Keeping up with reality

My beautiful and intelligent girlfriend is in love with reality shows, and she isn’t alone by a long shot. Throw in a few washed up or irrelevant celebrities into an “unscripted” show and you now have the makings of a hit primetime series.

I just don’t get it. And I don’t think I ever will.

I can only shake my head in disgust when my wonderful and caring girlfriend turns on “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” or “Giuliana & Bill.”

What is the public’s infatuation with celebrities? Why the general interest in how Giuliana and Bill spend time together? Who really cares about Kendra?

Most people would never open up to a stranger sitting across from them on a bus, but we’re all so happy to spy on the lives of celebrities. I’m thinking it has something to do with the general distaste of the average person’s everyday life.

The majority of Americans live by the clock. For example: take Joey to school at 9 a.m.; get to work at 9:30 a.m.; have lunch at 12:30 p.m.; pick up Joey from school at 3 p.m.; take Alice to soccer practice at 5 p.m.; drop Nathan off at piano lessons at 6:30 p.m.; pick up Alice and Nathan at 7 p.m.; make dinner at 7:30 p.m.; watch “Rock of Love” at 9 p.m.; fall asleep at 10 p.m.

It’s safe to say our society tends to fall into a repetitive schedule and most days pan out a similar way. But thanks to the fresh and intuitive minds at networks such as E!, VH1 and MTV, we can watch other people live a completely different life. Imagine how exciting it would be to escape your average 9-to-5 life and spend 30 minutes watching Kendra do laundry and bake a cake, all while being pregnant.

Sounds exhausting.

It seems our lives have become so hectic and repetitive that we feel the need to escape into a fresh and separate personal struggle that Kim Kardashian consistently finds herself in. “Should I wear my $2,700 pair of Gucci flip-flops today or my $700 pair of New Balances?”

Give up on living through another meaningless individual that’s seen on television every evening and bring some variety into your personal struggle.

And with that ramble, my girlfriend has just left the house and I get ESPN all to myself.

‘Lost’ in a maze

There was a time when I thought “Lost,” the successfully addictive epic-drama on ABC, was a ridiculous piece of television.

I never really had a good reason for ignoring the show, except for the fact I didn’t own a DVR until recently. When I signed up for Netflix this past fall, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to give the popular series a shot. Thanks to my Netflix account, I could watch every episode from the first five seasons straight from my laptop.

Little did I know that it would consume every second of my life.

I quickly realized after taking in the first four episodes of season one that it’s impossible to ignore the show. Every episode ends with tons of unanswered questions about a seemingly endless supply of interesting storylines and characters.

I haven’t become so smothered in a television show since “Saved By The Bell.” I knew everything there was about Bayside High, The Max and The Malibu Sands Beach Club.

With “Lost” it isn’t plausible to gather every bit of information because the storyline is so deep. Luckily, there is a Web site that offers hope to the mass amounts of viewers that feel lost.

Lostpedia.org has every piece of information from every episode, about every character and every storyline. Lostpedia is extremely helpful for viewers like myself.

After three months of catching up on “Lost,” I’ve finally reached the new episodes. One of the hardest things I’ve had to do was catch up on “Lost” alone. The final season of the hit show began in February and with only a handful of episodes remaining, the story is getting hazier then ever before.

I could take the time to explain what exactly is going on, but it would take me days and I myself would likely get confused as well.

After watching more than 100 episodes of the show, it’s becoming clear that the series finale, which is set to air on May 23, isn’t going to be a simple one.

“The Ruins” Blog: Boom! Pow! Surprise!

Well, like I promised this post would be ridiculously huge. So huge, in fact, that I will probably post it into two separate parts.

Let’s start with last week’s episode. I think this episode should be dubbed “Surprise, surprise.” This episode was filled with so many shock-and-awe moments that I decided to just leave my jaw hanging on the floor instead of wasting energy picking it up over and over again.

The non-shocking parts were when Ibis, Johanna and Susie were plotting to get Veronica sent into the elimination. The surprise: Veronica sitting underneath the balcony hearing the girls’ entire conversation. Another no-brainer was Wes telling KellyAnne that he was planning to go into the elimination to take out Cohutta. The surprise: Cohutta defeated Wes, pretty handily in the elimination. Last but not least, no one was surprised when Susie and Ibis decided to gang up against Veronica.

