7 FEBRUARY 2001
Guinea Pigs
Temptation Island is not a show, it's an experiment.
The producers sat down and created a fantasy island to
test the hypothesis: can we make our subjects -- the
show's participants -- forget their reality? Ironic,
isn't it, that this show is included in the class of
"reality-based" programming that America has come to
know and love? Essentially, Fox has paid people,
drugged them, and placed them in a wonderland where
nothing feels real. This is not a test of
relationships. It is designed to destroy relationships
destroyer and Fox knew that going in.
Not only is this not reality, it's completely plastic.
The trees might as well have been planted, the water
colored, the fish purchased (much like the tempters),
and the warm breezes produced by fans. It's the Truman
Show, except that the contestants haven't figured that
out yet -- at least not that the camera has revealed.
Does Billy realize that his favorite date Vanessa
probably lives in a different part of the country, and
that any relationship between them is not viable? He
seems to be falling in love with this woman, whatever
the hell falling in love means in this environment. I
think that Billy is honestly debating whether or not
he should break up with Mandy and date Vanessa, or
stay with Mandy and in some weird way break up with
Vanessa.
The women are also experiencing a lapse in reason,
especially Shannon, which both shocks and appalls me.
Her dilemma involves Tom, the sexy single whose
designated "occupation" is "Ivy League Graduate."
Where does he live when he's not swimming off the
coast of Temptation Island? I am amazed that these
couples have so quickly -- remember they're only on
the island for a couple weeks -- formed these intense
bonds with people they don't even know. It's almost as
if they've been brainwashed, tricked into thinking
that what's happening is real. I repeat the obvious:
this is not real. Who knows? Maybe Shannon and Tom
will get together and make a million babies (all of
whom will grow up to go to Ivy League schools) and
this experience will be the best thing that ever
happened to them -- but I'd bet against it.
I predict that all the couples break up and that six
months later they all get back together again,
realizing how foolish and manipulated they were by the
show. The only character (and that's all I can call
them now -- characters) I feel sympathy for is
Valerie. Even though I think her personality is lame,
she clearly loves Kaya. Or at least she knows that she
wants to stay with him. I wonder how she'll feel when
she watches this week's episode and sees the cruel
edit, from one frame where she is saying how she wants
to be doing all these things with Kaya, and in the
next frame Kaya is tonguing Meagan on a pier. But, I
can't really feel too sorry her. No one forced her to
go to this island. Fame, I suppose, has its price.
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