In this economy, and every vocation getting its own reality show, it was only a matter of time before cameras followed the day to day operations of a pawn shop. And what better place to set the show in the most economically depressed city in America, Detroit where American Jewelry and Loan is located just off of 8Mile, the road that Eminem made famous in his semi-autographical movie of the same name.
Don’t ask me why the show is titled Hardcore Pawn, my closest guess is that “pawn” sounds very much like “porn” and the owner of the pawn shop, with his long, stringy, but rapidly balding hair, kind of looks like a prototypical porn mogul. The third generation pawnbroker Lee Gold (natch on the last name) oversees the 50,000 square foot American Jewelry and Loan and with its forty-five employees and is as outspoken as his look.
Trying to reel him in are his two children Seth and Ashley, with Seth taking a more business approach than his shoot from the hip father while daughter Ashley has a keen eye for jewelry for that side of the business yet doesn’t have the best negotiator. With a pawn shop this big, the Gold family sees a lot of out of the ordinary, in the first episode alone; people bring in a stripper pole, homemade cannon, and a live horse, some of the Gold family actually takes in. But the majority of the episode revolves around an irate costumer that comes back a few times when she thinks the shop stole her earrings, a storyline that gets old quick.
Hardcore Pawn airs Mondays at 10:00 on truTV.
When was the last time we had a good show set in a pawn shop? Such potential.
ReplyDeleteWe have a store out of Norcross, Ga and enjoy Pawn Stars very much, so we are looking very forward to see how the pawn market in Detroit compares!
ReplyDeleteBest of luck,
-Dynasty