Cheaters

When I say that "Cheaters" is "Reality TV" at its absolute worst, I'm not even considering that that much of the content is probably faked, or that much of the content that is not faked is probably manipulated by the show's writers and producers to have the worst possible outcomes. I'm not even counting the fact that anyone who would come to a show like "Cheaters" and ask to have their dirty laundry aired in public is the most obvious kind of attention whore. (Anyone who really wants their relationship to survive an affair needs to go to counseling with their significant other, not pull an ambush with a TV crew.)

To me, "Cheaters" is the worst kind of TV trash because the show pretends to condemn the behavior that it exposes, but yet by covering and airing instances of that behavior in dozens of episodes,(and always with the same format), it tacitly condones that behavior and trivializes it (After all, "everybody's doing it"). Only the names and faces change; the roles and the emotions never do. And it's obvious that the presence of the cameras makes people act in ways that they would not in "real life"; at least half of everything said and done in the confrontations is obviously for the benefit of the cameras. How often can the audience watch the same infidelities and the same trailer-trash drama until it decides that such behavior is the "norm" and if they don't get some of it, then they are missing out?

The narrator is an obvious sleaze ball. He lacks even Jerry Springer's sparkle and bemused air, treating each case as though it were the second coming of "Who's Afraid Of Virgina Woolf?" rather than just another entry in the divorce court record. He pretends to be on the victim's side, and to be an agent of justice, but what he really is just a poor man's Barbara Walters, mercilessly trying to get the victim to cry for the cameras. Now, I don't blame the guy for wanting to make a living. I don't even blame him for the show. But his unctuous smarm is the final ingredient in making this a sleaze cocktail.

I'm not condemning anyone for watching "Cheaters"; it has the "train wreck" quality that makes it impossible to look away. But 3 episodes were all I could take. (I gave it that long to see if my first impressions were valid, or if the first episode I saw was unusually awful). But I'd caution anyone that ongoing exposure to this kind of hypocritical sleaze might do some unnoticed damage to your ability to live like a mature human being.

I'm not bothered by the sleazy hosts, nor am I bothered by the cynical, self-righteous stance the makers of this crap take.

What I AM bothered about is that the vast majority of the episodes are fake. I wouldn't even be surprised if ALL of the episodes were staged. Hence this isn't a reality show but something far worse even than Oprah: garbage television with zero comma zero appeal. Like daily TV soap opera but with more action and fighting and less plot.

The premise would have turned out great - if only it had been executed without cheating the viewer. If only this idea were free of all the legal complications/trappings that would most certainly ensue due to what would happen with real people, and what is eventually aired. Hence the only way to create this """reality show""" was to get some rather desperate actors and make them improvise (and what pitiful and unconvincing improvisation it is most of the time!). Shouldn't this be obvious to anyone who finished grade school? Most reviews I read here don't even mention that any of this is fake, let alone that all of it might be. Wishful thinking or just boundless naivety?

The actors hired in this pathetic show are the kind of bottom-of-the-barrel unemployed actors who are miserably waiting on tables, waiting eagerly for a call from a talk show (or this crap), which is when they finally get a chance to make several hundred bucks. I even recognized one actress (in the role of "cheater") that I saw years earlier in "The Jerry Springer Show". And I only saw 6-7 episodes of "Cheaters". How many more of these loser actors are there that appeared in Springer and "Cheaters" that I don't even know about?

However, to compare "Cheaters" with Springer isn't fair to the latter. The Springer show is not all fake; a bulk of the episodes are unstaged - hence often highly entertaining. There is no value to be found in "Cheaters", unless you're a struggling actor and want to get tips on how NOT to act in front of the camera.

The producers use various (very cheap, transparent) tricks to create the illusion of realness, to give their footage that elusive documentary feel. But it's all in vein. In the end, the more intelligent train-wreck-seeking viewer is left with absolutely squat. "Professional wrestling" has more credibility than this.

This is perhaps the best reality show on TV. This is true drama. Human beings at their worst. Men and Women behaving like children and most of them not even caring. Shows you that you can sometimes never really trust the person who's supposed to have your back. Love it. The music, the voice-over artist, the commitment to form - every show has the "deceptive lover/husband/wife" lying on the phone. I don't understand why there are so many negative reactions to this show. I'm sick of seeing the same cookie-cutter cute people running around having fun and being stupid because they can't communicate their feeling or intentions. With Cheaters - we have all sorts of people who are in that place that we all fear to be in: Infidelity. Where a person who has given into that mental illness called love which requires you to open yourself up to being hurt by another person - and gets hurt by that person. It sucks that with the FCC crap they have blurred out the cheating couples even more. You don't have any idea what "position" they're in. Once again, great show.

This show is laughably bad. Basically, if viewers suspect that their significant others are unfaithful, they can call up Cheaters to spy on them. Once Cheaters' staff of highly trained detectives has compiled enough proof that foul play really does occur, the victim is given a chance to catch their unfaithful companion in the act. Talk Show-style confrontation ensues, while the Host tries to play Marriage Counselor.

As if the content wasn't bad enough, it's compounded by the lousy filming. Boom-mike and additional camera operators are on screen just about as much as the players in this absurd little drama.

People will try to make this out to be just another T.V. show that shows people's hurts and pain. Or just more people trying to get their face on television. I completely disagree, and if anyone would even take the time to WATCH the show, and I mean really watch it....they'll realize that it's not the show, but the people in it that will make it less appealing.

Cheaters happens to be a free investigation service. And the reason they show it on T.V.is so that their investigations CAN be free, and to publicly declare that infidelity in a relationship is NOT a good idea. I don't care what anyone says, this show has helped as many people as many others. Cheaters are contacted BY the people, and if they're significant other is cheating, then yes...it would be hard, and they sometimes over-react, thus making people think that this show is just "horrible" and "un-called for". Like I said, the people---not the show.

Think about it...if you thought that your husband or wife was cheating on you, and you couldn't get enough facts to prove it to yourself...wouldn't it be nice to find out the truth? And have video to back it up? I don't know about you, but I sure as heck wouldn't mind some private eyes looking into it for me and getting some hard facts on innocence or guilt. And Cheaters is darn good at doing that.

I love the show, I think it's fantastic. It's Cops--but on a relationship level. Greco is awesome, and this show deserves its Props. Watch it for yourself, and you'll understand. As I said, it's an honest show, with an honest purpose.