Reality TV
Why do I hate almost all ‘reality TV’? Why do I find it depressing?
Popular Opinion Over Ability Or Hard Work
Granted having an interactive aspect to a show is an interesting idea but when such interactions are used to judge and issue valuations of people it becomes a vacuous popularity contest. Perhaps the audience will acknowledge talent and hard work but it seems the person’s hair is just as important to many viewers. When even Simon Cowell, one of the pillars of Reality TV, dislikes an aspect of it then clearly it has issues.
Toying With People
When announcing if someone will make it to the next round jerky gimmicks are the order of the day. Convince them they’ve failed and once they’re about ready to cry drop the ‘good news’ bombshell. They call it drama or unexpected twists but it’s nothing more than a child saying something hurtful to another child and then adding “not” at the end several minutes later.
Crying
I have a rule, if someone on TV is crying and not an actor I change the channel. Sometimes even if it’s tears of joy depending on context. I refuse to turn someone’s misery into sport or entertainment. Am I morally superior to the viewing masses or just cognizant that it may be me crying on the 6 o’clock news one day? I leave it to you to decide but let me ask you this, when Sharon Osbourne is the only defender of the innocent what does that say about the rest of us?
‘Dramatic Style’
Listen to the music of any reality show, then watch the song and music writing scenes from Wag The Dog. Observe the broad sweeping camera angles, then go watch Ed Harris in The Truman Show. You’ll feel manipulated and not just a little dirty. Yes, scripted TV does the same thing, albeit with more class and subtlety, but they’re not trying to present ‘reality’.
‘Reality’
What’s more real than Vern Troyer getting drunk in a hot tub with a former model or castaways riding elephants? Cutting your lawn! Get a life people, don’t live vicariously through others, your life is far more interesting and even if not the dramatic impact should be greater.
Virtue v. Pandering
On these shows virtue becomes a liability and ruthlessness a prerequisite. The worst behaviour is often rewarded. Any hard work happens off-camera or is edited out.
Economics
Reality TV is far cheaper to make than scripted TV. For one you rarely need more than one ’set’ and even that you often don’t need to create such as an island or stage. Thus carpenters and the like get less work. You also don’t pay the vast majority of your on-screen people (I refuse to call them talent, contestants maybe). So the next Al Pacino or Robin Williams can’t get work because we’re fascinated by the Amish getting makeovers. And the next time someone asks “Why is Paris Hilton famous?” check the mirror reality TV fans.
Assumption Of Audience
Just watch the first few minutes when any reality TV show returns from commercial, they will often spend that time recapping what has already occurred in the program thus far. They think so little of their audience that they feel the need to review what they just saw 2 minutes ago. To the best of my figuring this is done for one of two reasons, or perhaps both. First because the IQ and attention span of the average reality TV fan MAY be lower/shorter than average so they feel the need to constantly repeat themselves worse than Barney to keep their audience in the moment. The second possibility is that the show itself is so empty they need to find any excuse or gimmick to waste screen time. I suppose it is conceivable that they expect a great many viewers to be tuning in mid-show however why cater to what ideally would be a very small portion of your audience and also who knows if these channel surfers are switching right after a commercial break? If this is really their concern why not have a scrawl at the bottom of the screen constantly explaining everything? This would also help with those lower IQ viewers. Although I suppose the barrier then becomes literacy which may be asking too much. I could recap what I just said but I think too highly of you, dear reader.
Any Exceptions?
I freely admit I don’t hate ALL reality TV. Last Comic Standing and Dragon’s Den are both great. But were these shows produced a decade or two ago they wouldn’t have been branded reality TV. I also do on occasion appreciate an episode of America’s Got Talent but the entertainment comes not from the ‘contestants’ but rather David Hasselhoff - himself the only real paid actor on the program. Thus returning us once again to the paradigm of entertainment, writing, and acting as profession.
June 17th, 2007 at 11:58 pm
Jon’s thoughts: Any reality TV shows that base their show on finding love should just go ahead and have the producers slit their wrists. The big problem is that reality TV isn’t innovative or new anymore. Survivor was great in it’s first season because it had never been done. Every other season seemed formulaic after that with the contestants just “playing the game”.
I’m with the Cow on this one for the most part. I really don’t like reality shows where’s it’s a popular vote, on the island or off. It just makes people devious and nasty, which is why I like Amazing Race. If you’re last, you go. No voting. You might get lucky and get a non-elimination leg, but for the most part, you’re gone. You never hear anybody leaving that show angry.
My exceptions: Amazing Race, Last Comic Standing, and On The Lot (even though America votes on the winners every week)
June 18th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
I suppose it could make a good drinking game. One person could drink whenever they recap something, someone else could drink whenever they crush someone’s dream, another person whenever they cry, and yet another whenever they profit from exploiting children or the nearly nude.