Reality shows still pervade the networks, it really isn't the dying fad that I predicted it would be back when Survivor was new hotness and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy made gay the new black. Little did I know that those would someday be classics. Now the reality shows are Top Nobodies. Top Model, Top Chef, Top Apprentice, Top Fatties, Top Skinnies, Top Nannies, Top Trannies, you name it. There's a best and a worst of all categories, competiting for their small slice of 15 minutes.
As a non-conformist fan of television, one who abhors the shameless wanna-be's and fights the addiction to watch them each week, there are a few reality gems that have come across the boob tube worth mentioning. Before even going down that road however, note that my favorite shows are few but I take a hubristic pride in faithfully Tivoing their entire seasons. But back momentarily to the best of reality TV.
Top 10 Reality Shows of all times:
#10 - The Flava Flav Show: Who knew that a crispy washed up rapper could lull American into a hypnotic drool each week, and come back for more, just dying to see the antics of the one and only King of Mouth-Bling. All Hail Flava Flav!
#9 - The Office UK - Ok, not reeeally a reality show, but the best darn faux-show ever to cross the airwaves. Yes, the U.S one is funny, but once you have seen the original, the new one kinda loses its zing.
#8 - America's Top Model - Remember the season when Tyra lost it on that model and started rubber neckin'? Reality TV at its finest
#7 - Taxi Cab Confessions - Ah, cable reality TV. This is where people really start acting up and you get to see the unedited nitty gritty. I mean, where else do you get to see toothless strippers make out with midgets in the backseat of a car?
#6 - The remaining aren't reality shows, but its because honestly the rest are all knockoffs or poppycock. Here are the Top 5 original programs on TV right now.
#5 - Extras - This show is so fantastically hysterically, it shouldn't be British. I mean, pee pee your pants funny. If you don't have HBO, this show is worth the extra $18.95 on your bill so that you can watch it. Another faux-reality show. Brilliant!
#4 - Heroes - Save the Cheerleader, Save the World. This is part of the new genre of television shows that is the modern day soap opera. Lengthy charcter storylines and convoluted plots that end every episode with a cliff-hanger and leave no questions answered. An absolutely genius strategy for prime-time. I'm so hooked, it should be illegal.
#3 - The Shield - I have never seen this show, but I hear its pretty darn good.
#2 - Lost - There is tobacco, there is heroin, and then there is Lost. Addictively insane. I have a feeling that by watching this show, I have been suckered into the most cleverly designed prime time soap opera since Gilligans Island.
#1 - 30 Rock - Have you seen it yet? OMG, its heeeeelarious! Some of the best one-liners have been borne from this show and Tina Fey and Tracy Jordan are outstanding. Alec Baldwin is a comedic prodigy and 30 Rock knocked Scrubs from its throne as the funniest sitcom currently on prime-time TV. Bravo, Tina, Bravo!!
Honorable mentions: CSI, Law and Order, House, Nip Tuck, and repeats of Freddy Kreugers New Nightmares on that new random horror channel (just had to throw that in to be an uber geek).
