Judge me all you want but the eighteen-year-old me used to try and stealthily watch reality TV shows like Roadies and Splitsvilla. And if I tell you that my dad once gave me a lecture when he found out, I know you’ll believe it. But over the years, I learned that there are better things I can ‘waste’ my time on and thank God, I did.
With OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hotstar, there’s no denying that I am spoilt for choice. There’s a lot of content - Indian and international. But now there are shows like Skulls and Roses, Dilli Darlings...that really are an assault on my senses.
I know you’ll say that it’s a choice and I can choose not to watch it but really can we talk about the quality of content?
Firstly, what are these tasks?
And what exactly are they trying to assess?
I used to think that the point of a task (at least what the younger me thought) was to assess physical strength, your strategy, and your stamina. Say for example when in Fear Factor, they suffocate people in a glass box full of snakes or bugs, I understand that the point of the show is to fight your personal fears. But here are a few reality show tasks that make no sense and would have never made the cut if they were to be aired on our ‘sanskari’ TV.
The ‘Kamasutra’ Task
This task on Skulls and Roses was all about couples trying out sex positions from Kamasutra and hence the name. (And you thought I wrote that just to get you to read.) Now, I am not trying to justify anything but really the tasks in Splitsvilla used to test compatibility and teamwork (we know that was ALSO a shit show).
But what’s the point of this ‘Kamasutra’ task? Please let me know if you happen to find out.
And let me tell you this is not even the worst task on Skulls and Roses.
The ‘First Touch’
*Skipping any visuals here*
Sorry but, Skulls and Roses really is soft porn.
So much so that for this ‘task’, I’ll have to skip any visual. Why? ‘The First Touch’ was all about making the contestants strip and getting them to paint each other. The idea behind it was to make everyone comfortable around each other. This show is like Splitsvilla on hard drugs.
It’s a cringe-fest...
Butterflies Hurt
Speaking of Splitsvilla, this task on the latest season of the show is nothing short of irritating. The task was to stick butterflies on the boy by literally hitting them with the plastic hand.
By now, I have lost the plot on why these shows exist?!?
Wait, was there a plot to begin with?
And I wonder if back in the day when they show started, was it as weird?
Bigg Boss’ Ration Task
If we’re talking about weird tasks in reality TV shows, how can we not talk about Bigg Boss? Now, this might not be as crazy as the previously mentioned tasks but again, what is this task? And what is it trying to do in the larger scheme of things? What was the task? To pick items needed for the week in the kitchen, the contestants had to use their mouths.
Kid you not, they got a spread minutes later in the episode and it had nothing to do with this task.
So why have the task at all?
Now I am thinking if I am becoming more like my father with time or are these shows getting weirder by the day.
With the hope that the latter is true, I sign off!
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