Parental Control

This decade will be forever known as the one that popularized “reality TV.” There’s Survivor now on its 15th season (China) and The Amazing Race (US) with 11 seasons, considered as the two most watched reality shows. The downside to this shows is that they follow the “series” format so when you forgot to watch an episode… it sucks!.. unless you get to watch the replay before the next episode.

There is another type of reality TV show and they usually take thirty to sixty minutes of your time. They are known as “dating reality shows” which have been around since the 70’s but made even better (define better) nowadays. There’s Change of Heart, The 5th Wheel and Elimidate, which are straightforward and might be too much for conservatives.

This year, I’ve seen two hilarious dating games different from the ones I mentioned. The first one is Date My Mom and the second is Parental Control. With the former, it’s pretty obvious, the guy would have to date three mothers without seeing their daughters. After the dates, he must choose the mother whose daughter he wants to date. The ones he did not picked are first revealed to him so there’s a lot of hilarious “side comments” from the guys whether they made a good/bad choice in terms of appearance. Most of the time, the guy’s end up picking the more beautiful mom but not all the time does he ends up with the most attractive daughter. There was an episode where the guy didn’t chose the mother whose features is Asian (but she’s not ugly) and it turns out that her daughter was the hottest one and she doesn’t look like her mother!

With Parental Control, both parents are involved. They have to choose two men to date their daughter who happens to have a boyfriend. With the setup, you know that the parents does not approve of the boyfriend. And to add insult to injury, the current boyfriend must watch the video of the dates together with his girlfriend’s parents. Again, you’ll hear a lot of funny side comments both coming from the parents and the boyfriend with the boyfriend mocking the dates and trying to make them believe that their daughter would still pick him while the parents tells him of his impending replacement. I’ve watched two episodes so far and the first episode I saw, the boyfriend was replaced. What a way to get rid of your boyfriend and get a new one in front of international TV!

See the show for yourselves at ETC (Entertainment Central) at 6 PM… on weekdays…