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Author Topic: Baggage  (Read 2820 times)

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Rillion

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Baggage
« on: August 18, 2010, 05:21:15 PM »

Have to admit, I'm enjoying this show way too much.  But then, I tend to like terrible TV.

Quote
Share my world, share my garbage

GSN's Baggage is the most cynical dating show I've ever seen, and it just might be the best. It's as though the genre itself has hardened and grown bitter in the 45 years since its birth and this is the result: a show that suggests everyone has suitcases full of shit that you have to put up with, and the most suitable mate is the shit-bearer you find most tolerable. At least philosophically, the very idea of keeping up appearances isn't relevant here -- the people who go on Baggage go out of their way to exaggerate their flaws (in many cases, absolute statements like "I pretend I'm famous to get laid," end up describing an incident, not a habit). Maybe as we've grown more comfortable with ourselves as an increasingly over-sharing culture, so have our game shows -- the dating show is now so comfortable that it's shitting with the door open.

Calling Baggage a game show, though, isn't exactly fair -- yes, there is a grand prize (a paid date) and a few consolation ones (online dating subscriptions), and yes, the bachelors and bachelorettes competing for the love of the episode's deciding bachelor or bachelorette are clearly encouraged to get competitive and chide each other over respective baggage. However, there is no real sense of play. This is more a process or a system than a game -- it's more akin to visiting the DMV and standing in this line and then going to that one and then filling out some paperwork and then getting your picture taken and then waiting in another line to pick up your license. You can read a detailed description of the Baggage process, as described by Jordan Carr last month on The Awl, but basically, it's like this: three people compete for a date with one person (we'll call that person "the decider"). These people reveal one increasingly embarrassing detail for each of three rounds. One of the competitors is kicked out in the second round (the "dealbreaker" round) -- that round is the only time a person isn't immediately paired with his or her baggage (the three competitors' medium-sized baggage is revealed anonymously, the decider picks what he or she won't tolerate, and, after we see whose baggage is whose, that person is out of the running). In the final round, the decider is left with two potential dates, but since he or she is looking at them the entire time, what their biggest baggage is matters little because he or she can always just pick the one he or she is most attracted to anyway. The person chosen (the "winner," if you will) then gets the opportunity to hear about the decider's baggage and, having stared at them for the duration of filming, can also accept or reject that based on attractiveness alone.The Baggage system is the exact opposite of fool-proof.

Fools are the point, though -- what speed dating is to regular dating, Baggage is to reality TV. By encouraging people to reveal their quirks ("I'm extremely gassy." "I tape myself having sex." "I will only stay at four-star hotels." "I've never had sex and probably never will." "I pee in the shower to conserve water." "I'm uncircumcised."), it can portray the extreme human behavior we crave in reality TV in an extremely efficient way. We aren't following our weirdos over the course of a multi-episode plot arc, but over 30 minutes, and so Baggage gets right to the point. Other dating shows wine and dine the viewer; Baggage asks, "Wanna fuck?" As host, Jerry Springer goes from proto-reality TV ringmaster to post-reality TV MC (in at least one case, this is literally post-reality TV -- Rock of Love's Heather Chadwell taped an episode for the second season, which begins today). Not only is Springer making great genre bookends, he's obviously got the perfect skill set for hosting something so lurid.

(Read the rest here)

Probably not many people get GSN, and probably a lot (like me) had never even heard of it before, but free full episodes are available here.  





If you were on this show.....what would your smallest, medium-sized, and biggest "baggage" be?
« Last Edit: August 18, 2010, 10:14:44 PM by Rillion »
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Riddler

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Re: Baggage
« Reply #1 on: August 18, 2010, 08:14:18 PM »

i dunno, but is that chick telling the audience how big her fake cans are gonna be?
su-fucking-perb
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Andy

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Re: Baggage
« Reply #2 on: August 19, 2010, 04:55:15 AM »

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I'm uncircumcised.

This is considered "baggage?"



 

anarchir

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Re: Baggage
« Reply #3 on: August 19, 2010, 04:37:32 PM »

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I'm uncircumcised.

This is considered "baggage?"
Well thats an easy one that I'd put. I think its an advantage!
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Rillion

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Re: Baggage
« Reply #4 on: August 19, 2010, 04:47:09 PM »

Quote
I'm uncircumcised.

This is considered "baggage?"

A lot of the "small baggage" items I didn't really consider bad at all-- neutral, or sometimes good.  Like one woman said she smokes a lot of pot, which was received quite well.  One guy's said that he "digs through his neighbor's garbage," but it turned out that he just grabs plastic bottles out of his neighbor's trash when he sees them to recycle since his neighbor doesn't. 

And of course, some of them are items that wouldn't appeal to most  people, but could be a plus to others-- such as not believing in God.  One woman said she vacuums the carpet three times a day, which I suppose could appeal to an(other) obsessive compulsive type. 
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davann

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Re: Baggage
« Reply #5 on: August 19, 2010, 04:48:29 PM »

Smallest: My brother was breast fed until 12 years old.


Medium: I watched.



Largest: I kinda liked it.


Just kidding.

Okay.

Smallest: I expect women to put the toilet seat up after use.

Medium: I am extremely selfish. So much so it would be unfair to ever have children.

Largest: I won't ever submit to getting a government issued marriage license.
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