I have a confession to make. I watch a reality tv show. And I like it. Yes, I know, I'm bad...but it's my one and only guilty pleasure (at least the only one that I am willing to share with the entire interwebs, assuming anyone actually reads this damn thing). It's called 'Survivor' and the premise is that a bunch of nobodies get thrown together on a deserted island somewhere and have to go through a series of challenges to try and outlast everyone else in an attempt to win $1 million.
The show is pure unadulterated voyeurism featuring a cast of characters that are willing to do just about anything for their 15 minutes of fame. There are always a couple of hot chicks that like to wear as little as possible, there is always a nerd (or two), at least one gay person, someone that is old and has a chip on their shoulder about it, someone that has overcome some serious illness or handicap, a smattering of buff dudes, an ex-military/survivalist type, and at least one born-again christian.
They are initially split into two tribes that try and get along with each other, knowing full well that most will get sent home, and the remaining schemers will do their damnedest to fuck each other over as nicely as possible so that even though they got stabbed in the back, they will still vote to give you a million smackeroos at the final tribal council.
The game is one third strategy, one third physical, one third social, and 100% avarice and greed, after all, they are playing for $1,000,000.
And that's what makes this season particularly annoying. There has always been an underlying discussion in this game at some point or another about faith, integrity and honour, and how it 'guides' the contestants through the game. Some are less overt than others, but the last two seasons have brought christianity front and center on many, many occasions, and frankly, as a non-believer I have to say it is starting to get on my tits.
Last season there was a gormless idiot that was voted out of the tribe and sent to an isolated island by his fellow tribe-members TWICE. Both times as he started to mentally breakdown due to the isolation he would babble on about 'god's will' and 'this is what the lord must have planned for me' and other such delusional utterances. It became a focal point not only for this player, but of the overall game as well. (I personally never knew that God watched CBS on Wednesday evenings at 8pm eastern, 7pm Central).
This season though, they really jumped the crucifix. If I would have known ahead of time that there was going to be this much bullshit and chatter about invisible sky-wizards, to the point that almost every episode sounded like an old-fashioned tent revival meeting, I simply wouldn't have bothered watching at all.
Here's my problem. I don't care if you believe in god, allah, jehovah, buddha or the flying spaghetti monster, that's fine by me, knock yourself out, but if you start praying to that invisible friend in the vain hope that they will help you win one million dollars in a tv game show, I think you have completely lost the plot. The very thought that some divine-being actually gives a flying fuck about whether some fame-hungry twerp wins a million dollars or not is both hysterical and offensive at the same time.
On the plus side however, at least according to the mental midgets that are currently playing in this season's big sand box for $1,000,000.00, there will apparently be no point in watching the show on CBS every Wednesday night in the future, because everything has been pre-determined by some invisible cloud-being...
As a side note, can you imagine the ruckus if they were praying to allah instead? Oh wait, TLC already tried that and got slammed for it...
Oy vey!!
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