Harsh Realities

Other than sports and a little Spongebob now and then, our kids don't watch much television. Recently, however, Lil' Wingnut has discovered a passion for a History Channel offering called Top Shot. It's your typical reality competition show in which two teams square off against each other and the losing team sends home one of it's weakest members until there is only one competitor left standing. In this particular show, the contestants are all expert marksmen with various weapons and each week they compete using a different weapon selected by the show producers. They use everything from tomahawks to Berettas, from compound bows to Civil War era rifles. To add to the excitement and entertainment, the show employs super slow motion camera shots and at times explosive targets. Lil' Wingnut loves it. Due to occasional unbleeped language and aired commercials, we DVR the show and fast forward through the reality banter and advertising.

Lil' Wingnut loves his heroes and he always has a favorite to root for on his program. This last week, his favorite shot had a very weak showing in the team competition and was put up for elimination. In the elimination round, the two perceived weakest players battle it out for survival. Poor Lil' Wingnut was distraught that his guy had to fight for his life in the game. He covered his eyes and declared he just could not watch. The competition was so close, we could not tell in the end who had won and lost until the host announced dramatically that Lil' Wingnut's guy was indeed the loser by one missed target. Our lil' guy was completely beside himself with grief. It ruined his whole evening and he spent and good 10 minutes weeping over his spoiled hero. Good grief! He's still undecided as to whether he will continue watching this season. Why bother when his favorite is already gone?