Saw an episode of the new Fox reality show "Moment of Truth" last night. Well, it's not quite reality television, but it is what I like to refer to as a "reality game show," where people answer personalized questions instead of your average trivia style questions.

The show is brilliantly ugly. It's just a nasty, nasty show. Yet I couldn't turn away. I made it a point to catch at least one episode, but have vowed to not catch many more.

For those of you who don't know, this is a show where they hook a person up to a lie detector test and ask them all kinds of intensely personal questions, often times questions about friends and family members sitting a few feet away from the contestant. The more questions you answer "truthfully," the more money you get. If you get caught in a lie, you don't win *any* money. None!

The questions start off rather innocuous and get progressively harder as the cash value goes up. So you start with a question like "Have you ever cheated on a college exam," progress to a question like "Have you ever done anything that would make your significant other lose trust in you" and progress (digress???) to a question like "Have you avoided having kids with your significant other (the one sitting right next to the contestant, mind you) due to a belief that you won't be with your significant other in 5 years?"

It's the most utterly perverse show that I've ever seen. It's what a show would look like if "Jerry Springer" and "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" combined forces. And on another level, it's really as simple in concept as "Deal or No Deal" is since all you need to do to win money is to "not lie." So the show is called "Moment of Truth," but it might as well be called "Would You Purposely Hurt Your Loved One's Feelings For Money?"

Because we all know that they're never going to cast "good people" on the show. They put me on that show and it's going to be as easy a ride to the 500,000 as there would ever be.

It's perverse. Yet, it's also one of the most distinctly American shows I've ever seen. We're such a money driven, fame geared society, that it makes sense that a show like this would even exist. All of our new game shows are somewhat American.

"Deal or No Deal" requires absolutely NO skill. You have a case with money and how much money you leave with depends on your willingness to risk leaving a contest with more money that you had coming into the show and leaving a show with a more substantial amount of money than you came in with.

Media always reflects a society's dreams and goals. And right now, our society is all about getting rich and famous at all costs. That's why 10,000 people show up at American Idol auditions. Sure, there are people there who care about the art of making music, but the *vast* majority of those people are there because an American Idol sponsored trip to Hollywood is the WIlly Wonka golden ticket to stardom.

They're trying for fame without the willingness to put in the hard work to get it. But what else would you expect from a society that produces children whose number one life goal is to be "famous." Not to be an astronaut. Not to be a firefighter. But to be famous.

- Matthew