Showtime's "Lock 'N Load" should make the NRA really happy.
The show, which premieres tonight at 8, is a reality show about life in a gun shop. The featured salesman and the show's creator and co-executive producer is Josh T. Ryan.
Ryan, a stage actor, sells guns as a day job and figured out that the people he meets and the experiences he has would make a good reality show.
And it kind of does. Some quirky folk (of all races) come into The Shootist Gun Shop and Pistol Range, a family-owned shop outside of Denver. There's the senior on her third marriage who walks in with three handmade knives; the pastor who de-stresses from his faith work by shooting some rounds; a postal worker who comes in for an assault weapon to look cool hanging on the wall; a martial artist who beat up some attackers but wants to ensure no one gets that close again.
The thing is, no one comes across as crazy. OK, the guy in episode two who goes into detail about people who try to rob his house and mopping them up after he shoots them does seem kind of crazy. But mostly, they're just people shopping for guns like others shop for clothes. They're concerned about safety, they ask responsible questions, they don't take gun ownership lightly.
Ryan is a good 'host'; he's easy-going and knows how to get people to open up and tell their stories.
The episodes are only about a half-hour long, long enough to meet several people and not get overwhelmed. It's not riveting TV, but it's not reality-show insipid either.
If you want to learn a little about guns and the people that buy them, tune in.
Assistant Features Editor Adrienne Johnson Martin would like to have her life turned into an animated cartoon.