CHEATERS!

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Sweet cheeses, this show! A student of human behavior would have a field day with this show. It's gut-wrenching. When it's over nothing else captivates. It's like televisual cocaine. MUCH harder-core than COPS ever was because of the betrayal aspect, and the one-on-one (well, one-on-one-backed-up-by-a-camera-crew-and-a-producer) nature of the confrontations. It's like Hanle y's dream: no sueing, just bare knuckles!

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

If you don't know what it is, it's an American show featuring P.I.s who document infidelity, show the evidence to the suspicious spouse, and engineer a confrontation with all three parties. Nothing is spared. Phone calls made while canoodling - "yeah, honey, don't put the rice on until I get back". A 36 year old woman fucks her husband's best friend in the bathtub and the cameras are there, and her husband. It's panoptic and cruel, and your satisfaction at seeing the villains (and whoo boy are they villains) is tempered by how shattered the cheatees are. Hence the lurching feeling in the pit of your stomach.

One weird/problematic thing: confrontations are stripped of any and all information and history in order to fit the format of the show - extremely complex relationships are reduced to "he suddenly stopped showing affection" or the like - which makes Cheaters exceptionally nasty and brutal (do I need to mention voyeuristic? more psych-babble for you) but it outlines the crux of the problem much better than the people who are on the show seem to have done so far in their lives.

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Straight up, CHEATERS cannot be messed with on any level. Last year Max X was my fave raw-footage-based show but Cheaters (which I dimly remember hearing about YEARS ago (?)) is easily on top right now. The super-condensation of the whole relationship breakdown process you were talking about is harsh, yes, but I actually like it because it enhances the whole jarring blow-through vibe of the whole thing. I'm a desensitized young man and I like it hard fast and nasty. I know what you mean about having your satisfaction with the cheaters getting their card pulled being mellowed by cheatee-sympathy - I remember that TINY Frank Whaley looking kid just lose it, his little voice cracking and everything, his pigeon-looking blond piece (who was taller than him) just sobbing at a loss for words, the ho - I felt for that guy. Oh, don't forget the bit about the guy/girl who is being cheated *with*, who usually breaks down as well, hopelessly tries to weasel out, or just gets in the car and peels off. That's my kind of TV right deah.

― Ramosi, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Has anybody on t'other side of the Atlantic (i.e. America) seen The Chair yet? I read great things about it last week.

― Jonnie, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Click on the "air-times" tab to see if you get it in your city.... Offish site

― Ramosi, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Televising murders can't be far off. I am debating whether this is a good thing.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Tangental comment (ok not really) -- Is 'The Running Man' Arnold's most plausible movie plot ever?

― Kim, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Depends on who they're murdering.

― Ally, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

mosr plausible arnold movie plot was surely 'jingle all the way'?

― ethan, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

No, Twins.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Raggett, clearly you're on crack. I like it!

Somehow I missed that one Ethan, but my spidey-sense tells me that you're just being smart. hmm.

― Kim, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

no, it's just a lame christmas comedy about arnold trying to buy a power ranger for his kid and hilarity ensuing etc etc. not particularly realistic, but certainly his most believable storyline ever, considering.

― ethan, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Costarring Sinbad and Jake Lloyd. Ponder that as you choose.

Raggett, clearly you're on crack. I like it!

Hurrah!

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

wasn't phil hartman in it too? man he sure was in some shit movies for such a funny guy.

― ethan, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I miss Phil. :(

― Kim, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yeah, I was thinking about him the other day. A world without Troy McClure is a sad, lonely world.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

and lionel hutz, and bill mcneil, and unfrozen caveman lawyer! r.i.p. phil.

― ethan, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

two years pass...

this show fucking rocks

i wish someone was cheating on me so i could bust 'em.

― Ask For Samantha (thatgirl), Sunday, 25 April 2004 02:22 (twenty years ago) link

it's not on in new york! the reality channel on sky in the u.k. shows it, though. i think it's the main reason i keep going back.

― lauren (laurenp), Sunday, 25 April 2004 04:40 (twenty years ago) link

it's filmed here in Dallas! I really want to catch them busting somebody out on the street someday so I can be all, "Yo, you ain't gonna go out like that are you?" "Damn. . he be creepin' on you with a straight up ho!", etc.

