A Lot Riding On This Question...

Faced with an 'eh'-level of sports and re-runs on TV last evening, I ended up landing on SpikeTV and their new game show, "Repo Games". (Believe me, I was constantly checking the guide for something else to turn to, but nothing else came up.) If you haven't seen promos for the show or couldn't figure it out from the title, the premise is that a team of repossession men go to the homes of people who are scheduled to have their cars seized, put the car up onto the tow truck and then ask the person five questions. If they answer three of the five questions correctly, the vehicle is taken off the tow lift and the remaining balance on the car is paid in full. However, if they get it wrong they have to watch as the car is towed away to the impound lot. Again (and I can not stress this enough), I am not proud of myself for watching this.

Now, your first thought may be that this is exploitative of people who have fallen on hard times and the people put in this position would be embarrassed about their current situation. Well, I can safely tell you that wasn't the case. Most of them seemed happy for the opportunity - not to win their car back and get out of debt, but for the chance to be on television. Also, they didn't seem like the type to be worried about what their neighbors might be thinking. Without trying to sound too judgmental, I feel like half the contestants woke up the next morning and were like, "Man, I had the craziest dream last night. I was on a game show, but it was in my driveway..."

I'll tell you the one thing that did bug me was how rigged I felt the game was. While the first two contestants were asked fairly easy questions and were able to keep their vehicles the third one was asked much more difficult ones, as if the producers had a meeting before filming started where they agreed to that they had to take at least one car away per episode. I mean, if they are going to keep doing this to people the producers should at least keep the game honest. Otherwise, the people watching at home might feel dirty about another human being losing both their dignity and their ride for our amusement.

Now, I was going to complain about how easy the questions appeared to be, but in taking a moment to think about it, they actually seem to be fair when you stop and consider the prize people were walking away with. It wasn't as if they were getting a brand-new car or even getting their old car repaired - at the end of the day they were getting the same used, dented, 1986 Buick with the bumper hanging off that they woke up with that morning. When you think about it in that context, it feels more even. I feel like knowing what three letters are on the #2 keypad of a phone are worth about the same as a 1998 Toyota Pathfinder. It certainly makes a lot more sense than winning an absurd amount of money just for knowing that Kentucky bluegrass is actually green (which, hand to God, was the $10,000 question on this afternoon's "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?"). At the very least, I know the answer to another trivia question: what has two thumbs and is going to make sure he gets to the library this week so he has a book to read next time there is nothing on TV? Answer: this guy.