The Big Break

I know that this may come off as sounding snobbish on my part, but I do not watch the competitive "reality shows" on TV.  I used to be a huge fan of "Survivor", but that show jumped the shark, in my mind, anyway, about five or six years ago, and I haven't watched it since.  And I have never seen a single episode to American Idol, America's Got Talent, Dancing With the Stars, The Voice or any of the dozens of such shows that liter the TV landscape.

I do have one exception to this rule, however, and that is Golf Channel's "The Big Break".  I love this one, and the current season, "Big Break Mexico" is living up to all Big Break expectations.  This season has a twist to it.  Twelve golfers, six men, six women, divided into three teams of four (2 men, 2 women).  No one was eliminated until the fifth show of the season, at which point, four golfers got the ax. From this point forward, one golfer will go in each show.

My absolute favorite element of this show, and it never changes, is the bravado all of these participants have.  When given the challenge facing them in a given show, the golfers will invariably state something along these lines: 

"I was thrilled that it was a bunker shot / flop shot / drive / chip-and-putt, because I'm great at bunker shots / flop shots / driving / chipping-and-putting.  That shot is my bread and butter. I really wanted that shot!"  

We are then treated to seeing these golfers totally screwing up the shot presented to them, and playing the shot like some hacker at the local muni.  In other words, playing the shot like I might play it.

Big Break Mexico's team concept also introduced a new element to the program with the players all talking about the all-for-one nature of team competition while at the same time back-biting and putting down their own team members when away from them. Then there are the tears when someone gets eliminated.  Fabulous!

Each show also has one player who talks tough, says he (or she) is out to win this thing, I know I'm better than everyone, and I don't care about any of these other people, because this is going to me MY Big Break.  This year it was a bearded blond guy with glasses named Rob who assumed the role.  You can guess what happened.  Rob was eliminated when he drove deep into woods, took three shots to hack his way out and snowmanned a par five. 

It's classic stuff and the breathless commentary of Brit Tom Abbot and Stephanie Sparks only add to all of the pseudo- drama.

God help me, but I love it!