Why This Show Was Great
I usually hate reality television but I loved Paradise Hotel.
It was the summer of 2003. Reality television was red hot and most new shows were reality based. Plus summer programming is usually not up to the level of the rest of the year. And there I was on break for college, jobless, and with lots of time to kill. So I gave this show a chance.
It was like any other reality show except the twist was that every week someone would be kicked off and the remaining "contestants" would vote a new member onto the island via satellite. The concept was original but there was one major flaw to the show. It had absolutely no point. There was no discernable contest. The cast members wanted to stay on the island but there was no valid reason why except for the nice weather and the flowing booze. There was no cash prize identified and no competitions to engage in. The cast members were all very good looking and boring. That, plus a completely worthless host, made the show very troublesome at first.
Enter Dave. Dave was a Boston native and there were two things about him that were very distinct from the rest of the group: he was smart and he was ugly. He was the everyman of the show while the rest of the people were failed actors from LA. He became the immediate hero of the show. And the rest of the castmembers immediately hated him, without ever giving any reason why. Meanwhile, Beau, the best looking and dumbest of the group had screwed over every girl on the island but was still the clear leader of the original crew. This gave the show the edge it never had - the good looking idiots ostracizing the smart ugly guy. This is something I think everyone can relate to.
The original group tried many times to vote Dave off the island. But the producers of the show recognized that Dave was the whole show and found countless ways to grant him immunity for no real reason.
The highlight of the show was when Beau challenged Dave to a game of tennis. The loser had to wear womens clothing to dinner. Everyone figured that Dave, the nerd, would lose. But Dave had something to prove. And Dave spanked Beau in that match, badly. Beau wound up showing up to dinner in a tank top and shorts, which isn't really womens clothing. The moral is that any victory a nerd gets over the cool kid is an empty one.
Dave created an interesting dynamic on the show. Everyone hated him becuase he was ugly and smart. But no one would own up to this. Instead, they decided that they hated him because he wasn't an original castmember. Therefore, every new person who came on the island, no matter how good looking or dumb, was ostracized as well. This gave Dave friends - two good looking girls and a guy.
Two of Dave's friends wound up in a relationship. And Dave had a major crush on the remaining girl. But that girl wanted nothing to do with Dave - she was clearly just using him to stay on the island. The conclusion of the show was that all four of the outcasts were "winners" and were given money. The catch was that the money was only given to the two girls and they could either keep it all or split it with their male counterparts. The girl in a relationship split the money with the other guy. Dave's girl kept all the money for herself and Dave was left saying something along the lines of "I understand" even though he was clearly devastated and would have given her half in a heartbeat.
The moral of the story: The nerds never really win.
What a great show.