Andy Dehnart30 Days, the FX reality series inspired by Morgan Spurlock’s documentary Super Size Me, returns tonight for its third season at 10 p.m. ET on FX. The show follows one person who inhabits someone else’s life for a month, and despite the contrived nature of the situations, comes off as a mini-documentary and one of the most real and genuine series on TV. If you missed the first two seasons, season one is on DVD, and both are available for download on Amazon or iTunes.
The best episodes tend to feature the show’s creator, Spurlock, because his personality is a lot more compelling and he’s more used to being on TV, so he’s better at telling his own story. Because of that, the very first episode, where Spurlock and his girlfriend spent a month living on minimum wage, is still the best one for me.
Smartly, Spurlock has decided to be featured in two of this season’s six episodes. Tonight’s shows him becoming a coal miner, and episode six follows his life on an Indian reservation. But Spurlock says that episode three, in which a hunter lives with a family of vegan PETA members, is “the best hour of television you’re ever going to see in your life,” he told Entertainment Weekly.
Episode five reverses that somewhat, as a gun control advocate whose best friend was shot to death lives with a gun collector. On episode two, NFL quarterback Ray Crockett lives in a wheelchair for a month, while episode four follows a substitute teacher who doesn’t believe children should be raised by same-sex parents who–you guessed it–lives with a gay couple who have four adopted kids.