S.O.B.: Socially Offensive Behavior (BET)

Imagine walking into a restaurant you've never been to before and being greeted by a smiling hostess with a stack of menus. But instead of asking how many are in your party -- or even whether you prefer to smoke or not -- she cheerfully asks you your ethnicity. If you're African American, you'll be seated along with other "colored" diners; if you're white, you'll be ushered into a separate section. There are even designated zones for Hispanics and Asians (who, as the hostess points out, typically like to eat with chopsticks at the bar). This unthinkable situation is just one of many scenarios explored in S.O.B.: SOCIALLY OFFENSIVE BEHAVIOR, a hidden-camera series designed to test how average folks respond when directly confronted with racism, bigotry, and other offensive acts.

Any points S.O.B. earns for its sense of social responsibility are sadly outweighed by its actual entertainment value. It's hard to pinpoint exactly why the show falls short of its noble aims. For one thing, the segments introducing each sketch, which are hosted by actor-comedian D.L. Hughley, come off as slightly strange and inauthentic, in part because they're randomly taped at night in front of a dramatically lit bridge that's nowhere near the action in question. But it's the serious mood of these segments that's especially off-putting. They evoke the somber severity of a show like Unsolved Mysteries rather than the lightheartedness a viewer might expect from a hidden-camera show hosted by a comedian.

Then there's the content. S.O.B.'s sketches are certainly provocative, and the actors who've been hired to say offensive things to unsuspecting victims are extremely good at what they do. But the hijinks never seem to reach a satisfying level of outrageousness, and the victims' responses typically prove underwhelming. Maybe reality TV has trained us to expect human drama and hype on a scale that's simply forced and unrealistic. And maybe that's why S.O.B. seems kind of boring in comparison to other shows of its ilk. In short, S.O.B.: Socially Offensive Behavior isn't a bad show -- and it could actually help you talk to your kids about a long list of worthwhile issues. But it isn't a program with serious staying power. It's as simple as that.