I have two reality shows to talk about tonight and both are from the BBC. It is interesting to note that I am now so burned out on American reality shows that I have to turn to other countries to get my fix. This is especially true for the Next Top Model series where I am a huge fan of the Australian version for two reasons: 1) no Tyra Banks and 2) beautiful women with cool accents. Anyway, here are two shows that give the British take on things.
The first is one that I haven’t actually seen but read about today. Now we have all seen the shows where they take a normal family and act as if they transported them back in time to colonial days or Victorian England. The typical “take away all their luxuries and make them live life the way people used to.” Well, this show follows that exact same concept except they send them back to 1970. Yep, back to life forty years ago.
Apparently this makes for absolutely amazing television. The family has to learn how to cook now that they have no prepared meals or microwaves and a rather low end stove. Because it is Britain they have no central heating as apparently only a quarter of the homes did back in that time. No computer or cell phones so one of the kids had to leave a note for his parents by using a typewriter. And best of all, they are forced to wear seventies fashions. Every day or so they advance a year and gain new technologies such as Pong.
I so want to see this show because it really hits a point that I have tried to make here so many times: I have no idea what it would be like growing up in today’s world. It was life without the internet, no cable to start and then only in the living room, black and white set in the bedroom, one phone line for the house (awesome when there are seven people in the house) and hair metal was all the rage. It must seem quaint compared to things today. The thing is I am not that old. There shouldn’t be that much of a leap but there certainly is. I went to college with a typewriter and left with a computer. It really was a changing of eras.
The other show is one that Kim and I watched in Iceland. We didn’t watch much TV when we were over there because a) the entire point of the trip was to get out and do things and b) we only had like five channels and one was in Icelandic. Anyway, the BBC had a show called World’s Strictest Parents and this show was rather stunning. The concept again is simple. Take two teenagers who are performing badly at school and acting rudely at home and send them to another home for a week and have the “adoptive” parents treat them as their own and show them life under more strict conditions. Kind of like Wife Swap for Kids with a bit of SuperNanny added in.
Again, doesn’t sound like much on the surface until you realize where they sent them. These kids were sent from England to Jamaica. And we are not talking resort Jamaica here; this is the horrible poverty side of Jamaica. In the next week’s episode the kids were going to Ghana. It is just the ultimate in culture shock. These kids from rather privileged first world backgrounds are sent to the third world to interact with adults who are hard on them because that is the only way they can survive. You learn respect when you literally have to kill the chicken that will be your dinner that night. Usually on these shows the kids say that they are changed but you don’t think they really believe it but here they are just awestruck by what they have seen and how blessed their lives really are. It was really fascinating.
Oh well, off to watch my tape of Real Chance of Love Season 2.
1 comment:
MTV had a show a few years ago called the 70's House which was a similar idea and was the best thing they've done in the past five years.
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