Thursday, January 24, 2008

The Moment of Truth

The Moment of Truth, Fox’s new game show where people answer increasingly personal questions for a chance to make increasing amounts of money, is not the end of the world. It’s far too dull and far too shallow for that.

The lengths that people will go through to win money and/or be on television are well documented and this show is, sadly, no worse than many of the others where people are wiling to act the fool or reveal intimate details about themselves in front of millions of their fellow citizens.

After relentless hyping the show debuted Wednesday night after American Idol and it just sort of sat there without sparking any real interest (prurient or otherwise.) The game features answering up to 21 questions (culled from 50+ questions answered before the show while strapped to a lie detector) and moving forward as long as the answer given on the air is considered to match the veracity of the answer given while being examined by the lie detector.

It sounds more scandalous in theory than it turns out to be in reality. The show is filled with hokum…portentous music, supposedly “suspenseful” pauses before revealing if the answers are true, “candid” reaction shots from family members and friends onstage, oh-so-empathetic host (Mark L. Walberg...see above)…and while some of the questions are probing the contestants grin, grimace, and preen through the proceedings to the extent that you feel no connection to them. In the end, it all adds up to not much at all.

I will admit that morbid curiosity led me to watch the first episode but nothing I saw makes me all that interested in watching any others.

2 comments:

Jebb said...

I personally think the show is heinous. Where it crosses the line is in its potentially relationship-killing questions (Have you put off having children because you think your wife may not be your lifelong partner?). As I stated on my blog, it's like a horrific car crash staged as entertainment.

Jud said...

I heard some of the promos and thought it sounded like Springer with prize money.