Total Number of Ratings: 17
Calling Reality TV Stupid is Stupid
First Published: Tuesday, September 15, 2009 5:09 PM
Last Saved: Tuesday, September 15, 2009 5:16 PM
"Reality TV is stupid."
Man, I love that old chestnut. It's right up there with "Kill Your Television" and "Comics are for kids". Perhaps my ire comes from the fact that I've made my living from all 3, at one time or another. But it's a ridiculous accusation, suggesting the absurd notion that if something is not scripted, it must be lowly and unsophisticated. How ignorant does one have to be to believe that.
All that being said, a large amount of reality TV is bad. Further, a large amount of TV in general is bad. Such is the curse of trying to appease a popular culture in which sex, violence, and inarticulate spectacle continues to sell, regardless of how much some of us might prefer the opposite. But as scripted TV has its true gems, with shows like The Wire, Arrested Development, Glee, Mad Men, West Wing, Friday Night Lights, The Office, 30 Rock, and more excellent fictitious dramas and comedies, reality TV is not without its truly entertaining, touching and intelligent programs.
After all, what is more fascinating than the drama and complexity of real life, as opposed to conjured characters? The answer is nothing. The trick lies in how it's produced and portrayed.
Reality TV comes in many forms. There are terrible, exploitative, aiming for the lowest common denominator reality shows, no doubt. But among those categories, there are plenty or worthwhile programs, where you can learn about people, or about topics you never knew anything about at all. Whenever I hear anyone deride reality TV in a broad stroke, I think of some of the really good programs I'm sure they're not watching. Unfortunately, far too often, not enough people are.
For me, the start of reality TV in my life came with the first few seasons of the Real World on MTV. I realize that today the show is all about co-eds with abs and getting people to make out with each other in jacuzzis, but when it first came out, the show was ground breaking, putting people, some of whom were actually intelligent and articulate, together and forcing them to understand one another's situation. As a kid growing up in a homogeneous little town, I met people from all over the country and the world on that show. My earliest ideas on real life race relations came from watching Julie try to get along with Kevin in their Manhattan apartment. I didn't even know drug dealers carried beepers, but regardless of that slip up, Heather and Julie became great friends back in season one. It happened again with southern Jon and Irish Dominic in season two. I can't imagine how many people met gay people for the first time on the Real World, and realized they were just like them.
A more recent example of that format is the slightly more contrived Wifeswap, which really makes an effort to get two people from disparate worlds to understand each other, and sadly learning that they just can't. If nothing else, watching a show like Wifeswap will introduce you to people from all over America, many of whom break a great number of stereotypes; stereotypes you gain from watching scripted narratives more often than not.
A mix of documentary and this "fish out of water" concept that was very good was Morgan Spurlock's 30 Days on the FX network. They take people at cross purposes, such as a hunter, and have him live among animal rights activists for one month, and they're forced to at least try to understand one another. I've never seen a show that did a better job at explaining what life was actually like for such marginalized members of our society, like Muslims, Native Americans, Illegal Immigrants and more. It was a really exemplary program, often containing a lot more insight and humor than was contained in Spurlock's Super Size Me.
The area of competition reality shows can get a bit more sketchy, but for the most part, Top Chef seems to rise above most in quality. Sure there's the same "throw a bunch of people together and see who starts fighting" but there's also a level of expertise that you need, and a passion that makes these contestants interesting season after season. We all go to restaurants, but we rarely think about the people and the techniques behind the food we order. It's a glimpse into a substrata of something most of us just don't think about. I don't even think I'd like to eat most of the food, but the techniques and quest for perfection are fascinating and admirable every time. The same could be said for the similar Chopped on Food Network.
I could go on and on about shows that have value and illuminate people and the world in ways most of us don't get to see from our armchairs. There's an endless list of shows that are worth watching. Amazing Race has won 5 emmys in a row. Little People Big World shows a lot of people what its like to live like the diminutive Roloffs. Deadliest Catch shows a world most of us will only read about, and constantly makes me, as a viewer, think "could I do that?" and at the very least make you appreciate where your food comes from.
There is such a thing as quality reality television, and to dismiss it outright is to miss out in a big way.
I think it's very unfair to paint every single example of a genre with the same brush. Just because some reality shows are stupid does not mean they all are. I've read bad books, doesn't mean i never enter Borders with money in my pocket. I've seen some horrible movies, but it didn't make me burn my DVD collection. I think things, whether they be TV shows, paintings, comics, whatever, should be judged on an individual basis. Racism is wrong when judging people, the same rules should apply to television programming.
You make a valid argument sir, unfortunately for me I've had a lot of bad experiences with reality tv so I just tend to dismiss it a lot. I enjoyed the first two seasons of Survivor before quitting that, and enjoyed a couple of years of The Amazing Race before I felt it getting repetitive. I also liked me some Fear Factor when I was about 14. I should probably start watching Food Network more simply cause I just moved out into my own apartment (finally) I'm sure I would enjoy some Top Chef if it's on a night I don't have class.
I absolutly love Reality TV. 30 Days is one of my favorites just for how it shows and explains things that many people are ignorant towards.
