Recently, while floating on a Vicodin-induced cloud, following my knee surgery, I was left with little to do but watch television.  Now, as many of you know, I do quite a bit of this in the best of times, but when you can’t walk, and you’re all doped-up, what you do for fun becomes simply what you do.

For whatever reason, I’ve avoided hopping on the Reality Television bandwagon – mostly for the simple reason that I really have been unable to care about any of the in shows like American Idol, The Bachelor, and Survivor.  For a white hot minute after the Super Bowl, I thought I’d found hope in The Voice, but alas, after 3 weeks in a row of the judges wearing the same outfits, I was over it.

So what do I like in my Reality TV?  Crazy people with talent.  Crazy people without talent.  People with crazy talent.  Okay, so the talent is a bonus; so long as I get my crazies.  But it’s gotta be a certain kind of crazy to lure me in.

There’s Project Runway and it’s new spin-off, Project Runway All-Stars (now entering its season finale) – both on Bravo.  The designers are all talented (some more so than others), they produce pretty things, and the show provides star-quality guest-judges each week (i.e., Patricia Field, Pharrell Williams, John Varvatos).  Plus, between Tim Gunn’s dry but sincere delivery as mentor, and Michael Kors’ wry (and bitchy) comments as a judge, it’s a gas, gas, gas.

Dance Moms comes to us from Pittsburg, PA and involves the competition dance team from the Abby Lee Miller Dance Company and their weekly competitions that take the troupe of tween girls and their wine-swilling moms all over the country.  This is NOT a show about dancers, but rather about their stage-mothers – and, in the words of the girls on the stroll, “Those bitches be crazy.”  Next month, Lifetime is debuting Dance Moms – Miami.  I’m definitely looking forward to some salsa-flavored crazy!

And then there’s Ru.  RuPaul’s Drag Race has become the top-rated show on the LOGO network, and is it any wonder why?  Drag Race combines wit, fashion, cattiness, performance art, goofy challenges, and all done in glorious Technicolor.  With Mathu and Zaldy in her style and fashion holsters, RuPaul makes sure that she’s the belle of the ball, while bff Michelle Visage is buxom, brassy, and ballsy.  And for people wanting to see the fur (and wigs and lashes and jew’ries) fly, now there’s Untucked: RuPaul’s Drag Race – a behind the scenes show that shows the queens reclining and drinking Absolut cocktails in the Interior Illusions Lounge, while the judges deliberate.  And those guest-judges!  Elvira, Kelly Osbourne, LaToya Jackson, Henry Rollins, and Jackie Collins – werk!

So, that’s what I’ve been doing for the past couple weeks.  Don’t hate me for my crazies!

RuPaul’s Drag Race – LOGO
Dance Moms – Lifetime
Project Runway – Bravo

Get into it!