Cheaters

When I say that "Cheaters" is "Reality TV" at its absolute worst, I'm not even considering that that much of the content is probably faked, or that much of the content that is not faked is probably manipulated by the show's writers and producers to have the worst possible outcomes. I'm not even counting the fact that anyone who would come to a show like "Cheaters" and ask to have their dirty laundry aired in public is the most obvious kind of attention whore. (Anyone who really wants their relationship to survive an affair needs to go to counseling with their significant other, not pull an ambush with a TV crew.)

To me, "Cheaters" is the worst kind of TV trash because the show pretends to condemn the behavior that it exposes, but yet by covering and airing instances of that behavior in dozens of episodes,(and always with the same format), it tacitly condones that behavior and trivializes it (After all, "everybody's doing it"). Only the names and faces change; the roles and the emotions never do. And it's obvious that the presence of the cameras makes people act in ways that they would not in "real life"; at least half of everything said and done in the confrontations is obviously for the benefit of the cameras. How often can the audience watch the same infidelities and the same trailer-trash drama until it decides that such behavior is the "norm" and if they don't get some of it, then they are missing out?

The narrator is an obvious sleaze ball. He lacks even Jerry Springer's sparkle and bemused air, treating each case as though it were the second coming of "Who's Afraid Of Virgina Woolf?" rather than just another entry in the divorce court record. He pretends to be on the victim's side, and to be an agent of justice, but what he really is just a poor man's Barbara Walters, mercilessly trying to get the victim to cry for the cameras. Now, I don't blame the guy for wanting to make a living. I don't even blame him for the show. But his unctuous smarm is the final ingredient in making this a sleaze cocktail.

I'm not condemning anyone for watching "Cheaters"; it has the "train wreck" quality that makes it impossible to look away. But 3 episodes were all I could take. (I gave it that long to see if my first impressions were valid, or if the first episode I saw was unusually awful). But I'd caution anyone that ongoing exposure to this kind of hypocritical sleaze might do some unnoticed damage to your ability to live like a mature human being.

You can't help but watch it. You pass by it looking for something decent to watch, then you decide to turn back. You can't help yourself but become mesmerized by someone else's misery.

Just like the Jerry Springer show, you find yourself yelling back at the TV and saying how stupid some of these people are. You feel bad for some of them, and the others you just want to slap because they've taken their partner back.

Tommy Grand is funny character himself. Has he been cheated on before or has he cheated on someone himself? He seems to know how to look for clues...and not just by using the detectives alone. Could he be a religious man who wants to right the rights and burn the "Peter Funks"?

And since the show is on so late at night, I find it funny that the commercials that sponsor the show is just a strange pairing.

All in all, I love the show and I hope it stays around to become the next big thing since American Idol...And I hate American Idol.

What about Celebrity Cheaters? Now that would really be great TV.

This is perhaps the best reality show on TV. This is true drama. Human beings at their worst. Men and Women behaving like children and most of them not even caring. Shows you that you can sometimes never really trust the person who's supposed to have your back. Love it. The music, the voice-over artist, the commitment to form - every show has the "deceptive lover/husband/wife" lying on the phone. I don't understand why there are so many negative reactions to this show. I'm sick of seeing the same cookie-cutter cute people running around having fun and being stupid because they can't communicate their feeling or intentions. With Cheaters - we have all sorts of people who are in that place that we all fear to be in: Infidelity. Where a person who has given into that mental illness called love which requires you to open yourself up to being hurt by another person - and gets hurt by that person. It sucks that with the FCC crap they have blurred out the cheating couples even more. You don't have any idea what "position" they're in. Once again, great show.

This is one of those fascinating shows that when you begin watching you think is the greatest thing in the world, but after about 4 episodes you get tired of it fast. It has a very noble concept but it execution is one that is sorely lacking. Something as private and as painful as a spouse being cheated shouldn't treated in the way that this show handles it which is to bust into people and have confrontations in public. Not to mention Joey Greco is scary as hell. I'm sure he's a nice guy in person, but on the show he comes off as a scary guy that you usually try to avoid when you see walking down the street.

The one thing about the show I don't get is why they feel the need to shove 1000 cameras and lights into people's faces when they bust the cheating ones. Won't it be easy if they filmed from a distance and let the person that has been cheated on confront the cheater face to face? It just seems like the subtle approach would be the appropriate thing for something so private instead of going all public with it and having everyone on the street or wherever the confrontation takes place hear your personal business. I guess it's all for ratings in the end and they feel that's what people would like to see so they give it to them.

The show's strange humor is a little inappropriate if you ask me considering the subject manner of the show. Every time they profile the person that is being cheated on they always feel the need to make some silly double entendre. Why is getting cheated on funny?

The most interesting aspect of the show is the confrontation which depending on the victim is either violent and laced with the F word, or tearful and remorseful. I remember in one episode the person that got busted was so mad that they ended up stabbing Joey Greco. Some people say that was staged, I don't know about that but it was compelling television

If you ever feel like watching a train wreck or need to feel better about your relationship with a loved one then this show is just for you.

I'm not bothered by the sleazy hosts, nor am I bothered by the cynical, self-righteous stance the makers of this crap take.

What I AM bothered about is that the vast majority of the episodes are fake. I wouldn't even be surprised if ALL of the episodes were staged. Hence this isn't a reality show but something far worse even than Oprah: garbage television with zero comma zero appeal. Like daily TV soap opera but with more action and fighting and less plot.

The premise would have turned out great - if only it had been executed without cheating the viewer. If only this idea were free of all the legal complications/trappings that would most certainly ensue due to what would happen with real people, and what is eventually aired. Hence the only way to create this """reality show""" was to get some rather desperate actors and make them improvise (and what pitiful and unconvincing improvisation it is most of the time!). Shouldn't this be obvious to anyone who finished grade school? Most reviews I read here don't even mention that any of this is fake, let alone that all of it might be. Wishful thinking or just boundless naivety?

The actors hired in this pathetic show are the kind of bottom-of-the-barrel unemployed actors who are miserably waiting on tables, waiting eagerly for a call from a talk show (or this crap), which is when they finally get a chance to make several hundred bucks. I even recognized one actress (in the role of "cheater") that I saw years earlier in "The Jerry Springer Show". And I only saw 6-7 episodes of "Cheaters". How many more of these loser actors are there that appeared in Springer and "Cheaters" that I don't even know about?

However, to compare "Cheaters" with Springer isn't fair to the latter. The Springer show is not all fake; a bulk of the episodes are unstaged - hence often highly entertaining. There is no value to be found in "Cheaters", unless you're a struggling actor and want to get tips on how NOT to act in front of the camera.

The producers use various (very cheap, transparent) tricks to create the illusion of realness, to give their footage that elusive documentary feel. But it's all in vein. In the end, the more intelligent train-wreck-seeking viewer is left with absolutely squat. "Professional wrestling" has more credibility than this.