I challenge Sakai

Wednesday Night Music Club: Thought that I’d give a local band some love tonight. I really think that Vedera deserves to break into the mainstream. They’re easily the best local band that I have seen and seem to have every component of a big act. Heck, with a cute lead singer and good songs they have most of the marketplace beat. Why they aren’t being played on MTV is besides me. Probably because no one is played on MTV anymore.

Sorry if the American Gladiators post didn’t turn out quite the way I expected it to. It’s tough to do play by play on a show that you start actively disliking halfway through. At least The Pick Up Artist was consistently funny that made it great to review. It also didn’t help that I started the night by watching all two hours of The Biggest Loser. There is something about watching extremely fat people exercise that I find surprisingly entertaining. It’s so bizarre to be lazily lying on the couch while wondering if the person on tv is about to have a heart attack.

The Biggest Loser is a strange show for a variety of reasons. For a weight loss show you really don’t learn much about how to lose weight other than exercise and don’t eat crappy foods. I also have a slight issue with what one of the trainers said last night. Jillian said “I love to see people puke, I love to see people pass out” with regards to exercise. That sounds way too much like a bad high school football coach for me. I thought it was pretty much universally agreed that working out until your body decides that unconsciousness is the best option is a horrible thing to do. Yes, you need to push yourself to the point where you want to quit and then keep on going but not to the point where the ambulance arrives.

Also, I really want to know how they edit this show. You are putting unfit people through really intense workouts, which means that every muscle should be aching. I want to find out how the contestants even walk the second day much less put in hours of cardio. I know that I feel sore when I start up an exercise program for these people it must be a lot worse.

Still, if you like to watch people stand on scales this show is for you. Some people get to be happy about changing their bodies and others somehow gain weight while on the show. That’s an accomplishment in its own right.

I also have something to add on American Gladiators. I had a serious problem with the way the show is presented. Basically, it is trying the sports entertainment approach with a focus on the entertainment and that really strikes me the wrong way. I can understand it with wrestling because it is an accepted fact that what you are watching is fake but this show is a competition and at the back of yoru mind you want it treated as such. My other problem is that they are trying to be funny by being over the top but they blow it by telling everyone that they are over the top.

My counterexample is Iron Chef. Everything on that show is overblown; the sets, the chairman, the entire idea of a Kitchen Stadium and the incredible show of unveiling the secret ingredient. As bizarre as the entire thing is though everyone plays it straight. They know that it is silly but it is treated as serious. That makes it funny (and the original Japanese version was hysterical at times because it seemed as if cooking was a life or death struggle). The spectacle catches your eye, the competition keeps your focus. American Gladiators misses the point completely.