1000 Ways to Die and other shows holding you back?

Tags

Darwin Awards, life, reality television, TV

I know some people believe in conquering your fears, and if your fear is debilitating or keeping you from activities you want to do, then I agree.  However, fear in some cases is healthy and at certain levels, reasonable.  It keeps us from doing things like running head-long into oncoming traffic.  It keeps us from winning a Darwin Award.  Where is the line?

My boyfriend asked me if I wanted to go cliff jumping.  Pretty sure he was being sarcastic because he knows I’m terrified of falling.  I can jump off the high dive into a pool, but it takes quite a bit out of me to do it and the platform board is out of the question.  He asked me why I wouldn’t want to go cliff diving and since telling him I’m acrophobic has gotten me nowhere I told him that people can die like that.  He asked where I heard that and I told him about a 1000 Ways to Die episode where… let’s just say the guy landed wrong and water went somewhere it shouldn’t.  As a female, there are two such places.

Boyfriend told me I need to stop watching the show, that I’m letting horror stories hold me back from living, but even without watching the show, I wouldn’t want to cliff jump.  I don’t want to sky dive, and I don’t want to bungee jump.  I’m completely happy riding roller coasters for my adrenaline rush thank you very much.  I don’t feel like it’s holding me back because if I want to do something, I do it.

-Eliabeth Hawthorne

What about you?  Is fear rational or is it holding you back?

If you can’t take the drama, get off reality TV

Tags

Bachelor Pad, Dance Moms, dancing, Downsized, drama, Hulu, reality shows, The Bachelor, TV

I’ve recently discovered Dance Moms on Hulu.  I’ve only watched three episodes in the middle of the second season, so I know I don’t have the full story, but I don’t think my position would change even if I did.

If you can’t take the drama, get off reality TV.

There are certain people who are not cut out to be on reality TV.  That’s not a bad thing either.  There was one contestant on The Bachelor and Bachelor Pad 2 that admitted she wasn’t cut out for the back-stabbing and mind games that many reality shows bring out.  I think she was wise to be able to take that away from what others might view as a negative experience.

On the other hand, you have Dance Moms.  One of the mothers may or may not be engaged.  She was engaged at one point, which she told the camera in private, but then she stopped wearing the ring and refuses to talk to the other mothers about it.  Spoilers follow, and not all content is appropriate for younger readers.

My Hulu Favorites

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America's Next Top Model, ANTM, book, books, House, Hulu, movies, Once Upon a Time, Parenthood, reading, television, The Biggest Loser, The Hunger Games, TV

I don’t have television, so everything I watch is either a movie or found on Hulu.  With the start of a new year comes a bunch of new seasons of my favorite shows.  With limited time, I’ve already lost interest in some of them.

Take Once Upon a Time.  It took me a little time to get into it, and now that other shows like The Bachelor are back on, I just don’t have time to keep up with it or Pretty Little Liars, another show I really liked for a time but have lost interest in.

So what do I watch?  The Biggest Loser!  I don’t know when I started watching “reality” TV, but I know Fearfactor was what started it.  I’m also very addicted to House.  I wish the girl from Joan of Arcadia had lasted a bit longer, but her character couldn’t have stood House for very long without compromising too much of her character, so I’ve accepted it.  Sometimes I watch Parenthood, more because Lauren Grahm is in it than anything.  Waiting to see if there’s another America’s Next Top Model because you already know I’m an addict.  (Why oh WHY did Alison not win?  *pouts*)

What do you watch?  Do you have any shows you’re waiting for that haven’t aired yet?  What about movies?  Anyone else really excited for The Hunger Games?  The trailer was good enough that I’ve actually gotten the book and started reading it because I’m determined to finish the book before the movie.  Even though Ermisenda has already reviewed it, I’ll be throwing in my two cents as well.

-Eliabeth

My name is Elia and I’m addicted to ANTM

Tags

addiction, America's Next Top Model, ANTM, TV

I don’t know what it is about Top Model that I enjoy so much, but I’ve watched every single episode of America’s Next Top Model and every episode of New Zealand’s Top Model, Australia’s Top Model and Canada’s Next Top Model I can find.  I’ve never wanted to be a model, so it’s not that I’m, living vicariously through the contestants, and generally I don’t watch reality TV, so what is it?  I think I need a self-help group to help me understand my obsession.

Anyone else watch ANTM? Any other strange neurosis you want to share?

-Eliabeth

Rejection Quote

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ABC, authors, Castle, comedy, failure, publishing, quotes, rejection, television, TV, writing

“Rejection isn’t failure.  Failure is giving up.  Everybody gets rejected.  It’s how you handle it that determines where you end up.”

Castle S4E3: “Head Case”

Castle is a comedy about a writer who follows NYPD Muse Detective Beckett around while he writes mystery novels.

Spoilers follow.

Why some spills are funnier than others…

Tags

AFV, America's Funniest Home Videos, TV, Wipeout

Wipeout cracks me up.  America’s Funniest Home Videos makes me cringe.

Ignoring the cute pets and videos where people do not get hurt on AFV, why would I enjoy watching some people splat into a wall or faceplant into mud and then change the channel when AFV comes on?  Simple.  Wipeout, contestants signed up for the abuse.  I assume they watched the show at least once and had some idea what they were getting themselves into and if not, well that’s their fault.  On the other hand, AFV is full of unsuspecting victims.  Some deserve it, the boy jumping off the roof onto a trampoline and many of the daredevils included, but others do not.

At the end of Wipeout, you see the contestant standing, relatively no worse for the wear, but people on AFV could be seriously hurt at the end of the video, we have no idea.  If you’ve signed up to get punched in the face pushed off platforms, I have no problem laughing at you, but I cannot laugh when an elderly woman has their feet pulled out from under her as a dog crashes into her legs or an unbalanced picnic table falls backwards when too many people sit on the same side.

Is that just me?

You don’t have it… yet

Tags

cooking, MasterChef, TV

Spoilers for MasterChef S2E16, do not continue if youwant to watch it but have not yet.

I do not know what drew me to this show because I do not cook.  By that I mean I have failed boiling water three times, twice with supervision.  For Christmas one year I got How To Boil Water by Food Network Kitchens.  I’ve watched head judge Gordon Ramsay completely tear into chefs on Hell’s Kitchen, throwing food and cursing them out and let me say, he terrifies me.  Yet somehow, like a guilty pleasure, I cannot stop watching his shows.

On this episode, the contestants ran the LA restaurant Patina.  There are only six chefs left and once again they divide into the blue and red teams.  Suzie and Tracy captain the teams.  Suzie’s team with Ben and Christian wins the challenge, saving them from the elimination pressure test.  Cocky Christian did manage to put his cooking where his mouth was this episode and even if he hadn’t, he would have been fine in the pressure test as someone very skilled with seafood.

The pressure test was to scale, cut up, and cook king salmon.  Poor Tracy didn’t get the tail off her fish and didn’t get the salmon in the pan in time, serving up an under cooked dish.  The teary goodbye from the stands showed that the other contestants loved her as much as I did, but the heartwarming surprise came after her elimination.

Usually the judges say goodbye, sometimes with words of encouragement and sometimes not.  For Tracy, it was a resounding, you have the skill, you’re just not there yet.  Before dismissing her, told her they were giving her complementary cooking classes MasterChef Enthusiast classes for a year.  Upon completion, they offered her a job at any of their restaurants.  It was a tearjerker moment.