The X Effect: Easily MTVs Worst Show Ever Created

I am guilty as sin for watching some trash TV. I don't mean to rationalize but many of us can easily fall for the trappings of the boob tube. There are probably some PhDs screaming at Monday Night Raw and I bet Dr. Phil can't resist an episode or two of "Married with Children." Sometimes trash T.V. can be great escapism.

Then other times, it's just horrible. That's the category where MTV's The X Effect makes its bed.

I used to like MTV. The old saying goes "yeah, it was good until MTV stopped playing music." To some degree that is true but I enjoyed the first few seasons of The Real World, and Rob and Big is one of my favorite shows ever.

But then MTV started up these fake dating reality shows like Date My Mom, Next, and Parental Control where parents try to pick a new boyfriend for their daughter. The X Effect is the step, step, step child of that horrible trend.

Here is the premise: two couples meet up on what seems to be a weekend get away. Within the two couples are an ex-couple. Ooh, instant drama. But wait, there's more! Once the foursome meet up, their guide tells them some seemingly unknown twist in the weekend: the "ex" couple will be spending the night together doing various activities, while the other two strangers get to hole up in another room or do other things.

Can it get worse? Yes, X Effect gets worse. The ex couple is given bracelets and are told that the bracelets allow them into VIP areas and keep them from paying for food, drinks, etc. But the bracelets aren't just bracelets.

Whenever the ex-couple touches, the bracelets send a secret signal to a room where their abandoned partners watch a light go up. Not only that, the abandoned partners also get to choose whether they can hear or watch the ex-couple get reacquainted, get to know each other again, and possibly spark up old flames.

Why, why why on Earth would you do this? Why would you put yourself in a room and watch to see if old sparks fly between your girlfriend and her ex-man? What possibly good ending can come from this? MTV creates all this suspicion and doubt within couples by leaving out elements and creating mystery out of the not knowing.

I sat through two episodes watching women break down and cry and men give into their cave-man jealousy. The only thing this show encourages is mistrust and any couple who signs up for it probably didn't stand much of a chance to begin with.

The biggest problem with this show is that it isn't fun or drama. Its torture and some gullible twenty-somethings that want to be famous like everyone else sign up for the torture chamber. No possible positive outcome can be made in X Effect.

The couples eventually reunite and the exes end up stuttering and stammering over their seemingly private moments and conversations. It's almost as torturous as listening to those 500 pound parents on the Dr. Phil show cry because their kids are 300 pounds and can't figure out why.

I hope MTV never shows the X Effect again. I'm all for silliness, good drama, great reality, and just flat-out entertainment. But X Effect is none of these. If you are the parents of teenagers, please have them avoid this show and make them watch more episodes of "True Life: I'm Hooked On Drugs And Now I'm A Bum Stuck With The Parents I Vowed To Never Live With Again." At least you'll learn something from that show.