Half a Month There on Foot

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Saturday, October 22, 2005

Extremely Madeover

Bryan said it much better than I did, and without all my intended mocking:

"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is 100% emotional pornography.

Sad story. Tearful hugs. Cut to Sears commercial. Charity should be given without an expectation of a return. This is charity-for-hire. Another synonym for this is prostitution.
The other thing that drives me nuts about this show: Instead of a Habitat-For-Humanity (which is a terrific organization) focused effort, the show quickly degrades into "Pimp My House." Single handicapped parents with 48 kids in a rundown neighborhood are suddenly surrounded by 60" plasmas. I hope their new house comes with an alarm system, guard towers, and sentry guns.
This is a game show, nothing less. Whoever has the worst life, wins. This show poses as positive documentary, but in reality guarantees that the audience stays sitting on their ass, wiping away a tear, and smugly believing that they helped do something meaningful for someone else. Christian acts by association. Do I sound like this bugs me? Do I sound bugged?

Oh.

And Arrested Development is hilarious. No, I won't let my kids watch it."

And I didn't really mention that, at the core, Arrested Development is about family. The dutiful son, the one trying to do "right," the non-crazy one, the straight man, is played as a compassionate father, a loyal brother, a giving child... THAT'S certainly not any kind of behavior to imitate. Better he have a soul patch and mock sincerity.

...it's funny; I feel really good after watching the show the Parent's Rights for Kids Controlling the TV Blah Blah doesn't want me to watch. Thank god I can change the channel.

3 Comments:

At 6:16 PM, Blogger Cryptobadger said...

...

And I didn't even get started about how this show perpetuates the welfare-dependence mindset. Matilda's right. Give a man a fish, yadda yadda yadda. I'm cool with scholarships and education grants, and that's the nail you want the hammer to hit. Hopefully some of these folks are able to Ebay some of that extraneous junk and invest in some education or income-generating businesses. Otherwise, the root of the problem remains. Take the slums out of the man, not the man out of the slums.

 
At 6:11 AM, Blogger Mir said...

Who wants to do good work when they can smugly watch the "less fortunate" without having to talk to them? Extreme Makeover is Queen for a Day for a new generation. Only with the tacit understanding that screaming at people is entertaining. On so many levels that show gives me a headache.

 
At 12:50 PM, Blogger sweetassgrandma said...

While 'Extreme Home Makeover' will continue to annoy us, 'Arrested Development' has come to an end.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/11/11/television.shows.reut/index.html

At least we have the DVDs and the slim chance a cable network will pick it up.

 

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