Does anybody watch reality shows(and like them)

If so, can you help clean up some of the pages on the Reality TV index? A lot of these pages are just full of bile and hate. I started a page in Special Efforts, but I was told to start a page in this forum as well. Ones that need a lot of help (this is just from a cursory glance, I'm sure there are more):

• Jon And Kate Plus Eight
• The Bachelor
• What Not To Wear
• Extreme Makeover Home Edition
• Doctor Phil

I used to watch the ones with Gordon Ramsay. Fox has a low opinion of my attention span, so the orchestra crescendos and rapid cross-cutting eventually wore down my patience.

The only reality shows I've ever followed are The Amazing Race and The Mole, and I just did a cursory scan over those pages and don't see any major problems.

edited 15th Nov '11 10:36:36 PM by PoochyEXE

Ace Of Cakes and Myth Busters are awesome. That's about it for me though.

I watch the same two as Poochy. Unfortunately. Sometime Top Chef, but I haven't been following that in a while. The ones that have the worst mess on the pages I stay far away from.

Does MythBusters count as a reality show? I love it, but I've always considered it as more of a documentary show than a reality show. The experiments are much more meticulously planned and constructed compared to what you see on most reality shows.

edited 16th Nov '11 12:03:02 AM by PoochyEXE

Yeah, I don't think Mythbusters is a reality show unless you want to broaden the definition to the point of making it useless.

My wife and I watch The Amazing Race but that's about it. I used to watch Survivor but as time's worn on and more and more of the idiot vocabulary evolved I couldn't stomach it. Also, nothing changes. You can just about pick the final five contestants in any of that style of show simply off their attitudes in the first two episodes.

I always felt like Myth Busters was too gonzo to really be described as a documentary, but I suppose it's sort of borderline.

Myth Busters may or may not be a reality show, but when people say "reality show", they probably mean to refer more to something like Big Brother than to Myth Busters.

Bump.

I kind of liked Top Chef, albeit only the first season because I don't really have time or interest to watch any new season.

Pawn Stars, American Restoration and American Pickers are all cool things to watch, gotta love nostalgic jerks making a big money.

I love mythbusters, but I will die before calling it a reality show.

I don't watch extreme make over home edition, but honestly, I would burst in flames if they ever did anything like that to me.

edited 19th Nov '11 5:29:58 PM by nabaduco

I loathe American Restoration. Those guys annihilate any history in the object they are "restoring" in favor of returning it to OEM condition. Ugh.

As a collector, I'll tell you that the history of an object makes it look bad.

You say bad, I say used. The history of an object is what makes it interesting. The little dings and nicks, the finish worn off specifically in an area or on a button that got used a lot. That's the character of the piece. They destroy all that in the quest to make it OEM. If you want something OEM dig up the plans for it and just have a machinist or carpenter build one for you. It's no different from what these yutzes do.

I'm not saying they should leave things falling apart but the art of restoration is knowing where the line is. It's about knowing how to get something structurally sound and functional and cleaning up the genuinely bad bits while preserving the history of an object. These guys are the hotel room art painters of restoration. The muzak composers of antiques.

The Real World, baby! Well, I haven't watched it in a long-ass time, but I have fond memories of the episodes I did see in past seasons.

I liked Queer Eye. Although Carson is such a ham that he upstages the other hosts.

I watched Survivor, and I thought some of the latest seasons were among the best!

There's also this new show that's recently started up called Redemption Inc. It's like The Apprentice but the contestants are ex-convicts who are trying to redeem themselves after being punished for their crimes. It's definitely as eye-opening as it comes!

Love with the passion of a thousand suns:

-A list New York

-A list Dallas

I'm sort of enjoying:

-Face Off

-Project Runway All Stars

-The Fashion Show

-Top Chef Just Desserts

Liked, but no longer watch:

-Big Brother

-Expedition Robinson (Dutch/Belgian version of Survivor)

-Peking Express (Dutch/Belgian version of Amazing Race)

-Rachel Zoe Project

Just started and want to see more of:

-It's a Brad Brad World

edited 15th Jan '12 8:49:39 AM by Esteban009

Myth Busters, Whale Wars, Pawn Stars (and similar shows). Thats about it. 'Poor me I was stupid' 'Retards with a beach house' and 'Random people with a show' don't appeal to me.

I liked Tiara Girl.

How about its successor, Dance Moms? Nobody thought twice about a dance instructor who looks like a Sherman Tank. TV at its very finest.

edited 17th Jan '12 6:19:24 PM by johnnyfog

Oh, that reminds me, most hated show - Toddlers And Tiaras. Those poor kids are screwed when they grow up. Except the ones that hate it.

I don't know, do programmes following the lives of servicemen in action count as 'reality TV' or are they just documentaries?

Those are the only ones I ever watch. Mostly out of a combination of nostalgia and curiosity about how things have changed, but also to let my wife see what it was like.

I think my favourite one was an episode following a troop of Warthogs from the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (AKA the RSDG or 'Ready, Steady, Don't Go' ever since they had a problem with sand in the engines of their tanks on an exercise in Jordan) in Afghanistan.

One of the vehicle commanders was a demented South African sergeant who spent most of every firefight cheering and laughing and whose comment on landmines was: 'You're just bimbling along then BOOM! No legs! Hahahahaha!'

I liked that guy.

edited 18th Jan '12 4:56:38 AM by InverurieJones

Esteban: I've added Face/Off, as well. I like the competition ones, where the competitors basically stand or fall on their own skills, abilities and smarts and don't like the ones that are social manipulation games.

I really like Finding Bigfoot, though probably for the wrong reasons (I.e Snark Bait)

Snark Bait, such as the dramatic reenactments with cheap CG? Sorry, I just saw that on The Soup.

This thread made me realize just how much reality TV I do watch. Sigh:

• American Idol
• Americas Next Top Model
• Pawn Stars

I do sometimes sort of watch Toddlers And Tiaras out of mind-boggling Bile Fascination. The horror. The horror!