30 Days

2005
30 Days

Seasons & Episodes

  • 3
  • 2
  • 1

EP1 Working In A Coal Mine Jun 03, 2008

To kick off the third season of 30 Days, series creator Morgan Spurlock returns to his home state of West Virginia, to work as a rookie apprentice coalminer known as a "redhat" for 30 days. Morgan goes to Bolt, West Virginia and lives with Dale and Sandy Lusk. Dale, the supervisor of the mine where Morgan works, has mined coal for 35 years and introduces Morgan to a miner's way of life. Morgan gains an understanding of the financial benefits that draw people to coal mining, but also learns, first hand, the dangerous conditions that miners must face every day. As a new miner, Morgan is assigned much of the grunt work, including plastering, building wooden roof supports, shoveling coal and hauling heavy equipment. On his days off, Morgan leaves the mine to examine some of the bigger issues surrounding the coal industry. He meets with Peggy Cohen, 36, the daughter of a miner killed in 2006 in a Sago, West Virginia mine explosion. Morgan also talks to both coal industry executives and environmentalists about surface mining and mountain-top removal to gain perspective on the pros and cons of an industry that provides the U.S. with the raw materials for 50% of our electricity. electricity.

EP2 In A Wheelchair Jun 10, 2008

Ray played football for Baylor University from 1984-88 before his NFL draft in 1989. He won two Super Bowl rings in 1998 and 1999 as a starting member of the Denver Broncos. During his fourteen years in the NFL, he also played for the Detroit Lions and the Kansas City Chiefs. Today, Ray and his wife April have three children, a 20-year old daughter named Joi and two sons, 13-year-old Ray Junior and seven year old Darryl. Ray now works as a real estate developer and coaches his older son Ray Junior. In 1991, Ray was on the field with the Detroit Lions when his teammate and friend, Mike Utley, was involved in a play that left him paralyzed from the chest down - an event that has not dissipated from Ray's memory. In fact, it is this incident that made Ray want to participate in 30 Days. For 30 Days, Ray will live in a wheelchair and will rely on his mental discipline to keep his legs immobile. His home and his car will be retrofitted to accommodate his needs. Coaching duties for his son's football team will continue and Ray will join the Texas Stampede, the wheelchair rugby team featuring players made famous in the documentary film Murderball. He will attend a weekly support group for paraplegics at the Baylor Institute of Rehabilitation and meet with a physical therapist to monitor any potential side effects. Throughout his 30 Days experience, Ray will be under the medical supervision of Dr. Robert Bruce in order to track any muscle loss, blood clots, pressure sores or other side effects that could occur while he is wheelchair-bound.

EP3 Animal Rights Jun 17, 2008

George Snedeker is an avid hunter who considers it much more than just a sport; to George, hunting is a way of life. George hunts mainly for deer meat and tries to use the entire animal in order not to be wasteful. For 30 Days, George will live in Los Angeles with vegan Melissa Karpel, 29, and her vegan family: parents Don and Madeline Karpel and her sisters Stephanie and Kimberly, who are 25-year-old twins. Melissa is a Los Angeles Campaign Coordinator for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), a non-profit organization that fights for animal rights on factory farms, in laboratories, in the clothing trade and in the entertainment industry. George will participate in PETA initiatives including a demonstration at a popular fast food chain, work at a local farm animal rescue center and meet with various organizations such as Last Chance for Animals, a non-profit group dedicated to animal rights.

EP4 Same Sex Parenting Jun 24, 2008

Kati believes that children should be raised by a mother and a father and not by same-sex parents. As the mother of two adopted sons Kati believes that she has ample experience to determine what kind of environment is conducive to healthy, successful adoptions. In fact, Kati was adopted as an infant herself. For 30 Days, Kati will live in Ypsilanti, Michigan with domestic partners Dennis and Thomas Patrick and their four adopted sons: Josh, 11; Paul, 8; Joey, 8; and Raul, 6. The Patrick's have been together for 10 years, and in 2001, Thomas legally changed his last name to Patrick. Kati will attend church with the family, help the boys get ready for school each morning and talk candidly about her views on parenting and gay adoption as she observes how the Patrick's parent their boys. Kati will volunteer and travel to the state capitol with the Coalition for Adoption Rights Equality (CARE), a children's advocacy group lobbying for legislation to legalize dual-parenting rights for same-gender couples. She will socialize with women from the Lesbian Mom's Network, a group that connects lesbian mothers and their children with families like their own. She will also meet with former foster children who talk about what it's like to grow up without parents or a permanent home and the need for more foster parents.

