60 Days In: Episode 1 Review

60 Days In: Episode 1

First of all, let me just say how much I love the premise of this series: 7 regular (and innocent) people agree to go to jail for 60 days to undercover all the problems of the jail from the inside so management can figure out possible ways to correct them. It’s like Undercover Boss but with regular people all with backgrounds or interests associated to the criminal system. There are only 3 people who know that these individuals are innocent which makes their whole experience authentic. I love TV shows that are social experiments because it’s so interesting to see different individuals personalities and how they can or can’t adapt to a real life environment change. In this case it’s even better because based on their findings, they could change and better the lives of the workers and the prisoners.

Zac (who has a military background and served in Afghanistan) managed to remember his fake background story, pitch in with the jail cleaning and earn the respect of the Cell Boss right off the bat.  Robert (a teacher) came into his cell WAY to cocky (asked if the cell's TV carried the NFL Network and referred to the jail as a "country club") and couldn’t remember his background story when questioned which caused the cell mates to poke holes in it and become convinced that he’s a cop. Tami (a police officer) was able to hold her own in the female cell and was able to stand up for herself without coming across too pushy when her bunk mate stole her showering shoes. I just can’t wait for this Friday’s episode because they are going to put multiple volunteers into the same cells and I’m so interested to see if they will gravitate towards each other and kind of figure out that they are not the only “undercover” participant.

I was thrilled to find out that this series has already been renewed for season 2. It will be interesting to see if participants will volunteer in the same jail or for a different jail. Or if I had it my way, I’d love to see season 2 share the same focus but change to the teaching career and focus on schools. There are so many problems with the school systems these days (shootings, overworked and underpaid teachers, lack of special needs programs, budget cutting, child behavioral issues…etc) and I think parents and viewers wouldn’t believe their eyes if they got a REAL look at what goes on during the school days. 

Either way, I'm only 1 episode in and I'm completely hooked and can't wait to watch the rest of what's sure to be a fantastic and eye-opening series.

A

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