Globex Corporation Newsletter

I know I've made it pretty clear that I don't much care for reality TV. Granted, most of my exposure to this trashy genre is of the american type. If you haven't seen foreign reality TV, count yourself among the lucky.

Some Mexican TV nework called TV Azteca is producing, in fact has been producing for the past 5 years a piece of crap called La Academia.

Unlike Mexican professional wrestling, Mexican reality TV is definitely NOT better than it's American cousin. Think a bizzare combination of Big Brother, American Idol and really bad small town cable public access TV. La Academia gives all of these a bad name, I'm sorry to drag them into the muck with this show.

OK, I'm sure not speaking spanish makes it impossible for me to pick up the subtle nuances that La Academia is undoubtedly full of. And it's probably not fair of me to hold TV Azteca to the high standards that I expect from cable public access TV. Maybe it's quite acceptable for the screen to be black for thirty seconds in Mexican TV. Maybe not having audio for 15 minutes or showing the TV control room on camera when nothing interesting is going among the competitors is acceptable south of the border. I just don't know.

You see, unlike American reality TV, La Academia runs 24 hours a day. In a way, I admire this. In another, more realistic way, it's the stupidest idea in the history of television. Filo T. Farnsworth must be rolling over in his grave. Twenty-four hours a day, every day. And, you guessed it, when they're sleeping in Casa de La Academia, you get to watch it. Eight hours of watching people sleep. Now that's riveting television!

So, an apology. I've seen what the rest of the world has to offer in the reality TV arena. I'll shut up and watch the next season of American Idol. We very seldom get to watch people sleep for eight hours on that show. Might be an improvement, though.....

BOJ