You'll stumble in my footsteps...

30 Days

Finally, a thinking man's Reality Show!!!

Morgan Spurlock, the director/star of the Academy Award nominated documentary Super Size Me has created an amazing new reality show that breathes new life into the hackneyed "fish out of water" formula simply by having a social conscience.

Spurlock challenges his test subjects, himself included, to spend not just a mile, but a MONTH in someone else's shoes. And while similar reality shows have been horribly exploitive and blatantly rigged for explosive confrontations by pitting polar opposites against one another*, 30 Days is an exploration of social issues through juxtaposition. Spurlock is trying spark debates, not fights, by transplanting a conservative mid-western homophobe into San Francisco's Castro district ("the gayest place in the world") and moving a devote Christian in with a Muslim family. Sure he lets his fish-out-of-water flop around a little bit in their foreign environments, but Spurlock hardly leaves them hung out to dry.

As the series creator and narrator, Spurlock is more of a spiritual guide than a puppetmaster for his guinea pigs and he demonstrates his humanity for everyone involved by prioritizing the pursuit of knowledge and mutual understanding over ratings-grabbing kicking and screaming. Spurlock ensures that his subjects learn from their eye-opening experiences by surrounding them with people who actively teach them about the differences between their worlds instead of merely parading around for the sake of being polemic. And in turn, Spurlock, the TV audience, and everyone who interacts with the subjects, are also learning about themselves.

Unlike most other reality shows, there are no winners and losers. The test subjects are NOT contestants. When Spurlock and his fiancée try to live on minimum wage for 30 days, they don't "lose" some sort of prize or money just because they are deep in debt at the end of the month, but rather, they become richer in the spiritual sense by gaining a broader understanding of themselves and their fellow working men and women. Again, it's all about the learning to become a better person by facing burning social issues head on.

The really really brilliant thing about 30 Days is that the show is very educational without being the slightest bit preachy. It's also highly entertaining, complete with genuinely tear-jerking drama and laugh-out-loud comedy. Of the first four shows, the second episode had some especially dramatic moments when a 34-year-old man tries to get back into shape with a regimen of growth hormones, diet, workouts, pill and testosterone injections at the expense of his liver, fertility and marriage. The first episode about living on minimum wage** is probably the funniest so far because it features Spurlock throughout and the man is just so damn hilarious. Many of the laughs in the other episodes come sfrom Spurlocks asides and commentaries, but one of my favorite moments in the pilot is when googles "free things to do in Columbus, Ohio" and finds this online Guide to Free Ohio Do-It-Yourself Fun for the Whole Family, which actually suggests visiting an animal shelter as a fun free activity while conceding that it might be "kind of a sad visit if you don't plan to adopt an animal..." Funnier still is that the site gives a "Winter Advisory" for bank tours, warning that "If you wear a ski-mask, take it off before entering the bank."

30 Days has replaced Penn & Teller: Bullshit! as my favorite new TV show ("favorite new" show meaning my favorite among the new shows that I've recently discovered as opposed to my "new favorite" show, which was and still is Family Guy because it continues to make me laugh so hard that I shoot milk out of my nose)

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NOTES:

* It looks like the latest exploitive reality TV show has been canceled before it even aired. ABC pulled the plug on their upcoming show Welcome to the Neighborhood after pressure from civil rights groups who found the show discriminatory because it made diverse families compete for a house in a white-washed neighborhood. The sadest part is this presumably bigoted show probably would've been a hit with the mindless masses of America. Luckily, 30 Days has seen pretty decent ratings. I hope it gets picked up for another season instead of that other reality crap. [BACK]

** The pilot episode of 30 Days is not only funny, but it also features an audio sample of the They Might Be Giants song "Minimum Wage". [BACK]