Recommendations: Week of 8/12/24

Late-summer reality recs

The host of a reality competition show has always been an important piece of the overall appeal. They usually host the show for multiple years, creating a sense of continuity. The success of The Traitors is largely down to Alan Cumming swanning around in sartorial, sassy magnificence. Love Island USA, a largely mediocre entry in the Love Island universe, has been revived by the unexpectedly sweet and sympathetic presence of wronged woman Ariana Madix. Comedians tend to make decent hosts (notably Mulaney), reality stars sometimes less so (the entire Love is Blind universe). But somehow the best host I’ve seen recently is Ari Shapiro, a storied NPR journalist with a permanent smirk on his face who hosted season two of The Mole.

Reality shows are so ubiquitous that it can be hard to stand out and even harder to get the formula to work beyond the creation of a forgettable product. So allow me to give my advice on two shows that I think are worth your 1/3 attention (to give more to a reality show is largely to miss the point).

The Mole: Season Two (Netflix): I already recommended the first season of this show, hosted by journalist Alex Wagner, and I stand by that rec. I am rewatching the first season and it’s really fun to watch it knowing who the mole is (also rewatching a reality show is probably the largest compliment you can give the genre). The second season is just as good and the addition of Ari Shapiro as host really improved the viewing experience. He’s so subtle and snarky at the same time… it’s honestly delicious. He also has a history with the show, as he auditioned over 20 years ago to be in the original version of the show, but was rejected. You can tell he’s having the time of his life finally being part of it.

For those that don’t know the premise of The Mole, it is similar to Traitors or a game of Mafia. There’s a whole bunch of people doing challenges to win money for the prize pot and one persons secretly working to sabotage everyone else. The goal is to figure out who the mole is. If you do that, you win the prize pot at the end. The less you know about the mole, the more likely you are to get kicked out of the show early. I have to report I DID NOT guess the mole correctly. But that just means it’s up to you to do better.

In my review of the first season, I noted that one of the best things about the show is the way it shows off the country of Australia. The show hops to a different location within one country for each challenge and really acts as a tour guide for the country at the same time (I suspect that there’s some tourism board sponsorship going on here). This season is set in Malaysia, which I knew even less about than I knew about Australia, so the experience was even further enriched.

Resurrected Rides (Netflix): Hosted by comedian Chris Redd, this is largely an update of the early 2000s MTV show Pimp My Ride. This is not a competition show, but instead is just a celebration of insane LA car culture. Similar to the original show’s premise, a team of car experts picks someone who has a terrible car but is a good person, then takes that car and makes it insanely awesome. We’re talking like creating a version of the van from Ninja Turtles. This is really cool if you’re a car person, but if you know nothing about cars, there’s maybe even more here for you. Each person involved in the “pimping” (probably shouldn’t call it that anymore) process is an insanely talented artist that’s able to do whatever they can dream up. The show walks you through the engineering and technique behind what they do and never talks down or too far up to their audience.

Chris Redd is a decent host here because he’s funny in that “65% of my jokes don’t land but I just smirk and keep moving” kind of way. This is a purely silly, purely fun show and sometimes it’s just the right time for those.