A couple of months ago Lori and I finally cut the cable. That is our satellite cable. Our satellite bill had creeped up to $170 a month. I mainly watched Fox News and Lori loves to watch reruns of old TV shows. So after talking to the Cable Company who promised a price less than half of what we were paying we opted to boost our internet speed to 1 gig and switch to cable. However when they came out to hook it up the technician told us that he only had a work order to boost the internet speed. That he would have to come back and install a cable box. However when we called to have that done we learned that the offer for cable we had been given was no longer available. So we decided to cut the cable completely and stream TV off of the internet.
We subscribed to several free local channels, Hulu, Tubi, Peacock, The Western Channel as well as the Sci-Fi Channel, and a few others. We added Locast, which is free but if you want to stop it from constantly asking for donations we went ahead and pay $5 a month, same thing with Hulu. We already had Prime Video, Netflix and the Disney Channel and added a few more premium channels like Fox Nation. After all was said and done we are now paying about a fourth of what we were paying to Dish Network.
Now we watch a lot less live TV. We watch current TV shows the next day but for the most part we watch re-runs of old tv shows. For the past month I have undertaken watching every episode of Survivor. The TV show where allegedly normal people are dropped into the wilderness to endure rain, fatigue and near starvation while competing in physical and mental challenges for a million dollars in prize money.
I have to say that it is an understatement to say that some of the people on the show are strange. Some are downright sociopathic to the point that I have to wonder how they function in the real world. However every season, even the most reprehensible individuals get a visit from home from someone who loves them, and took time out of their everyday life to fly out to see them in spot thousands of miles away from home. Often the visit is only for a few minutes unless the contestant and often their loved one wins a challenge and a reward.
In one episode a lady stole another contestant’s $1500 alligator shoes, filled them with sand and put them in the ocean. Another hides the camp’s only machete limiting their ability to eat, make fire and shelter. Still another steals food and a cooking pan and buries them. I have to wonder how these people function in society. Nobody I know could get away with that. Then it occurred to me what is wrong with the picture….it is the camera.
You have to realize that contestants are seldom alone, the constant presence of cameras, some handheld, some GoPro cameras hidden or handheld. When a contestant is diving to spear fish it is clear there is a camera person diving right along with them. What you never see is that it takes 300 to 400 production people to make the show. Admittedly a lot of them build sets for challenges but that still leaves an army of production and you guessed it, camera people. So I have concluded that when you see outrageous behavior from people it is likely just a ploy to gain camera time. Reality TV is not reality. Still it is entertaining to watch.
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