This show was awesome, UNTIL...
...I was looking up stuff about the show and thought it was slightly odd that the white family had all different last names. I just figured that the husband and wife may have gotten divorced (or perhaps the wife chose to keep her last name in the marriage) and that the daughter may have gotten married (and chose to change her last name,) therefore, giving each of them a different last name. It seemed simple enough. It turns out that the explanation was MUCH more simple than that. They don't have the same last names because they're all actors (actually the mom is a casting director,) and none of them are in fact, related...at all...I stumbled across that info after watching it...
The whole point of the show (or what they suggested it to be) is to let the viewer observe how everyday people deal with being the opposite race. This was an amazing concept that worked great and was very informative...until it turned into a huge kick in the teeth when I realized it was staged. All of the lessons (or lack thereof, as at least one "character" doesn't seem to learn much of anything,) go right out the window when you realize that at least three of the six people in question are characters, not everyday people who are supposed to be related. This literally negates the whole point of the show, and it left a bad taste in my mouth. Lessons can be learned from written characters, but a person who is NOT an actor is actually genuine! This show dropped from being a good program to being a pile of crap in two seconds.
If I wanted to watch a dramatization, I would have watched a movie! It sold itself as a documentary-style show making a great commentary on social behavior, not a TV movie, which is tragically, what it essentially is. This show is literally pointless! That's a shame, as the concept was fantastic and I feel like it WOULDN'T have been hard to find a REAL family with similar quirks and values. Even if they weren't "as interesting" as paid character actors reading dialogue, it would have been real, or, at least, as real as reality TV gets. This was the entire point of the show! When the entire point is faked, the show becomes useless, so, who cares? It sucks too, because it was actually pretty good! It instantly became a waste of my time out of nowhere, and it DIDN'T have to be!
I wasted my time, do not waste yours...LAME...
...I was looking up stuff about the show and thought it was slightly odd that the white family had all different last names. I just figured that the husband and wife may have gotten divorced (or perhaps the wife chose to keep her last name in the marriage) and that the daughter may have gotten married (and chose to change her last name,) therefore, giving each of them a different last name. It seemed simple enough. It turns out that the explanation was MUCH more simple than that. They don't have the same last names because they're all actors (actually the mom is a casting director,) and none of them are in fact, related...at all...I stumbled across that info after watching it...
The whole point of the show (or what they suggested it to be) is to let the viewer observe how everyday people deal with being the opposite race. This was an amazing concept that worked great and was very informative...until it turned into a huge kick in the teeth when I realized it was staged. All of the lessons (or lack thereof, as at least one "character" doesn't seem to learn much of anything,) go right out the window when you realize that at least three of the six people in question are characters, not everyday people who are supposed to be related. This literally negates the whole point of the show, and it left a bad taste in my mouth. Lessons can be learned from written characters, but a person who is NOT an actor is actually genuine! This show dropped from being a good program to being a pile of crap in two seconds.
If I wanted to watch a dramatization, I would have watched a movie! It sold itself as a documentary-style show making a great commentary on social behavior, not a TV movie, which is tragically, what it essentially is. This show is literally pointless! That's a shame, as the concept was fantastic and I feel like it WOULDN'T have been hard to find a REAL family with similar quirks and values. Even if they weren't "as interesting" as paid character actors reading dialogue, it would have been real, or, at least, as real as reality TV gets. This was the entire point of the show! When the entire point is faked, the show becomes useless, so, who cares? It sucks too, because it was actually pretty good! It instantly became a waste of my time out of nowhere, and it DIDN'T have to be!
I wasted my time, do not waste yours...LAME...