Identity

I've always been a bit of a sucker for a good game show. I think it comes from watching Jeopardy in the afternoons with my mom, and also, as a more special treat, The Price is Right when I was home sick or on a break from school.

I haven't really gotten into any of the newer ones that have sprung up in the last few years, though. I didn't like the way the host of Weakest Link was so mean (yes, I realize that's the point), Millionaire was ok until it was on every night...and now that Meredith Veira is the host, I really can't stand it (ok...her), and I actually have never watched Deal or No Deal.

But then, when on our cruise, we turned on the TV one of the last nights we were there because we were exhausted and the thought of getting off our comfy bed was simply impossible. After flipping through the channels, we realized we could either watch an in-house ad for Carnival Cruises, or we could watch Identity, a new game show on NBC with Penn Teller as the host. We went for Identity.

And I actually really liked it. As I'm sitting here writing this, my husband tells me that he thinks it's dumb and doesn't want to be associated with this post in any way, but I'll stand by what I said. I like the show :)

The basic idea of the show is that there are 12 strangers and 12 identities, and the contestant has to match each stranger to an identity. Some of the identities are professions, some are hobbies, some have to do with age or religion or weird talents or contests the stranger has won. Some of the matches are pretty obvious--it's not too tricky to pick out a bodybuilder, or a lingerie model, or a George Bush lookalike. But some are really hard, like the woman who looks like a supermodel but turns out to be an astronomer. The contestant gets a few gimmicks to help him or her out--they can ask a panel of experts about one identity, for example, and after they have successfully matched several identities with strangers, three of their friends come onstage to give them advice.

When I watched it on the cruise, I saw the episode where Christina Howard won $500,000 (the show's top prize). She was really excited and wore her heart on her sleeve, and it made for a fun episode to watch. The episode I watched tonight had less interesting contestants, but I still enjoyed it because it contains that element that I like in both Jeopardy and The Price is Right--the feeling that I could do just as well, if not better, than the current contestant, and if I were only there, I would be totally rich.

Penn Jillette is interesting to watch as host of the show. I find his hand gestures pretty distracting and he has this irritating way of drawing out his words, but if I can tolerate Alex Trebek's snarky comments and Bob Barker's perma-tan, I can easily handle this.

But what I find most intriguing about the show is how it forces people to be upfront about their preconceived notions of others. During the episode with Christina, she had to pick out a hula dancer, and she kept leaning toward the Asian woman even though she said she knew hula dancers don't have to be Asian. For some reason, the show makes people feel comfortable enough to talk about their expectations regarding race, gender, beauty, and other physical traits in a remarkably upfront way. And perhaps that's where the lasting value of Identity lies.