Welcome to paradise.

It has been an eventful few weeks: a trip back east to see family, Hood to Coast, some other stuff, much of which really deserves blog posts. But the item that has brought me out of my blog-free lull is none of those. What is it? Why, it's the FOX Reality Labor Day marathon of Paradise Hotel!

The concept behind this show is right out of the reality playbook: Take a whole bunch of attractive men and women, put them in a tropical setting with access to limitless alcohol, make them pair off as roommates on a weekly basis, and send the one without a roommate home. But then... replace the poor roommateless sap with another person of the opposite sex! Repeat for weeks on end, sending contestants (or "guests") in search of some unspecified ULTIMATE PRIZE, with no clear idea of how the ULTIMATE PRIZE might be earned or attained. It's genius! Since there was no obvious end point to the game, no clear idea of what the ULTIMATE PRIZE was or how it might be earned, the formula allowed FOX to arbitrarily extend the show's run in the summer of 2003 by an additional several episodes because ratings were so good.

The best thing about the Labor Day marathon is that FOX has interspersed the old episodes with current-day interviews with America's favorite hote guests. Oh Zach and Amy, how I've missed your abusive, dysfunctional relationship! Oh Dave, you are even dorkier than I remember! And Toni! Oh, Toni. YAHTZEE! Game on!

If you're not TiVoing this, you really need to be. Don't worry that you've missed the first half of the marathon. We're still several episodes away from revealing the ULTIMATE PRIZE!