But the biggest shocker of all time was when the Champions were forced to come up with a decision about who to send in the elimination for the girls, since they had used up the allotted 30 minutes discussing the matter. What happened next will be forever ingrained in my memory.

Veronica filibustered her way out of an elimination and it was magnificent. When the Champions were deliberating who was going to be sent into the elimination, going into it I can’t see how anybody watching thought that Veronica had a chance of avoiding the elimination, but she pulled it off. I don’t know if she did it on purpose, but regardless it saved her tail for another episode.

She talked and talked, and continued talking until the 30 minutes ran out. “The Ruins” host TJ Lavin told the six representatives to make a decision by voting. Derek, Susie and Ibis voted for Veronica to go in against KellyAnne, while Wes, Evan and Veronica voted for her to go against Kimberly.

Stalemate.

What happened next was anyone’s guess, because this was a first.

TJ then pulled out the trump card and said the entire Champions team would have to come in to vote. I still can’t believe it, but somehow it went from Veronica definitely going into the elimination to Ibis going into the elimination against Kimberly. WHOA!

(Had to take a breather)

It made for great television. With Ibis getting the proverbial kick in the tail, I knew for sure that nothing else would top it. I was proven wrong.

In a elimination that relied less on strength and more on agility and patience, Cohutta demolished Wes in the elimination and the Challengers went for the sweep by having Kim defeat Ibis, as well.

It was one helluva an episode.

Last night’s episode didn’t disappoint either. With the Champions down to nine players to the Challengers seven, tension was simmering. Veronica was still on the outs with most of her team, even after her surprising avoidance of last week’s elimination.

After defeating one of the strongest competitors to ever grace the show, Cohutta and the Challengers had a newfound swagger, but were still looking to win another challenge, so they could have some power as to who would going into the elimination.

This brings me to Casey, my least favorite person on the show. If I didn’t know any better, I would swear she was throwing the challenges. There’s no way she’s just this bad. And, if that is the case, why come to “The Ruins?”

I won’t lie, I’m rooting for the Challengers and she’s worthless. If you were to look up dead weight in the dictionary, Casey would be smiling ear to ear as she ruined another mission for the Challengers.

She’s so inept, that the Champions feel that they have the final challenge locked up. I believe they’re thinking since practically every man on their team is a behemoth – naturally and unnaturally, if you know what I’m sayin’ – they should be able to dominate the rest of the challenges from this point on. And, regardless how strong they are, as long as Casey is on the Challengers, she is their biggest asset.

Man, I hate you Casey.

Part II will be posted tomorrow. Stay tuned.

“The Ruins” Blog: Friends and Enemies

Last week’s episode of “The Ruins” was one of the best in “RW/RR Challenge” history, in my opinion. The drama went up a notch when players on the “Champions” and the “Challengers” plotted to pit best friends KellyAnne – who is also Wes’ girlfriend – and Evelyn into the elimination round. Evelyn and Wes both looked capable of murder, after Johnny Bananas revealed the twisted plan while they were picking who had to go into the elimination round.
Wes was put into the elimination round for the second time, this time against Nick, and put in another winning performance. Evelyn decided to let KellyAnne win the elimination round. Personally, I wanted Evelyn to stay because with her and Wes at odds with the “Champions” team, it would’ve made for a great show.

As far as the challenges go, Wes decided that he would stop trying to throw the missions if the other men would chose who goes into the elimination round the way he thinks it should be. The guys agreed, but at this point they’d already have the Evelyn vs. KellyAnne plan in their back pocket.

During the challenge, Shauvon injured her chest region, providing the quote of the week.

“I think I busted my (freakin’) implant”

Shauvon couldn’t complete the challenge and was sent to the hospital. The “Champions” won their second challenge adding another $20,000 to their pot.

Everything wasn’t all bad for the “Challengers.” Shauvon was forced to go home due to her injuries – she was most definitely the weakest player on the show – and KellyAnne, the strongest girl on the”Challengers” team, wasn’t eliminated. The “Champions” also lost a very strong competitor in Evelyn.

I can’t wait for tonight’s episode, with things getting a bit hotter than normal.