My Top 5 Reality Shows
With Big Brother premiering tonight I wanted to write about reality shows in general so here’s my favourites. This list isn’t in any particular order.
Survivor
Going into it’s 19th season this fall I had to put it on this list just for the sheer amount of hours I must have spent watching it but it’s also on this list because without fail every season has something interesting about it. If you don’t know what this show is about then firstly, what the fuck and secondly, it really boils down to pretty people suffering and competing in a pretty place. There’s really not much else to say about it. I would go on with specific examples of why it is amazing but there has been so many seasons now that they all kind of blend together in my memory.
Amazing Race
Probably my favourite series on here, despite me saying I wasn’t going to order this list, The Amazing Race has some hit or miss moments; a certain “family edition” season was atrocious and some teams border on murderous rage inducing. But when its firing on all cylinders it is extremely entertaining. The Amazing Race is about a bunch of two-person teams who travel the world in a race that’s quite…incredible. It’s not only good as a competition show but you can also watch it as a travel show and look at all the weird exotic places the teams go.
Big Brother (U.S. Edition)
The 11th season just premiered recently and is the inspiration for this list. I specify the U.S. edition of this show because the U.K. version has not caught my interest in all but one season. I still say that if the U.K. edition didn’t have an hour long episode every day of the week, if it boiled down the best bits to two or three shows (the U.S. edition has three one hour shows per week when it is on) it would be so much better and I might actually be able to watch it. I watch a lot of TV but dedicating 7 hours per week to one show is a little much even for me. But I digress, Big Brother is about usually 12-ish people locked in a house and compete/strategise against each other all summer until one person is declared winner. There are so many memorable characters and moments from this show and it has the perfect amount of entertaining material; if you’re a casual watcher you can just watch the thrice weekly shows but if you’re insane you can watch 24/7. I’m kind of in between, I listen to a reality TV podcast which analyzes it and sometimes I check in on the forums where people report on the goings on in the house pre-TV show, just to find out who won certain competitions earlier.
Whale Wars
Whenever I describe this show to people I always boil it down to: Japanese Whalers vs. Hippies. Currently in its second season, this show may put people off due to the issues and politics surrounding it but trust me whatever you believe you can find something worthwhile in it. If you’re on the Japanese side you can laugh at the hippies as the royally fuck up running a ship every single episode (in the second season they finally found a single experienced sailor to join up with their cause, unfortunately they’re hippies so they’re anti-authority and structure so you can guess what happens). If you’re on the Hippies’ side, you can cheer along with them as they pursue the whalers. Despite all that, I was very happy to see this got a second season and look forward to every new episode.
Wipeout
Definitely the stupidest reality show on this list but it makes me laugh, and sometimes cringe. In Wipeout, 24 people are told to run a ludicrous obstacle course with big red balls, automated boxing gloves that usually nail the contestants either in the face or the nads, and lots of mud. Then the three hosts of the show, two in front of green screen and one actually at the course, make fun of the contestants. After several challenges, someone completes the ultimate obstacle course and wins $50,000. I can’t help but thinking this is one of the steps towards the prophetic future of Idiocracy and “Ow, My Balls!” being the most popular TV show but I don’t care, I’ll still watch.
