6. Sunset Daze
What it is: A reality show featuring the retired set. Filmed in a retirement home in Arizona, it features the lives of eight residents living out their sunset years in the bawdy, boozy, oversexed fashion we’ve come to expect from the reality show genre.
The yuck factor: It’s not so bad. It’s more silly and campy than it is disturbing or unsettling. The cast comes off as lunatic seniors, but it’s an interesting take on a medium that is quickly running out of new frontiers. This show is not treating seniors as precious or looking at their lives as sentimental nostalgia machines. It’s giving us what we want from a reality show, just with older folks at the center.
It treats the senior folks as democratically as other networks treat Jersey Shore or Duck Dynasty. We get to see plenty of unbelievably bad behavior and producer-contrived scenarios, and it offers a unique look at a demographic that is woefully under-represented on television.
Where and how: Unfortunately, you’re going to be hard-pressed to find complete episodes of the show. It’s a WE original program, and there are still a few clips available on the website.