Television German Style

I'm getting my weekly fix of American tv, well as close as possible; I'm watching "Sex and the City" in German. I only ever saw the final episode in America, in English, and really started watching the show here, so I basically only know these 4 characters with their German voices. On next is Desperate Housewives. Then tomorrow it's "OC California".... Later in the week it's back to German versions of "Super Nanny," "Mommy Swap," etc. Nothing beats the newest show "Bauer Sucht Frau," translated to: "Farmer Seeks Wife."

German tv tends to be pretty close to real thing, well, apart from really poorly acted court tv shows. But reality tv in Germany is shown fairly close to what actually happened, or at least closer than the highly manipulated American reality tv. The shows tend to be longer and give you a chance to see the characters a little more in depth. When I think back to watching "Average Joe" in the States, the only way they could really justify bringing on less than perfect looking dating hopefuls was to call them average and give them a mask so the girl didn't send them away with their bags packed after the initial hello. Instead, the point was to fall in love with the men for their personalities (what a concept)...but in the end (and this happened in both of the show series I saw) the girl ended up choosing one of the hunky, built model men that came in at the end to test her true character.

Now, keeping in mind what I mentioned about "sticking pretty close to the real thing", in the reality show "Farmer Seeks Wife," dashing looks aren't an issue, apparently. In the first episode they showcased the several farmer bachelors. Hunky bachelor farmers? Rich bachelor farmers? No, ugly, socially awkward bachelors, many of which still living with their parents in their 30s/40s. But all hope is not lost, for German women were encouraged to write letters to the farmer pick of their choice and win the chance of him picking her and making it onto the show. Each bachelor was allowed to choose two lucky ladies to woo on tv. While a couple of the better looking unattractive bachelors got an abundance of letters (one got 30), a few of them men were happy to get 2 each. It certainly made their decision easier as to whom to bring on the show.

But the show is charming. Even with their balding heads, bad style and less than suave moves with the ladies, some are really finding love. Now the big test is to see if the ladies can manage a new life of farmer's wife: cooking, cleaning, helping pigs give birth...