Dabo - Yeah, we get it out here on the Left Coast. I'll give it a whirl tonight. Sounds even worse, if possible, than "The Love Cruise" and they're TRYING to make this one intentionally bad.

From the Los Angeles Daily News:

(Typos are mine, over use of commas are his...)

"When reality televised first reared its head for years ago, we were contemptuous of the way TV producers exploited the participants of such shows. That was then, this is now.

Contestants on these shows should know they're going to be depicted in a manner as throughly inssulting as it is humanly possible, and if they don't know that, they simply haven't done their homework.

Whick brings us to "The Joe Schmo Show" which is a canany combination fo the anti-reality TV movies "The Truman Show and "Ed-TV": Here our mark knows he's on a TV reality show, he just doesn't realize it's a bogus one designed solely to make him look idiotic.

One could argue that's the point of all reality TV, and one could scarecly argue back. "Joe Schmo" lands our dupe in a pointedly stupid reality contest title "Lap of Luxury" in which he and other contestants (actually paid actors essaying the roles of cliched relaity-T-show contestants), prodded by an unctuous host channeling George Hamilton's ham-fisted turn in "The Family" vie the pitiful sum of $100,000 via a lurid series of cynically debasing contests, such as keeping one's grasp upon a porn star's flesh for the longest time.

In tonight's episode alone, we see the dupe tilt awkwardly towards vestiges of homophobia and racism despite his apparent claims at being a good ole boy; he cringingly shares his hopes of scoring with the women the show makes clear are far above his station in life (after he discovered the chicanery, he refused to participate in Spike's promotions for the show).

That he misses clear indications that the show's a fake and also obfuscates the TV producer's expectations is just a bonus and a blip in the proceeedings. What we're watching, really, is every viewer's basest fantasy of how every reality show should treat every egomaniacal participant, nothing less. That this guy was treated far worse - or even niminally better, it's hard to tell with reality TV - than typical contestants should have no bearing on the reality fan's ultimate assessmanet of the cesspool that it reality TV."

David Kronke/Television Critic/ Los Angeles Daily News/02Sep03