Fat Momma is here to save the day

Despite reality television’s ever expanding grip on our attention spans, I was pleasantly surprised last night when I took a break from my normal Thursday evening to watch Sci-Fi channel’s new reality television series, Who Wants to Be a Superhero? I admit to having been skeptical of the idea that you could create a reality show about people who wish they were comic book characters, but the premise of the show is actually quite charming and all the characters quite amusing (including my favorite, “Fat Momma,” whose weakness is diet food). These people are not competing for lots of money; they are competing for the adaptation of their own idea of a superhero by legendary superhero-creator Stan Lee.

That was not the only thing that I liked better about that show than a normal episode of Fear Factor or Survivor. The first two eliminations were truly based on whether each individual could indeed offer the super-person qualities requisite for a superhero. In the first round, all the would-be superheroes were spied upon to determine whose motives might not match the selfless demands of a superhero’s existence. In the second round, all the contestants were told their challenge would be to change in a private place into their superhero costume and get to a finish point as fast as possible. The challenge was actually if they would stop what they were doing to assist a girl crying for help just before the finish line. The unfortunate reality of this reality show is how most of the would-be superheroes ran right past the girl. The terrific thing is that the ones who stopped to help (Fat Momma, Lemuria, Cell-Phone Girl, and Major Victory) were all guaranteed safety in the next elimination round. Whatever my complaints about reality television, it is nice to see a competition that tries to reward people for being better people. In theory, this reality show cannot be won by scheming, manipulation, stabbing people in the back, and being the most outrageously irritating person around. It will be quite interesting if this six-episode show does continue to be the foil of the reality TV I’ve come to expect.
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Image taken from Sci-Fi.com (from TV Guide)