I've always looked down on reality TV. In fact, I tend to be skeptical of most things that have immediate mass appeal -- I refused to read Harry Potter books for 4 years (but am now addicted to them). Reality shows come in many shapes in sizes, and have completely taken over our cable stations. What started with The Real World on MTV has become: The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, Amazing Race, Survivor, The Biggest Loser, Hell's Kitchen, American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, Making the Band, America's Next Top Model, Extreme Makeover, The Swan, Beauty and the Geek (which I've actually had a friend take part in), Wife Swap, America's Got Talent, and many more than I could ever name in a single post. Every time I am forced to watch one even for a few microseconds as I'm flipping through channels, I can feel a few of my brain cells dying.
However, as you can guess from the title of this post, I have a confession to make. I think Project Runway is a great reality TV show. It's about a group of clothing designers who compete for a spot in NY's Fashion Week by completing a series of difficult design tasks (my favorite being the one where they had to make evening gowns entirely out of materials you could find in a grocery store -- the winner of this contest made his dress out of coffee filters). I think the reason I like this show is that it appeals to the engineer in me: each person has limited raw materials and is forced to create something complete in a short, stress-filled timeframe. The work that the contestants produce is impressive, and it's pretty obvious that they're really talented.
Until last night, I was privately embarrassed about liking this show. But then I saw Jon Stewart (of *A* Daily Show) confess that he's a Project Runway fanboy. He even invited Tim Gunn as a guest on his show. Now that Jon Stewart has come clean on this important issue, I feel compelled to follow suit. My private embarrassment is now public (to all 5 readers of this blog -- ok, 3 if you don't count the authors), and it's in good company.
2 comments:
I appreciate the engineering effort, but it could probably be put to better use ... I mean, the coffee filter dress is nice and everything, but your runway show doesn't hold a candle to good ol' Junkyard Wars.
I concur with your sentiments exactly. It must be the reason that this type of odious programing is successful. While 99% of it is absolute, certifiable goat poop, there is probably 1 program that will appeal to everyones respective taste. My weakness is "Deadly Catch."
Post a Comment