By JAKE KRING-SCHREIFLS

STAFF WRITER

I don’t consider myself to be a part of the male demographic Spike TV attempts to target for their daily programming, but The Joe Schmo Show, in the middle of its first season, is hitting me in all the right spots. The show is all fake. One person doesn’t know that. Spike TV, copying its predecessors, has formulated a reality show searching for the next best bounty hunter in which 10 participants compete. One of those contestants is named Chase, a former greens keeper who attacks every competition with an intensity and seriousness that is laughably inspiring. Why wouldn’t he? He’s trying to win $100,000 and become the next greatest bounty hunter. Well, maybe because everyone else in the competition is an actor. Like I said, the show is all fake, but Chase doesn’t know it.

It is cruel when you think about the fact that Chase will eventually find out. But, the show is predicated on the fact that he remains duped for as long as possible. Among the “characters” in this competition are a gay black man, a deaf woman, an ex-convict and a host with a trophy wife he won’t let talk. It’s all perfectly hilarious when you watch the games they play with Chase, even more so when they break character and Chase has inklings that this show isn’t all that it seems.

I can not say how ethical these circumstances are, or the amount of psychological damage this poor soul, who thinks he’s becoming a bounty hunter, will experience. But, he will receive that paycheck if he goes the whole way, and he will become a star, in one way or another. There are several episodes left until its finale. It’s never too late to latch on. I never thought I would be promoting a Spike TV show, but I bet Chase never thought he would be on one, especially in this manner.