EP5 Gun Nation Jul 01, 2008

After Pia learned that her friend had been killed by a schizophrenic man wielding a gun in 1996, she became a gun control advocate who has fought to pass stricter gun laws in the U.S. Pia believes that the world would be free from gun violence only by prohibiting the sale of guns to anyone outside of law enforcement and armed services. For 30 Days, Pia will live in the heart of gun culture in the rural town of Leesburg, Ohio with gun enthusiast Ken Ekermeyer, 39, and his 15-year-old son Zach. Ken is an avid gun collector and rarely leaves home without his gun strapped to his side. Ken believes carrying a gun is his right guaranteed to every American by the Second Amendment. As Pia struggles to understand the Ekermeyer's beliefs and somewhat isolated way of life, she will work at a local gun store and experience what it is like to carry a gun in public, learn to handle and fire weapons and will introduce Ken to other gun control activists who have lost loved ones to gun violence.

EP6 Life On An Indian Reservation Jul 08, 2008

Series creator Morgan Spurlock returns for his second installment this season to discover what life is like for America's most indigenous people: Native Americans. As he heads west to Navajo Nation near Window Rock, New Mexico, Morgan will realize just how little he knows about the issues facing this tribal culture. For 30 Days, Morgan will live with Deborah and Karl Dennison and their children: son Kyle, 25 and daughter Cassidy, 15. Deborah holds a PhD in education and is the superintendent of the Ganado School District; Karl is a physical education teacher at the tribal Dine College and is a renowned rodeo competitor. Despite living on a remote desert ranch, the Dennison family has many of the conveniences of the modern world, yet make great efforts to preserve the ancient traditions and culture of their ancestors. While on the reservation, Morgan will live in a traditional Navajo dwelling called a Hogan, work at a tire shop and spend several grueling hours in a sweat lodge as part of a "Coyote Ceremony." He will also experience the economic hardships and social crises that are common to reservation life while exploring many misconceptions about Native Americans.
7.9| 0h30m| TV-MA| en| More Info
Released: 15 June 2005 Ended
Producted By:
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/originals/30days/
Synopsis

30 Days is a reality television show on the FX cable network in the United States, created and hosted by Morgan Spurlock. In each episode, Spurlock, or some other person or group of people, spend 30 days immersing themselves in a particular lifestyle with which they are unfamiliar, while discussing related social issues. As in Spurlock's film, Super Size Me, there are a number of rules unique to each situation which must be followed during each such experiment. At least one episode each season has featured Spurlock as the person spending the month in the particular lifestyle. Season one premiered on June 15, 2005, and its respective DVD set was released July 11, 2006. The second season premiered on July 26, 2006. Season 3 of 30 Days premiered on June 3, 2008. FX said on November 6 that it would not be renewing the series for a fourth season, effectively canceling the show. The show has recently been picked up for re-air by Planet Green, though no new episodes have been ordered. In the United Kingdom, the program is broadcast on More4 and Channel 4. In Australia, the program is broadcast on Network Ten and Lifestyle Channel. It currently airs in Canada on Independent Film Channel and Canal Vie. It also airs on FX in Latin America. In Norway it airs on TV 2. In Sweden it airs on TV4 and Kanal 9.

