Image A- Sound A- Extras B
"Minimum Wage," "Anti-Aging," "Muslims and America," Straight Man in a Gay World," "Off the Grid," "Binge Drinking Mom"
by Travis Mackenzie Hoover The least interesting thing about Super Size Me was the gimmick for which we showed up. Morgan Spurlock's month-long Mickey-D's binge yielded nothing any reasonably well-informed person couldn't have guessed about fast-food nutritional horrors. Rather, it was the supporting information on the extent and pervasiveness of those horrors that made the film worth the effort. Of course, there are large numbers of people who won't invite facts into their home without entertainment as incentive, so maybe the Spurlock method is craftier than a first glance would suggest. In any event, we now have six more cases with which to test it: debuting on DVD in conjunction with its second-season premiere, his FX program "30 Days" puts the Month-Long Gimmick to work on a variety of unsuspecting innocents in the name of informing the public. And though there are limits to the success of each 44-minute episode, our man harmoniously blends information with rubbernecking.
Spurlock nobly volunteers for the first (and most unpleasant) episode, wherein he and vegan fiancée Alex Jamieson live on the minimum wage for the allotted 30-day stretch. At first, you're a tad alarmed by Spurlock's horror at depending on public transit (is he that ensconced in the comforts of privilege?), but this quickly gives way when the pair has to rely on absurdly small paychecks to cover not just food and rent but also surprise health problems that decimate their money pool. Genuine depression settles over the household since the little purchases that give pleasure are no longer possible–a matter compounded once Spurlock's niece and nephew visit to suck up more funds. The supporting data is right there to point out that such a lifestyle takes a devastating toll on emotions and marriages. Though Spurlock's initial obliviousness grates (especially to this veteran of the poverty line), his intentions are pure and the episode works.
Alas, a certain amount of schadenfreude feeds into the rest. Much of the show's appeal is the liberal baiting of a political innocent as he's plopped somewhere he's been taught to despise: the two quintessential episodes involve uptight Christians forced to live amongst gays ("Straight Man in a Gay World") and Muslims ("Muslims and America"), and they're wince-making affairs, to be sure. Both subjects resist their hosts to an agonizing degree, with the sucker living in SF's Castro district repeatedly asserting the sinfulness of homosexuality–to a gentle lesbian minister with the patience of an angel, no less. Each of our heroes winds up recanting his views, but while the Muslim episode is good at Islam 101, the gay episode fails to provide a sense of where the camera subject has found himself. Better is the funny episode in which a DJ and a club promoter are deposited into an environmentalist commune and forced to live without power or water (as well as recycle their own waste)–yet even there, we know the deck is stacked against them.
Thus the series' biggest drawback is that we're already primed about the subject getting more than they bargained for. I fear that the choir is receiving much of the preaching: on swallowing the format, we return again and again to see some schmuck doing something we already know is ill-advised or for his/her own good, which doesn't go very far towards convincing the nonbeliever. Where Super Size Me gave you the charts and visuals needed to apprehend the pervasiveness of fast food's health risks, the abbreviated "30 Days" episodes have to do more with less–and a couple of the episodes wind up rushing to the finish line as a result. Time is needed to suss out the complexities and mount a forceful argument, and Spurlock's a little short-changed in that department.
Still, he manages to salvage things by once again demonstrating the implications of his political subjects. Most of us could surmise that a regimen of hormones and steroids is not the sharpest of programs, but in the "Anti-Aging" episode, we're shown a shockingly smiley-faced doctor who's all too happy to ooze into a thirty-ish man's life, cause him liver damage, and trounce his sperm count. And while we're all pretty much aware that college students are dangerously attracted to binge-drinking, the episode where one such student's mother goes on a month-long bender forces one to reflect on the practice. The surprise is not that things happen, but the extent to which they do and the mechanisms by which they're made possible. They redeem Spurlock's often wobbly approach, rendering them far more than you would expect from someone on Rupert Murdoch's payroll, if not shattering exercises in documentary.
THE DVD
Fox's 2-disc set of "30 Days"' first season is reasonably good. The full-frame image is fairly sharp for DV, and though things are a tad softer than the optimum the image is subtly saturated and reasonably well-defined. The Dolby 2.0 stereo sound is similarly adequate. Extras begin with select episode commentaries that break down thusly:
1. "Minimum Wage" (Spurlock, Jamieson, executive producers R.J. Cutler and H.T. Owens)
Although this is a convivial commentary (lots of joking and cutting up), we get the impression that Spurlock and Jamieson were quite humbled by the experience of losing their financial comfort zone. Also of interest is the story of the origins of the project, and how Jamieson convinced Spurlock to appear in only one episode himself for the sake of their relationship.
2. "Anti-Aging" (Cutler, co-executive producer Jonathan Chinn, supervising producer Keith Hoffmann, lead story producer Max Swedlow)
Producers, producers everywhere: this is a perhaps eye-opening experience into how little Spurlock actually figures into each episode, with the bunch discussing how the segment was shaped and edited; they can't get out of a somewhat facile producerspeak, but the behind-the-scenes revelations are noteworthy.
3. "Muslims and America" (Spurlock, Cutler, Owens, subject Dave Stacy, hosts Shameael Haque, Sadia Shakir Haque)
Spurlock's hometown associate Stacy reveals his feelings during his stay with the Haques, and the discussion includes one or two disclosures about the difficulties in finding a family that would trust the production team. Stacy and hosts the Haques have crosstalk about misgivings within the community, while Stacy earns a ribbing for chewing out his wife for sending nothing but pants.
4. "Straight Man in a Gay World" (Spurlock, Cutler, subject Ryan Hickmott, host Ed Collar)
Hickmott and Collar show infinite respect for one another as they break down the subject's conversion from homophobe to gay-positive. A few choice words are said on the subject of Hickmott and a visiting friend's decision to dance shirtless in a bar, which everyone agrees was ill-advised.
Also included are extended footage of diary-cam excerpts:
"Minimum Wage" (18 mins.)
No big surprises here as Spurlock and Jamieson re-iterate everything that went down in the episode, though a certain amount of emotional weight is magnified.
"Anti-Aging" (9 mins.)
Scott Bridges and his wife Timona do a back and forth as Scott blithely plunges into his ill-advised exercise and Timona anxiously fears the repercussions. Ultimately, the fighting and health risks prove to be too much.
"Muslims and America" (11 mins.)
Dave Stacy stammers over his confusion as he plunges into Muslim America: he swerves from acceptance to mistrust, finally capitulating in the end. Uses the term "this 'n' that" more times in eleven minutes than previously thought possible.
"Straight Man in a Gay World" (12 mins.)
Hickmott and Collar are intercut from their initial misgivings to their final acceptance of each other. A bit jarring when Hickmott's visiting buddy disavows being a "faggot," but mostly rather touching.
"Off the Grid" (13 mins.)
DJ Jahari and club promoter Vito (no intelligible last names are given) were sent to an environmentalist commune to live off the power grid; their words are intercut as Vito bitches about not getting any meat and Jahari bitches about Vito's bitching. Jahari gets the scene; Vito does not. So it goes.
"Binge Drinking Mom" (12 mins.)
Michelle (again, no last names) looks increasingly weary of having to drink and drink like her college-age daughter. She finally breaks down and cries, pleading that this is not the way for students to act.
44 minutes/episode; NR; 1.33:1; English DD 2.0 (Stereo); CC; English, Spanish subtitles; 2 DVD-9s; Region One; Fox
