30 Days

I watched this little program on the FX channel a couple of days ago. I had been waiting for it since I saw a commercial for it and instantly recognized the guy behind the premise. Morgan Spurlock. You may remember his little documentary called "Supersize Me". Great stuff. So I wondered if he could continue pumping out quality viewing material. Glad to say that, yes, he can.

What is this about though? 30 Days of what? Well, the premise is simple. Someone spends 30 days in the shoes of someone very unlike themselves. For the pilot of the show, Morgan and his fiancee decide to go through making minimum wage together for a month. They start off with a week's pay each (which @ 5.15/hr in the state of Ohio equals out to just over two hundred bucks . . before taxes). They pick Ohio for a reason. Low minimum wage rate, and the fact that this state has suffered thousands of job closings in the past few years.

The pair manage to get themselves an apartment in a rough part of town. They have no furniture, are not able to give the landlord the security deposit, and promise to pay him later on that month. They head out to find themselves some unskilled labor positions, the fiancee ending up washing dishes at a coffee shop and Morgan turning to a staffing agency that pays him daily. I thought getting a weekly check was frequent, I've never heard of daily checks. It's not much though, his payments don't usually go past the $50/day mark.

It's fairly interesting to see people try to manage things when they're out of their element. This is true reality. The first episode showcases a side of life which I have been through, but have easily forgotten once getting past that stage. It's does make me think though. How the hell did I manage on just about that much money when I was single and living on my own, and now that I make a fair amount more, I'm barely scraping by? Thank you credit cards. Haha!

Anyway, the show is entertaining and informative at the same time. Totally unscripted, so you're getting slice of life stuff, but not in the "are you sure that's not a scripted situation" Real World on MTV style. Check it out on the FX channel Wednesdays @ 10pm. If you catch Fox's The Inside @ 9pm before that . . then you've got yourself two hours of solid television entertainment.