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lrademac08 I started late in the game with the show. I only recently seen some of Morgan Spurlock's movies. Its now 2011 and there is a glut of Documentary Reality TV Shows out there. And most are pretty bad. Of the 3 episodes of 30 Days I've seen on Netflix I gotta say its a pretty decent show. I wish this show was out right now, because it would be better than most of the garbage that's out now. I agree with other reviewers that 30 Days waters down the subject theme so 30 Days is shown in 1hr so regular Americans get a sample of what the individual goes through. Of the first 3 episodes I would complain that the Individuals do not fully go through a full 30 Days. They start Day 1 or 2 or even 3 showing a Lead In of whats gonna happen. Then if lucky the person has started the journey by Day 4. Its cheating in my book. the 1st episode of Minimum Wage hit the closest to home for me. Because I have worked Minimum Wage jobs and tried to live on them. To the reviewers who say Its not a reflection of Real Life I say boo to you. My wife and I feel just because I was earning only $150 a week working full time doesn't mean you have to become a monk. If a person works hard, saves money, makes sacrifices and uses the resources that are out there in the world then YES you can go 1 time a Month to go to the Movies or Out to Dinner. Instead of paying $30 for 4 people to go to the movies, you go to the Cheap Show... Even in 2003/2004 when that TV Show was aired I am sure there were a Cheap Movie night somewhere. Its now 2011 and in Michigan Unemployment is terrible. Minimum Wage is higher at about $7.50 an hour or so But a person cannot survive on much. Gas for my car runs about $40 a week. Utility bills can be harsh with easily $80 to $100 a month for gas and another $120 a month for electricity. The 30 Days episode made some cheats... Spurlock & his GF Alex, were not living on Minimum Wage for a long enough time. They did not have to sacrifice much. If Spurlock would do it again I'd say try for 6 months and tell me how you feel... For Me working at a Grocery Store full time making Minimum Wage where THERE IS NO BUS service and If you don't have a working Car then you are SOL.The 2nd episode of the guy trying to do this Anti-Aging thing was the episode that bugged me the most. First the guy didn't begin his experiment until about Day 5. Second the guy and his wife were whiny stupid annoying spoiled cry babies who had 3 beautiful kids already and all the damn wife could think about was what if her husband couldn't have any more kids. They were both 30 somethings already with 3 kids! WTF Try being in your 30's and all you WANT IS ANY KIDS???? My wife and I have been trying to have kids for 10 years. Third the guy was placing Unrealistic goals to Become youthful again. HE Was maybe, just maybe 30 pounds overweight. All He needed was to take a Multi-vitamin, Drink Water, Eat healthy, Exercise. That's all He needed to do. Popping 40 plus pills a day is b.s. and poking yourself with Testosterone and HGH was just ASKING for trouble.The 3rd episode I saw was very interesting to me. Because I LIVE IN Michigan, I'm In DETROIT and I drive in and around Dearborn 3-4 times a month. I did not like the guy Dave, the so called Faithful Christian at first because He's feeling conflicted claiming he didn't want to be Worshiping another God. UH DUDE, If he did Any Reading at anytime and Understood the History of his Own Faith It wouldn't have been too harmful to accept. How many people are afraid of Jews? Why Not? I do commend the guy Dave for making an effort to learn more of the Muslim culture. He never fully gave it his all though. A couple times I wanted to slap the crap out of him for his attitudes. But I guess that's why 30 Days is a decent show. However There is a lot that is Missing. You can feel that Its been severely Watered down.I wish 30 Days was still around, It's better than a lot of these other Doc style reality shows In my opinion. I plan on watching the Rest of the episodes as time allows.
tonyandkris5106 I saw the episode about living on minimum wage. It went as far as an Oprah Winfrey's appearance for the said episode. It's bad enough people struggle making ends meet week to week. Then having this hypocrite exploiting the problem. I didn't appreciate the constant complaining from him or his significant other, throughout. Queston is how any people have the power to pay their medical bills from the ER? sure he shows that the bill is high, but he paid the remaining balance(from his own pocket) after-wards from his "harrowing" experience. How many poor people have that type of privilege after 30 days to pay off their bills. Instead they are starving and "robbing Peter to pay Paul". Complaining throughout the episode isn't a humbling thing for him. The movie and restaurant scene is appalling. Another privilege he has that poor people don't.
bottlekid I have only seen the minimum wage episode yet i have no intention of watching the others, how can that be? Morgan starts theatrically complaining about his awful situation living on minimum wage right at the beginning of the episode and the complaining never stops. Ever. Luckily for the viewer, his skinny girlfriend is just as annoying as Morgan (if not even more annoying).And then to top it all, they go to the movies and buy bottled water for 2,50 and after that go to a restaurant to eat out all the while they naturally *drumroll* complain about being poor.I don't care if the other episodes may or may not be better than this. No one should be forced to watch this crap.
