Tuesday, February 26, 2008

the moment of truth is awesome

Holy crap. Have you watched this show? I am recalibrating my perception of television based on three episodes. Here's the premise: Some schmuck gets hooked up to a lie detector and answers a bunch of questions, which get increasingly personal as the show goes on. If the person answers truthfully, then he or she wins money. One false answer and you're done. It's like Truth or Dare with no dares, super-creative questions, and people you don't know so you don't feel awkward when they have to tell the world whether they would feed a stray dog before they would feed a homeless person, or if they think their parents are proud of them.

Now, those last two came up in last night's episode, which I watched online this morning, and she said yes to the first and no to the second. (Evidently, a lot of people agree with the dog-before-homeless-person answer. I do not, but that's probably because I don't like animals.) But those were lame $25,000 questions or something. The real drama began when they started asking questions about her husband, who, by the way, was there watching. (They always put your parents/spouse/siblings/etc. there on stage to make it even more uncomfortable--and in an interesting twist, those people can push a button if they hear a question that they don't want the answer to and Mark will give the contestant another question.) And incidentally, the husband is a cop. For example:

Have you ever pretended to be asleep to avoid having sex with your husband?
ANSWER: Yes.

Do you blame your husband for you lack of close friends?
ANSWER: Yes. (!)

Have you ever taken off your wedding ring to appear as if you were single?
ANSWER: Yes. (!!)

Do you believe you might have been in love with a former boyfriend on your wedding day?
ANSWER: Yes. (!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

And the lie detector said that these were all true answers. So THEN (I'm using caps because I don't feel like regular old italics are getting the drama across anymore), her EX-BOYFRIEND comes out to ask some questions:

If I wanted to get back together with you, would you leave your husband?
ANSWER: There was no answer because after her husband said that he didn't want to push the button because he wanted to hear the answer, her sister jumped up and pushed it!

So the ex-boyfriend asks a different question:

Do you believe that I am the man you should be married to?
ANSWER: Yes. (I thought this was a dirty trick, by the way--pretty much just rephrasing the question that the sister had nixed.)

So now the boyfriend leaves and she's at $200,000, so she can go home if she wants, BUT SHE DECIDES TO KEEP GOING! Next question:

Since you have been married, have you ever had sexual relations with someone other than your husband?
ANSWER: Yes. (This does bring up one weak point of the show--you don't get any details. I don't know how you could manage it, but you're sometimes curious why they answer the way they do.)

And then, just when you don't think you can handle anymore:

Do you think you're a good person?
ANSWER: "Honestly, I think I am a good person."

And the lie detector says, "That answer is...false." AND SHE LOSES ALL THE MONEY!!! Not because she's a bad person (which it kind of seems like she is), but because she secretly THINKS she's a bad person!

There is a lot of contrived drama on television, and maybe this is an example of it, but I'll admit that I'm hooked. I mean, I'm only human.

Later gators.

5 comments:

The Ben Show said...

Okay, Alex, I totally watched too. I thought it was the dumbest thing ever when she answered the question that way, and I KNEW it would be false. Hello?! You don't think somewhere in there you have a little guilt for cheating, stealing, lying, etc? Ugh. Honestly, I don't know if I can keep watching. It made me feel dirty and like I need to repent for not spending my time on saving Darfur, reading my Bible, or some other important thing. Incidentally, they ask them all the questions in advance so she must have known these things were gonna come up!

Anonymous said...

That sounds absolutely awful. I think less of you as a person for watching it. (And what is the lady supposed to do now? Go home and hang out with the man she doesn't love or want to appear married to?).

Jessi said...

I've watched it. It makes me squirm. I think I'd get an ulcer if I watched it too often so I had to stop. I didn't see this episode and I'm glad I didn't. Good Lord!!

Jessi said...

Ok, I went and watched the episode online even though I knew the ending. I found it interesting that this girl would NEVER lie to a client about whether their hair looked good or not. And she would NOT steal from work even if she wouldn't get caught.
But she'll cheat on her husband.

Claire said...

Oh my god, I saw that episode too. I cringed when I first heard someone describing the show, but watching it, it's quite a sight to see. Who in the world would sign up to go on these things?! It really made me feel well-adjusted.