I waited as long as I could to see "Mountain Monsters" on Destination America Channel. I just knew it was going to be the worst of the worst--an awful death spiral of reality shows to get dumber, dumber, dumber yet, and then hopefully a dying of the genre.
What I'd like to see replace reality TV is simple. Documentary format. Take me on a one-hour mini documentary like Monsterquest or In Search of. I don't mind if there's a team we follow so long as I learn something new from them each week and they aren't a bunch of role-players.
Now, with regard to the show in question (Mountain Monsters), I have a lot of kin in West Virginia, so I do appreciate these hearty people, but redneck "reality" is becoming a real done-up drama. They exaggerate the characters (like on Deep South Paranormal) and pretty soon they're more like noodling fishermen then monster hunters.
Shooting into the woods at night in the darkness, swinging around and aiming their guns at their own men, digging an 8 foot deep hole to capture an 8-foot tall Grassman, and aimlessly plodding through back country with random guidance, is painful to watch.
I don't even know where to begin.
I'm shaking my head, but wincing at the same time. Someone actually gave this show the green light. I want to meet that person because the memes I create for this show should give him credit too.
Oh, if only they could have fallen into their own trap! Alas, I suspect Darwinian law will mercifully end the only season of this miserable show.
I'm not sure what happens with the production and editing of these shows. I understand Syfy's original movies making fun of its own awfulness, but this show is treated like it's serious and that makes it even more tragic. It's tragic for these guys who signed up to do the show and doubly tragic for me watching any future Destination America shows.
The sad thing is, you could do a show a lot cheaper and yet make it so compelling that people are hooked instead of getting us a dumber version of every other awful reality show.
Here's a hint: if the "following a team" scenario is tired and old, changing the team with caricatures of hillbillies does not make the concept suddenly work. It just makes it even worse! - Change the freaking scenario -
Shame on you Destination America. Shame on the cast that runs around with guns aimed at the woods and their own members.
And, shame on me for sitting through a whole episode.
Excellently put and well written.
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