Friday, June 13, 2003

The BBC has a reality show called Faking It, where an average, blue-collar worker gets four weeks to train for a high-powered job, and see if s/he can make a panel of experts believe that this is his or her career.

I watched an episode last night, in which a burger-flipper named Ed trained to be a high-powered chef. He was a mousy guy who had to become an incredibly confident chef barking out orders.

And here’s the difference between an American reality show and a British reality show: Faking It presented this as a triumph of the human spirit, of one guy doing his best, overcoming his shyness, and doing a great job. An American reality show would have focused on how well Ed conned everyone.

You can take it either way. The BBC makes it uplifting.