Haha, "This review may contain spoilers". Yeah.
Maybe I'm naive about reality shows, but from what I know they are mostly the reality of some people's lives, heavily edited to be entertaining, maybe with some staged bits here and there to, again, add entertainment.
OK, so my kids and I have been watching this "reality" show since it came out because the characters are entertaining and lovable, plus you learn quite a bit of history and trivia. Up until this year (2013), this was one of our favorite shows.
We don't watch it any more.
What happened? Well, we live in the Silicon Valley (Northern California) and decided this year to take a summer road trip to the Mojave desert, Las Vegas, and Hollywood. Of course, besides various entertaining destinations in the desert, Vegas/Primm gambling, and the Hoover Dam, the pawn shop where this show is filmed was one of our main destinations.
The actual reality of this show made this "pawn" shop, by far, the most disappointing part of our trip.
Everything I found out about the actual reality of this shop and show was gathered from the locals who were in line (over 30 of them that day) waiting for a chance to stand around in the "pawn" shop as extras during filming, looking like they are shopping for something.
Watching the show, you think what you see is the best of what happens every day in the "pawn" shop. No, what you see is a staged, filmed, and in all likelihood scripted TV show that is filmed in the "pawn" shop. All of the characters on the show do not even set foot in that shop more than one to three days a month.
If you go to the "pawn" shop on any given day, either they are filming and you can't get in without being picked as an extra, or there are a bunch of people working there that you've never seen before on the show. The vast majority of the "pawn" shop is never seen on the show because it is just for selling show merchandise. The tiny part that you do see on the show has a ton of overpriced crap. I say "crap" because none of the stuff you've ever seen "purchased" on the show is ever sold there, only typical pawn shop crap being sold at about triple its actual value because you pay for the privilege of buying it there.
Oh, and the people who walk in to sell stuff? They have to pay $200 for Rick and company to look at it and offer to buy it or turn them away. So, when you're watching the show, anybody who sells anything for less than $200 just lost money purely for the purpose of getting on the show. Anybody that gets turned away because they wouldn't buy their stuff just got stiffed for $200. But at least they got on the show. Maybe. I have to believe some of the suckers who pay $200 for a Rick appraisal don't even get on the show.
That fact alone, confirmed by more than one of the locals, just made us sick enough to stop watching this show. You just can't watch people go into that place and get screwed after you find out that every one of them paid $200 for the privilege.
Of course, there's the fact that the guys on the show that you think work there every day don't actually go in to work more than one or two days a month for filming of the show. I'm sure they've made way too much money at this point to be working, let alone seen, at a pawn shop.
Pathetic.
So, I would have given this show one star, but I gave it two stars simply for the fact that, by itself, ignoring all the facts of the reality behind this show, it is very entertaining and sometimes informative.
Maybe I'm naive about reality shows, but from what I know they are mostly the reality of some people's lives, heavily edited to be entertaining, maybe with some staged bits here and there to, again, add entertainment.
OK, so my kids and I have been watching this "reality" show since it came out because the characters are entertaining and lovable, plus you learn quite a bit of history and trivia. Up until this year (2013), this was one of our favorite shows.
We don't watch it any more.
What happened? Well, we live in the Silicon Valley (Northern California) and decided this year to take a summer road trip to the Mojave desert, Las Vegas, and Hollywood. Of course, besides various entertaining destinations in the desert, Vegas/Primm gambling, and the Hoover Dam, the pawn shop where this show is filmed was one of our main destinations.
The actual reality of this show made this "pawn" shop, by far, the most disappointing part of our trip.
Everything I found out about the actual reality of this shop and show was gathered from the locals who were in line (over 30 of them that day) waiting for a chance to stand around in the "pawn" shop as extras during filming, looking like they are shopping for something.
Watching the show, you think what you see is the best of what happens every day in the "pawn" shop. No, what you see is a staged, filmed, and in all likelihood scripted TV show that is filmed in the "pawn" shop. All of the characters on the show do not even set foot in that shop more than one to three days a month.
If you go to the "pawn" shop on any given day, either they are filming and you can't get in without being picked as an extra, or there are a bunch of people working there that you've never seen before on the show. The vast majority of the "pawn" shop is never seen on the show because it is just for selling show merchandise. The tiny part that you do see on the show has a ton of overpriced crap. I say "crap" because none of the stuff you've ever seen "purchased" on the show is ever sold there, only typical pawn shop crap being sold at about triple its actual value because you pay for the privilege of buying it there.
Oh, and the people who walk in to sell stuff? They have to pay $200 for Rick and company to look at it and offer to buy it or turn them away. So, when you're watching the show, anybody who sells anything for less than $200 just lost money purely for the purpose of getting on the show. Anybody that gets turned away because they wouldn't buy their stuff just got stiffed for $200. But at least they got on the show. Maybe. I have to believe some of the suckers who pay $200 for a Rick appraisal don't even get on the show.
That fact alone, confirmed by more than one of the locals, just made us sick enough to stop watching this show. You just can't watch people go into that place and get screwed after you find out that every one of them paid $200 for the privilege.
Of course, there's the fact that the guys on the show that you think work there every day don't actually go in to work more than one or two days a month for filming of the show. I'm sure they've made way too much money at this point to be working, let alone seen, at a pawn shop.
Pathetic.
So, I would have given this show one star, but I gave it two stars simply for the fact that, by itself, ignoring all the facts of the reality behind this show, it is very entertaining and sometimes informative.