I’m starting to think digital cable is just not enough for me.

First I lose MTV Canada to Razer and now I discover an incredible new reality show on a channel only accessible in Canada by satellite (it appears on FX in the US)! Sigh. I have resorted to “acquiring” episodes (shh!) and despite the questionable legality of doing so, this show is worth it.

This show I speak of is called “30 Days” and is the brainchild of clever documentarian Morgan Spurlock, the man who forever turned me off of fast food with his Oscar-nominated doc “Supersize Me”.

The concept is simple: for 30 days a person is forced to live a lifestyle totally foreign to them, and must abide by set rules, all in the hopes of gaining a greater awareness of different lifestyle. Comfort zones be damned.

Along the way, Spurlock guides the viewer with his narration, clips of conversation with people on the street about their opinions, as well as basic explanations of the issues in each respective episode.

One episode plops an ultra-conservative homophobic red-stater right in the heart of American gay culture in San Francisco where he is forced to live with a gay roommate, play on a gay sports team, attend gay-friendly Church services and the like.

Another episode shows Spurlock himself (and his fiancee) trying to live on American minimum wage for a month, the equivalent of about $5.50 US. The show’s website even includes a fun (yet sadly realistic) “game” where you enter how much you spend monthly on necessities such as food, shelter, and transportation to see how long you would last.

Let’s just say I wouldn’t last too long.

Though I haven’t seen all the episodes, of the ones I have seen, my favourite centered around David Stacy, a 33-year-old practicing Christian who must live as a Muslim for 30 days, adopting the strict customs of his host family in Dearborne, Michigan, a city densely populated with a large Muslim community.

From day one, Stacy must grow a beard, wear traditional robes and is forced to fly from his home in West Virginia in full attire. He faces the first hint of “different treatment” when surprise, surprise: Stacy is met with bewildered stares from people at the airport and is singled out for a security check and made to take off his shoes.

For the duration of his stay, Stacy takes Arabic classes, only consumes Halal meat, gives up alcohol and pork, learns how to pray, and tries to reconcile the image he has of Muslims with the reality he is faced with. His largest struggle throughout his time was his difficulty “accepting” a religion that does not believe Jesus is the Son of God.

When sent out to get signatures for an anti racial profiling petition, Stacy is forced to come face to face with those who view all Muslims as terrorists.

At the end of the show, Stacy seems to walk away much wiser and more accepting of the religion, acknowleging that he would defend it if he had to.

While I really appreciated the episode, my only criticism was that it seemed as though Spurlock purposely picked an extremely religious family that, I would argue, is not necessarily representative of the majority of American or even North American Muslims. While extreme culture shock IS the point of the show, I would have liked to Stacy placed with a “less religious family” so he could see the vast similarities between his own life and theirs, and not just the differences.

Nonetheless, if you have FX watch this show, if you don’t find a way to see it, it will not only open the eyes of the person featured, but maybe yours as well.






Related Stories: