Reality TV: Your Good, Bad, and Ugly

[PetFish]

Good:

Love in the Wild
It's good cuz people actually do stuff together, not like the garbage shows like Blind Date and 5th Wheel when it was just who was the biggest slut at dinner.  Jenny McCarthy is a great host.  The fact that you do activities with another person gives you a much better understanding of them as people and it really works well.

Master Chef
The home-cooks earned their spot on the show and the 3 chefs actually help them out for the most part.  I care about almost everyone there and their personal stories of how they got there are great.  I get so hungry watching this show.  Ramsey is actually very nice to people in this show and it's Joe that's the dick.  This season Christine is knocking my socks off every week, she's amazing.  The fact that these aren't professional chefs like Hell's Kitchen claims to have just makes it even more gooder.

American Chopper
I was losing interest towards the end of the original show but now that Paul and Paul aren't together it's good again.  I still hate Mikey as he's just useless.


Bad:

Kitchen Nightmares
It was good in its original form when it was based in Europe but then American TV got a hold of it and ruined it.  Ramsey used to narrate and it really felt like the show was there to help.  Now it's just trash and drama.


Ugly:

Hell's Kitchen
This is the 10th season and there's not a single person in it who can do anything.  It's like this year they completely gave up and just wanted to get the most trailer-trash-ghetto morons they could find.  These are all supposedly chefs or cooks actually working in the industry.  Usually you can pick out 3-4 that you'd actually want to make your food but this year there's nobody.  Even though I love a good train wreck it's getting seriously difficult to keep watching this.  The amount of food they waste is disgusting.  And even though Ramsey wouldn't send out bad food I wouldn't want to eat anything cooked by any one of them.

[senecadawg2]

Good:
Survivor
Gordan Ramsey's the F Word
Kitchen Nightmares

Bad:
The Amazing Race
Hell's Kitchen

Ugly:
Bachelor/Bachelorette

[Cool Chris]

I am pretty soured on ‘Reality’ TV because Mrs. Cool Chris watches the worst of the worst (Real Housewives, Sister Wives, Teen Mom, Toddlers and Tiaras)*, and when I actually get control of the TV, I feel the need to watch a Steve McQueen movie or something to counter the dumbing down affect her crap has on my brain. And these competition shows have just gotten out of hand. 


*Though I do secretly get a chuckle out of Bridezillas sometimes

[MetalJunkie]

Good:
MythBusters (if that counts?)

Bad:
Everything else

[Gadough]

Jersey Shore is entertaining as fuck.

Anyone who says otherwise probably hasn't watched an entire episode.

[DebraKadabra]

Good:
The Colony
Restaurant Stakeout
 
Bad:
Food Network Star
 
Ugly:
?

[lonestar]

Top Chef is the only one I watch anymore, best chefs on TV by miles.

[theseoafs]

Good:
MythBusters (if that counts?)

Bad:
Everything else

This, I guess. Reality TV is awful. My mom and my sister watch a lot of reality TV shows (shows that I didn't know existed, like "Dance Moms") and they're just terrible. Reality TV is so bad it makes my brain hurt. If you say you like a reality TV show in this thread, then I will be mad at you, and I do hold grudges, so it'll be like a week before our relationship is back to normal.

But MythBusters is good because explosions are good.

[senecadawg2]

Good:
The Colony
Restaurant Stakeout
 
Bad:
Food Network Star
 
Ugly:
?

The Colony was really funny for the first season, albeit quite ridiculous at times. I never got around to watching the second though...

[DebraKadabra]

Me either - the first season was good enough.

[Zook]

Mythbusters was good until the entire everything became scripted. Now it's embarrassing.

ENTIRE. EVERYTHING. Even casual conversations are scripted.

[robwebster]

"Bad and Ugly" covers most of it, for me. Not criticising the genre, if you enjoy it that's great, I just rarely get anything out of it. Any of it - Big Brother, X Factor, The Voice, Britain's Got Talent - just not my cup of tea. But my one "Good" is also probably the classiest reality show on TV. One of my very favourite shows full stop - because I bloody love The Apprentice.

I'm going to stress that I'm referring to the UK version, here. I've seen bits of the US version and it doesn't do it for me. Ill-produced, vapid, celebrity obsessed... I'm sure some people love it, and possibly many of you so I apologise for this, but I don't get the appeal for a second. The UK one, meanwhile, I've actually auditioned for. Everything's perfect, from the credits on out, right down to the little details. Beautiful soundtrack, beautiful cinematography, exciting tasks - ohh, it's ace.

