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June 24th, 2005

30 Days

Last week, Morgan Spurlock debuted 30 Days, a show on FX that takes his Super Size Me formula and applies it to other parts of life. The first two episodes of this hour-long show have been entertaining, well-produced, and informative.

In the debut episode, Morgan and his fiancee move to Columbus, Ohio for 30 days and attempt to live on minimum wage (this includes finding an apartment, paying bills, eating, everything). They hit a major roadblock when both of them have to go to the emergency room in the same day, her with a UTI and him with a grotesquely swollen wrist.

This week, a former swimmer goes through hormone replacement therapy and an exercise/diet change in an attempt to get his body back down to his college weight and cut. Though it was a little less interesting than the debut (mainly because Spurlock is an intriguing person to watch on screen no matter what he’s doing), it was still pretty crazy to see how quickly the injections and supplements took a toll on his body.

Upcoming weeks will include an Islam-ignorant guy worshipping as a Muslim for a month, a homophobe moves to San Francisco and lives “the gay life” for a month, two average people move into an eco-community that’s completely “off the grid,” and in perhaps the most potentially insane and stupid of the bunch, a mother binge drinks for a month in an attempt to teach her college-age daughter not to do so.

Though it sounds like a standard “fish out of water” reality show, Spurlock’s touch gives it just enough of a nudge to make it more than that.

Posted in Television, Movies, and Music

Bill September 22, 2006, 9:16 pm

How about a gay person living a celibate life in a monastery for a month?
Or a member of NARAL working in a birthright agency for a month?

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