There
is no moment so exciting as the release of a new reality television show. The
show could be awesome, like The Pick Up Artist, could introduce a new celebrity
to the world, like Mystery on The Pick Up Artist, or could lead you to question
the entire worth of the male of the human species like, well, The Pick Up
Artist. Over the past few weeks Kim and I have our new reality show obsession
in SyFy’s “Opposite Worlds”. (Let’s ignore the fact that a) SyFy isn’t spelled
right, b) reality shows can’t really be considered science fiction and c) I
will never forgive this channel for taking Mystery Science Theater 3000 off the
air.)
Opposite
Worlds is basically Big Brother with a twist. The show started with twelve
contestants placed on two teams. One team lives in “The Future”, which
basically looks like your house would if it was designed as an Apple store.
Everything is white and sleek and there are flatscreen monitors and tablets
everywhere. The other team lives in “The Past” where they are in what is
vaguely a cave with a lot of straw and dirt. Also, the team in the past must
wear brown and what appears to be a combination of body suits and animal skins
at all times. In between The Past and The Future is a glass wall so both teams
can look at each other at all times.
(I
have to comment on the outfits. In the future everyone wears white, skin tight
outfits. The women’s outfits have strategic cutouts to show significant amount
of skin. The past can best be described as caveman chic. Apparently style is
vitally important in what is meant to be the distant past.)
Gameplay
is basic reality show fare. Both teams compete head to head in a competition to
determine which team gets to choose if they live in the past or the future. This
already led to one of my favorite reality moments of recent memory. In the
first competition it was a one on one duel in which you would run up to a
platform, grab what is meant to be similar to an electric cattle prod and then
duel on the platform until someone falls off. As soon as they said the rules I
told Kim “Ok, I wouldn’t even bother with the prod and just tackle the other
guy when he reaches for his.” Which is exactly what Jesse did, driving his
opponent off the platform and breaking his leg. This happened roughly ten
minutes into the first show. Jesse was disqualified for the round but a) his
team ended up winning anyway and b) the guy with the broken leg had to leave
the game. But other than the first significant reality show injury I have seen
in ages this is nothing more than your typical Survivor competition with the
winner logically staying in the future.
Then
things get a little more interesting. Each team nominates someone to be
protected and the viewers vote which of those two people will decide who from
each team will compete in the “Duel of Destiny”. Yes, every single part of this
show has to have some incredibly complex name as opposed to say “the
elimination challenge.” So it makes it like the first season of Big Brother in
that the home audience has a major say in how the game progresses. They also
track Twitter through some strange algorithm to determine who are their most favorite
and least favorite players in the game and they get rewarded and punished
appropriately. All in all it is a pretty neat concept with a Big Brother
atmosphere but where it is much tougher for one alliance or team to just
dominate the game.
What
makes the show work is that being in the past really does suck. Since they are
filming this live the nationwide cold snap has caused the team living in the
past to be miserable even in California weather. Though they aren’t roughing it
by Survivor standards they are definitely at a disadvantage. But, that just
makes them the underdogs and causes the viewers to vote to help them out.
Likewise, playing the reality show villain role and scheming gets you punished
if you are annoying while someone like Jesse who shows remorse after injuring a
guy goes from being the most hated to most liked in the span of a week. Plus,
you get the wonderful reality show trope of the luxury of a spa day in which
two of the women get treated to luxury and the most gratuitous shots that you
could have on basic cable. Replayed at least three times. Admittedly it did
help drive their Twitter popularity rank.
Ok,
so it isn’t high drama. It’s a dumb reality show without much in terms of
strategy so far and you feel more for the contestants who are sitting there for
a week in real time for two hours of television. It must be an absolutely
boring shoot as it is forced isolation with no real competitions most of the
time. But it is just goofy enough and the contestants are just likeable enough
to make it interesting. I mean, they played a pick up game of Quidditch this
week. What else can you ask for?
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