I'm noticing a trend in TV shows lately. NOT the idiot reality stars who are famous just for being stupid and obnoxious. I mean the junk shows. You know...American Pickers, Pawn Stars, Auction Hunters, Hoarders and all of the many variants of each show. Maybe it's a sign of the troubled economy. Remember back in the days when we would watch shows about rich people? Were we living vicariously through them? Waiting for them to fail? Idolizing their houses? That was back in the 80s or so. Then came the shows about average people. The Real Worlds, Survivor, Big Brother, American Idol and all the countless derivations of those. We were (supposedly) watching real people trying to score big somehow. Or watching them fight for a moment in the spotlight, trying to be stars. Whatever.
Then along came the junk shows. To be honest, I watch American Pickers, the pawn shop shows and all those ones where they bid on abandoned storage units without really knowing WHY I'm watching them! I seriously get a thrill when someone turns over an old cooler in one of those units to find a gun case. Hey! Guns are valuable!! Yay!! Pawn Stars is cool because there's the historical stuff or just the weird crap that comes through those doors. Hardcore Pawn is about some huge shop in Detroit run by a guy who looks every bit like the stereotypical guy you would imagine who runs a big pawn shop in Detroit; slicked back hair, gold chains and all. That place gets mostly jewelry and fur coats like you would expect, but the people are always fighting and it's fun to watch.
And then there's Hoarders. That's just about houses that are filled with garbage! I sit and watch the people explain why they need their garbage piled around them, watch as the therapists try to talk them out of their garbage piles and watch as the cleaning crew scoops out their garbage with shovels (always in the span of two days). Hoarding is a mental disorder. I get that. I'm not making fun of them. I'm wondering why I'm watching them. Alcoholism and mental retardation are disorders and yet we don't watch those people. Are the Kardashians still on the air? Jersey Shore? Ok. Well I don't watch those.
I've actually sat and wondered why I'm so fascinated with Hoarders. It's a popular show, so I'm not the only one watching. Maybe it's because the shows are about some degree of order coming from chaos. But, I like chaos. That can't be it. Maybe it's about people facing their inner demons. No. I like demons too. Seriously, though, if I was into personal tragedy, I'd also be into shows like Intervention and My Weirdest Addiction or whatever that show is where the lady eats rocks. Look it up.
I think it's a sign of the times. Things are tough right now and lots of us just don't have it in us to watch a game show and believe something like that could happen to us. Personally, I sure as hell don't want to spend my nights watching rich people in their big houses being all...rich. So, I watch shows about junk. I watch people buying it, gathering it, pawning it and eventually traveling across the country to pick through yards of it so they can sell it to someone else. I can relate to junk. I can afford some junk of my own. It's nice to see people digging out from their junk and moving on...or selling it. Maybe I could sell some stuff! See, THERE'S a dream that can actually happen!!
Maybe that's it. Or maybe TV shows just suck nowadays. Times are rough.
