Calling All Fans of The Mole!

I'm a self-proclaimed reality TV junkie. My list of favorite TV shows consists of mostly reality competitions. For the longest time, I refused to admit to myself how completely obsessed I was with reality TV, but that's definitely become a thing of the past. Over the years, I've discovered more and more reality shows that have been added to my favorites list. But, in recent memory, none of them has stuck with me quite as much as the purported "smartest reality show ever," The Mole. 

Quite honestly, there isn't a ton of discussion online anymore about the Mole, given its age, but I know that the fandom is small but mighty, given the things that I do see popping up around the internet (Rob Has A Podcast episodes, Twitter hashtags, and the constant questioning of Anderson Cooper). Because of this (and my obsession with the show) I came up with the idea of doing a blog series- or starting a separate blog- for all things related to The Mole. My ideas are all over the place right now, but I wanted to throw it out there to see who bites.

For the uninitiated, allow me to explain. In the Mole, a group of contestants compete in missions/games, each of which can earn them money for the group pot that a single contestant will win in the end. But, there's a catch. One of the contestants is a saboteur-- The Mole. This person is not competing for the money, but is instead working with production to sabotage the missions and make the group lose games, thus keeping them from earning money. The real contestants' prime objective is to discover which among them is the mole. At the end of each episode, they take a quiz, and whichever contestant scores the worst on the quiz is executed (eliminated from the competition), whittling down the contestants. Only the last 3 people make it to finale, where there is a winner, a loser, and a mole. 

Throughout the season, the audience is also in the dark as to The Mole's identity, which is definitely the most fun part of the show. Viewers are given hints throughout the season to help them discover the identity of the Mole, alongside the player's confessionals and hypotheses about who the Mole could be. 

If you're like me and enjoy the hidden saboteur trope a la Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, this series will be like candy to you. Or caffeine. Or drugs. You get the point. It's addicting and you won't want to stop watching. But, unlike a lot of other reality shows, this game is really smart and keeps your brain active throughout the entire process. You find yourself making accusations constantly and often distrusting someone that you trusted just last episode. I can't say enough about how clever and fun this show is. 

Side note: Anderson Cooper is the best host of all time.

So that's my pitch. I'd definitely suggest that if you haven't checked it out and the premise sounds interesting, give it a shot. I don't think you'll be disappointed. All the US Seasons are available on YouTube, and will be linked at the end of this post. However, persuading you to watch the show isn't the main point of my post. Instead, it's to discuss this potential blog series. 

As aforementioned, I've been wanting to start this for a while, but I have a ton of different ideas as to what to do with it, and I could use some guidance. I think that, at least as a starting point, I'd like to go episode by episode doing recaps and discussing everything going on. I think that the best way to do this would be to have a spoiler-free section of each post for newbies that might be reading, but then a spoiler-filled section at the end where I can discuss the clues and Mole activity throughout the episode. Other ideas that I think would be fun include rankings of the seasons and rankings of the moles. Maybe best winner rankings as well.  

Past that, I could use some advice. Mole fans, what would you like to see from a blog series on The Mole? What topics would you want to discuss? What do you think would be most helpful for the newbies in these posts?

Mole newbies: If you'd like to follow along with my posts and watch the show as I discuss it, that would be awesome! I'm going to start with US season 1 and work my way through in order. It'll be about a month before I get anything started (because I'm finishing up a series on Project Runway designer rankings), but I hope to get things going sometime in August. 

Let me know down in the comments what ideas you might want to see in a potential Mole series and what you think of the ideas I've discussed in the post!

The Mole (US) on YouTube:

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Season 5

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Book of the Month: You Are Not So Smart by David McRaney

Hey, y'all! One of my goals for 2014 is to read at least one non-school related book per month. I have a separate reading goal for over the summer, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there! Anyway, I realized that since I've been in college, constantly surrounded by friends, and bombarded by homework, I haven't had time to read. Or, at least, I haven't taken the time to read. I mean, I haven't even reread Harry Potter in the last couple years, which is a crime in itself.

I figured that since I'm attempting this goal, I should blog about it (because whenever I ask myself if I should blog about something, my mental response is "why not?!"). As of now, I haven't chosen a book for February yet, but I have a feeling that by the end of this, I'll have chosen one. It'll probably be pictured at the end of this post. I do, however, already have a March book chosen, because there's a rather large book I've been wanting to read, and I'll have a bit more time to read while travelling in March.

Alright, on to the book! My January choice was You Are Not So Smart by David McRaney. Ever since I decided to study Psychology (along with my Music major), I've had a growing interest in nonfiction Psych books. I know, I know, when you hear the word nonfiction, it conjures thoughts of stuffy, boring books with overly intellectual prose that will put you to sleep. That's definitely not the case with this book.

You Are Not So Smart takes almost anything you believe about life and turns it on its head. McRaney takes you through 48 ways you're deluding yourself into believing something that just isn't true. If you're like me, you see this as a bit of a challenge. "Of course I'm not deluding myself! I've actually taken the time to think about my decisions and what influenced them." Cue a chapter about introspection and how you make things up to explain your decisions and opinions.

One thing that I really liked about this book is that McRaney never talks down to you. He's a journalist, not a psychologist, so he doesn't speak to you with technical terms that you don't understand. He explains concepts as if he's a friend, not someone with a Psychology doctorate trying to dumb things down for you to understand. He's already explaining why you're not so smart, so no one would want to continue reading if they felt like the author was talking down to them. There's also a very lighthearted and clever tone to his writing, which keeps the reader engaged. You can tell upon reading the book that he's a funny and witty person. Another thing that he does which I really like is that he speaks directly to the reader several times, presenting a scenario and asking the reader to react to it. Usually he uses this to show you why you're just as deluded as everyone else.

Another factor to this book that I really enjoy is that it's divided into 48 chapters, each focusing on one of the ways people delude themselves. McRaney covers topics as well known as brand loyalty (c'mon, you didn't think you were loyal to just one brand because all their products are perfect, did you?), ones that are fairly commonplace in Psychology, like the Confirmation Bias, to completely random ones like "The Public Goods Game." 48 chapters may seem like a lot, but each chapter is short, and makes it easy to read it in small snippets of time, which is basically all I really have for reading.

Overall, I really enjoyed You Are Not So Smart. I feel like it's a book that is marketable to a much wider audience than most Psych books. Everyone at one point or another has wondered why they or someone else did something, and I feel like this book could explain almost any of those situations. There is a sequel out called You Are Now Less Dumb, and I might pick it up for an upcoming month.

As I predicted at the top, I have decided on a book, and already went out and bought it.

I'm obviously not going to talk about it in detail since I haven't read it and I'm going to do it next month once it's done, but it seems creepy and oddball, which is totally my thing. It's been sitting on my desk since Sunday and I really want to get started on it, but I'm not allowed to start until February. I'll probably post these "book of the month" posts either the last or second-to-last day of the month, depending upon where that falls. 

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed my little mini-review of You Are Not So Smart. Have you read it? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments! Don't forget to check back Saturday for chapter 2 of The Secret Lightning Scar! If you enjoy my posts, make sure to subscribe/follow, as it lets me know that you're enjoying what I'm doing. Thanks, y'all!