I started late in the game with the show. I only recently seen some of Morgan Spurlock's movies. Its now 2011 and there is a glut of Documentary Reality TV Shows out there. And most are pretty bad. Of the 3 episodes of 30 Days I've seen on Netflix I gotta say its a pretty decent show. I wish this show was out right now, because it would be better than most of the garbage that's out now. I agree with other reviewers that 30 Days waters down the subject theme so 30 Days is shown in 1hr so regular Americans get a sample of what the individual goes through. Of the first 3 episodes I would complain that the Individuals do not fully go through a full 30 Days. They start Day 1 or 2 or even 3 showing a Lead In of whats gonna happen. Then if lucky the person has started the journey by Day 4. Its cheating in my book. the 1st episode of Minimum Wage hit the closest to home for me. Because I have worked Minimum Wage jobs and tried to live on them. To the reviewers who say Its not a reflection of Real Life I say boo to you. My wife and I feel just because I was earning only $150 a week working full time doesn't mean you have to become a monk. If a person works hard, saves money, makes sacrifices and uses the resources that are out there in the world then YES you can go 1 time a Month to go to the Movies or Out to Dinner. Instead of paying $30 for 4 people to go to the movies, you go to the Cheap Show... Even in 2003/2004 when that TV Show was aired I am sure there were a Cheap Movie night somewhere. Its now 2011 and in Michigan Unemployment is terrible. Minimum Wage is higher at about $7.50 an hour or so But a person cannot survive on much. Gas for my car runs about $40 a week. Utility bills can be harsh with easily $80 to $100 a month for gas and another $120 a month for electricity. The 30 Days episode made some cheats... Spurlock & his GF Alex, were not living on Minimum Wage for a long enough time. They did not have to sacrifice much. If Spurlock would do it again I'd say try for 6 months and tell me how you feel... For Me working at a Grocery Store full time making Minimum Wage where THERE IS NO BUS service and If you don't have a working Car then you are SOL.The 2nd episode of the guy trying to do this Anti-Aging thing was the episode that bugged me the most. First the guy didn't begin his experiment until about Day 5. Second the guy and his wife were whiny stupid annoying spoiled cry babies who had 3 beautiful kids already and all the damn wife could think about was what if her husband couldn't have any more kids. They were both 30 somethings already with 3 kids! WTF Try being in your 30's and all you WANT IS ANY KIDS???? My wife and I have been trying to have kids for 10 years. Third the guy was placing Unrealistic goals to Become youthful again. HE Was maybe, just maybe 30 pounds overweight. All He needed was to take a Multi-vitamin, Drink Water, Eat healthy, Exercise. That's all He needed to do. Popping 40 plus pills a day is b.s. and poking yourself with Testosterone and HGH was just ASKING for trouble.The 3rd episode I saw was very interesting to me. Because I LIVE IN Michigan, I'm In DETROIT and I drive in and around Dearborn 3-4 times a month. I did not like the guy Dave, the so called Faithful Christian at first because He's feeling conflicted claiming he didn't want to be Worshiping another God. UH DUDE, If he did Any Reading at anytime and Understood the History of his Own Faith It wouldn't have been too harmful to accept. How many people are afraid of Jews? Why Not? I do commend the guy Dave for making an effort to learn more of the Muslim culture. He never fully gave it his all though. A couple times I wanted to slap the crap out of him for his attitudes. But I guess that's why 30 Days is a decent show. However There is a lot that is Missing. You can feel that Its been severely Watered down.I wish 30 Days was still around, It's better than a lot of these other Doc style reality shows In my opinion. I plan on watching the Rest of the episodes as time allows.

***POSSIBLE SPOILERS***Before I start my comment, I have one question, why is this show not a prime time show? Why? I've seen episodes of it, and it does not have that much of unsuitable-for-children content. The reason why the show doesn't come on prime time is beyond me. This is a very enlightening and entertaining show. But what do you expect from the guy who brought us super size me? If you liked super size me you will definitely like this show. 30 days basically follows the same pattern as the 2004 documentary, where an individual is thrown into a rather strange culture, belief, religion or life style and is expected to live among that lifestyle for approximately a month . For example in this one episode a guy named Dave was thrown into the Muslim community located in Michigan and he lived among them by praying like them by dressing like them and eating acting and so forth like them. I am sure that episode taught a lot of people that the Muslim community and terrorism aren't co-related and also that terrorism is a work of a few extremists. I myself learned a lot of positive things I did not know about the Islamic religion. Point being, not only the show is entertaining, but it is also enlightening. Try to stay up late to watch this show, I am sure you will like it.