People like to be cynical about it, they'll insist that "People only watch it because they like seeing stupid people fail," usually suffixing it with something like "let's be honest with ourselves" just in case they didn't already sound smug enough, but I completely object to that. That's simplifying to the point of crassness. These candidates are going into areas of business they've never touched before, they're asked to start a business in a day, in a team of people who all have to be cagey enough to make sure they're not the fall guy, and they still usually make money. Tonnes of it. In a day. That, to me, is incredible. It's about the success as much as the failure for me - watching people make money from nothing feels like watching a magic trick, every time. The charm, the ability to convince people to buy things they never wanted; there are always people I like and people I hate, but by and large the candidates have just as many strengths as weaknesses between them. Love it. I don't watch sport, this is all I've got. I'd call it my guilty pleasure, but you know? I'm not even guilty. It's brilliant.

And on that note, I'll leave you with one of the most impressive displays of negotiation I've ever seen in my life. Because the show's not about seeing stupid people fail. Honestly.

[TL]

Good: Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares

Other than that, I don't really watch reality programming (unless Top Gear UK's specials count).

[senecadawg2]

Oh, what about British Top Gear? Does that count? If Mythbusters does... I think so.

If so, that is the top of the 'good' category.

[MetalJunkie]

Mythbusters was good until the entire everything became scripted. Now it's embarrassing.

ENTIRE. EVERYTHING. Even casual conversations are scripted.

I actually researched this a bit, and it's not. For explanation segments or conversations, they'll be given a list of topics to address in the conversation. On occasion, the producer might say "Can you repeat that line, but so laymen can understand it?" or "A little more emotion." Stuff like that. It's outlined, but not scripted at all. Also, some of them have trouble getting their thoughts out coherently on the first try. I can understand them sounding less than enthusiastic on the fifteenth take.

I know what you mean, because some of that stuff sounds obviously scripted. The producer might tell them to say certain things at certain times, but I think that's about the extent of it.

[Zook]

Mythbusters was good until the entire everything became scripted. Now it's embarrassing.

ENTIRE. EVERYTHING. Even casual conversations are scripted.

I actually researched this a bit, and it's not. For explanation segments or conversations, they'll be given a list of topics to address in the conversation. On occasion, the producer might say "Can you repeat that line, but so laymen can understand it?" or "A little more emotion." Stuff like that. It's outlined, but not scripted at all. Also, some of them have trouble getting their thoughts out coherently on the first try. I can understand them sounding less than enthusiastic on the fifteenth take.

I know what you mean, because some of that stuff sounds obviously scripted. The producer might tell them to say certain things at certain times, but I think that's about the extent of it.

hmm could've fooled me. They sound like an after school special most of the time.

[cramx3]

Good:

Pawn Stars
Hardcore Pawn
Storage wars
Cops
American Pickers
My Cat from Hell

Bad:

Jersey Shore

Ugly:

Real Housewives

[PlaysLikeMyung]

Good:

The Original Iron Chef

Bad/Ugly:

Everything else. ESPECIALLY Survivor

[theseoafs]

Mythbusters was good until the entire everything became scripted. Now it's embarrassing.

ENTIRE. EVERYTHING. Even casual conversations are scripted.

I actually researched this a bit, and it's not. For explanation segments or conversations, they'll be given a list of topics to address in the conversation. On occasion, the producer might say "Can you repeat that line, but so laymen can understand it?" or "A little more emotion." Stuff like that. It's outlined, but not scripted at all. Also, some of them have trouble getting their thoughts out coherently on the first try. I can understand them sounding less than enthusiastic on the fifteenth take.

I know what you mean, because some of that stuff sounds obviously scripted. The producer might tell them to say certain things at certain times, but I think that's about the extent of it.

hmm could've fooled me. They sound like an after school special most of the time.

I'm with Zook on this one. I don't necessarily think that everything is scripted, but most stuff is - especially the conversations. Ugh, the conversations are the worst part about Mythbusters.

[Lolzeez]

American Pickers and Hell's kitchen is awesome.

[hefdaddy42]

I like Survivor and American Pickers.

And I must admit, I occasionally catch myself watching some of the shows on TruTV (even North Carolina's own Lizard Lick Towing), but I don't know that I would go so far as to say I enjoy it.  But I find some of it fascinating.

[Zantera]

I really like cooking/food-shows, Gordon Ramsay is a favorite. Master Chef might be my favorite food-show overall though, the Australian version is by FAR the best one IMO. I really loved Season 1. The American is pretty good too though.

I also enjoy survival-shows, like Bear Grylls.