I've been catching up on past episodes of the Bulgarian TV show: <a href="http://play.novatv.bg/play/256654/?autostart=true" target="_blank">Lost in Bulgaria</a> which plays on NOVA tv this weekend. Here's the basic "plot" of this "reality" television show. Two foreigners who happen speak Bulgarian (because they are--or were--Peace Corps Volunteers) find themselves in a variety of different situations in Bulgaria as they try to explore life in this country.

Each episode revolves around a place and the kind of things that happen in the episode are based "real" life in this place. The place, activities and life seem to be normal for the people living them but they are supposed to be foreign for the Americans. The show then plays up the differences between what the Americans know and expect and the various communities they find themselves visiting.

Episode one: a village in the Rhodopes.

Two: a gypsy encampment on the edge of Sofia.

And most recently a fishing town on the Black Sea.

I find the whole thing really uncomfortable and as I watch, I am really embarrassed for everyone taking part in the show. Most television doesn't make me physically cringe but I have been.

Why?

Well, I can't figure out what's going on with the Peace Corps volunteers. My basic assumption is that they came to Bulgaria as part of a cultural and educational exchange and that because of this they are culturally savvy and politically aware. But then in episode 2 they spend much of the show digging through garbage cans collecting clothes and plastic bottles and riding on a horse cart. This episode is topped of with a gypsy party.