On Sunday ABC premiered its new philanthropic reality series Secret Millionaire. A conceptual cousin to Undercover Boss, each episode features a member of the super-rich going undercover to scout out charities for possible televised donations. Needless to say, I have mixed feelings about the show, which formerly aired on Fox in 2008. While it’s admirable that ABC is giving deserving non-profit organizations much-needed publicity that they wouldn’t receive otherwise, the narrative impulse of the series—based largely around rich folks encountering the less fortunate—reveals much about how lacking our national dialogue on poverty remains.
We all know that...
We all know that...
- 3/7/2011
- by Christian Blauvelt
- EW.com - PopWatch
Coming to you this Sunday is another installment in the reality TV "feel good" series. Secret Millionaire takes you along for the ride as a millionaire searches for someone deserving of a large donation. Each week a new millionaire will embark on an adventure that showcases the needy, and will hope to not only connect with the "other side" of life, but run into someone trying to do great work who could use a benefactor.
In a style similar to Undercover Boss, we get to march along as the tremendously wealthy take a spin in the trenches, and along the way we are subject to the emotional pull of the downtrodden, and the curious joy of charity by proxy.
There is a special appeal in watching the rich come face to face with "real" people, and the circumstances of "real" life, though this appeal is largely lost in the series opener,...
In a style similar to Undercover Boss, we get to march along as the tremendously wealthy take a spin in the trenches, and along the way we are subject to the emotional pull of the downtrodden, and the curious joy of charity by proxy.
There is a special appeal in watching the rich come face to face with "real" people, and the circumstances of "real" life, though this appeal is largely lost in the series opener,...
- 3/4/2011
- by Marc Eastman
- AreYouScreening.com
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