My Confession

My friends I come to you today to confess my sin...of enjoying a (GASP) reality series. I know I know, please don't tell me about it but hear me out first. Anyone who knows me knows that I hate reality shows.

I hate them with a passion unrivaled with any other kind of pop culture hatred I could muster...the kind that is normally reserved for Tim Burton kind.

However I also have a weakness my friends. I have a weakness that is my kryptonite and that is for has been stars. It has long been my theory that sometimes celebs tend to surround themselves with yes-men (or women), people who will tell them what they think they want to hear instead of being straight with them and giving them a much needed dose of reality...so to speak.

Well they get ungrounded and lose themselves in vanity, self absorbtion, and start to believe they actually are what everyone has marketed them as....which is usually a fantasy.

Well when someone is at the top of their game there is only one way to go and no matter how at the top you really are the public changes and their tastes change and you are no longer what you once were. You could be the highest paid star of all time but in a few short years it is likely that you will be a memory. There are very very few people who have staying power that lasts years let alone decades.

Well the Surreal Life meets the bill for people who were at the top at one time or another in one fashion or another and have been passed by and have fallen into the archives of pop culture to make room for the next big thing. These disposable pop icons have become footnotes or punchlines with delusions of jumpstarting a career or extending their fame for another 15 minutes.

They get paid. They get to be seen. They get to show off how pet coon crazy they really are to a huge audience!!!

I have a passion for stories of people with instant fame and fortune. Dave Chapelle for instance! All of a sudden his small little show blew up big time and made Comedy Central a lot of money! Well they rewarded Dave with a huge contract which overwhelmed him and everyone knows the rest of that story with how he bolted out of the country.

My reality series fascination (with only one show) is just that friends, a fascination. I won't start watching Survivor:Guatamala or anything like that. I have the fortitude to check myself to this one and only series of misfits who are real victims in a way.

They are the victims of other people's expectations. They are the victims of marketing machines and even though they probably went along with it willingly if not happily they got more than they bargained for.