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Techtite's TV Reviews! |
"Amusing during the doldrums of summer reruns, though if it has a second season, it needs a huge overhaul!" ---from the review
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The Greatest American Dog
Here's a cute show concept that makes the cut, if just barely. Have around ten dog lovers with cute dogs come in for a reality show with a twist; the competitors are their dogs. It sounds like a good idea until you hear the first of many flaws: who chooses who goes each week? You might think it was the other dog owners, or perhaps, the home viewing audience. Nope; it's a panel of three judges. Would American Idol be as fun if the viewing audience had no say, and Simon had 33% of the final vote each week? Nope...though the show is still watchable...barely. The premise to The Greatest American Dog is actually quite simple. Dog lovers are asked to get their cute and lovable dogs to do various tricks. The winner of the "luxury challenge" gets to sleep in a special suite, all by themselves. The loser of the final challenge each week goes home. Meanwhile, we see typical reality show angst among the human trainers, as their dogs act all cute and lovable nearby. Halfway into each episosde, the judges come on screen. To be fair; if you wanted a trio of judges for this series, they chose among the best. Wendy Diamond, Allan Reznik and Victoria Stilwell are each well known authors and publishers in the dog-lovers community. If you wanted three judges for a competition such as this, they're the ones to cast. Yet each losing dog is eliminated based on three votes, and three alone. Is that fair? Perhaps...and perhaps not. Let's first consider some conflicting "judgments" in recent episodes. Laura and her adorable dog Preston are eliminated after tattling against another dog owner, who seemingly tortured her dog into submission for that task. Eliminating a tattletale sounds fair, except for one thing: no less than two other dog trainers did the same thing in prior episodes, with no punishment for doing so. Laura follows their example, and goes home. Such is often the case in a show where the judges clearly have a "winner" chosen already, and are eliminating the remaining contestants for whatever arbitrary reason they can find. Oh...you did what two other contestants already did? Well...we're making an example out of you. You're out of the game! Such hypocrisy is commonplace. Beth Joy and her adorable pooch, Bella Starlet, are chastised for the "outfits" Beth makes her dog wear. Why? Because dogs aren't people and aren't to be treated as such. So how do you explain the dog challenge just weeks later, when the dogs are asked to paint? Oh no; we're not talking about goofy painting here. They were asked to draw coherent paintings that told a whole story(!). So on the one hand dogs should not be treated as people. On the other hand they should be able to paint renaissance art? That doesn't make any sense. To be fair, the judges do hit the nail on the head...occasionally. One dog trainer simply didn't "connect" with her dog, and she's gone. One trainer seemed more interested in getting himself on TV than his dog, so he was first to go. So it's not like these judges always make the decision the viewing audience would not. In fact; with the exception of the adorable mischief making Rat Terrier named "Elvis," and the equally adorable Pomeranian, "Preston," I have agreed with every elimination so far. Unfortunately, when you take away the possibility of viewer interaction, this is just another dog show, and that is barely passable. Why? Because there are already professional dog shows on the air, which showcase more contestants in a fairer competition. Fortunately, the casting agent chose cute dogs for the series, so this miniaturized dog show is still quite watchable...until the last cute dog is eliminated. Then again; when the new fall TV season begins in mere days, will any of this matter? There were ways The Greatest American Dog could have kept my interest. Eliminating the cutest dogs wasn't one of them.
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