I usually stay far away from so-called reality TV, but I checked out Fox’s Murder in Small Town X anyway. I have to say I was completely won over. Sure, the killer seems to be awfully accomodating (responding to questions by e-mail and deliverng clues like clockwork [and if the murder was shot on 16mm film, why does it look just like the zero Lux stuff I can shoot with my Sony camcorder?]). And, sure, it has the CBS-patented hokey gimmick of voting people off. But at least it has the distraction of an intriguing mystery. I also like the fact that one of the two people voted off each week gets to come back, as ticked off as a wet cat, to stir things up later on.Regardless, it’s still fun to guess who, out of the fifteen suspects, the killer might be. [My guess is the Reverend. Not because he has any kind of motive, but just because it seems the kind of religion-bashing that Fox might think is scandalously cutting edge.] At least focussing on a mystery beats watching a bunch of whiney twenty-somethings. My only fear is that as the number of suspects and investigators decreases, the show will indeed devolve into studying the contestants’ “personalities”. So far, though, I think I might be hooked.
P.S.: I still can’t get over, though, how terrified the contestants looked when they had to go outside and possibly meet the killer. I mean, come on, the locations are sets and the suspects are actors. How do these people stir themselves up into thinking this is anything more than some dinner-party game? Or do they think looking frightened will look good on their résumé tape?
Update: The show’s winner, Angel Juarbe, a New York fire fighter, is believed to have perished in the rescue attempts following the World Trade Center attack, September 11 2001.
