Surreal Life

I am not a fan of reality television. I have not seen more than 5 minutes of Survivor, avoid the matchmaking shows like the plague and although I had two roommates addicted to American Idol, I managed to get through the entire season with minimal exposure. But to say that I am not a fan of reality tv is somewhat of a lie. I LOVE What Not to Wear, still watch Trading Spaces on occasion and find myself watching While You Were Out more often than I care to admit. Are these shows not considered reality tv also? They may be more acceptable in the grand scheme of bad television, but the fact remains, they are reality tv. If we hold to the old theory that trying one little innocuous thing leads to more and stronger stuff (insert drug analogy here), then TLC started an addiction that Bravo is feeding on. Yes, I will admit to watching Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. I even checked out the new Queer Eye for the Straight Girl this week. I can rationalize this behavior with excuses that these shows do have some redeeming value. Although I can't think of any off the top of my head, I'll make the argument anyway. I knew I had a problem, though, when I started watching Bravo's Project Runway. For those not familiar with this show, they take aspiring clothes designers, give them near impossible tasks to accomplish in no time, then their clothes are modeled for judges. Whoever designs the worse piece of clothing gets kicked out. So basically, it's Survivor in the Banana Republic. I don't know why this show appeals to me. I don't know why I'm admitting this.
To read this, one might think I spend most of my time in front of the tv. That's not true. Throughout the week, I'm not home enough to even turn on my tv. The weekends, however, are another story. I love my DVR. I can keep up with Alias even though I'm rarely home by 9:00 on Wednesday nights. I can record QE for guys and girls. I can record anything and everything, then watch it all on Sun. afternoon. Yeah, so I'm still frying my brain, but at least I'm not getting daily exposure!