29 January 2006

Reality TV

Anyone who knows me, knows I love me some Reality TV. To be completely candid, I love TV, period. But Reality TV, it holds a special place. It is often like a train wreck I can't turn away from, or a "thank god I didn't have my college years caught on tape" moment.

But then there are shows like "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."

I thought the original concept of Extreme Makeover was kind of gross. It wasn't as bad as The Swan (I swear I only watched these shows maybe once or twice, but...see above: train wreck), which made people compete, but I did think taking people through these extreme surgeries took things a little too far. It's fantastic that it helped people feel better about themselves, but at what cost?

Anyway, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Without fail, this show makes me cry. You see these people, trying to get by with what they have, even in the worst of circumstances. There was the one family somewhere in LA that had hired a contractor to work on their house, the contractor stole their money, left the house incomplete (and uninhabitable) and ran. They are already struggling with that when they found out the mom of the family was really sick. So here they are, living in a grandparent's apartment, a family of four in one room.

So, yeah, a sob story in itself. But the beauty is, EM:HE went in and changed this family's life. Gave them a nice place to live, with some cool features to hopefully help the mom, and gave them hope. It may seem contrite, but to me...it shows there is some good in the world. This may be naive of me to think, but with so many bad reality shows concentrating on 20-somethings prancing around drunk and hooking up with one another, it is refreshing to see one that actually does some good. That gives people back a life they thought they had lost, some a life they never thought they could have...and it gives them all a sense of hope that things can and will get better.

Sometimes this only lasts during the episode. There have been a few lawsuits, people not liking their house, people feeling like they had been taken advantage of...this makes me sad. This is one time where I like to focus on the good of the event, rather than the (sometimes baseless) bad aftermath. If, for a moment, someone else feels hope from this show, and I'll admit that I have felt hopeful after watching this show, then I am ok with that.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Softy

--Slip