30 Days

30 Days is a reality show that comes on FX channel. According to IMDB , this show is “an unscripted, documentary-style program where an individual is inserted into a lifestyle that is completely different from his or her upbringing, beliefs, religion or profession for 30 days”. The individual would either be the host of the show (Morgan Spurlock) or someone else. I have watched a few episodes of this show and it is interesting.

In one of the episodes I watched, the host and his fiancée spent 30 days living with minimum wage. That was hard to see as we don’t normally see that kind of lifestyle that close. They had to think twice about eating out or going to the movies, things that some of us get to do frequently.

In one of the other episodes, an American whose job was outsourced to India, goes to India and lives with an Indian family in Bangalore and tries to get an outsourced job there. This one was very interesting and the guy (Chris Jobin) did a great job and was very natural. His perception of outsourcing changed as he started viewing it as a way for people in India to bring up their standards of life.

In a couple of other episodes, an atheist woman lives with a religious family and a pro-choice woman lives with a pro-life family. Neither the atheist nor the pro-choice woman could really understand the other perspective but then it was a mutual feeling. It made me wonder why they didn’t do it the other way – a religious person living with an atheist family or a pro-life person living with a pro-choice family, but I already know the answer. Religious and pro-life are the majority’s way of thinking.

There was the season finale episode recently where Morgan Spurlock spends 30 days in jail – yes, you read it right, jail. I have no idea why they would let him do that or why he would want to do it (it can’t be that much money, can it?!), but they let him and he did it. This episode was not much to my liking, as it seemed phony (ok, ok, I know it is TV and it is reality TV, but still, this show has set a standard). He is taken aback at some of the poor conditions in the jail but still meets quite a few people who keep coming back. He says that several inmates are mentally affected and so the prison system has more mentally affected people than the mental institutions themselves. Apparently, all the prisons are over their capacity and some people think it is intentional as there are a lot of businesses that thrive due to prisons – businesses such as laundry, uniform, phone companies etc. It is pretty sick if you look at it this way though.

I was surprised to see that the inmates don’t have to do anything all day. They sleep, eat and sleep again. So jail is a perfect place for a lazy bum. Why in the world should some people get food and lodging without having to do anything, is beyond me. As part of his 30 days in jail, he spends 72 hours in solitary confinement and that is more torturous. He is in a tiny room with nothing to do (I don’t understand why there are not even books) but stare at the ceiling. After 72 hours in the solitary confinement, the other parts of the jail look great to him. He spends a few days in a drug rehabilitation center as several inmates are there for drug-related charges. Things are more structured and productive there as inmates have daily activities. He gets to meet his family members and fiancée once and that was touching as they are not used to meeting with bars between them.

The phony part of the show came when the host talks as to how bad it is in jail, and I keep hearing in the back of my mind that this guy knows he is there for only 30 days and he knows that he is there for the show and so what’s the big deal. In addition to this, he gives advices to a few inmates and tries to better their life. Those are noble things but just don’t go well coming from an outsider in this show.

Regardless of how the last episode was, this is an interesting show. At the least, it reminds me that a person/group with a different view than mine need not necessarily be wrong or inferior, but just different.

PS: If you want to see something more interesting, go to www.google.com, search for "failure", and check out the first entry that comes up.