survivor

well i decided to tune in last night to "survivor" for the umpteenth season of this hit reality show, this time taking the world to the beautiful yet deadly island of palau, where our 20 survivors will vie for the ultimate title to see who will be the one to outwit, outplay and outlast their opponents!

how was that for a selling point??

survivor started about what, 5 years ago? and has since swept the nation as the most popular of the reality shows! since it's beginning, it's had viewers tuning in every week religiously, to see the contestants starve, fight and perform death-defying feats all in the hope of winning a million dollars.

i never watched the first season, but as with all/most of the reality trash shows to hit the airwaves, with the beginning of season 2 i was hooked! (i guess you can say i'm a little slow on the uptake!!)

but alas, last year 'survivor' disappointed me, with it's (lame) attempt to win ratings by bringing back all the survivors it had kicked off previously in the season!! to me, that defied the point of the game; you can't bring back the losers!!! how is that fair to the people who've been busting their ass trying to stay in the game!! i guess it was a new development, but in my opinion a poor one...

so last night, as i said the new season debutted (is that a word?) and i must say i'm hopeful in it's staying power!! there was an interesting new development from the get-go; they kicked a total of 3 people off the island last night...which i thought was totall cool, AND they allowed the survivors themselves to pick the teams!! so originality aside, at least half of the 20 new survivors are blissfully HOT!!!! so on esthetics alone, i say the show will definitely keep me tuning in weekly!! (i know that sounds shallow, but if you can't be shallow towards tv then when can you be?) that is unless they kick off all the beauties early on, like last season!!

so what is it that a reality show has to have to stick around for a while and avoid being cancelled?? it seems that reality tv has been around for so long, and we've seen so many come and go that i can't even remember which one was the first one to appear!! what was it that sparked the sudden interest in reality tv??? and what happened to all the sitcoms?? it seems that since "friends" finished that the 'must-see-tv' has kinda died off!! i mean, there's still the few good shows, like 'will and grace', and 'desperate housewives' (although i don't watch the latter), but everytime you open tv guide all you're bombarded with is a new reality tv spinoff...and most of the time they're complete shite!!!

you know the types; it's a tropical island filled with who you think are celebrities, but actually they're just look-alikes, except for a few, and you have to compete with them in a series of tests to find out which ones are the real ones, to hopefully go on a date with your favourite in the end!!!

trash, that's all it is!!! personally, i think society became obsessed with reality television just about the time where our voyeuristic urges were at an all-time high!! because when you think about, that's what we're doing when we watch these shows; some poor sap has decided to put themselves and all their loved ones through the heartships of being on a reality tv show, and the rest of the world is tuning in and watching their predicament unravel in a manner that is totally none of our business!!! we're watching lives get ruined, and dreams come true!! it's somewhat narcissistic, isn't it??? and nosy!!!!

are our lives that boring that we have to bother with the situations of other people?? is there something missing in our day to day lives that would make us want to watch horrible things happen to other people? or do we just find it interesting?
i used (and don't judge) to look out my window at night with binnoculars and peer into the apartment buildings across the way...not in a perverted sort of way, but just to see what i could see...isn't that exactly what reality tv is?? aren't we just tuning in to see what might happen when certain people are put in certain situations?? aren't our addictions to reality tv just based on a fear that we'll miss something important if we don't tune in?

i don't think it's that there's something missing in our lives, or that we're boring people, but that as human beings...we like to watch...it's fun, and mindless, and not hurting anyone, right?

did anyone see "sliver"?