As America is apparently bored with putting shallow people in an alcohol-filled fishbowl and forcing them to fornicate, the next generation of reality television seems to be taking many of its cues from Stephen King’s The Running Man (which may not end well—did you read it?). First Michael Bay announced plans for One Way Out, his “no rules” game in which contestants compete to see who can file a reckless endangerment suit against Bay the fastest; now Ron Howard and Brian Grazer are developing their own action-adventure reality show for TNT, The Great Escape. As you would expect from the wham-bam team behind Parenthood, the show has everyday people dealing with dramatic situations while trying to balance work, family, and their own need for love and sexual fulfillment. Or rather, it’s mostly everyday people dealing with dramatic situations—specifically, being “dropped off blindfolded in a different extreme environment—lost in the desert, trapped in the mountains, locked in a prison, marooned on an island”—all of which draw inspiration from similar settings in the movies. Teams must then work together to fight their way out of their predicament and collect the cash prize. (Then they tear each other apart with chainsaws, right? When do we get to that?)
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