If you’ve ever made a list of things to do then “The Buried Life” (premiering January 18 at 10pm on MTV) might just be the perfect show for you.
Now this ain’t no bucket list like in that awful film with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. This is a group of wild and crazy young guys who decided to come up with a list of 100 things they wanted to do before they died, everything from sneaking into the Playboy Mansion to taking a kid out on a toy-buying spree. But the caveat they added is that for every item they complete on their list, they have to help a stranger achieve one of his or her dreams. Since they end up relying on people and sometimes strangers to achieve their goals, they thought it was only right to return the favor. They also wanted to encourage others to create and pursue their own lists, and to help out others as well.
So everywhere they go they ask the question: What do you want to do before you die?
The shows are fast-paced and energetic with the four guys – Duncan, Ben, Dave, and Jonnie – displaying appealing personalities. They manage to straddle goofy frat boy prankishness with compassion for others and social consciousness. The two episodes I screened had the balance tipped toward the goofy fun and didn’t spend that much time with the strangers they were helping, even though one was a man who had not seen his son in decades and the other was a teacher trying to get a working computer for his classroom. But then with the show is airing on MTV so the balance may be appropriate for its audience.
This is reality TV but with a heart, which so far has been a rarity. There’s also massive online supplements for the show on FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr. So you can make your own list, check out others’ lists, watch posted videos, checkout their photo albums, and more. They want to share their pay it forward attitude and spread it through cyberspace – and maybe become celebrities at the same time.
So if you’re making a list of thing to do today, add “Watch ‘The Buried Life’ tonight at 10pm of MTV.’”
Now let me see what else did I want to do… go to Japan, run a horror film festival, help my friends get their movies made, be a disemboweled zombie in someone’s movie….
