|
|
Techtite's TV Reviews! |
"The core of any good reality series is its congenial, empathetic, sympathetic, and likeable cast. This CORE was none of the above...which ironically, was this series' CORE problem." ---from the review
------------------ Sidebar :: ------------- No Sidebar comments for this review. Yet. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
There Goes the Neighborhood
So...did they take the wall down when the series ended...and did the outer houses care? Sometimes reality shows try so hard to be surreal they wind up looking downright silly. Take There Goes the Neighborhood, where a "neighborhood" of eight family homes is closed off from the outside world as the families compete for a $250,000 prize. So what is the challenge here? If you're waiting for an answer to that question, pack a big lunch, because the series fails to offer one. This is a very weak "reality series" concept with even weaker competitions and frankly, the weakest roster of contestants I've ever endured watching. Here's the basic premise. A "neighborhood" of eight family homes is enclosed in a ridiculously overdone "wall" that surrounds the eight houses and barricades them from the outside world. Time out, please: so what? The show makes it seem like this big wall is a big deal and yet where is the challenge? even Big Brother (stuck in a house with ten strangers) is more of a challenge. They supposedly made the competition more challenging simply because they cut power to the homes. Still I'm shrugging. What is the "challenge" of eight families in their own homes during a blackout? I'm not impressed. Then there are the competitions. Even if the budget was scarce for this summer TV series, they certainly could've come up with more imaginative challenges than these. One challenge has them try and connect a DVD to an allegedly "complicated" TV. Another challenge has them take shirts from a pile of laundry and use the letters on the shirts to form a word. Good heavens these are weak challenges...and yet: one family actually had a winning streak that lasted over half of the season. I don't know if I should feel impressed for that family, or feel pity for all the other families. Yet the worst part of this series can be summarized in two pairs of words: "Neighborhood Vote" and...wait for it..."THE CORE"...! Yeah, see; this series tries to keep things interesting by having the neighborhood vote for which family goes home each episode. Except that the middle of this neighborhood is so cocky, so arrogant, and so inanely xenophobic, that they actually refer to their natty little clique as...THE CORE. So the core sticks together and as soon as you can say "Pagonged," one of THE CORE wins the game. What's more; it's the worst performing family of the entire CORE. There are times when seeing underdogs win is fun TV. This isn't one of them. Perhaps it is a testament to how boring this series is to watch, when they take the time to interview families "outside" of the series' supposed impenetrable wall, and few could seemingly care. While folks outside the wall are amused at the wall itself, they clearly could care less about the families stuck within. Not once does any interviewee say "Gee I hope the Johnstons are safe in there" or "Y'all treat the Bussiere's right y'hear?" or "Hey I hope the Nelsons win it all WOO-HOO Go Nelsons!" Nope; CBS seemingly found trouble finding anyone outside the wall who could offer any emotional resonance aside from "Gosh, what a tall wall." What a lovely neighborhood! Then again, given THE CORE, can you blame them? I wouldn't be surprised if a family outside the wall asked CBS to keep the wall standing when they left. You'd get the joke if you watched this series...which, in actuality, alludes to the series' bigger problem... I'm spending way too much time reviewing this series, so let me simply blurt it out: the chosen families are dull. Sure they found a bunch of houses side-by side that successfully covered all the obligatory "token" stereotypes: the token homosexual team, the token black team, and yes even the token redneck team to even things out. Yet they forgot the token exciting teams, or more importantly, the token excited host. I've heard many a web site insult the calmness of Survivor's Jeff Probst or Big Brother's Julie Chen, and I'm telling you: nobody's seen calm until you watch Matt Rogers. Then again: can you blame him? At least Survivor and Big Brother have exciting moments. This "Neighborhood" would take a very seasoned host to even act excited...and Rogers seemingly lacks the desire to even try. In the end, The CORE would be the mortar that kept this neighborhood House Of Usher together. From the first time that these knuckleheads actually use the term THE CORE, to the first time they insist that, hey hey hey; the CORE is not a clique though just happens to be a closely knit gang of families that sticks together no matter what (which yes is the very definition of clique though THE CORE demands you believe otherwise), to the way the second place family actually acts happy that, even if they lost, they now feel like they too are part of THE CORE...good grief what a dumb series. The core of any good reality series is its congenial, empathetic, sympathetic, and likeable cast. This CORE was none of the above...which ironically, was this series' CORE problem.
Opinions? Speak your mind in Techtite's Letters Page!
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Burnout
Near
Miss
Small
Crater
Large
Crater
Deep
Impact
