Quick, Call the Popcorn Police!
Posted on May 8, 2003 at 4:57 pm | No Comments
I told Amie “I am so going to blog that!” after the following happened, and I am nothing if not a man of my threats …
So we’re sitting smack dab in the middle of a sold-out screening of X2 last week, chatting up a storm while sharing a bag of popcorn I’m holding, and waiting for the movie to start…
… when suddenly, in slow motion, as we’re talking… Amie reaches over into the popcorn bag of the other guy sitting next to her. Yes, while she’s talking to me on her right, she’s trying to snag a fistful of popped corny goodness from a total stranger on her left. We weren’t even out of popcorn or anything… she was just on complete auto-pilot. She really had no explanation beyond “I was hungry!”.
Many laughs were had. We even spied Amie’s victim sharing the tale with a friend as we were leaving the theater. I’m guessing he’s going to get a lot of mileage out of that one, as well he should.
Reality Check : Bring on the Amazing Race
Posted on May 7, 2003 at 10:13 am | No Comments
In some so-called ‘discriminating circles’ of television viewers, it’s hip to hate reality TV… any and all of it. To lump it together into a big pile o’ garbage and dismiss it as a whole. To bill it’s over-popularity as part of the continued downfall of western civilization. Most reality shows really don’t give people a reason to think otherwise.
Take, for example, any of those relationship-based car-crashes: Mr. Joe Bachelor’s Personality on the Island of Tempted Millionaires. Manipulative, lowest common denominator, ultra-cheesy crap, with all the substance of a fresh batch of cotton candy. Granted, that’s why some people (cough *amie* cough) dig it (“it’s so bad it’s good!”), but I just can’t bear to waste even a minute of my life on those looking-for-love-slash-money-slash-career type shows. (I will, however, fess up to catching maybe every other season of the Real World… if only for nostalgic reasons, and to justify the presence of empTV in our cable line-up).
Anyone who dismisses all reality teevee is missing out on one of the best shows on television, the Amazing Race. Twelve teams of two, all with a pre-existing personal relationship (siblings, friends, married, dating, etc), race each other around the world for a million bucks. The last team to arrive at the final checkpoint in each episode gets the boot, and the first one to arrive at the final checkpoint of the season gets the cash. A simple concept that is well-executed, smartly-edited, and hosted with a distinct lack of cheeze by New Zealander Phil Keoghan. This show takes anything that’s good about reality television (building tension, heated competition, interpersonal struggle, silly Americans confused by foreign cultures) and accentuates it. It’s highly entertaining stuff.
The fourth season kicks off in a few weeks, so check out the new website, read up on the teams (cheers to the producers for choosing a male married couple this year), and get ready for the race.