liquidcelluloid-1 Network: FX; Genre: Documentary, Reality; Content Rating: TV-PG - MA (occasionally strong language); Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 - 4); Season Reviewed: 2 seasons At this point, after "The Shield", "Nip/Tuck" and "Rescue Me", I am putty in the palm of FX's hand. HBO and Showtime - look out. This is the network that is poised to become the new home of quality television. "30 Days" is the network's first step away from scripted dramas and it is a generally successful addition to the line-up.Created and hosted by Morgan Spurlock, this reality series and something of a spin-off from his entertaining, well made obesity exploration documentary "Super-Size Me". Each week Spurlock finds somebody who is willing to immerse themselves in someone else's life for 30 days - somebody who, like the ABC British remake "Wife Swap", is their polar opposite or is someone the media has told us that person should dislike. A Christian lives as a Muslim, a Christian lives as a gay man, gas-guzzling SUV lovers live off the grid and a man who lost his job to outsourcing takes takes one in India. See the pattern here? Even when we do meet an atheist, who wants "God" taken out of the pledge, living with a peaceful religious family (did Spurlock read my season 1 review?), the show flips its formula around and takes her side. We didn't need to see Spurlock's ACLU card to know where he stands.But like in "Super-Size Me", Spurlock is fair and he doesn't look down on the participants or lecture to us too horribly. He comes off like more of an "awe shucks" inquisitor then a pit-bull hell bent on proving a hypothesis. Even his human subjects are sympathetic, if only because of how hard they are trying to make this unenviable situation work. That fairness and authenticity makes "30 Days" almost indistinguishably from every other "reality" show. It isn't trying to put something over on us or humiliate the participants. That is refreshing - which is quite the commentary on the state of reality TV.The effect Spurlock's perspective does have on the show is that many of the experiments really only make sense in a vacuum. There is no explanation as to why people are on minimum wage or why Americans believe what they do about Islam, just that it happens and we need to fix it somehow. All episodes end with the same bleeding-heart message of tolerance and diversity and the two opposites becoming close friends - which is predictable. I'm not asking for "balance" here, just a little more imagination in the topics.In the best episodes, the experiments put us into a squeamish fear for the health of the subjects - such as "Outsourcing", "Binge Drinking Mom" and the best, "Minimum Wage" where Spurlock and his fiancé, Alex, themselves hit the streets of Detroit in what becomes a real trial for survival. "Minimum Wage" is exceptional TV. It was my hope that the rest of the season could match its intensity. But in the 2nd episode, an experiment to debunk hormone therapy, the concept is changed up all together and becomes more like "Penn & Teller: Bullshit".With many of the results predictable, "Days" isn't about how it ends,but about the process - and actually getting to see how this life change slowly effects people is a quite a bit of fun. It is here when the show makes the same fundamental mistake that every other reality show does. As exceptional as the packaging is, the fact remains: real people aren't very interesting. The participants are admirable in their guts and Spurlock finds fairly interesting people to go through this, but even they are unable to carry the show for the whole hour.Fortunately, Spurlock has planned for this. He uses the old documentary stand-by of animated sequences to move through quick educational vignettes and history lessons. Nothing profound, but they are informative enough to get everybody up to speed. Spurlock himself also pops up intermittently amid the experiments to do little experiments of his own, like going down to Mexico and trying to buy his own HGH or interviewing a parent whose daughter was killed by a drunk driver. The show comes back to life when Spurlock, or his fiancé (a game gal if there ever was one), appear back on the screen. Spurlock is a great host/tour guide: energetic, creative, funny, clever - all the things Michael Moore isn't. He pokes fun at his own mustache in the single funniest line of the season."30 Days" should be taken with a grain of salt and has clearly been sanitized for our politically correct protection (his depiction of media sacred cows as the gay man and the American Muslim is strictly by the book), it achieves what is no doubt the goal - to spark debate and discussion at home or at work and have a little fun in the process.The show is restrained emotionally. On one hand it never degrades into sap, on the other hand Spurlock doesn't go full force and give us an emotional punch in the face some stories probably need. On the other hand it isn't manipulative. This is a slight show, but Spurlock makes it work. Plug it back into the reality/documentary genre it belongs in and it looks even better. I hope the show returns and would like to see Spurlock given the chance to really get creative with the experiments. Twist the knife a bit. The potential is there for a great product.* * * /4