RatRace123 said:
I saw a commercial for this new reality show on E! It's a reality show where a bunch of brides to be compete in a game show for the grand prize... of plastic surgery!
What the hell is the matter with these people?! I hate Keeping up with the Kardashian's, Teen Mom, Jersey Shore and all those other insipid "reality shows". Those look like freakin' masterpieces compared to this shallow, insulting piece of trash.
For a more indepth premise, here's an article I found
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/bridalplasty-compete-nose-jobs-implants-dream-wedding/story?id=11663378&page=3
It was the first article I could find, it gives a pretty good summary of the show, as well as a whole bunch of problems it brings up.
Is anybody else pissed off about this? 'Cause I really think we should be.
I know TV sucks lately, but this just seems to take it to a whole new level.
It's no worse than any other game show when you get down to it. I guess it comes down to what you think of cosmetic surgery, and I have no problem with it. When you get down to it I have no problem with the hypothetical "gene sculpting" some people are concerned about (allowing people to look however they want, or decide the features of their children when they are first born).
But then again, it seems like a big part of the arguement against is cosmetic surgeons feeling they aren't being taken seriously (going by that link), along with more ranting about thinking people want to look good or improve their appearance out of some wierd obsession with "the beautiful people" which I think people get wrong on a lot of levels here.
To put it into perspective, once in a while during lunch I used to watch "World's Strongest Man" competitions while I was on lunch break at work quite a bit since it always seemed to be on during my schedule. For those who have never seen it, this is where a bunch of power lifters come out and do crazy things like tow tractor trailers, lob concrete blocks, and other feats of massive strength and endurance to see which one of them is strongest.... it can be quite the spectacle.
That show was ultimatly about as low brow as you could get, and got the male-version of the complaints about. Mainly that this kind of thing encouraged people to pursue unhealthy and unrealistic athletic expectations. Like guys who don't have arms bigger around than their neck are going to turn to steroids, etc... You hear the same criticisms from time to time about professional athletes being this heavily glorified destroying the male youth of the nation as well due to causing unrealstic aspirations, etc... That version of thing tends to not get air time doubtlessly to the advertising dollars fed to the media by the big pro sports consortiums (you don't bite the hand that feeds you, when your fighting to get the national pro-football broadcasting rights, you don't start badmouthing pro football players as bad role models in a general sense, or give air time to those that do).
For a game show to generally work there have to be prizes that the people want involved, and either a massive spectacle, or people watching prizes won that they would also want for the "envy factor". Being original also helps, and really I think that's how they came up with the whole "cosmetic surgery" idea.
Such are my thoughts... in short, banal but harmless. I doubt I would ever watch the show because while I can sort of get into the idea of watching musclemen do crazy things and go "OMG, did he actually DO THAT?", watching brides do... whatver the show has them do, probably isn't going to be nearly as entertaining.