In the more standard reality TV though, I am a huge fan of Big Brother. I think that the game itself is great, and the way the contestants for strategy and the way you really have to think several steps ahead of yourself in the game is great.
Other than that, I'm a pretty big fan of Survivor, Amazing Race, and Hell's Kitchen as well.
The reason I dismiss it is the faulty premise. It's not reality, its scripted ... shaped ... contrived. Whatever you want to call it, its not a natural unfolding of events where each character is exercising freewill. Haven't watched it since the first Real World.
You got me Josh. I guess I failed to mention I was young and naive and was taken in by the whole thing. I actually believed the magic. After she mocked me (She being the "Real World") I felt I had been played. But your right, those first Real Worlds were epic. I guess the point were I stopped being able to suspend my disbelief, is the point i dismissed it for good.
I would seem to be the odd man out in that I do like watching Survivor, some seasons are definitely head and shoulders above the rest. I like the different strategies all the players have and how it becomes more layered each season as all the players have watched other contestants in the past.
I can also relate via how politics in a small workplace works.
There also seems to be a heavier "story arc" in the season in comparison to The Amazing Race which is another show I watch.
There's a difference between documentaries and the phony fraudulent crap that they call "reality TV". The later is for morons.
Wow. You have almost named all the reality shows that I watch. Amazing Race, Lil people big world, top chef, and 30 days. I watch survivor or big brother once in a while, but I'll never miss amazing race. the contestants of that just never seem to hate the race at all in comparison to survivor or big brother. May be just Rob + Amber.
Oh and here's my own personal Reality TV story...
Once I encountered two contestants (two guys) from The Amazing Race on the streets of Seattle. I work in Fremont, just a block away from the Lenin statue (see http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/9056 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Lenin_%28Seattle%29) and a few blocks from the Fremont Troll (see http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2236 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fremont_Troll). So as I was on my way to pick up a lunch burrito, these guys wearing Amazing Race t-shirts and backpacks came running towards me asking where the Fremont Troll was located. I pointed out where they had to go, as they continued to run by (never stopping, but did say thanks). And then about 15 minutes later a pick-up truck drove by and those guys jumped in the back, I'm guessing after they got what they needed from the Troll. I spoke briefly about this with the Taco Del Mar owner, and he mentioned a few days earlier a special lock box was put next to Lenin, and I believe they pick something up from the Lenin location which then perhaps went together with something from the Troll. (I haven't really watched the Amazing Race, so would this make sense?)
It was pretty exciting. I looked around for a camera somewhere to see if I might end up on TV, but no luck. Does this ring a bell with anyone? Did you see any of the players in Seattle during one the seasons?
I often joke how I want more and more Reality TV shows, because I'll be less and less tempted to watch television.
I just don't usually care for the reality TV sort of genre, much like I don't care much for watching sports. (Would this be a "genre"? I might not be using the correct term.) I also have so little free time, I'm pretty brutal when it comes to cutting out entertainment choices, so I'll freely admit I'm painting Reality TV with a pretty broad brush.
I did like the first season of The Real World too. I remember watching in marathon form at the end of their first season one weekend back in 91. But that's where I stopped with the series.
Personally I like reality TV best when its more documentary-like. The more it veers into rubbernecking Jerry Springer time, the less I'm interested.
Probably my favorite reality show was The 1900 House (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_1900_House. It was fun and informative. I got more from it than a regular documentary, because the family provides this great bridge between the means of life in the year 1900 and how people the people from 1999 had to deal with it. (It took such a long time to do the wash!)
I didn't like some of the imitators, such as Frontier House (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frontier_House), because it became more of a contest between families; and the editing of the series favored more of a tabloid style view on the participants, and less on learning what life was like.
I haven't seen 30 Days, but it sounds like I should check it out if I get a chance. I believe Hulu.com carries this.
A friend of mine likes the 7 Up series. I still haven't gotten around to seeing it. This is often referred to as the first Reality television show. I believe they're now up to 49 Up (http://www.pbs.org/pov/fortynineup/?gclid=CPa2-J2A95wCFRgbawodazmtag).
One distinction I thought of is the difference between "Reality" shows and "Game" shows. Amazing Race, Chopped etc are definitely Game shows that get lumped into the reality category because it's trendy and they don't adhere to the standard game show format (ala Price Is Right). But at their heart, they're just game shows...
I enjoyed this article and the previous comments. I am definitely one of those people that has a tendency to write off the reality TV genre as a whole. I started with the Real World and Road Rules stuff when I was in college but I stopped when it became obvious that it was going to be more about putting the nastiest people togther to get the worst sort of conflict. Since then I can't think of a show that I was willing to give a chance no matter how good the critics said it was.
In the last couple of years I have found that the ones based on competition are more interesting to me. I enjoyed the Pros vs Joes that was on not to long ago with guys going up against pro athletes. Kind of similar to the Shaq Vs. show. I also enjoy watching Wipeout because when it comes down to it, it's just people in a pretty friendly competition.
My problem with many reality TV shows is that I'm not that interested in watching people in the conflict that comes with everyday life now. I know that they aren't forced to be on television but it is just to voyeuristic for me. I might try the Amazing Race because I hear that is more about the competition than anything else.
