Actually, I'm not sure I can. If my ten years as a lawyer have taught me anything, however, they have taught me how to equivocate, so I'll give it my best shot.
Generally speaking, I don't like reality TV. I find shows like The Apprentice, Sober House, and The Real World to be contrived, exploitative, and boring. I also find it disheartening that the most popular shows on television are designed to appeal to our basest nature. Reality TV is not uplifting; it doesn't challenge us or encourage us to know and accomplish more. Instead, when we watch Reality TV we delight in the misery and awful behavior of our fellows. Using SAT words often riles me up, so forgive my alarmist conclusion here: Reality TV is a few short steps away from truly hating ourselves and our neighbors. In a time of social disconnection, is that what we want?
Now I'll start the hypocrisy (I do that a lot). Some programming that might technically be classified as Reality TV still finds its way into my Tivo. Most notably, The Biggest Loser. My lame justification for this inconsistency is that The Biggest Loser, and several other programs like it, are not strictly Reality TV. I think it is more accurate to call this show, Dancing With the Stars, The Amazing Race, and of course the progenitor American Idol, a "Reality Game Show". These shows, at their core, are contests. Each week the participants go through challenges, get scored, and try to defeat the other participants (contestants) to try and win an ultimate prize. Clearly, these shows are less Real World and more The Price is Right.
That's my lawyer's argument. I'm still troubled, though, because these Reality Game Shows (I really, really hope that ends up in the popular lexicon) carry the "contest" portion of the show on the backs of the contestants' personal lives and the accompanying baggage that should probably remain private. Thus, while I enjoy watching the contestants on The Biggest Loser put up big numbers on the scale each week and watching their miraculous transformations (can you believe how great Sam looks after just a few months?!), I find myself even more entertained by the strife and personal drama that is a much bigger part of the show. The Biggest Loser is the only Reality Game Show that I watch, and considering the conundrum I've laid out here - I think it will be my last.
I am hopeful, however, that we may be winnowing the true Reality TV programs out of our culture at long last. Bit by bit, I believe programming will become less about the personal tragedies of real people and more about creative, complex story-telling. Maybe Reality Game Shows are the first step in this dilution of Reality TV. Please?
P.S. -
Erica Durance, I love you.
After eating a million comments (worth 140 calories each), here's the low-fat version: Love the Biggest Loser, hate reality TV, and wish I was smart enough to reconcile the two ;)
ReplyDeleteThe show totally makes me care for (or hate) the contestants, who work harder to lose weight than I have for anything, ever, in my life. It's hard not to be moved by such fortitude...and that's before you get into their personal lives (which actually I don't care about as much, especially when they use them to manipulate others...MICHAEL). I just like seeing them interact, seeing their personalities come through, seeing them gain confidence (love you, Darus!).
But I hate the gamesmanship (though I recognize it's necessary for the show's success, sadly). Have you ever met anyone more horrible than Lance, Lance's shrill, shrewish wife, or Michael? What small-minded, spiteful, mean (in the sense of stingy) people. Especially what's her face. Gah. Oh well, I may be being manipulated, but I can't help getting involved. Obviously. So much for the low-fat version.
~ Shauna
I have to say I'm not a fan of this show. I tried to watch it this last season and dropped out after the second elimination round. I find it to be exploitive and in a way trivializes the very real, very serious health risk of an epidemic in the US - obesity. This show keeps getting fatter and fatter people to be on as contestants - why? So fat, in fact, that they no longer represent the "reality" of the general population of overweight people. They get these "super fat" people because it's good entertainment - not out of some altruistic desire to help people.
ReplyDeleteIf people were honest, I don't think they would be able to say that their first reaction to seein this year's 500 lb. contestant was, "Wow, I can't wait to see how the show helps him." It's probably something closer to "Ewww. How did that lazy slob get so big."
My problem with this show is the same as your original point above. These types of shows are not designed to uplift us as much as entertain us at other's expense; thus satisfying a dark part of our humanity that I wish we tried more to overcome - not highlight. It's too much entertainment value and not enough higher purpose. The reality is these people need counciling and guidence. They don't need to be kicked off the show like someone that guess too high for the price of a refrigerator. If they took the "game show" element out of the show it would more closely resemble "Extreme Home Makeover" (Another show that I no longer watch and have real problems with but for a different reason). At least with EHMO you can almost squint your eyes so you don't see the blatant product placement and endorsement deals the show is built on. But heh, I can pretend that they are trying to help people (even if they usually pick total dumbasses to help).