Is This Real Life?

As mentioned in my last entry, a guilty pleasure of mine is reality television. Now, I am sure that some of you are probably rolling your eyes at my love for "bad" TV, but considering there are likely to be no more than five people reading this, I ask you to please bare with me and try your best to overlook this major "character flaw" of mine -- at least until the end of this entry.

To me, watching reality TV is a time when I can turn my brain off and just enjoy whatever escapades other people are getting into throughout their daily lives. And until recently, shows like "Say Yes to the Dress", "Little People, Big World", and "Survivor" served as my form of "relaxation therapy". There have, however, been a flood of new shows taking over my favourite channels. Shows like "Swamp People", "American Hoggers", and "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" it seems, are fast becoming the new fad of reality programming.

I group these shows apart from the ones first mentioned because these all require a special kind of attention when watching. It's not enough to just watch mindlessly -- now you have to read subtitles. If reading subtitles wasn't enough, you have to exert an honest effort just to understand what most of the sentences mean or are referring to. The people in these shows speak English, yet somehow manage to leave us guessing at what they are actually trying to express.

Some of you may have started reading this with a dislike for reality TV, but let me conclude this by suggesting that it really does offer something for everyone. Whether it's for the person who just wants to relax at the end of the day by watching something they don't have to think about, or for the person who wants to challenge themselves by having to translate speech that's actually in their mother-tongue, (it's confusing to me too) in the world of reality television, there's a show out there for you!