This post originally appeared on fortheloveofwineandcoffee.com
I must confess -- I love reality TV. It's like junk food for the brain. When life gets too heavy, you've had a rough day and you just want to tune out, reality TV provides the perfect escape. I was really looking forward to the new show from Donald Trump (of The Apprentice, the Celebrity Apprentice and WWE fame), but it's just awful.
In previous seasons, there was always a villain shaking things up and providing a bit of drama. But almost everyone on this show is a villain! It's hard to root for someone when they're all despicable. The producers really took things up a notch. For example during a previous Celebrity Apprentice episode, super villain Omarosa poured a glass of wine over Piers Morgan's head. That was the old standard in reality TV drama.
This season, the super villain is this disheveled looking guy who has a quite passionate fan base and allegedly doesn't like Jews. Whoa! Too far! I like my reality TV without the added dose of white supremacy, please. The drama used to be limited to shouting matches across a board room table -- not anymore! In only the first few episodes of this season, they're sending desperate refugees fleeing crisis back to their war-torn homes! They took the reality show villain from cheeky to just plain evil.
The host, Trump, is woefully unqualified and hopelessly clueless. In previous seasons, his foolishness was entertaining. Now his old "you're fired" shtick has lost its novelty. He's firing those actually doing their jobs and hiring people who are as horribly unqualified as he is. I thought this formula would yield hilarious consequences, but it's not funny. It's just terrifying!
The rest of the cast is dreadful as well. Some of them said they wouldn't participate in this disastrous show, and yet here they are. Some of them look sad, as if they've really compromised their integrity and are wondering if they can get a refund on the souls they sold. Others are willing and enthusiastic to be a part of the show and seem to really enjoy basking in the limelight.
I know reality TV isn't typically known for their diversity. But trying to find a person of color on this show is almost as difficult as finding an ounce of sincerity in anything the host says.
Every episode is pretty predictable. Trump says or does something unorthodox and completely asinine. Then his side-kick runs to his defense, even if this involves deceit and inaccuracies. Then his Press Secretary (kind of the Ryan Seacrest of the presidency) blames the media and contributes his own false claims. They coined a new term for this called "alternative facts". But it's really just lying, which isn't cool.
Even if you tune into shows like the Bachelor like you wouldn't look away from a train wreck, you might still find the dysfunction in this show to be unbearable. So much of the show is just Trump talking about how great he is, how great everything is going to be and calling people names like a playground bully. He hasn't expanded on how he'll make things great and things don't seem very great so far.
For what it's worth, I didn't even want to watch this show. I've been calling my provider, but they're not even picking up the phones. Unsurprisingly, the ratings so far are terrible. I wouldn't even be surprised if it's canceled before renewal is scheduled in 2020.
Sad!