Stoner is not ordinarily a sucker for Reality TV –- if you want to talk Project Runway, talk to the Marquis –- but he is finding Carrier (on PBS all this week; check local listings) completely engrossing.
The set-up is brilliant and, frankly, horrific: The wily producers somehow convinced thousands of total strangers to join the Navy and spend six months being filmed aboard the USS Nimitz –- at sea!
On ship, each contestant is assigned to a specific “crew”, and must complete the same tasks ad nauseum at the cruel whim of high-living overseers (called “officers” in the game’s jargon) –- and their only means to defend themselves is the invocation of the phrase “Don’t ask, don’t tell”.
The producers, perhaps taking a page from the new breed of serial television like Lost, keep the end goal of the game a mystery; and individual triumphs and failures are equally mysterious: almost everyone gets to take liberty in Guam, for example.
But then: the ship changes course, headed toward the Gulf, and the captain offers no explanation, and no new destination.
Top that, Top Chef.
1 comment:
Most reality shows are based upon the same general principles, and this one is no different.
Whether swabbing her deck, prepping one's torpedo, or submitting to the many demeaning rites of initiation, contestants on A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila (found on TV's other treasure, MTV) face many of the same dangers and challenges as the entrants in the Carrier contest.
Risking humiliation, infectious disease, life and limb, all hope to make their way below deck and drop anchor.
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