17
Jul
30 Days
I’ve watched the first 5 episodes of “30 Days,” the show brought to you by the man who made “Super-Size Me.” I think SSM made some good points but I also think that if anyone suddenly more than doubled their calorie intake their body would show similar signs of shock that his did with any kind of food. The people who do eat that way have bodies that have adjusted to it. Yeah, it’s still not healthy, but you would expect to see people falling over in the streets all over the place. Here’s a professor who did the 30-day McDonald’s diet but didn’t try to eat 5000 calories per day and didn’t stop exercising. He lost 17 pounds.
30 Days has people live in a way foreign to them for 30 days to see how it is in the other side of the fence. Unfortunately Spulock has his own spin on it and rather than just letting the viewer see what is happening throughout you get interjections of various factoids that tell you the conclusion well before the end.
Episode 1 – Minimum Wage. Morgan Spurlock and his fiancee move to Ohio for a month to live on minimum wage. It was a shock to them but they were actually doing fairly well especially since they had to start by finding a place and some jobs. Their downfall? They go to the emergency room at the drop of a hat. You can tell that they are used to seeing a doctor for any little thing that goes wrong. First she goes for a bladder infection. She was in a lot of pain so I could see that. Then he strained his wrist and it swelled up some. Instead of doing what many people (certainly most who are without medical insurance) would do which is to ice it and/or put an ace bandage on it, he goes to work and strains it some more so it swells more. Still he could have done the ice and bandage thing, but instead he goes to the emergency room where they give him an ace bandage. The emergency room fee was $500 which was rediculous, but it’s obviously there to stop people from going there with minor problems like his. People without medical insurance learn to deal with minor problems at home so they don’t have to spend $900 for two emergency room visits per month.
Episode 2 – A man goes to an aging doctor to get injected with steroids and starts working out to hope to get back to his college shape. This guy was given 40+ supplement pills to take per day and then everyone wonders why he has liver problems. This one was good for showing how easy it is to get prescription drugs in Mexico. Everyone talks about it but you never see it, well as an interlude Morgan SPurlock walks into several pharmacies and just asks for them. They have them over with no questions asked. Unfortunately this episode comes off as being down on all supplements, even vitamins. Really you just shouldn’t have them in the quantities this guy was taking.
Episode 3 – A christian man goes to live in a muslim household. It is interesting to see how differently he is treated when he dresses and observes their customs. He gets stopped at the airport for the first time and people give him weird looks. Aside from him trying to decide if it’s ok for him to pray like the muslims or even go through the motions (much of the show), the interesting part is a discussion about whether muslims should condemn the actions of the muslim terrorists. That part doesn’t go on long and it’s a shame. Maybe there was but it was cut?
Episode 4 – A mid-west military man goes to live with a gay man in San Francisco. Aside from learning that the gays settled in the catsro district in San Francisco during WWII which the navy dropped them off there and said thanks, but no thanks, there is nothing that really stands out. He learns that gay men are ok.
Episode 5 – Two resource hogs go live in an eco-village off the grid. What I don’t like about this episode is that it says that we have all these alternate energy sources that we should just switch to and life would get better. Yes, the solar is great, but they don’t mention that the making of solar panels is extremely toxic and environmentally expensive. They say we should be using bio-diesel and vegetable oil, but there isn’t enough vegetable matter produced every year to come close to what we use in energy. Even adding up every alternative energy source can’t equal what the world uses now. The best thing to do right now while trying to find alternate energy sources is to use less. About all they said about that though was that using compact fluorescent bulbs is good (definitely). I appreciate that these communities exist though. They are trying to find other ways that we can live with less impact; they are little ecological research laboratories. I just didn’t really care for the portrayal in the show with no mention that they are relying on outside society still for their cars and their solar panels, and probably medical care if it is necessary.
Episode 6 is supposed to be a mother going on a 30 day drinking binge to show her college-aged daughter how bad it is. I think I’m done with 30 days though.