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Shot At Love With Tila Tequila: The Complete Uncensored First Season (A)
R1 - America - Paramount Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Andreas Petersen (4th May 2008). |
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The Show
 Guilty pleasures are a funny thing. Everyone seems to have at least one thing that they love for some reason, but would be ashamed to admit it. These days, most guilty pleasures come in the form of reality television, with shows such as "American Idol" (2002-Present), "The Bachelor" (2002-Present), or "I’m Switching Moms" or something like that. As time goes on, it seems that certain gimmicks have to be thrown into the mix of a guilty pleasure show to make you feel even guiltier. Enter "A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila". The premise is dirty enough: “Entertainer” Tila Tequila, a bisexual woman, has strait men and lesbian women compete for her affections, and somehow is supposed to pass off as groundbreaking. The contestants are typical enough. You have a group of douchey guys, talking only about Tequila’s looks, and a group of man-hating lesbians, who offer sentiments towards the prize. When the show begins, Tila claims that she is “coming out of the closet” for the first time on the show, not even telling her parents. All the men’s responses are basically “Sweet bro!” and all the women’s responses are practically “This must be so hard for you, I went through this too, I’m so sensitive.” Somehow, I thought the stereotypical portrayal of strait men and gay woman was somewhat offensive. I have both lesbian friends and strait friends, none of which act anything like a single contestant on this show. Not to mention, when my gay friends came out of the closet, it wasn’t on a reality show, so I imagine Tila’s coming out has nothing in common with anyone else’s. Speaking of the contestants, damn did they piss me off. Save for the one charming Italian contestant, Domenico Nesci, I couldn’t stand anyone on the show. If you think reality TV is usually melodramatic, just wait till you see people fight over nothing. And I’m not talking about raising voices, but talking about fist fights. In one of the most unintentionally hilarious parts of the entire series, a woman is selected over another, who then promptly tackles the other in the middle of the ceremony. And this is far from the only physical altercation that takes place during the show. Of course these people were picked to come on the show because of their theatrical nature, I mean that’s just entertaining television, but I felt like I was watching bad actors, rather than exaggerated personalities. I mean, seriously, I don’t believe for a second any of these people fell in love with anyone. The show has this aura around it that it should be considered important for breaking boundaries. Yes, it is good to see a reality show that can equate the love between a woman and a woman with a man and a woman, but I wish it could be done with more taste. The show constantly makes a point that “This isn’t about choosing a man or a woman, but rather a person”, but for some reason, there is always an equal amount of girls and boys to antagonize each other, and to keep things even. If the show just wasn’t so damn orchestrated, maybe I could get behind what they were trying, but I just couldn’t. But isn’t that what makes guilty pleasures so great? You know what you’re watching is utter trash, but it just clicks for you, possibly for the concept alone. But for some reason, I can’t claim that I liked this show on any level, except for possibly after I watched the last episode. But if this sounds like the sort of show you’d like to watch behind your friends’ backs, by all means, indulge. This set includes all 11 season one episodes, and they are: - "Surprise! I Like Boys and Girls", running for 36 minutes and 45 seconds - "Can’t We All Just Get Along?", running for 39 minutes and 5 seconds - "Under the Covers", running for 39 minutes and 10 seconds - "A Broken Heart", running for 39 minutes and 18 seconds - "I Always Get What I Want", running for 39 minutes and 23 seconds - "The Cat Fight", running for 39 minutes and 36 seconds - "A Second Chance?", running for 39 minutes and 14 seconds - "Welcome to the Family", running for 39 minutes and 26 seconds - "Three’s a Crowd", running for 39 minutes and 26 seconds - "I Choose…", running for 38 minutes and 13 seconds - "The Final Round", running for 39 minute 37 seconds.
Video
"A Shot at Love" is presented in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio. The show looks good enough for all intents and purposes. The colors aren’t popping off the screen, but considering this is just some trashy reality show, it looks about as good as it should. The show looks clean and clear, as though I were watching it on TV with great reception.
Audio
"A Shot at Love" is offered in an English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo audio track. Much like the picture, the sound is nothing amazing, but it works for a show with this format. While most of the sound and music came out clear enough, there were some instances where people were yelling or fighting, and their mics would peak or be muffled, and on rare occasions, nothing was done to correct this, making a few instances of audio difficult to hear. There are no optional subtitles.
Extras
Paramount has released "A Shot at Love" with extras that come in the form of extended and deleted scenes, as well as some bonus trailers, all of which are on the third disc and include: The extended scenes include: - "Girls Cat Walk", running for 11 minutes and 29 seconds, in which the lesbian cat-walk scene from the first episode is shown in its entirety. - "Guys in Heels", running for 8 minutes and 18 seconds, in which the fashion show with the men wearing high heels is shown in its entirety. - "Foam Party", running for 5 minutes and 47 seconds, in which we are privy to the un-cut footage of the hunt for the poker chips in the pool of foam. - "Car Wash", running for 7 minutes and 38 seconds, in which the car cleaning scene is presented un-cut. - "Ashley vs. Marcus Poolside", running for 4 minutes and 10 seconds, in which the fight between the cowboy and hustler is presented un-cut. - "Brandi & Rebecca Make Out", running for 1 minute and 51 seconds, extends the kiss between the two girls. - "Brandi vs. Vanessa", running for 6 minutes and 24 seconds, which shows more footage of the tension between the group leading up to the iconic fight. - "Brandi vs. Vanessa Elimination", running for 7 minutes and 35 seconds, shows the full cut of the iconic brawl. The deleted scenes include: - "Spin the Bottle", which runs for 9 minutes and 17 seconds, in which the group plays the popular party game. - "Waxing", running for 4 minutes and 42 seconds, in which all the guys get waxed. - "Strip Club", running for 7 minutes and 7 seconds, in which everyone in the group gets their turn on the pole. - "Brandi & Vanessa Shower", running for 2 minutes and 57 seconds, in which the soon-to-be-mortal-enemies shower together. - "Ashley vs. Bobby", running for 7 minutes and 28 seconds, in which Ashley’s freak out is extended. - "Ashley vs. Marcus", running for 4 minutes and 9 seconds, extends the first fight between the cowboy and the hustler. Also included are some bonus trailers for: - "Jackass 2.5" running for 1 minute and 3 seconds. - "Rob and Big Seasons 1 & 2" running for 40 seconds. - "The Animation Show Volume 3" running for 57 seconds. - "The Hills Season 3" running for 2 minutes and 25 seconds.
Overall
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