Reality TV For Everyone
2 comments so far (is that a lot?)
Written by Ryan Anthony on August 17, 2009
I can definitely understand why reality TV shows have been smoking the competition in television ratings as of late.
The American infatuation with reality TV is still as strong as ever, if not more so ‑ this programming format has enjoyed an unprecedented level of popularity through this decade. Entire networks in TV land are devoted solely to reality programming, of which people have been obsessed ever since MTV’s The Real World. Finding its roots in a better time; one in which MTV was oriented toward music and not ideology, this hour‑long drama has garnered both criticism and praise from various sources in its twenty‑two seasons on air. I can’t remember the last time I watched it, but I can think of a lot of reasons to compare it to Big Brother ‑ namely that neither are truly real. They are, in the words of Survivor creator Mark Burnett, “unscripted drama.”
As far as I’m concerned, this “unscripted drama” TV craze can be summed up as follows: we like to know there are others out there either failing worse than we are or, as in the case of America’s Got Talent, succeeding at something ‑ translating into hope for our futures as well. For our darker moods, shows like I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! exist to afford us the chance of indulging in twisted enjoyment.
No, not the kind on that CSI episode with the furries.
I’m talking about being able to see our least favorite public personalities make a feeble grab for the OFF! Skintastic.
These digital blurbs of life show us all, no matter how bad things feel, there’s always someone out there enduring much worse. Whoever has watched Busted and Disgusted, only to declare in wide‑eyed horror their newly‑minted sabbatical from drinking store‑brewed morning coffee, knows exactly what I’m talking about.
I’m not going to get started on the bad blood often running through the social experiment that is Wife Swap. Half of them, I just wouldn’t want to live with. But for whatever reason, whether good or bad, the main draw of most reality television is that it serves as our digitized form of self‑help: we all come away from the tube feeling just a little better about ourselves.
And as for the long‑running documentary series Cops . . . let’s just say, there but for the grace of G-d go you and I.
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Comments (2)
KatchaCold
August 18th, 2009 at 12:01 am
What a great way of looking at the sad truths of reality tv. I have to say that all I can do when I think of all the reality shows is feel “Busted and Disgusted” and all that runs through my mind is “Get Me out of Here!”. Wife Swap is yet another display of rampant family dysfunction and as for the show “Cops”, I agree with you … there for the grace of G-d go you and I. Great piece!!!!!
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August 18th, 2009 at 9:17 am
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