Isolated

Last night, my undivided attention at the gym was not dedicated to the hot guy who works the evening shift, but to the new show premiere on Fox, Unan1mous. With the exception of carpentry shows on TLC, which got me and Anita through long nights of calculus homework in college, I am not a reality TV fan. Especially when in comes to BigBrother-esque drama - 9 people, cameras, etc. Of course, Drawn Together is a different story; it's so brutally sarcastic that I do enjoy it I catch it on TV.

But since this was a premiere, and of all the other five TVs featured "sports" ("football", golf, or pool), I did watch the whole show. Even read the closed captioning without falling off the treadmill; the latter has really happened before, people, when I stared at a cute puppy outside and forgot that I was running on a moving belt. Anyways, the show is extremely stupid:

Upon entering their isolated living quarters, the nine contestants are cut
off from the outside world, locked away, and presented the opportunity
to win $1.5 million. The only thing standing between them and the money
is a simple vote. If they are able to come to a unanimous decision about
who should win the money, the game is over. If the outcome of the vote
is not unanimous, the money clock is activated and the cash prize begins
its countdown with potentially thousands of dollars lost every hour until
the next voting period. [Souce: the site's website]

One contestant said (free-style paraphrasing here): "It's so creepy. We have no natural light, no fresh air or air-conditining, no clocks, no connection to the real world. We are in an underground bunker and we don't know anything about the real world." Dude, welcome to N58, the infamous grad office where I spent a year of my life. N58! It was the grad office in our program before we moved. It was worse than the bunker; oh, I can't even begin to describe N58. Which got me thinking, someone should make a grad school reality TV show. Maybe the guy from phdcomics.com. Something like:

Upon entering their isolated graduate office, the forty contestants are
cut off from the outside world, locked away, and presented the opportunity
to win two publications, one in APSR and one in AJPS. The only thing
standing between them and the citations is a simple vote. If they are able
to come to a unanimous decision about who should win the articles, the game
is over. If the outcome of the vote is not unanimous, the funding clock
is activated and the guaranteed funding for everyone begins its countdown
with potentially thousands of dollars lost every hour until the next voting
period. [Source: my deluded imagination]

Hmmm... I would watch it. That would actually be reality TV that reflects a closer approximation of my current reality than, say, Beauty and the Geek. Although I am both a beauty and a geek. Okaaaaay, I am off to the gym now, let's hope the TVs won't be on for a change.