They're back . . .

The only exception I make to VH1’s persistent recycling of the same assholes and persistent recycling of their formulaic dating show “competitions” is Real Chance. Now I don’t care about the women involved and I don’t care about the faux contests they stage. The reason why I have it as guilty, mindless TV pleasure is because I think the stuff that comes out of the mouths of Real and Chance is hilarious. I still remember the scenes from last season about So Hood who tried to do a strip club dance on many inappropriate occasions, the psycho woman that Real said was trying to perform a rite of exorcism on the barnyard geese, the “low budget thought” when the woman gave a plastic clock to Chance, Real saying antelopes would eat his junk in the woods for all eternity should it ever be cut off, the pornographic carnival that seemed to make a lot of allusions to oral sex, etc. I also remember thinking that Corn Fed looked rather like a young, skimpy version of Sarah Palin. Coincidence? I just don’t know.

Anyway, I wish that VH1 would give them their own comedy show instead of rehashing them into the dating circuit. Every dating show on every damn network is pretty much the same. The novelty has worn off. You can tell that we are at the end of the decade because everything from fashion to TV to movies to music is all getting so samey. This is like the end of the 80s/beginning of the 90s when all the glam rockers and hair bands were all the same. Oh yeah, and there were a lot of soft rockers with feathery mullets. Then the grunge/alt rock movement came along and the game changed. We need something new to arise. Seriously. I’m still on my quest to make it through Dark Shadows and one of the things I like about it is that it’s total fun. It does not take itself too seriously and doesn’t expect the viewer to either. And it’s something really different from what you expect a “soap opera” to be. With the advent of the Sci Fi channel there are all kinds of fucking alien, ghost, monster, werewolf, etc., shows out there now. I think the modern version of that genre has become samey in itself. But it’s cool to see something different. I loved The Saint when I was on my quest to see Roger Moore in action as the inimitable Simon Templar. I like James Purefoy as The Philanthropist, too. Sure, it’s kind of a blend-up of Robin Hood, Simon Templar and the stereotypical rich playboy character but at least there aren’t 500 other shows on TV right now that are identical to it. One night when I was channel surfing, I got sucked into this show on Lifetime called Drop Dead Diva. As I was passing through the channels, I heard one bimbo say to another, “He can’t dump you for being shallow. He doesn’t know how many indie films are on your Netflix queue.” That made me laugh because I thought of a friend of mine who is of the same opinion—it’s more important to watch bullshit if it’s labeled “indie” because it will make you seem cool and edgy. LOL. So I stopped to watch the show and got sucked in. Yeah, yeah, it’s fluffy TV but again, I was at least happy that there aren’t a shitload of other programs out there that have the same construct.

I had a professor in undergrad who said there was a time and place for everything, including reading goofy crap for fun and watching mindless TV. In that spirit, I am ready to see some of this: