Reality TV

Growing up we never watched much tv. We were allowed an hour during the day. Though we would often watch a movie as a family at night. Since I moved back to Hawaii I've found that I watch alot more tv. Some of it may be because I'm home alot more with the gparents. I stay busy but have quite a bit of time to just sit around. More often then not gpa and gma will watch a show that I'm not all that interested in so I'll catch whatever is on on the other tv. I definitely have my favorites (House, C.S.I., Bones) but I found that the reality shows can be quite addicting.

Case in point, Hell's Kitchen. Surprisingly it's not what I expected from the the commercials. Now don't get me wrong it can be like that at times but for the most part it's rather engrossing. I started watching it because it came on after my other guilty pleasure A.I. (American Idol for all of you who don't know). But back to Hell's Kitchen. The premise is that a bunch of chefs, wannabes and professionals, are brought to the restaurant of this, I guess, famous chef. He gives them tasks to do, yells at them, makes them cook meals for the restaurant, yells at them, makes one of them chose two people to be nominated to go home, yells at them, sends one home, yells at them. I mean it's kinda crazy. Sometimes he seems really nice and normal, then other times I'm not quite sure if he is going to go all crazy on them!

You know in some ways he reminds me of Simon from A.I. I mean other them the yelling part. They are both two larger then life personalities who think rather highly of themselves. And people let them get away with murder. Though for the most part I usually agree with Simon, in the judgments of the performance. Sometimes I actually think sometimes he is the only normal one on the panel of judges. Other times I wonder if he got dropped on his head as a baby and his ability to be tactful got knocked out!

I'm not quite sure what it is about those reality shows that make them so addicting. Is it because we can watch other people and think maybe I'm really not so crazy. Some of the people they find...are truly nuts. Who are these people? I can't say that I know all too many people like them. (I'm more then a little grateful for that!) Do they pick these people specifically for the reason that they are all insane? And how much of reality tv is actually reality? How much is people just acting for show? Are there really people out there like this? You know maybe one of the reasons we find reality shows so addicting is that once we've seen what these people look like we can be on the lookout for them!

Here are some of my favorite Un-Reality Shows:

• American Idol (never used to watch it, then a friend got me started. Now I watch it quite faithfully)
• Hell's Kitchen (see above for my thoughts)
  
• Dirty Jobs (I love this show. The host Mike Rowe is hilarious)
• Clean House (maybe I like this one so much because it scares the pack rat right out of me. It's a family curse)
• Who's Wedding Is It Anyway? (nothing quite like watching brides go nuts and I don't have to be the one to pick up the pieces)
  
• Myth Busters (funny and educational. You can't beat that)
• Miami Ink (haven't watched this one in awhile but I think they are truly talented artists)