love in the wild...

Guilty pleasure... reality tv. I know it's silly. I know sometimes it's even staged. There's just something about escaping from my own "reality" into someone else's reality.

I'm boycotting ABC's Expedition Impossible as a rip-off of The Amazing Race, but I had to tune in (or rather DVR) NBC's Love in the Wild. For some reason I thought it was couples dropped in the middle of the jungle to complete challenges similar to Amazing Race, but it's 20 complete strangers (10 men and 10 women) dropped off in the middle of the jungle and paired up for challenges. The other twist is the women chose their partners in the first episode, but after the challenge, the teams were ranked first to last and each guy had first dibs at choosing to stay with his current partner or choose a new partner. The last man and woman not chosen were eliminated. Perhaps it would be easier to watch than me try to explain... but let's just say I appreciated the new concept in a world of summer television that seems to have already been done.

The critics are not loving the show... ok I'm not sure who else would love the show... but what else would we expect during the summer at 10 pm? A gift compliments of TVguide.com is: The 10 Dumbest Things Said on the Premiere of 'Love in the Wild'

10. "I'm a self-proclaimed meathead, myself." — Dawn (But what does she have to say about her own redundancy?)

9. "It's kind of like being in an ice cream shop. There's just so many flavors!" — Heather (This show is tearing down civilization. Soon people will want to marry ice cream cones.)

8. "I just met Mike like two hours ago and here we are! I honestly feel like I've known him for ... months and months." — Samantha (Months are a long time!)

7. "I'm ready to kiss and get down!" — Samantha (Just FYI: Samantha, a ringer for Rock of Love 2's Kristy Jo, was the biggest purveyor of closed-mouth kissing on the episode.)

6. "Building the raft was horrible. I want to get on the Internet and Google 'how to build a raft,' because I don't want to look like a pansy." — Miles (Some would argue that the impulse to Google such a thing is already a sign of pansydom.)

5. "I've seen movies where ants end up eating people alive. I hope those ants aren't in Costa Rica." — Jason (They are. And so is that giant ant from Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, as you will find in the upcoming shrinking challenge.)

4. "My thighs were on fire, burning so hard. But I mean, hey, I just met this girl. I don't want to complain about my groin being sore."  -- Miles (Note: Complaining about his groin being sore was exactly what he did.)

3. "Before my checklist was like, OK, you gotta be hot, you have to be funny, you have to have a good personality, you have to be hot. I know I'm only 26 years old, but my biological clock is ticking and so my checklist has definitely changed and there's still in there hot, but not as much." — Vanessa (So, wait: hot or not?)

2. "I live in San Francisco, but I definitely think it's a dead zone in terms of single men. I don't know where all the men are hiding there!" — Heather (Probably in gay bars.)

1. "I'm looking for someone to spend the rest of my life with." — Vanessa (Clearly, reality TV is the perfect place for that! Things always work out so well on these things!!!)