Trashy TV and artificial limbs

With regard to trashy television, my husband and I have officially sunk to a new low. I am almost (ha, but not quite) ashamed to admit what happened the other night.

Before I do, I want to give a little background as way of defense. First and foremost, all of our standard shows have been on hiatus for the past few weeks, and we've been getting desperate. It just seems that there is never anything good on TV! No House, no Vampire Diaries.

No Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders!?

What kind of lampoonery is going on here?

We only watch TV for an hour or two in the evenings, and lately we've been on a kick of watching reruns of Roseanne. But the other night we were in the mood for something different, and started flipping channels.

The first show we settled on wasn't trashy at all. We fluctuate between the trashiest of the trash, and educational / Nat Geo programs, with no rhyme or reason. This wide-swinging pendulum is part of what's so funny to me. So the first program we watched was The True Story of Mary Magdalene.

The Da Vinci Code was on the other day, so it seemed relevant. Plus it was interesting.

So we learned about Mary Magdalene, and how there is apparently no evidence to suggest she was Jesus' wife (that's a newer, romantic fancy that's all the rage since The Da Vinci Code). The intrigue is instead all about what she saw when Jesus was resurrected, and the inspiration that the "raised from the dead on the 3rd day" concept might have been all her idea, which (if it was) would make her the founder of Christianity. We concluded the program feeling educated and wholesome.

But it wasn't bedtime yet, the pendulum was still swinging, and we started looking for another show.

I pulled up the digital guide and we scanned through the options. The wide, wide path of the pendulum paused at the crest of its arc when we came to a gloriously intriguing entry on The British Channel:

Britain's Next Top Missing Model.

I paused in my flipping and did a sidelong glance at Dan to see if he was paying attention. He most certainly was! He didn't even notice I was checking him out because he was leaning forward to read the small font of the description.

"Eight young disabled women discover what it takes to be a model - but which of them will win a photo shoot and appear in a top fashion magazine?"

I'm not making this up!

We finished reading the description and I casually asked Dan if we should watch it for a minute. He gave himself away with his enthusiastic, "Yeah!" I eagerly flipped to the show and we were hooked. It was awesome.

The women, who are all lovely looking ladies, each have a different disability. One gal is missing an arm, another is deaf, there's a contestant in a wheelchair, and one gal was in a car accident and now has really bad ataxia. I can't remember all of the disabilities, but it was a really cool show to watch. Inspiring, I'd even say, because they were very matter-of-fact about their disabilities. Each woman was determined to achieve her goal of being a model in spite of her disability. Good on you, I wanted to say.

The trashiness didn't come until the very end. You gotta love British television! They don't edit out as much over yonder as we do hereabouts. The judges made their decision on who would not continue on in the competition (the gal with ataxia, if you're interested*).

*One reason they gave for cutting her was her overt sexuality. I don't know about that, so rather than be a gossip, let me relay one part of the show that stands out in my mind, and then you can decide for yourself: the ataxia girl was backstage with the production coordinator of the fashion show (the client!) and she announced to him, "I can't go down on you because you're gay." Again, you gotta live British television and their lack of editing! The other reason they gave for cutting her was because she didn't know how to keep her mouth shut and was really nasty to the other contestants ("You'll never be able to win this show, you should just go home." Or something like that to the one with chronic fatigue issues). Cougar issues aside, I've got to agree with them there. Idiocy is not a disability!

After the judges made their decision, the ladies all left but the cameras kept rolling while the judges had a conversation about the show and their decision to cut the girl with ataxia.

Or rather, while they had a HUGE disagreement. One judge did not think the decision was fair and had no problem with getting all up in the face of the other judge (Jerry Springer style). They all stomped and stormed around, arguing while the cameras kept rolling, and then at the very end one guy shouted, "Stop the cameras," and it was over.

We can not wait for next week!!