#107 The Joe Schmo Show

This Spike TV reality show is one part cruel social experiment and one part sly parody. The series follows the hapless Matt Gould, a regular guy from Pittsburgh who doesn't know that he's on a fake TV show. Matt thinks he's one of the contestants on Lap of Luxury. The fake premise is that he is living in a mansion with other real people who share the goal of "surviving" the show and winning a $100,000 prize. The actors who play Matt's competitors live up to the challenge of staying in character 24 hours a day. The best, like Lance Krall (as Kip, the gay guy), use their roles to provide subtle humor that smartly lampoons reality show behavior without letting Matt in on the secret. Part of the fun is watching the actors screw up, then try to undo their mistakes. The best part of the show, though, is its insight into human behavior. At first it's easy to hate Matt's seemingly vapid, frat boy personality, but the show slowly reveals it's subject as a nuanced, feeling and all-around decent human being.