Wifey Swap

Every day I find myself getting stuck on watching Wife Swap. I have seen some pretty ridiculous families. The first time I saw the show I knew I would like it when one of the husbands was calling his new wife a Sasquatch. If you find yourself home during the day, I would watch this show.

I don't know what it is about the producers of this show and MTV's True Life (a favorite show of mine) obsession with Ohio, but they are always filming there. If I had to guess, I'd have to say 50% of the families on this show are from Ohio. Perhaps that is part of my fascination with the show.

The concept is, if you are not familiar, two families get chosen to undergo the swap. The two wives switch families for two weeks. The first week, they follow the lifestyle of the family they are in and the second week the wife takes over with her own lifestyle and rules. Usually emotions fly and tempers flair and arguments are the center of attention. On no other show have I seen more grown men weep. WEEP! Sometimes I don't understand what the wives are thinking. The women sometimes act like they HAVE to change the families they live with but I believe they are just supposed to take in for a week and then suggest for another week.




The kids are generally what make the show for me. I feel really bad for the kids who are clearly brainwashed. But the misbehaved ones are the best. That is good TV! So far my favorite one was out of a movie. Literally out of Talladega Nights. The kids in this movie are some of my most beloved characters in any movie. Running around screaming ANARCHY! and talking all trailer trashy. But in this one episode, these kids were REAL. From the language/accent to the 8 year old stealing a car and almost running the new mom over in the mud, right down to the red hair they have. It was amazing.

Lately, the families are getting weirder and weirder. It's no longer matching up a messy house with an OCD house. There is a goth family. A family who thinks they live in the Medival Times and a clown family. A family who thinks they live in 1800 swapping with a rock-n-roll household.

Highlights for me in Season 4 because thats been my favorite season so far:

Ohio family Martin-Portala who are all magicians. The Galvin wife comes in and tells him he is a joke and attempts to make him get a "real" job. As ridiculous as the magician family is, he makes a living off of it and I thought it was way out of line to make him do this and the way she spoke to him.

Stockdale/Tonovick families. Again, an Ohio farm town family, home-schooled, no outside world connections. They swap with an Illinois family who has two kids, and their live-in boyfriend and girlfriend. Chaos and outside forces vs. sheltered and organized. It's one thing to enforce and preach your beliefs on your children but how can you possibly think they will end up somewhat normal if they haven't even met a female, let alone another male, at the age of 20? My favorite line from this episode was when they met a couple of "outsider rappers" and the white kid goes "I like those guys. They seem like good guys and I wish we could have more time to chill with them." Just think along the lines of farmboy Jimbo chillin with Tupac. No no no.