Instead, I am drawn to totally nauseatingly bad reality TV. I found myself watching "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" tonight. I would like to say that it was the train-wreck effect (you know, so bad that you can't turn away) but I realized that, in fact, I was drawn into the sheer trashiness of the show. These women are so disgustingly opulent, so completely out-of-touch and isolated in their own materialistic bubbles.... and the fact that it takes place in Atlanta, the city where I reside.... it's so bizarre to me! I guess that's why the other shows in this series (Yes, I am admitting to have watched both the Orange County AND New York versions of this show) were blase in their over-the-top luxury. You expect people from California and New York to be self-absorbed Stepford Wives. I probably shouldn't be surprised that the wives of athletes in Atlanta would be exactly like the gated community bee-yatches of the O.C.
The wonderful thing about the Atlanta housewives is that there is an element of trashiness, of nouveau-riche, unapologetic gaudiness, that is so.... honest. These women are materialistic and emotional black holes. You pity their families and their poor children that they are systematically poisoning. But they don't have the minimal amount of self-awareness to look around and say "Jesus Christ, my life is an empty hole of nothingness, a vapid wasteland of bags and shoes." But a part of me envies that happy selfishness. It seems like a pretty comfortable way to live- especially coming from someone that has money worries on the brain right now. To hear someone that lives 20 miles from me say on television "It's only $50,000. Buy it!" She lives 20 miles away but it might as well be 2,000. She lives in a completely different world.
So..... there's that. I watch trashy tv. That's my big confession for the evening. This concludes the "Getting to Know You" portion of our evening.
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