17 February 2007 | bob the moo

Terrible and pointless show with little to offer but insulting banality

On a wet evening recovering from a long day my girlfriend switched on MTV and I found myself basking in the heart warming glow of this show. Having never seen this I tried to keep an open mind and indeed the concept seemed to have a basic potential. You see, the thing here is that one young person spends time with three different mothers (individually) in order to try and get a feel for what their offspring are like. Having only the insight from this to aid them, they must then decide which one of the three children they go on a date with.



OK so realistically this was never going to be the place to come for an interesting look at how offspring pick up characteristics of their parents but I wasn't quite prepared for how poor this junk would be. The "dates" are mostly awkward affairs with set pieces that have clearly been filmed several times until it was "right" (right being a very comparative term in this case). These scenes however feel as natural and convincing as a gritty documentary series when compared to the "interview" scenes which mostly feature "funny" cutting remarks contrasted with the scenes before. They are childish remarks that even a Jerry Springer audience would think lame and they are generally delivered in a very American sitcom fashion. The picking ceremony is cheesy and full of more of the same and never has anything of interest in it.



A terrible and pointless show then with little to offer in the way of entertainment. With its scripted nature and weak "Jerry Springer" putdowns there isn't really much good to say about this thing and if anything it is worrying to think that producers decided that this was good enough for teenagers to pass as their entertainment for the evening. In fact it is only slightly more worrying that some teenagers accept it and like it.