Unlike most reality shows which dwell on the negative, or the shows where people have their "outsides" redone, I think Spurlock's attempt is to make a show where people can really walk a mile in other people's shoes...I don't think he believes he will change minds...somebody like Frank, who lost one country (Cuba) and fears he will lose another (USA) is probably way too old to change his mind...but he at least understands why people come to the U.S., the economic need to immigrate, and can start to understand while people might be willing to break the law in order to better their lives.It's very interesting to watch people to start to open up their minds (in most cases) and try to figure out what makes other humans tick. And the good episodes, where, for example, Christian Mom realizes that Athiest Mom is also a very good mother, are real breakthrough moments.

Network: FX; Genre: Documentary, Reality; Content Rating: TV-PG - MA (occasionally strong language); Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 - 4); Season Reviewed: 2 seasons At this point, after "The Shield", "Nip/Tuck" and "Rescue Me", I am putty in the palm of FX's hand. HBO and Showtime - look out. This is the network that is poised to become the new home of quality television. "30 Days" is the network's first step away from scripted dramas and it is a generally successful addition to the line-up.Created and hosted by Morgan Spurlock, this reality series and something of a spin-off from his entertaining, well made obesity exploration documentary "Super-Size Me". Each week Spurlock finds somebody who is willing to immerse themselves in someone else's life for 30 days - somebody who, like the ABC British remake "Wife Swap", is their polar opposite or is someone the media has told us that person should dislike. A Christian lives as a Muslim, a Christian lives as a gay man, gas-guzzling SUV lovers live off the grid and a man who lost his job to outsourcing takes takes one in India. See the pattern here? Even when we do meet an atheist, who wants "God" taken out of the pledge, living with a peaceful religious family (did Spurlock read my season 1 review?), the show flips its formula around and takes her side. We didn't need to see Spurlock's ACLU card to know where he stands.But like in "Super-Size Me", Spurlock is fair and he doesn't look down on the participants or lecture to us too horribly. He comes off like more of an "awe shucks" inquisitor then a pit-bull hell bent on proving a hypothesis. Even his human subjects are sympathetic, if only because of how hard they are trying to make this unenviable situation work. That fairness and authenticity makes "30 Days" almost indistinguishably from every other "reality" show. It isn't trying to put something over on us or humiliate the participants. That is refreshing - which is quite the commentary on the state of reality TV.The effect Spurlock's perspective does have on the show is that many of the experiments really only make sense in a vacuum. There is no explanation as to why people are on minimum wage or why Americans believe what they do about Islam, just that it happens and we need to fix it somehow. All episodes end with the same bleeding-heart message of tolerance and diversity and the two opposites becoming close friends - which is predictable. I'm not asking for "balance" here, just a little more imagination in the topics.In the best episodes, the experiments put us into a squeamish fear for the health of the subjects - such as "Outsourcing", "Binge Drinking Mom" and the best, "Minimum Wage" where Spurlock and his fiancé, Alex, themselves hit the streets of Detroit in what becomes a real trial for survival. "Minimum Wage" is exceptional TV. It was my hope that the rest of the season could match its intensity. But in the 2nd episode, an experiment to debunk hormone therapy, the concept is changed up all together and becomes more like "Penn & Teller: Bullshit".With many of the results predictable, "Days" isn't about how it ends,but about the process - and actually getting to see how this life change slowly effects people is a quite a bit of fun. It is here when the show makes the same fundamental mistake that every other reality show does. As exceptional as the packaging is, the fact remains: real people aren't very interesting. The participants are admirable in their guts and Spurlock finds fairly interesting people to go through this, but even they are unable to carry the show for the whole hour.Fortunately, Spurlock has planned for this. He uses the old documentary stand-by of animated sequences to move through quick educational vignettes and history lessons. Nothing profound, but they are informative enough to get everybody up to speed. Spurlock himself also pops up intermittently amid the experiments to do little experiments of his own, like going down to Mexico and trying to buy his own HGH or interviewing a parent whose daughter was killed by a drunk driver. The show comes back to life when Spurlock, or his fiancé (a game gal if there ever was one), appear back on the screen. Spurlock is a great host/tour guide: energetic, creative, funny, clever - all the things Michael Moore isn't. He pokes fun at his own mustache in the single funniest line of the season."30 Days" should be taken with a grain of salt and has clearly been sanitized for our politically correct protection (his depiction of media sacred cows as the gay man and the American Muslim is strictly by the book), it achieves what is no doubt the goal - to spark debate and discussion at home or at work and have a little fun in the process.The show is restrained emotionally. On one hand it never degrades into sap, on the other hand Spurlock doesn't go full force and give us an emotional punch in the face some stories probably need. On the other hand it isn't manipulative. This is a slight show, but Spurlock makes it work. Plug it back into the reality/documentary genre it belongs in and it looks even better. I hope the show returns and would like to see Spurlock given the chance to really get creative with the experiments. Twist the knife a bit. The potential is there for a great product.* * * /4