Last Updated on February 21, 2016 by Team Spinfuel
#MarriedAtFirstSight – Well, I said I would do it if Jamie and Doug said they would stay together…and they did.
Why A #MarriedAtFirstSight ProVari 3 Giveaway
The Show Is The Reason
Just in case you’ve never heard of this show before (I know I know, you may not care), here’s a little background first so you’ll understand why I decided to do this thing.
Married At First Sight, or #MarriedAtFirstSight if you’re on Twitter, is a new show from the old Biography channel, renamed and rechristened FYI channel. The premise is, naturally, marrying someone at first sight. Total stranger.
A bold new experiment based on the old custom of arranged marriages and a ‘putting to task’ of all the so-called marriage experts, including websites like Match.Com. Can the ‘experts’ find you someone that you can build a relationship with? That, and other questions, was answered last night.
Out of three couples that were paired up based on a million little compatibilities, two couples actually decided to stay married, two people fell in love, two other fell in “deep like”, while one couple looked like they couldn’t wait to get away from one another. Result? Arranged Marriages can work…
Meeting The Love Of Your Life – Kissing Frogs
Before any of us were married, and those of you who are not yet married, we all went, or are going through, the modern day disasters of meeting someone, displaying the best of ourselves to that person, and developing a relationship that may or may not go somewhere. To be honest, very few people show their “new someone” the raw and real side of themselves for a very long time. Married at First Sight preempts all that by forcing two people, who, on paper, should be compatible, into dropping the façade we are all guilty of using, and for 35 days live together as a married couple, warts and all. Want to know the real person? Live with them for a month from the moment you meet them.
The TV Show is not as dumb as you may think. If I were not already happily married I would jump at the opportunity of allowing the experts to find a match for me, and then be given a month of close-quarter contact to see if there is a chance that the person they chose is the right person for me, and I the right person for them.
Before most of us find the one person we want to spend our lives with we go from candidate to candidate. We kiss a lot of frogs. Nothing wrong with that, if we learn from it, but if the possibility exists that we are able to kiss a lot less frogs to get to where we want to be? I’m all for it. (Lucky for me my frog is a goddess. I got lucky.)
Discovery
I discovered the show quite by accident. John’s (our publisher) wife was watching another show on FYI while writing a short story (How Lisa is able to write with the TV on is beyond my understanding). As the show progressed she found herself looking up at the TV screen often, and wondered what was going on… until she had to put her computer down, hit the record button, rewind the DVR and begin watching it from the beginning.
Lisa called me and told me I had to watch it, regardless of my hard fast rule against Reality TV, or “scripted reality”. So I tuned in for a few minutes. Then, I just couldn’t tune out. Keira also became a fan. We all found ourselves intrigued with the idea, and two of the people on the show, Jamie Otis and Doug Hehner. (At this point I had no idea Jamie appeared on other scripted reality shows). We both admitted that Jamie was drop dead gorgeous and that Doug was a really cute guy with an awesome personality. If any guy deserved to fall in love, and have that love returned, it would be Doug. At least it seemed that way on TV, but we all know what TV editing can do. Still, we couldn’t look away.
As the episodes went on and Keira and I became invested in the outcome of the show in ways I didn’t believe was possible. We talked about the couples, the show, the premise of an arranged marriage… we talked at home, at work, on the road, everywhere. It was weird, surreal, and a little alarming. Were we really devoting this much time into people we’ve never met, and will never meet? Why?
Why I Hate Scripted Reality
Long before the season was over (last night) we decided that Cortney had fallen in love ‘at first sight’ (it happens, trust me) with Jason; that Monet and Vaughn were never really open to idea of letting their guards down, and that Jamie just might have too much baggage to let go of your past. We also suspected that she might want to be a reality TV star more than anything else, especially after learning of her other TV appearances.
After episode 8 we knew Jamie and Doug were not going to make it, after episode 9 we knew that Jamie was eyeing new opportunities and just wanted the season to end so she could begin to scout new TV shows to appear on. Ah, the magic of editing!
That Finale!
During the finale it looked more and more like Jamie just wasn’t going to let this marriage stop her from seeking fame elsewhere. As good a catch that Doug is Jamie lives in another world, surrounded by what I call “The Tiny Fames”, people who appear on TV in ‘deep cable’, just to be on TV.
Seeking fame is certainly one way of battling your demons from a past that included an unknown father, a drug-addled mother, overdue electric bills, eviction notices, and other ‘messy’ remnants of a poor upbringing. You either live in the gutter that you grew up in or you do anything and everything you can do get as far away as possible. It sure looked as though Jamie was on the path that would lead to a life in the ‘tiny fames’ rather than return to her sad roots. Which, by the way, is a better path than the sad roots path, but an unfilled one by most measures.
About halfway through the finale Keira wondered if maybe, just maybe, Jamie was being as honest as she was able, and that maybe, just maybe, the real psychologist on the show spent many, many hours with Jamie once he recognized that she was, after all, the saboteur of her own life. “Maybe she’s for real. Maybe she really wants this. Maybe she’s worked through it.” Sure, and maybe we’re all a part of a computer simulation.
It was no surprise at all that Doug said he wanted to remain married. What we hadn’t considered until last night is that “Doug” was the one that spent weeks with Jamie, not us, so who are we to say he was making a mistake? The conversations that had to have happened in the wee hours of the night, every night for weeks, gave Doug a much deeper insight into who Jamie truly is… much more so than you, me, Keira… we have no idea. Still, when Jamie said she wanted to stay married and fall in love with Doug I was speechless.
The Seed of the Giveaway
Several episodes back, after what briefly looked to me like Jamie was going to fall in love with Doug (before Doug became a Vaper), I got so caught up in the whole thing that I wanted to celebrate this new found love, despite that love sprouting from a reality show, by doing a big giveaway here in Spinfuel. Without asking, I wrote my column and announced the giveaway. Long story short, the Provari 3 is coming out of my pocket. Believe me, it’s worth it.
A “reunion” show is scheduled for next Tuesday. It was filmed last week. From all indications the couples that said ‘yes’ to staying married are still going strong. But even if Jamie and Doug split up in the ensuing 6 months, the giveaway was sealed when Jamie said yes. So, the giveaway is on…
Provari 3 by ProVape – So New It Isn’t For Sale…Yet.
I made the giveaway known almost 4 weeks ago. ProVape was still beta testing the Provari 3, but that was to last just 3 weeks, and shortly thereafter it would go on sale. But it hasn’t yet, and I have no idea when it will. That could be a problem. So, I’m going to give the winner a choice.
Provari 3 or an eVic Supreme w/black Delta tank…winner’s choice.
If you enter the giveaway and win you will have the choice to wait for the Provari 3 or choose the immediate shipment of a Joyetech eVic Supreme (black) with a matching Delta tank by Joyetech (also black). Why the eVic Supreme? Keira, Tom, Jason, John, and myself use an eVic Supreme + Delta as our first choice personal vaporizer, and we all believe it is one of the finest APV’s you can buy. It is a wicked set up, and the quality is outstanding.
So, whether or not you watched the show, go ahead an enter the giveaway. I feel good about it. I’m strangely happy about the outcome of the show, for all three couples. My Guilty Pleasure… we all have them, don’t we?
Julia Hartley-Barnes
How To Enter – Contest Opens At 2PM 9/10/14
See the Rafflecopter Entry Form below? That’s how. Good luck!
