Deal or No Deal

After some reflection, I have to say that Deal or No Deal represents everything I think is wrong with America.

First and foremost, the whole Deal or No Deal is a game with no skill. All the contestant does is pick a number and then pick a series of numbers to eliminate possible prize amounts. There are no clues, no hints, no idea what is in any of the "cases," so there is no way for a person to make an educated guess about anything. In short, it is totally equalizing. An 80-year old Korean War vet has as much chance of winning a million bucks as an 18-year old high school drop out. Games like Survivor or Millionaire (love the former, hate the latter) take some sort of talent and skill that a good player is rewarded for. You can't be a dipshit and win on Jeopardy.

Second, the game is specifically designed for impatient people. Everyone wants everything now. The only drama points in the show are when Howie Mandel (who plays a straight host very well) looks at the camera and makes the audience wait on the commercial break. That's sort of become his gimmick since the show is pretty much about a bunch of Halliburton's with numbers in it. It reflects America's inability to be patient or to delay gratification even for three minutes while we have commercials.

Third, in a very strange juxtaposition, the capitalist system is on trial even while contestants try to make money. The "bad guy" in the show is the faceless, anonymous banker who "tries to buy the cases" from the contestants. The banker calls in and talks to Howie Mandel to offer the contestant a certain sum of money. It is all based on mathematics and odds, so it's not really like some jackass is sitting in a darkened booth trying to screw someone. But, however, we have to have a bad guy because America needs someone to hate, so we take the financial institutions to task and make them the heels. They may as well name the banker Kenneth Lay and they would have the same impact.

Fourth, women are kept subservient in the Deal or No Deal universe. The cases can't open themselves and we can't have a video board that reveals things....we have to have a bunch of attractive females opening the physical briefcases. So the women have to be enabled by Howie Mandel before they will do their jobs. Also, every female contestant I have seen on there (and admittedly, I've only watched like two episodes) has been dumber than a box of rocks. Tonight, a woman was up there holding a scarf that Elvis Presley draped around her neck in 1970-something. The best part of that was she kept knocking off the big numbers so I actually started rooting for the banker and against that dopey woman with the blue scarf. I guess the old instinct to root for the heels has carried over from the NWO days.

Fifth, it enables people to gamble. They have a contest where you can text a message to a number (for a mere 95 cents) to guess which "lucky case" has 10,000. If you pick the right number (from 1-6), you are entered in a drawing to win 10K. Gracious people are dumb. So this show is popular, they have ostensibly millions of viewers, and these people pay this company a dollar to guess a number between one and six? They are sitting on a goldmine here...because they no doubt make in well more than 10K a night from dummies dropping a buck on a contest they have no chance of winning. It makes the lottery look like a sure thing. Well, actually it doesn't, but the same principle applies.

So, while Deal or No Deal is a big popular show on TV, it is the Wal-Mart of American broadcasting at the moment. It appeals to the lowest of the lowest common denominators....and as we all know, that means it is making someone rich....and it isn't the contestants.