Wife Swap

Reality TV.

00's was the beginning of the end of TV because reality TV were gradually showing up and occupying people's minds with garbage that was never 100% accurate. Reality is supposed to be 100% accurate, although people insist on remaining fool'd by the concept of reality TV. I ask what do they gain from it?

Wife Swap another manipulative program was about people swapping their wives for another wife. Literally. You had the annoying wife, the Christ freak wife, the authoritarian wife just to keep people watching. Wife Swap was pretty popular in the 00's for a while only because of the fat Christ Freak wife who freaked out because the house was unChrist-like. I think that's the episode that really made Wife Swap popular.

Wife Swap is just another garbage reality TV show. I was only a teen at the time and I could easily tell which shows were garbage, yet grown adults were unable to differentiate. Shows intelligence isn't about getting a Diploma, getting a Masters or having children. Intelligence is about knowing wrong from right, seeing the smallest picture and having self-control.

Really. This show is the opposite of the Milgram Experiment, although at times it may seem as such.

Two couples (not necessarily heterosexual) exchange the presence of each of their wives between households for a period of 2 weeks. The first week, the temporary wife goes by the rules of the wife of the home she is staying in. The second week, the temporary wife gets to change the rules, which does not always go as planned.

There is conflict and insight in this show. Through the process of the wives and families assimilating to each other over the course of 2 weeks, we gain insight into these families and we gain insight into ourselves.

One great result of this show seems that both families seem forever changed in some way. They realize that there is more to life and that learning from another can benefit them. They do not always like the messenger, but they appreciate how their lives have benefited.

My greatest joys of this show are that stereotypes break down and we see that there is more love in the world than often meets the eye.

That this show is renewed once much less that it ever got on air at all is yet another example of how dumb our country has become. This kind of gutter garbage does nothing for the human experience and is insulting. I'm not saying everything on TV has to have a moral center or be totally educational, but good lord, do we really have to sink this low? I hope parents are not letting their children watch this. If they are they should be hauled in front of a court for child abuse. This show does nothing but play to the dumbest in all of us. It's like waiting for a car wreck. It's worst than that. The only logical next step to is televise executions. Actually, on second thought, let's not. That would probably be the most popular show on TV and spawn spin offs like "Who wants to be an executioner?"

In my opinion, there are 3 types of reality shows: competition reality shows like The Amazing Race and I Survived a Japanese Game Show (most of the reality shows I like are in this category), shows that follow people's everyday lives such as Jon and Kate Plus Eight and The Girls Next Door (I think these are boring and pointless), and "drama" reality shows such as those VH1 shows with the word "love" somewhere in the title (I absolutely hate most of these). Wife Swap falls into the "drama" category, but it's actually watchable. The premise is that mothers from two American families who are almost completely different in a certain respect trade places for two weeks. In the first week, the wives have to follow the new family's rules, but during the second week, they impose their own rules. I like this show, but I wouldn't say I love it. I won't go out of my way to watch it, but I'll watch it if it's on.

When ABC produced this show, FOX produced an almost identical show called Trading Spouses, which I think is slightly better.

Some of these presentations are amusing; however, in my estimation, they don't possess the instructive value which the producers/directors seem to feel they portray.

For example, I saw two episodes today. The first had a beauty queen/late-sleeping princess type, whose husband did everything for her, swapping places with a gal obviously not into great concern over appearances (either hers or her home's), with a street performer husband with some sort of metal clips permanently installed in his forehead, permanent red striping on his face, and more tattoos than the typical NBA basket-baller.

As to grooming, the family of the former apparently spent more time applying cologne (even to the kids) after showering, than the latter group might be spending on an entire week's total grooming.

The second had the mom from a family of religious fanatics, and a son wearing a "Promise ring," swapping households with a gal in a self-styled "ultra liberal" family with a son and daughter, each proclaiming himself/herself, respectively, a "stud" and "wild child."

The problem with this show, particularly episodes like BOTH of these, is that I found no empathy for either family in both episodes. In both story lines, I wouldn't care to emulate any of their particular lifestyles,. Neither would I want to spend ANY time in any of these households.

A good way to view most of the folks in this series is to be thankful we don't live in a society dominated by any of these almost freakishly extreme families.

(4* because of the level of fascination provided. This is especially true in viewing how almost every one of the women, as well as their husbands, profess to have virtually every answer and piece of advice necessary to alter their counterparts' lives and families.)