Reality Schadenfreude and other Television

A couple weeks ago, I was angry at something, or maybe I was sad at something...I can't remember; what I do remember is thinking "I want to watch someone yell at someone", so I watched a show where I could be guaranteed to see that...Hell's Kitchen.  Now the show itself is just ok, but I realized something; Most reality television is designed around fullfilling our deep and dark desire for schadenfreude.  For those of you who don't know, schadenfreude [shahd-n-froi-duh] is a word of German origin and it means "satisfaction or pleasure felt at someone else's misfortune".  We've all felt it, and reality tv is designed for it.  Think about one of the first reality shows in the late 80's/early 90's, COPS, and you'll see that it feels very satisfying to watch someone get dragged away, shirtless of course.  Criminals can never seem to find a shirt.  Now while delving into various pages on the internet while writing this blog, I came to realize that the reality TV that I'm talking about here, is really only a thin portion of reality TV as a whole.  Most of our schadenfreude is relegated to competiton/elimination type shows like Survivor, Big Brother, The Bachelorette or Hell's Kitchen.  There's a wider range of shows that fall under reality TV that are quality shows.  Here's a few that I've enjoyed: Holmes on Homes, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Mythbusters (yeah, that's reality TV), Crocodile Hunter, Monster Garage, and 30 Days, just to name a few.  Notice how none of those shows feed into our sense of Schadenfreude, and most of them aren't making new episodes anymore.
Based on all this, I'm ready to make the following decree's; any reality show where contestants are voted off by the other contestants is now dead to me.  Any reality show that let's America decide who wins is also dead to me.  Any reality show that is centered around finding love is dead to me twice.  I have a hard enough time finding a girlfriend, I don't need to watch some other bachelor have his pick of 10 women fawning all over him...that guy can go straight to hell.  Any reality show on the Discovery Channel gets my automatic approval.  Thanks to the Discovery Channel and the History Channel, I know everything there is to know about Sharks and Hitler.  Any reality show that helps people in a jam (Holmes on Homes, Hoarders, etc.) gets my automatic approval....that should just about do it for my decree's today...I may add more later.
Now you may be wondering, "Jon, if you don't like reality TV that much, what TV do you like?"  That's an excellent question reader who I assumed asked that question.  I watch quite a bit of TV over the run of a year.  Well thanks to the advent of the internet, I can watch TV around my schedule.  Here's a list of the shows (in no particular order) I'm watching and who else should be watching it.  These are all proven shows in their second season or later.  No new shows from this past year are part of the list.
True Blood - For those who like Vampires and hate Twilight.
Leverage - For those who enjoy a heist show...think Ocean's 11 on TV.
Entourage - For those who enjoy good acting and celebrity cameo's.
Warehouse 13 - For those who enjoy geeky treasure hunting with a splash of comedy.
Eureka - For science minded folks who love to see inventions go awry.
White Collar - For those who wanted to see more of Catch Me If You Can.
Rookie Blue - For those who liked Grey's Anatomy and wished it was about Toronto Cops.
Burn Notice - For those who like spy action
Real Time with Bill Maher - For those who like political comedy and active debate
Doctor Who - For those who like time travelling adventures
Torchwood - For those who like X-files and wish it were British and edgier.
Secret Diaries of a Call Girl - For those who enjoy good acting and writing on a touchy subject.
Venture Brothers - For those who like the animated and ridiculous.
It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia - For those who like the live action and ridiculous.
Merlin - For those who like Arthurian legend, but don't mind it getting screwed with a little.
Californication - For those who love sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
Justified - For Timothy Olyphant fans.
Ricky Gervais Show - For those who love to laugh at someone else's idiocy.
Archer - For everyone who likes animated antics of a disfunctional spy agency.
Chuck - For those who like nerdy spy action.
Castle - For those who enjoy their mystery with a splash of comedy and a whole lot of Nathan Fillion
Big Ban Theory - For those of us that are smarty pants or approaching genius intellect.
The Amazing Race (Reality) - For those who like travel shows combined with racing.
Fringe - For those who know what psuedo-science is.
Community - For those who like experimentation in TV
The Office - For reality fans who like their reality scripted
How I Met Your Mother - For those who want to watch a blog on TV
Supernatural - For those who are fans of horror movies
House - For those who like Sherlock Holmes but in a hospital.
Glee - For those who like musicals they can sing along with.  Remember, it's not just for gays anymore.
Game of Thrones - For those who like low fantasy and politics.  With 13 emmy nominations, you need to watch this.
Republic of Doyle - For those who like Newfie's and mystery
Mythbusters - For those who like it when things go boom.


That's all I'm going to list for now.  Yes there are other shows I watch, and if you want a recommendation, you'll have to send me an e-mail.  Otherwise, Happy Viewing!