I must make a confession. I secretly, or not so secretly if you know me, love really, really bad tv. I was addicted to Flavor of Love. I watch wedding shows on Sunday. One of my favorites and most embarrassing is anything from the ookie spookie category. Last night I caught a new series on Sci Fi, Estate of Panic. It was sandwiched between some ghost finding shows. I think it maybe a new must try to remember to DVR kind of thing.
The premise of the show is simple…kind of simple. Players wander around a mansion looking for random bits of cash. If you are the last person out of the room or collect the least amount of money you’re out. There are a variety of obstacles such as rapidly flooding basement, snakes in the flooding basement, electrically charged wires around the garden, and a shrinking room. The whole time people are screaming and panicking to hoard the most money.
This reminded me of the end of the movie, The Magic Christian. Peter Sellers and Ringo Star basically try to prove that everyone has a price. In a pivotal scene they fill a pool with feces, blood and money. They announce to the forming crowd “free money.” Suffice to say everyone jumps in the pool. You can see why I bring this up.
As a veteran viewer of countless reality shows, I realized three things:
- People will in fact do almost anything for money no matter how much or how little.
- The person who is the most vocal about how much of a bad ass they are or that they will cream the competition is usually the first to go.
- Finally, good editing can make even the dumbest premise sounds interesting, exciting and possibly dangerous… even if it’s not.
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I like Holly’s post. I like things with Peter Sellers. Not so much on Ringo Starr, everyone knows that George was the most talented member of the Beatles. I’m not a big fan of reality TV– so Holly ends up screening most of the crap so I can find the really good stuff.
Reality TV as crap? Hardly–give me Amazing Race, Bridezillas, Cheaters, and I’m set for the weekend. But agreed–George was waaay talented and doesn’t get the credit for it.
I will give you Cheaters. That is some great TV. It took me a while to adjust to Joey Greco’s understated style. It was a change of pace from Tommy Grand who was a little more in your face when he confronted the evildoers.
And I thought I was the only one who felt that way about Greco. I loved the way Tommy Grand always seemed to take the premise of the show a bit too seriously. . . .