Models and Mongols

Are you watching The Amazing Race? Because you definitely should be. As reality TV goes, it is one of the best. It always has the most interesting characters on reality TV, and lovely little life metaphors besides. Like a few seasons ago when Charla, the midget, had to carry a 50 lb. slab of beef 3 miles while her useless cousin, Mjarla, whined and complained. This season isn't any less delightful. There is the one legged girl and her boyfriend who makes prosthetics for a living and treats her like his toy robot when she is clearly over the moon about him. And there is the requisite couple who isn't sure if they should get married or break up so they decide that they would find out by traveling competitively and have the whole thing filmed with $1 million on the line. As soon as they introduced them in the first episode Amy and I knew they would be saying degrading things to each other by the 15-minute mark.

But our favorite team is the recovering addicts who got off drugs and became male models. They have suffered through so much, you guys, and now they just want to experience the world and be hot while doing it. Not that I would ever make fun of someone's addiction or the incredible journey it would be to recover, but come on. To be formerly drug addicted models? Its so cliché. It's like being a parody of yourself.

My friends and I have come up with a term for that kind of behavior. When someone does something that is so predictably "them," we say it is "so Raven." The term came from a TV show starring Raven Simone (she used to be the little cute one on the later years of The Cosby Show) on the Disney channel called That's So Raven. If you ever want to see a study in the finer subtleties of acting, by the way, check this gem out. Never will you see more double takes, spit takes, zany faces and prat falls in 30 minutes than on this show.

I don’t know why we decided to use that term to describe someone who was a caricature of themselves, but we did, and it stuck. Which is why my picture on profile is of none other than Raven Simone. Because if anyone is so Raven, it's me. Every time I get my first diet coke at 8am, eat my third dessert of the evening after my second dinner and a bowl of cereal, every time I get giddily excited about a new TV show, it's just so Raven. So maybe I shouldn't judge the addicts turned models for being parodies of themselves when clearly I am one as well. (A parody. Not a model…or an addict….unless caffeine counts.) But if we can't stand in judgment over reality TV contestants, then what is society coming to?

And as I side note, for those of you who want to keep up to date on your homework here are some shows I am sure to mention in future blogs because I just can't get enough of them:
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip - smart and dark and engaging and brilliant. I can see it becoming a favorite
Heroes - hold me. This show fills the nerdy Buffy shaped hole in my soul. A TV show about superheroes? HOORAY! But how Greg Grundberg got a job on a non-JJ produced show we will never know
Gilmore Girls - debuted tonight and I have to say…so far we do not feel the loss of Amy Sherman-Palladino. As witty and lovely as ever. I loved when they tried to talk smack about racquetball. So classic.