Product Description
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From Morgan Spurlock, the Academy Award nominated writer,
director, and star of the hit film Supersize Me, comes Thirty
Days, the intelligent and innovative TV show that dares to ask:
Â"Do we really know what itÂ's like to see the world through our
neighborsÂ' eyes?Â"
Explore some of AmericaÂ's most pressing social issues by
following the lives of ordinary people who agree to live
well-outside their comfort zones for thirty days: Spurlock and
his fiancÃ(c)e try to make ends meet by working minimum wage
jobs, a devout Christian immerses himself in Islamic culture, a
phobic young man goes to live and work in San FranciscoÂ's
largely-gay Castro District, and more. Provocative, poignant, and
hilarious, Thirty Days is a true originalÂ...often unpredictable
and always eye-opening!
.com
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A reality show that's entertaining and smart? Sounds about as
oxymoronic as it gets, but Morgan Spurlock has pulled it off with
30 Days. With this series (offered here on two discs containing
six episodes and a variety of bonus material), Spurlock, who got
a 2005 Best Documentary O nomination for Super Size Me, his
record of a harrowing month spent on a strict McDonald's-only
diet, has effectively taken his act to the not-so-small screen.
The premise: put "normal" middle-class Americans (in this case,
all of them white) into situations where they are way out of
their comfort zones, archetypal fish out of water who must spend
30 days experiencing how the other half lives. Thus we have tales
involving a Christian from West Virginia who lives with a Muslim
American couple in Dearborn, Michigan; a straight dude from rural
Michigan who moves in with a sexual roommate in San
Francisco's Castro District, "the gayest place on Earth;" and a
mother in Phoenix who, concerned about her daughter's excessive
drinking at college, goes on her own heavy alcohol binge.
Spurlock himself is the subject of an episode in which he and his
fiancé try to subsist on the minimum wage, while the only one
that doesn't fit the mold concerns an out-of-shape 34-year-old
man trying to find the fountain of youth by embarking on a strict
regimen of exercise, diet, and major doses of steroids and Human
Growth Hormone pills.
The stories don't all have happy endings: the Phoenix woman's
drinking has no affect whatsoever on her daughter, and the
steroid guy drops out when his sperm count almost immediately
drops to zero. But the discomfort felt by the others seems
genuine, as do the lessons in tolerance and cultural
understanding they eventually learn, even given the artificial
confines of reality TV. What's more, Spurlock provides some real
information along the way, telling us how many drinks it takes to
be over the legal limit in Arizona (five s ought to do it) or
how many passages in the Bible are interpreted as proscribing
sexuality (six), detailing the negative side effects of
"anti-aging" medicines (too many to list here), and offering
in into such Muslim customs as prayer and fasting (the
Christian dresses in Muslim garb and even learns a little
Arabic). Extra features include commentary (by Spurlock and
others) on four of the episodes, as well as "Diary Cams"
(outtakes, basically) for all six. --Sam Graham