I saw the previews during Survivor and thought it was a game-type reality show, so I scheduled TIVO to record it. It turns out I was completely wrong.
The premise is that a couple is given $100K in a briefcase and told it’s all theirs. As time goes on, they are told about another family in similar circumstances to them and are asked to decide how much they want to keep and how much to give away. First one half of the couple, then the other gets to change it if they want. Finally they go to the other family’s house and get to look around to get a feel for their life and circumstances. They make a final decision as a couple that they cannot change.
Finally the couples meet and both families finds out for the first time that they each got a briefcase. They then hand over the money that they decided to give away.
On the first episode, both couples gave away all $100K. Awww…
On tonight’s episode, it was a lesbian couple from Boston and a religious conservative family from Texas. The husband in the Texas family seemed very cool, but the wife was a wench. He originally wanted to give away $50K, but she reduced it to $20K after finding out the other couple was gay. They ended up giving away $25K. The lesbian couple kept $400, and gave away $99,600.
I hate manufactured drama, but in this case it isn’t complete whackadoos trying to get on each others nerves (and hopefully get another reality gig), but just a lot of tears.
I don’t know if it will come to Australia but it must be on in the UK. I saw Russell Brand’s take on it a few days ago: The Briefcase: TV For The End Of The World? Although he begrudgingly admitted it was watchable I didn’t feel it was my cup of tea.
There is a version of this in game theory. One person is given a large sum of money (let’s say a thousand dollars). He can divide the money into two piles of whatever sizes he wants. He then offers one of the piles to another person.
The other person does not have the option of changing the amount of money he is offered. The only option he has it veto the entire deal - and if he does this the entire thousand dollars is taken away and both people get nothing.
Economists will tell you that if you’re the first person in a game like this, the best strategy is to keep $999 for yourself and offer the other person one dollar. Economists will tell you that the second person will act in his rational self-interest - making one dollar is better than making nothing so he won’t veto the deal.
In reality, economists have found that people will veto the deal if they feel that the amount they are being offered is too small a fraction of the whole. And this is a common enough reaction that apparently the people dividing the money anticipate it as a possibility - the first person will generally offer significantly more money than the minimal amount.
Eh, he’s over dramatizing it. I wouldn’t call any of the four couples shown so far “poverty stricken.” They’ve all lived in houses. The Boston couple made $130K between them, although Boston is a very expensive place to live. The Texas husband was a cop and made $60K, which is pretty good for rural Texas. They owned their home and a fair amount of acreage. He said at the beginning that they were fine financially.
The cop had a sister-in-law who was a mess, though. The Boston couple were trying to get pregnant via in vitro fertilization and were running out of money and time.
You must have missed an episode… there was also a couple who were little people who were trying to adopt a baby and a couple where the husband was a fisherman in Key West and the wife lived somewhere else with the kids because they couldn’t afford to move there year round (or something like that).
I haven’t watched it, but I literally just listened the episode of the podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour where they discussed it. They had a good point on the podcast, where the show advertising and the show makes it sound like a unique dilemma, of whether people should keep money for things they need or give it to someone else more deserving, but that’s literally the choice that every single middle class person makes when they have money. Every time I get paid, I could put money towards bills or savings, or give money to more deserving people. It just sounds like emotional manipulation to watch people agonize over what they should do with the money.
So it ended up with the conservative family having $174,600 and the lesbian couple keeping $25,400? What happened then? How did the couples respond? I can’t tell from the show description if it’s going for a heartwarming bent or not.
Yep. The Christian couple looked like they felt really guilty. It’s funny, because they said a couple of times that they live by the code JOY. Jesus, Others, Yourself, and then they decide to keep almost all the money for themselves.
I read a couple of reviews online and it seems all the critics hate it, but they just must have read a synopsis and not watched the show at all. They make it sound like the people are dirt poor and have to make a Sophie’s Choice. It’s not like that at all. The people are middle class, but the money would allow them to clear up debt or put some money away for kid’s college.
It’s not horrible. Even last night, when the Christian couple got 85% of the money, the other couple did get $25K. The gay couple came away looking like saints, and the Texas couple learned a thing or two about themselves. It wasn’t shameful.
Best part is there isn’t a host peppering them with leading questions. Just the two couples sitting across from each other, talking, then exchanging the money, then walking away.
Interesting. The Christian couple might have learned something, but they also came away the winners with a lot more money.
It’ll be interesting to see if it becomes a hit. If so, they would maybe have to switch things up, or manipulate/edit things further. Because if I was going to be on the show and knew about it, I’d keep all my money, even knowing they could edit me to look bad. I would guess the other couple would do the same. Of course I wouldn’t ever sign up or be chosen anyway.
I did hear a lot of critics hated the show, but it sounds like most watched at least the first two episodes. This review on the AV Club said that there were two episodes sent out on screeners to critics. Also he hated it.
Yeah, but it’s not about winning and losing. It’s more of a morality/compassion play. The one episode where both couples gave away everything, so they both ended up with $100K was quite nice. I’m sure soon enough one couple is going to walk away with 200K, and they will look like colossal assholes on national TV.
I’ve been watching it. The premise seemed dubious and even exploitive, but it’s not as bad as it might’ve been.
This past episode with the lesbian couple and the Texas couple was a real doozy to me, but not for reasons I might’ve guessed. I’m still trying to decide whether I think the Texas couple were joking or if they really are so dumb that they thought the word was “MassaTOOsets”, as the husband said, and had no idea where Boston is, as the wife said.
I’m wondering if there will come an episode where one of the families gives everything, or almost everything, and the other keeps everything or nearly everything, so that one walks away with almost the whole stash. It is proving more interesting than I thought it would be. I like scenarios that inspire a “hm, what would I do in this situation?” moment.