This is the daily prompt from this past Tuesday (December 18th). I missed the deadline to post a link on the Daily Prompt page, but c’est la vie!

Without a doubt, the one thing I am completely ashamed to admit that I love is the VH1 reality show Mob Wives. It chronicles the lives of four women (including Sammy “The Bull” Gravano’s daughter, Karen) who are related to alleged mafia enforcers who have been arrested. The women must find a way to move on with their lives for the sake of their families, while adjusting to the loss of their previous lifestyles.  It’s an over the top, obnoxious train wreck, but I have to admit it’s a fun waste of an hour. How did someone like me, who abhors all things reality television, end up hooked on a show like this? Well it was entirely accidental. Earlier this year, I was stuck in the Philadelphia airport (also known as the Black Hole of Calcutta), when my flight went from fashionably late to dead on arrival. Being stuck in an airport hotel will simultaneously lower one’s television expectations while raising one’s blood pressure, so what could I do? There was nothing else on t.v. (Sunday night at 10:00) so I landed on Mob Wives. As much as my mind rebelled against it, the show was entertaining because it gives the viewer a look at a lifestyle that is shrouded in secrecy. Somehow watching these bitchy spoiled brats get drop-kicked out of their comfort zone made me feel better about being stuck in Philadelphia, and of course the episode ended on a cliffhanger. How could I not tune in the next week? I had to know what happened to Renee when her father was arrested because her ex-husband ratted him out to the Feds. I suppose the way Vh1 justifies the show is that the viewer is given information about the songs on the soundtrack before every commerical break (my favorite is the theme, Rock Mafia’s Big Big Bang). Yeah, I’ll just keep believing I watch the show for the music. Sure. Somehow that makes me hate myself just a little less…