For Real?

I’ve been giving some thought to the world of mental health, and not even for the reasons you think.  As always, the world of reality TV shapes my perception of real; it’s all gotten very confusing.  I don’t want to worry anyone, but my doctor told me I’m very susceptible to RTD, Reality Television Disorder.

I should be monitoring my intake of reality TV, but (as I mentally stop my foot) I don’t want to give it up!  Reality TV proves my lifelong theory that we’re all weird and crazy.  Every last one of us.  Yes, I know that begs the question of “what’s normal?”, but I haven’t come up with a smart ass answer for that yet.  Calm down and stay tuned.

Flipping through the 346 channels of cable/satellite selections, you may have come across Discovery Fit and Health (DFH).  I found it when a show called Extreme Couponing caught my eye. Every episode features some wild-eyed shopper who, no joke, knows how to get their groceries for free, or even make money, using coupons, store specials, double couponing days and who knows what else.  I think their real trick is that they bring all their kids with them to distract the cashier.  But hey, good for them.

It turns out that DFH also airs Extreme Cheapskate, Hoarding:  Buried Alive and hopefully coming soon, Extreme Reality TV Fans, which could actually be my big break into show biz! They also just launched a series called Funeral Boss; I haven’t had time to watch it yet but it looks promising.

Looking through regularly scheduled programming, apparently DFH also airs a show called Confessions:  Animal Hoarding. Imagine my shock and horror when I saw an episode about cats, description:

A 27-year-old who cleans obsessively – and keeps dead cats in her freezer. A family is shattered when mom picks pets over kids.

Dan doesn’t watch much TV, but he likes the show Monsters Inside Me, with episodes like:

A young woman in Texas discovers that her lungs are filled with parasitic worms.

To its credit, DFH has managed to sneak two 30 minute exercise shows into their 24 hours of programming each day, but that’s about it for the Fit and Health part.  The rest is all assorted crap.  Why can’t they call the channel Discovery Assorted Nuts or Discovery Creepy People?

I promise to keep watching and try to find out why.