Reality Shows
	How could I have a ranting site without talking about reality shows? Very easily (but that's not the point). Reality shows used to be, well, real. Shows used to be something like Candid Camera and America's Funniest Home videos. Neither were very good (wacky sound effects and lame commentary often made clips a whole lot worse than they were before), but then again neither are the ones of today. Then came The Real World. This show has come the closest to actually capturing reality. It seems funny, however, that the people on the show seem to have a major life crisis each and every week. It seems to me that if you put a few college students in one room and filmed it, all you would get is a bunch of people watching TV or studing all day instead of talking to the camera about how they're having a relationship breakdown with some person for the fifth time in the past two months.               Another plot that doesn't work is Joe Millionare. The plot: a guy pretends to be a millionare while dating several women in a fashion much like The Bachelor. At the end of the show he picks a girl and reveals to her that he is acturll dirt poor. This would make sense except for one thing: He gets paid a buttload of money to do this show. Imagine the dialogue. "I have to tell you, I'm not really rich at all." "Here's your check for $900,000." "Well your rich now right?" "Yes but I wasn't a few minutes ago." "But you are now right?" "Um yeah. Hey I guess I am." So this entire plot ends up completely worthless.              Apparently The Real World wasn't flashy enough. Something had to be done to spice up reality TV. So what did we see? None other than Survivor. The day this aired was the day reality shows became dead to me. Why? This show put fourteen or so people on an island, isolated from the outside world fending for themselves in the unknown. Were that true it would be a good show. Lets analyze it shall we? First of all these people are not alone. They have the camera men, the host, several people that stand by in case of an emergency (that's right. If they get hurt they have a team ready. "Ow I have a splinter." "WHAT!? Don't worry, we'll save you!"), a director, people reporting the latest ratings, and I wouldn't be surprised if a caterer showed up. Also since when do people trapped on an island play stupid games for supplies (Yes they even get supplies!!!).                Many people on these shows end up making complete fools out of themselves on TV (Anything For Love, American Idol, 30 Seconds to Fame), and others have people trying to fix their relationships by making them worse (Temptation Island). So many reality shows involve ending the show in a marriage (Joe Millionare, The Bachelor, Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionare) of two peole who barely know each other (yep. They all end up in breakup).                The fact is that reality shows are as far away from reality as they can get. Sure they take average people (yeah right) and film them unscripted (yeah right like Susan's speech on the final episode of the first Survivor wasn't written months ahead of time. Yes, I am ashamed to say that I did watch that episode), but It's not reality. It's just crap. Maybe if they didn't call them "reality shows."