There’s an old aphorism: “I may not know art, but I know what I like.” It’s more true than ever in this, ‘The Era Of The Beholder,’ wherein everybody achieves Warhol’s prophesied 15 minutes, so long as they’re prepared to publicly divorce or grow a ridiculous beard. Still, we’re here to praise pop culture, not to bury it, and I will admit to loving some goofy ‘reality’ programming, even enjoying the occasional episode of ‘Project Runway’ (abeit mostly for the Heidi Klum) which, in turn, begs a query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) reminds you that, as always, “None Of The Above” is not only not a valid MS-QOTD answer, it’s just a buzzkill, asking: What non-scripted/”reality” programming do you enjoy, even if you wouldn’t always want to admit it?
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The Mole . good show. interesting premise. try to figure out who is sabotaging the game from within.
I loved Survivorman. He did his own camera work. He survived out in the wilderness on his own, usually starving for a week in the progress and he was very instructive.
I used to be a sucker for Top Chef and Iron Chef. Now that I don’t have cable, Reality TV doesn’t have much appeal.
USA had a slew of good ones a decade or so ago: Cannonball Run and Combat Missions spring to mind. But currently, SyFy’s Face Off is actually much better than it seems like it should be. All the creativity (actually more) than Project Runway, but its genre, without the bitchy drama that most shows rely on to fill the time.
major league sports
Survivorman, Swamp People and Duck Dynasty. Especially Duck Dynasty since they’re from the same area as me and look, talk and act like my relatives, which I find hilarious. Bear Grilys couldn’t carry Survivorman’s backpack.
My boys and I like to watch Mystery Diners. It is a fun little romp with some interesting characters.
Original Iron Chef!!!!
Not sure if it counts, but The Voice works for me — the musicians there actually seem ready for the big-time, unlike most of the X-Factor/American Idol whiners.
Also — not under the ‘reality’ genre, but definitely in the ‘unscripted’… Whose Line is it Anyway? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaFQyJySGJ4
(0:45 <3)
There was a fun show on the History channel a few years back where Galen from Babylon 5: Crusade was teaching kids how to fight in various ways. Everything from gladitorial combat to WW2 dogfighting as I recall.
I think the show was called Conquest, but I could be (and often am) wrong
I loved that show! It was so awesome!
Cops is still a guilty pleasure, even if it’s just to draw better answers for my being secretly sponsored by a t-shirt company theory.
Duck Dynasty is fun. So are American Pickers, Counting Cars, American Restoration, Swamp People and Pawn Stars (I’m probably forgetting a few).
I also watched that Hatfields and McCoys: White Lightening, but that just got annoying — and either it was scripted for drama, or the leader of the Hatfields has some sort of bipolar disorder.
Four words, friends: Gordon Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares.
Seriously, I can waste so much time watching that stuff. I have no idea why.
I really like watching Comic Book Men. I usually just don’t want to admit it to other comic book people because 9 times out of 10 it begins an argument about “real nerds” and how the show has to be scripted, etc, etc
Heroes of Cosplay is fun to watch just for the creative aspect of it, the drama portions can get a little grating.
Back when it meant something to win, I used to like The Ultimate Fighter and Tough Enough. Now they have done so many seasons that the winners don’t get the same push that they used to.
just about anything from the Food Network. My favorites are the Cake Challenges that they had on for a while. but nowadays its probably a toss up between cut-throat kitchen and Chopped. seeing what cooks can do with so little is an amazing act. If I could actually find it I would watch the original American Gladiator, that was such a great show.
Not really a big fan of reality TV, but like most genres I dislike, there are always a few exceptions.
I kinda like Face Off because I’ve always been fascinated with movie makeup and visual FX like that. It is pretty neat to see what people do with the time they are allowed.
I also liked the sorta reality “Who Wants to be a Superhero?”.
And as someone else pointed out, “Whose Line is it Anyway” for being at least unscripted, if not “reality”.
I used to watch Judge Judy and enjoyed that show.
Shipping Wars! No idea why I watch it, because I swear I can feel the brain cells dying off during those 22 minutes. But I not only watch it… I seek it out, searching for the latest episodes online, LOL.
I also watched Whodunnit. It was ok… not as good as The Mole, but I kept coming back just to see if *I* could figure it out.