly entertaining and hopefully help you momentarily forget the Kardashian's and Duggar's get paid to be insane.

The Amazing Race
I don't really have much of a desire to be on TV but it has been an aspiration of mine to get on this show since the first time I watched it.  If for some reason you're unfamiliar with The Amazing Race, normally 12ish pairs race all over the world completing tasks along the way to figure out their next destination.  At the end of each episode is a "pit stop" where the last team to arrive is eliminated.  The winning pair gets one million dollars.  Not too shabby. 

I think it was sometime in middle school when I had an Amazing Race birthday party.  I won.  For the real deal, I just need Megan to make an audition video with me... 

Solitary
This is one I randomly came across and had never heard of before.  Apparently Fox had a network called Fox Reality which, as the name suggests, showed only reality shows.  Solitary was one of only a few original shows on the network.  If anyone has played the game Portal, it reminds me a bit of that.  

9 people go into their own individual solitary confinement "pod" and the last person to leave wins $50,000.  There is nothing in the room but two buttons, a screen, and lots of cameras.  The slightly sadistic computer "Val" gives the contestants challenges, often painful, in the pods.  The first person to quit the challenge is eliminated.  The interesting part is that the other contestants do not know when someone quits so they could easily continue on in the challenge for no reason.  

Although a bit over the top, it's an interesting concept and fun to watch the people start to go insane.  I wondered how much of it was real and happened to find a Reddit post by a former contestant.  They claimed everything was very real.    

The Mole
This is by far the best and smartest reality competition show to ever be on TV.  Why it got canceled so early, I'll never know.

The US version ran for 4 seasons, although 2 of them were "celebrity" seasons which don't really count, and got revived for a 5th season in 2008.  A group of 7-14 people work together on challenges to add money to the "pot."  The person who wins the game gets all the earned money.  The fun part is one of the people is "The Mole" who secretly tries to sabotage the group's efforts to make bank.  At the end of each episode, the contestants take a test about who they think the Mole is.  The person who answers the least amount of questions correctly is eliminated.  

Everything about this show is perfect and it needs to come back.  It's possible for very attentive viewers to figure out who the Mole is which makes it even more amazing to watch.  The last episode shows how the Mole got away with all of their sabotages throughout the season and all of the clues included in the episodes (some of which you wonder who would take the time to figure out).

I recently discovered the Australian version and have been getting my fix from that (although the US version is better).   The craziest thing on the Australian version so far has been when the contestants were asked to do a solo skydive after just one tandem.  That seems a bit risky.


But yeah there you go.  If you're looking for semi-mindless entertainment, hopefully these will get you on your way.  Oh and write a letter to ABC demanding they bring back The Mole.

That's all for now.  Bye.