Wednesday, September 24, 2003
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Wednesday, September 24, 2003 |
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The best show you aren't watching By MICHAEL
BOYLAN
What if the world around you and the people who inhabit it weren't real? Each day major plot points were being scripted by writers and your every move was followed by camera crews. Worse, the people you thought you knew aren't who they claimed to be, but actors. What would you do? How would you react when the truth was finally revealed? Would you ever figure it out if they didn't tell you? It seems as if these questions have been tossed about in many forms before, especially in films like "The Truman Show," "EdTV," and, to a lesser extent "The Matrix." Now, Hollywood has made it real with the new reality (sort of) television series, "The Joe Schmo Show." The program, which airs Tuesday evenings at 9 p.m. on Spike TV (yes, the network for men, aka Anti-Lifetime), brings us the story of Matt, a young man who thinks he is on a reality show called "Lap of Luxury." The other "contestants" are gifted improv actors, each of them representing the stereotypical categories of contestants on other reality shows including "The Veteran," "The Gay Guy," "The Jerk," and "The Cheesy Host." Matt is the show's "Nice Guy," which is what makes the show such a rousing success and infinitely watchable. By the time this column hits the streets, the show will have aired its fourth episode and kicked off its third "contestant." While a lot has happened, there is still a lot left to occur. The plot is this: The contestants live in a mansion and participate in weekly contests. The winner of the contest earns immunity and can't get voted off that week. Sound familiar? Yes, but where "Survivor" is cheesy and often, unintentionally funny, "Joe Schmo" is intentionally cheesy and hilarious, mainly because everyone but Matt knows the show is fake and therefore their participation in the games are written to be very humorous. For example, a recent episode showed Kip, the "gay guy," perform a horrible magic act for the talent show immunity contest, while "Dr Pat," the therapist, performed a puppet show about her marriage breaking down. The actors are amazed that Matt hasn't been able to figure out the ruse, but there are 100,000 reasons clouding his judgement. The fact that he is surrounded by so many seemingly idiotic people may have him thinking he has the winnings in the bag. He probably does. But winning isn't everything and now the crew around Matt is starting to figure that out. In the last episode that aired, Earl, the veteran, was voted off. Unbeknownst to much of the crew, Matt and Earl had developed a father-son type bond when not on camera. When the ceremony ended and Earl was removed with the (gets funnier every time I hear it) phrase, "Earl, you're dead to us now." Matt started breaking down and crying. It seems the pressure of the game is starting to get to him, especially the apparent randomness of it all. And it is random. Matt may scheme and plot with contestants all he wants, but the order of removal has been plotted out in advance. When the actors go off to write down who they want to vote off, they don't write down a contestants name, but rather funny messages, because all of the votes, except Matt's, have already been written. Matt's breakdown has forced some interesting questions about whether it is right or wrong to do this to somebody. Even though there are few jokes at Matt's expense and many more aimed at the inherent silliness of other reality game shows, it is still basically a cruel trick on an unsuspecting fellow human being. That is not a major criticism, though, and I still highly recommend everyone to give it a shot, especially because the landscape of the show is constantly changing. How will the show change now, if at all, post-breakdown? Will the actors change or will they be able to stay in character? While those questions are interesting, the big question is how will Matt change? Will the carefree, friendly guy be more guarded? Will he play the game any differently now? Will he figure out "the joke" before they tell him and more importantly, will he take the $100,000 or throw it in their face? It is rare to see a groundbreaking show, especially on a brand-new network (Has UPN even had one yet?). "Joe Schmo" is definitely groundbreaking and it is wonderful that the "fake reality show" is proving to be the most real program out there. New episodes of "The Joe Schmo Show" air Tuesdays at 9 p.m and the show has reruns throughout the week. Visit SpikeTv.com for a more complete schedule. |
