 "Photo: Courtesy of MTV.com")
MTV premiered a different 30-minute drama reality show without its profitable topics of sex, drinking and drugs called “The Buried Life.”
Three and half years ago, four Canadian guys from Victoria went on a cross country road trip in a rundown purple transit bus packed with filming equipment and a piece of paper with the “100 things to do before I die” as the headline.
The boys are hoping to do everything.
The list was composed mostly of “out there” things to do – like “kiss Rachel McAdams,” “destroy a computer” and “host a lemonade stand.”
But the real catch of the show was seriousness of the items of helping complete strangers achieve their own bucket list; the team’s real mission.
The show seems like a new genre for the MTV network.
The “New York Times” article “Make room, cynic; MTV wants to do some good,” said the show is perfect for MTV who is “trying to gloss its escapist entertainment with veneer of positive social messages.”
“I agree they are trying to start a new wave of reality shows,” said Michael Gibson, a fourth-year mechanical enginnering student. “The world is starting to change and hopefully for the better, and hopefully MTV realizes that shows like ‘The Buried Life’ are few and far to come by and should be what reality shows ought to become.”
However, for all of the good and cool things these boys are doing, students like Koorosh Farzad, a fourth-year political science student, is not convinced of MTV’s so called transition and dubbed the new show as another reality show.
“Well, as much as I like that idea, I do not think MTV is ready to move into a more mature brand of television,” said Farzad. “Like all other shows on MTV, they require writers, producers and actors. A paradigm shift is long overdue and for that, it’s reasonable to assume a change is near.”
Third-year apparel merchandising and management student Christina Murray agreed with Farzad.
“I personally think MTV sees opportunities for making interesting TV shows and takes them,” said Murray. “There may be some social awareness that is involved in the planning, but I do not think that is the main reason for airing a season’s worth of shows.”
It seems though that these young men have other things on their’ mind besides ratings and viewership.
For example, on their journey through Texas, they helped a gentlemen reunite with his son that he hadn’t seen since he was two years old. They also helped a girl visit the grave of her mother that she lost in Hurricane Katrina for the first time.
No. 53, start a television show, was crossed off with last night’s permiere of the boys doing No. 66, “Attend a Party at the Playboy Mansion.”
The show airs every Monday night at 10 p.m. with a new item checked off from the list.
Reach Denise DeChaine at: lifestyle@thepolypost.com
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