h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So I've watched 'The Batchelor' for the second time in my life. The first was many years ago. I was at a friend's house. I was single. I was much younger. There was liquor involved. Now I'm watching it because a co-worker's daughter is one of the women on the show. Can you believe that? I'm compelled to watch now after she bit a piece out of a can as a method to draw attention to herself and to lighten what could have been a charged moment full of political discussion. I told myself I wouldn't watch on a regular basis because I think the whole premise is cr@p. But it's shaping up to be a total train wreck and who can resist?

I can.

I've shown great will power so far in resisting the temptations of "reality TV" time and time again. No American Idol, no The Apprentice, no The Biggest Loser, no Survivor (since the second season), no Big Brother (since the first), no Flavor of Love, no Scott Baio is 40something and pregnant (or whatever the title to that freak show is), no Ultimate Makeover (even the Home Edition), no America's Next Top Model nor even Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares. I think I watched the first Bachelor, that will last me a lifetime.

I really just can't stand the stuff. The hardest to avoid is American Idol. I stopped watching the morning television news because it's mostly inanity and obligatory puns from the anchors, but now even the local News/Talk radio in the morning features recaps of the previous evening's American Idol... Why? It's not news, it's a karaoke show. Anyone that cared about it watched it the night before or at least recorded it and if they didn't they can look up the highlights on the website 24 hours a day.


I feel so sorry for your co-worker. Inevitably she's going to see her daughter engage in some very despicable behavior. That train wreck is going to derail right into her family.

But, hey... enjoy the schadenfreude.

She must have some inkling of how it all turns out because she's proud as punch that her daughter is on the show. She's glowing today and talking about the exposure the daughter has had on the local news. Daughter is also a former beauty pagent person & was in the top 10 last year but is too old now to compete. Have to do something else to feed the ego.

Generally the only 'reality' (and I use the term loosely) shows I watch are on the Food Network or involve food - Iron Chef America, Dinner: Impossible, Take Home Chef. Oh and Mythbusters but that isn't one of the 'situational reality' shows. Have you seen 'Smash Lab'? It's a knock-off of Mythbusters and not nearly as good.

Check out Master Blasters on the Science Channel (same time as Smash Lab)...

It's in the same family as Mythbusters and Smash Lab. It's really following the formula for Junkyard Wars (Scrapheap Challenge). Two teams compete to build a project in a limited amount of time. However, there's no scrapheap to scavenge and they have access to fully equipped machine shop and every project uses rocket engines. It's filmed in Texas and from the looks of the terrain, it might not be too far South of the Oklahoma border.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMBOTLJn3FA


I also have an affection for Japanese obstacle course shows. G4tv runs two prime examples. Ninja Warrior and Ultimate Banzuke.

I *loved* Junkyard Wars. I'm not sure if we have the Science Channel. I'll have to find out.

I've seen one of those obstacle course shows. They're crazy. The one I saw had the Hamm brothers (of US Olympic fame) running the obstacles. They didn't do very well.

The Hamm brothers returned and at least one of them made it to the third stagee (Engrish pronunciation), I believe... That was Ninja Warrior (Sasuke original title). The one that got me hooked was MXC: Most Extreme Elimination Challenge on Spike. They redubbed and re-edited from the Japanese show Takeshi's Castle starring multimedia superstar, Takeshi "Beat" Kitano. I even rented the DVDs so I could see an episode of the original... It was just about as inane as our spoof re-edit.

I wonder if Netflix has Scrapheap Challenge... I wouldn't mind catching those again. Especially if I can get them in the original version. (Notice how martial we are in the US that we had to change it from a Challenge to a War?)

MXC!

Whew! She got voted out. Now I needn't feel compelled to watch.