jf fqa ,qa

-WoW quote: "Binds when equipped." (no, I don't actually play World of Warcraft, but I do enjoy peering over the shoulders of others -- so many silly quotable things)-

My dream last night involved a classic dream segment: trying to change my clothes whilst getting annoyed by the fact that everyone else wouldn't leave the room and give me some privacy. Really, I need to start figuring out that this is a near-certain tipoff of a dream. Also, there were children cliff-diving into murky water, which was just weird.

[insert authentic clicking sound here]

Continuing my virtual vacation slideshow of boring doom, one thing I got introduced to on vacation was this show called The Mole. I got so hooked on it after the first episode that I'm planning to watch the entire season, even though it airs here at an hour I find yawn-crackingly late ( -> me <- early bird). Basically, it's the reality show that makes all the horrible reality shows foisted upon us worthwhile.

The premise behind the show is that there are twelve people competing for a single monetary prize. Each episode, they play games that increase the value of that prize. The catch is that one of the "players" is actually [drum roll] THE MOLE, who gets paid to sabotage the games and decrease the money won. The great thing about the show is that neither the players NOR THE AUDIENCE knows who the mole is. In fact, the elimination (they call it Execution in this show) rests on a quiz that the people take about the identity of the mole: the one who gets the least characteristics right is executed that round.

The sort of dynamic this creates is that the mole is acting like an innocent player while the rest of the people act like the mole -- after all, if they can successfully convince the other people that they are the mole, those people will flunk the quiz sooner. Unlike a lot of reality shows, therefore, even viewers can't figure out the answer right away. The American version of the show is almost at the end of its season, and I still haven't precisely pinned down who the mole is. The challenges in the show don't make it any easier... they're tough enough that even the players that want to increase the prize money mess them up. There's often a lot of memorization and a lot of steps and possibly even an exemption or two (these usually decreasing the money won but preventing the player who defects from being executed).

I don't often get too excited about TV shows, but I definitely recommend this one.

[insert authentic clicking noise here]

Reality check. Also, it has really cool theme music.