I Miss Cable

So I'm sitting here at work and trying to think about what to write for my post, which reminded myself that I don't have cable TV this year in my dorm. I've been keeping up with my shows on Hulu (regardless of being a week and a day late from the episode's premiere) and in my spare time I watch reruns on Netflix. But it fascinates me that I've made it this long without television. This time last year we would constantly have the TV on in our room, even if it was just for background noise we would always have the TV running. And it makes me sad, I feel so completely out of the loop, without the ability to channel surf I miss out on so many shows I may potentially fall in love with. Sure, I could just search the endless genre classifications on Netflix, but there's a big difference between getting into a show by reading a show's description and getting into a show by catching a clip and that clip grabbing your attention. Lately any new things I've watched have been on recommendation from my friends, which sucks when I can't make any recommendations of my own. But luckily Thanksgiving break is just another few weeks away, and Winter break another few weeks after that, so hopefully by then I'll have a plethora of shows to post about :)

The Sad Reality

I never really watch reality shows anymore, but I stumbled onto a link about a reality show suicide and was horrified to find out how many there have been over the last few years.
Gordan Ramsay from "Hell's Kitchen" and "Kitchen Nightmares" has had 2 of his contestants committ suicide in the last 5 years alone! Ok, now with how much Ramsay screams and degrades contestants, does that really surprise you? Maybe Ramsay really is from a kitchen in hell.

Other shows that have recently lost former contenstants include Bachelorette, American Idol , Wipeout (contestant suffered a stroke during an event), Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Megan Wants a Millionaire and The Contender. Here's many more for anyone who isn't easily depressed by these sort of things.

Reality show suicides http://www.realityshowsuicides.com/

And before you blame the U.S. for crappy shows that people hate themselves enough to jump off a bridge for,  the United Kingdom's reality shows have suffered the same results.

So the question is: how does this happen? Are producers casting emotionally unstable people?  Is the pressure of instant tv stardom to blame? Or are the tv shows creating monsters out of contestants "on camera" that misrepresent who they really are?

Whatever the cause may be, it looks like the problem is snowballing recently, and that's very bad news for everyone.  I really hope this isn't the future for reality shows, cause it sounds like its getting too "real" for me.

Channel Surfing

As an alternative to cable TV, users of the website surfthechannel.com can look under the category of television to see programs from around the world. The opening page has four different types of searches available.