So ABC’s new show, “Dating in the Dark,” is weird. Like, really weird. Three girls and three guys meet in the pitch dark, often make out, and then get to see one another. They then have to decide if they want to go on actual dates with the people they have just seen.

Wait, that’s not so weird. It sounds like the same thing that happens nightly in college bars from coast to coast. Only on TV.

Much like the feeling of repulsion that has come over many of us after last call, the people on the show who really hit it off in the dark aren’t such fans of each other once the lights flip on.

Now, maybe it’s just me, but this doesn’t really cast people in the best light (no pun intended), right?

Maybe it’s because I’m most often attracted to a guy’s personality before I start to find him cute, but I can’t imagine rejecting a dude on the basis of looks alone if I’ve already felt a strong connection with him. I wouldn’t date a guy that I wasn’t attracted to, but personality totally takes a guy from zero to ten (OK, maybe 5 to 10). If I liked him in the dark, especially enough for a little tonsil hockey, I’d like to think I’d be happy in the light, too.

But that is not what’s happening here. Read More »

Reality shows: you either love ‘em or hate ‘em. Personally, I never liked “reality” television, and this summer’s lineup of shows gives me even more of a reason to stay away. The networks really seem to be scraping the bottom of the barrel with some of this stuff. Here’s just a handful of the trainwreck reality shows that will be gracing our TVs this season:

The Great American Road Trip
NBC, Mondays at 8/7c
What happens when you pit seven families representing different regional stereotypes against each other in a race for $100,000? The Great American Road Trip. Only there’s nothing great about it. In fact, it’s rather hard to watch. In the first episode, the families competed in an “end of the road” challenge in which they had to roll a Zorb containing one of their family members through an obstacle course. I felt so bad for the poor kids who were stuck rolling around in the giant Zorbs…although I couldn’t stop laughing through the whole thing! Does that make me a bad person? Read More »