Quick Take: You Deserve It, “Michelle Brislen”
ABC's new game show tries to put heart in the quest for big bucks.
Review: You Deserve It, “Michelle Brislen”
(S0101) Forgive me if ABC’s new “feel-good” game show, You Deserve It, makes me feel kind of icky. I blame a small part of that on host Chris Harrison (The Bachelor), who after a zillion seasons corralling the shallow crazies of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette has me conditioned to involuntarily shudder and want to take a shower just from his mere presence. I’m sure he’s a lovely guy, but if you’re going to wallow in the mud for your supper, then you reap what you sow.
Mostly I feel so ambivalent about this show because You Deserve It isn’t even trying to be subtle with its attempt to manipulate emotions squarely on the back of some poor person’s misfortune.
The premise of You Deserve It is that a contestant plays a Deal or No Deal-esque trivia game on behalf of a friend or family member that really needs the money that will be won in the game. For example in the first episode, Stacey Finnerty steps up to play the game in the studio on behalf of her long-time friend, Michelle Brislen. Cue the nicely produced background video where we find out that Stacey and Michelle have been friends since they played soccer together in college. Michelle is a selfless gal who married her soul mate and had two kids. Life was perfect up until four months ago when Michelle’s husband went diving by himself and drowned. Now Michelle is wracked with money problems, and stress raising the two girls alone while mourning. Stacey and Michelle’s other friends want to help alleviate some of that stress by winning her gobs of money that will pay for health insurance and give her some peace of mind. That’s a wonderful thing to do for someone and Michelle Brislen seems like a deserving person of such sentiment and effort but those good intentions can’t help but be slimed up by the slick game show antics that make up the majority of this show.
First Harrison has no qualms about bringing up Michelle’s sad story to goose up Stacey’s emotions (and nerves) at every commercial break. Some might argue it’s context for viewers just tuning in, but the TV producer cynic in me knows there’s no point in framing a show around misfortune if you don’t salt the wound here and there for effect. Next Stacey gets to work her way up through rounds with incremental pots of money. She starts at $10,000 and works her way up to $250,000. She’s got to work out a mystery person, place or thing based on one free clue. If she can’t then the pot of money is broken down into nine incremental denominations, like $100 on up to $3000, which are hidden behind numbers. She’s got to select a number and hope it’s low because that amount is then deducted from the base sum. Every round that Stacey can’t figure out the clues, she’s got to pick another number and risk cutting a big chunk of money out of the game. When she is ready to guess, she commits and then the puzzle is revealed. If she’s right, then she gets the money that is leftover in the pot and moves onto another round.
What’s wrong with this setup is that on any other game show when a contestant is clueless, they’re just hurting themselves (or their family) for being a numbskull. On this show when Stacey is a moron for not guessing Lady Gaga as the answer based on pretty blatant clues for a person like “Noble Name” and “Paparazzi,” she’s costing her needy friend a lot of money. It’s pretty hard to root for someone that’s literally losing money that’s going to be used not just for greed but for need. On any other game show you’d laugh off Stacey’s brain farts but as she continues to wipe away large chunks of money the at home audience frustration level mounts even when you know winning anything is a plus. The truth is that there are true stakes in this show that a lot of people are sadly experiencing all over the country and it’s not much fun to watch people play games around vulnerable misfortune.
Adding insult to injury is the inclusion of hyper-perky Brooke Burns who gets to collect Michelle’s friends and family outside of some concocted scenario (Michelle and her kids are at a “special” movie screening) so they can ambush her at show’s end with the news of her winnings. Burke’s tone is over-the-top from start to finish and when she finally barges in with a camera crew to Michelle’s surprise with a video announcement from Stacey and the $100,000 prize amount, it plays like a disingenuous “Queen for a Day” moment on ‘roids. The real sentiment between Stacey and Michelle (which is genuine for a blip) gets steamrolled by Burke inserting herself awkwardly into the moment like she expects something more from these people. When she finally lets an overwhelmed Michelle off the hook to hug her family, you kind of want to punch Brooke in her smiley mug.
If you like the maudlin sentimentality of Extreme Makeover, You Deserve It might be in your wheelhouse. And again, I get the point and spirit of paying it forward in game show guise, but as my mother always says, “Giving from the heart doesn’t need to be announced” and this sideshow approach takes the real heart out of what could be a great concept.
nice TRIVIA GAME thank you