― Ask For Samantha (thatgirl), Sunday, 25 April 2004 04:47 (twenty years ago) link

did you see the one where an angry cheater stabbed the host? CRAZY.

― lauren (laurenp), Sunday, 25 April 2004 04:52 (twenty years ago) link

hahah!!! I bet they were in the EDT for that ep. . .

― Ask For Samantha (thatgirl), Sunday, 25 April 2004 04:53 (twenty years ago) link

it was in a boat!

― Pablo Cruise (chaki), Sunday, 25 April 2004 04:59 (twenty years ago) link

it's gotta be hard to bust someone on a boat. . .

― Ask For Samantha (thatgirl), Sunday, 25 April 2004 05:01 (twenty years ago) link

thats why you gotta use a knife on joey greco

― Pablo Cruise (chaki), Sunday, 25 April 2004 05:03 (twenty years ago) link

that was the valentine's day episode this past february.

― lauren (laurenp), Sunday, 25 April 2004 05:04 (twenty years ago) link

this show makes me sad.

― Orbit (Orbit), Sunday, 25 April 2004 06:17 (twenty years ago) link

Tommy Grand = classic

― Dadaismus (Dada), Sunday, 25 April 2004 08:31 (twenty years ago) link

four years pass...

i don't know why i watch this. i'm embarassed.

hold on, tommy grand's yellin' at somebody!

― GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ, Friday, 18 July 2008 12:46 (fifteen years ago) link

also, there's an episode where a guy's cheating on his girlfriend with this other woman, they're in a public lake and swimming and fucking at night (as you do), and there are ducks behind them.

in the first shot of the them, they blurred the ducks' faces to conceal their identities. seriously, the best thing i've ever seen on tv.

duck-face-blurring video guy, you're a hero.

― GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ, Friday, 18 July 2008 12:56 (fifteen years ago) link

I don't understand the thinking of people who go on camera to catch their partners cheating. It's heartbreaking and idiotic = great tv.

― bingolola, Friday, 18 July 2008 14:04 (fifteen years ago) link

is tommy grand back?? or are you watching really old episodes?

― sunny successor, Friday, 18 July 2008 15:49 (fifteen years ago) link

i think the idea is that cheaters is a real pi service located on lovers lane in dallas texas and if your case is juicy enough and makes it to air your pi fees are waived. (xp)

― sunny successor, Friday, 18 July 2008 15:51 (fifteen years ago) link

is tommy grand back?? or are you watching really old episodes?

old episodes. they run them on G4 with a terrible overdubbed announcer (refers to everyone as "this dude" instead of "the suspect"). have been watching newer ones with joey greco, but tommy grand was the best.

― GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ, Friday, 18 July 2008 16:39 (fifteen years ago) link

old episodes. they run them on G4 with a terrible overdubbed announcer (refers to everyone as "this dude" instead of "the suspect").

great show somehow just got better

― deeznuts, Friday, 18 July 2008 16:40 (fifteen years ago) link

I don't understand the thinking of people who go on camera to catch their partners cheating. It's heartbreaking and idiotic = great tv.

-- bingolola, Friday, July 18, 2008 10:04 AM

do you think pro wrestling is real too?

― am0n, Friday, 18 July 2008 16:45 (fifteen years ago) link

OH SHIT I KNOW YOURE NOT SAYING CHEATERS IS FAKE

― GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ, Friday, 18 July 2008 16:46 (fifteen years ago) link

lol. this and max x and blind date are highly watchable

― am0n, Friday, 18 July 2008 16:48 (fifteen years ago) link

xp: my favorite obviously fake moment: totally clothed sex party with road cones, strobe lights and crime scene tape around the bed. also, i think some of the people were wearing clown makeup?

― GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ, Friday, 18 July 2008 16:49 (fifteen years ago) link

what, it could happen

― am0n, Friday, 18 July 2008 16:51 (fifteen years ago) link

is tommy grand back?? or are you watching really old episodes?

-- GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ, Friday, July 18, 2008 11:39 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

the announcer is the best part!

― sunny successor, Sunday, 20 July 2008 14:51 (fifteen years ago) link

three years pass...

I saw this show for the first time last night and it is amazing. There was an eight-month-pregnant woman who caught her man in a kayak with his lover, so she got in her own kayak, sailed to them and started assaulting them with a paddle. Televisual gold.

― boxedjoy, Monday, 9 July 2012 20:23 (eleven years ago) link

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