'No Boundaries' Preliminary Review

Yes, I did volunteer to review this show, but not because of a deeply rooted admiration for reality television – quite the contrary, actually.

Okay, please indulge me in a moment of brutal honesty (as if you have a choice…) I really, really want this show to suck. Why? Because it’s just so much more fun to review a bad show than a good one. So when I found out that it is being aired on the WB Network…well, I figured the odds were certainly in my favor.

The Gist:

15 people between the ages of 19 and 53 are trekking through Canadian wilderness from Vancouver Island, British Columbia through the Yukon onward to the Arctic Circle. These brave folks will be traveling by any number of means, the most eye-catching one being by llama. (Look out – I think they spit. Or is it camels that spit? And will this be the burning question by the end of the first episode?) During their journey they will be partaking in various extreme sports – rock climbing, canoeing through rapids, rappelling, kayaking among glaciers, white water rafting, bushwhacking…

…um, I’m going to leave that last one alone. You get the picture, though.

The group will travel as a team, but every two days will have to pick a new leader. This lucky person is the next guide as well as the meanie who has to cut a member from the team at the end of that leg. The “most resourceful leader” of the 30-day voyage gets $100 grand and a Ford Explorer Sport Trac.

I think the coolest thing about this show will be the scenery. (Perhaps we’ll catch a glimpse of Yukon Cornelius and his mighty pick ax.)

The Contestants:

Kirsten, 19 – Nursing Student
Theresa (“Rosie”), 21 – College Student and Aerobics Instructor
Sharon, 22 – Marine Veteran
John, 24 – Graduate Student in Public Health
Matt, 24 – Youth Counselor
Eli, 25 – Pre-med Student
Rob, 25 – Communications Consultant
Allen, 25 – Medical Student
Kelly, 26 – Advertising Account Executive
Ina, 27 – Director of Corporate Fitness Company and Competitive Racer
Jesse, 28 – Cable Television Installer
Stephanie, 30 – Sales Representative for Surfwear Company
Dustin, 33 – Director of Investor Relations
Jill, 48 – Dental Hygienist
Todd, 53 – Veterinarian

There’s an awful lotta kids in the medical field here… I wonder if they set that up for a reason. (This is a self-proclaimed lower-budget show, after all…)

Anyway, the producers of this show claim that they “have not typecast ‘the jerk’ or ‘the nice person.’” (We’ll just have to wait and see about that one.) This show’s array of competitors has certainly been arranged by the basic reality show appeal-to-every-demographic system, with the 80% twenty-to-thirty-somethings, the lone teenager, and the token late-forties female and early-fifties male. But since I hold myself to the high standard of not prejudging people (ahem), I will wait until the first episode airs to begin my character analyses.

The Host and the Guide

Troy Hartman, Host – he’s an actor and the host of MTV’s Senseless Acts of Video.
Melanie McLaren, Guide – she’s a model.

Again, I will refrain from further comment until I actually watch the show. But…well…you can refer to my earlier remark about this airing on the WB.

My Preliminary Summary

Amazing Race meets Survivor. As far as I can tell, this ain’t nuthin’ new.

Enjoy, folks, and remember – bumbles bounce.

(For more details, log on to www.noboundariestv.com)

Dana can be contacted at LilDanaSunshine@msn.com.

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