The Amazing Survivor Race
So tonight is the season kickoff of Survivor Cook Islands, and once again I’ll find myself helplessly sucked into the action/drama/24 minutes of commercials for another 16 weeks. Damn you, Mark Burnett! Damn you to hell!
Seriously though, I’m excited to have Survivor back. It’s been a long, dark, dull summer of reruns, which I really don’t have patience to sit through. (Once is enough.) Oh, sure – I had Entourage to tide me over, and there’s always Dirty Jobs and (my guilty pleasure) Property Ladder from cable, but network TV is fresh again, which makes for perfect filler in between my Travel Channel/Food TV/Discovery Channel fetish.
Personally, I think it’s all a huge publicity stunt for a series that’s 13 seasons old. Anything for ratings, right? And if anyone is going to stir the pot, it’s Burnett. The guy is good at it.
I really don’t understand what all the fuss is about – first off, it’s a TV show. They may call it “reality”, but c’mon – what’s real about it? If this was real life, we’d see more nervous breakdowns and less narcissism.
Second, see my earlier comment about it being a ratings ploy. There’s no such thing as bad publicity in Hollywood, is there? Just ask Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan.
But third, division by racial lines happens in the real world anyway. It’s not P.C. to talk about it, but it happens.
I grew up in a South Seattle neighborhood that was pretty much evenly split – 33% white, 33% black, 33% Asian. Everybody was a minority. So in school people would sit with their friends and group up where I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but if you looked at the group from the outside, you’d see it racially split for the most part. (Don’t ask me -- I’m a writer, not a sociologist.)
Once a year the Seattle School District would hold “rainbow week”, where they’d hang posters in the halls showing all the races standing together, hand in hand, everyone happy and equal. Black, white, yellow, brown, and red. All smiling, all getting along, all mixed together.
And to drive the point home, our teachers would re-arrange our seats in class racially – white kid, black kid, Asian kid, Indian kid, Hispanic kid, start over again. We’d spend a day or two sitting like that, and would smile as needed when the city people would come tour our classrooms to see our harmonious we were, and then slowly we’d drift back to our old spots with our friends.
It wasn’t a matter of discrimination or segregation – it just sort of worked out that way. I had lots of friends of other races as a kid, and I think it made me a better person as an adult. I was exposed to different beliefs and different cultures, and I’m really thankful that I had that opportunity. I’ve seen the world though the viewpoints of others, and it’s a good thing.
So having that exposure, I really feel sorry for the local Iowans who freak out if they even pass someone different than themselves on the street. How much are you missing out on by isolating yourself in your own white bread cocoon?
But Survivor is just TV. It’s not real life, no matter how many times Probst tries to tell you otherwise.
So if you want to see reality, go walk down the street and say hello to everyone you meet. Have lunch in an ethnic restaurant (no, Taco Bell doesn’t count). Take the time to understand the world from a different perspective.
And for God’s sake, if you happen to stumble across an immunity idol, be quiet about it.
Seriously though, I’m excited to have Survivor back. It’s been a long, dark, dull summer of reruns, which I really don’t have patience to sit through. (Once is enough.) Oh, sure – I had Entourage to tide me over, and there’s always Dirty Jobs and (my guilty pleasure) Property Ladder from cable, but network TV is fresh again, which makes for perfect filler in between my Travel Channel/Food TV/Discovery Channel fetish.
Personally, I think it’s all a huge publicity stunt for a series that’s 13 seasons old. Anything for ratings, right? And if anyone is going to stir the pot, it’s Burnett. The guy is good at it.
I really don’t understand what all the fuss is about – first off, it’s a TV show. They may call it “reality”, but c’mon – what’s real about it? If this was real life, we’d see more nervous breakdowns and less narcissism.
Second, see my earlier comment about it being a ratings ploy. There’s no such thing as bad publicity in Hollywood, is there? Just ask Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan.
But third, division by racial lines happens in the real world anyway. It’s not P.C. to talk about it, but it happens.
I grew up in a South Seattle neighborhood that was pretty much evenly split – 33% white, 33% black, 33% Asian. Everybody was a minority. So in school people would sit with their friends and group up where I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but if you looked at the group from the outside, you’d see it racially split for the most part. (Don’t ask me -- I’m a writer, not a sociologist.)
Once a year the Seattle School District would hold “rainbow week”, where they’d hang posters in the halls showing all the races standing together, hand in hand, everyone happy and equal. Black, white, yellow, brown, and red. All smiling, all getting along, all mixed together.
And to drive the point home, our teachers would re-arrange our seats in class racially – white kid, black kid, Asian kid, Indian kid, Hispanic kid, start over again. We’d spend a day or two sitting like that, and would smile as needed when the city people would come tour our classrooms to see our harmonious we were, and then slowly we’d drift back to our old spots with our friends.
It wasn’t a matter of discrimination or segregation – it just sort of worked out that way. I had lots of friends of other races as a kid, and I think it made me a better person as an adult. I was exposed to different beliefs and different cultures, and I’m really thankful that I had that opportunity. I’ve seen the world though the viewpoints of others, and it’s a good thing.
So having that exposure, I really feel sorry for the local Iowans who freak out if they even pass someone different than themselves on the street. How much are you missing out on by isolating yourself in your own white bread cocoon?
But Survivor is just TV. It’s not real life, no matter how many times Probst tries to tell you otherwise.
So if you want to see reality, go walk down the street and say hello to everyone you meet. Have lunch in an ethnic restaurant (no, Taco Bell doesn’t count). Take the time to understand the world from a different perspective.
And for God’s sake, if you happen to stumble across an immunity idol, be quiet about it.
posted by Tommy G at
8:49 AM
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