By chance, there was a segment on last week's 'This American Life' that helped put into focus why most last-one-standing type reality shows (Survivor, The Apprentice, Big Brother, and dear God any and all of the Bachelor-type shows) aren't for me. It was a riff on the "I'm not here to make friends, I'm here to win" meme that seems ever-present in these shows. For the most part, I'm not interested in watching people interact in a situation where cooperation and friendship are punished rather than rewarded (you can argue about alliances and the like, but it's ultimately a zero-sum game -- one person wins and the others lose). I certainly get that some people find this entertaining to watch, but for me just, conceptually, it's a huge turnoff.
I could make an exception for shows like Top Chef or Runway, though I don't watch either of them regularly, because I feel like there's a legitimate competition based on merit and actual skill sets, but the ones that are just based on who people like better are not my thing).
I loved watching Project Runway when I had cable. I also have to admit that up until my last year of college, I watched The Real World and the various incarnations of the Real World/Road Rules Challenges religiously. Favorite character/cast member? The Miz
Can we dismiss the notion of reality?! When a camera rolls and people are aware of it then any sense of true reality might be eliminated in a sense. So there are some quality reality attempt programs. You make a valid argument, but there's a lot of crap.
Don't act like you didn't watch all of Survivor with me back in the day. You loved it. Sweet Colleen you would say.
Semantics aside, there is a kind of reality to how people act when they think people are watching them, and a truth to those behaviors, much the same way that some people are one way at work, and another with their parents, and another way with their friends. When do you actually see the "reality" of a person. It's a rarity I think.
And of course there's a lot of crap. There are also a lot of assholes, but it doesn't make me decided to hate all people. This is my point.
I hear both sides of this debate tearing your friendship apart. The sides of themselves that people feel compelled to reveal when the camera is rolling represent a reality in and of itself. On the other hand, Scott reminds me of a couple of different discussions I had when Survivor season one was ongoing. First, I remember a coworker of mine at the time who hadn't seen the show but believed, obviously without giving it a lot of thought, that the people 'voted off the island' were dying 'Running Man'-style. Second, I remember an actor friend of mine remarking, 'They're not surviving! If there's a camera, there's a cameraman, and if there's a cameraman, there's a union-mandated craft services table no less than xx yards away.' It all depends on how you define the word 'reality' here in our postmodern theme park of a world.
I know people who worked on Survivor. It wasn't a union show, and it was a lot rougher than you'd have thought.
Also, while they weren't going to die, they didn't feed the people other than the rice and water they gave them. At the end of the first season, those people had all lost a lot of weight, and sweet Colleen was covered in parasitic scabs.
I ended up at a party once with a dude who had done SURVIVOR the year before. His stories about living during the game were awful. Hell, the hike to the tribal council set took 3-4 hours through the jungle in pitch black.
Sweet Colleen. It's so true. I had forgotten about her. What became of that lovely lady? I rented "The Animal." That's how big of a crush I had. My newest obsession is "Dancing with the Stars." I have plenty of sweet references there. Other than that I totally have not gotten into reality shows.
Story editors have to search through all this footage to find something that makes the audience engaged and able to follow. Some of our friends do that. The truest form of reality would be to show all of the footage unedited. That cannot be done, so there are some people who effect the reality by deciding what to show and what not to show. They cut out the starts of conversations and the boring sequences.
If you listen to many people who hold jobs they show reality shows of, the people say how unglamorous and boring the job is. I met some people who do the exact same work as those on "Deadliest Catch" and say how unrealistic that show is. A lot of times it's very boring and just sitting around.
My point simply is it's a reality that needs to be shaped in an interesting way to keep an audience, and anytime a reality is altered then I would argue that it's merely a false version of truth. Hence, pseudo reality programming. This really is just silly semantics.
I do not hate reality for the crap factor. I hate it because it's a construct. Constructs limit connectability and the ability to relate. More so, many of the interesting reality shows engage me the first time. Yet, after a couple of episodes, I get it and don't need to see anymore.
That's because if we were to just show things happening exactly as they are, it would be really boring and mostly pointless in watching.
I call it "my life".
Your life is reality. Imagine a sporting event. You can watch the ESPN highlight and get the best moments of the game, or you can watch the real event in real time. I would argue things build to climaxes. Reality shows are just edited climaxes.
Also, your life is not boring.
At the risk of being pilloried, I would suggest that if you can abandon your preconceived notions, you might find a bunch of enjoyment in some of the VH1 slate of reality shows. I found Daisy de la Hoya's transformation from zonked-out, tour bus betty to empowered young woman to be quite rousing. And I am not fucking shitting you.
My wife and I have been fans of TOP CHEF since the first season. It's a fun show that brings the world of fine dining to us poor schlubs who usually have their dining experiences beginning and ending at chains like Red Lobster. Still, I will never be tempted to eat scallops, no matter how many times the contestants on TOP CHEF use them.
My thoughts on WIFE SWAP and TRADING SPOUSES have always been clouded by CHAPPELLE'S SHOW. According to my memory, Dave Chappelle did a sketch called "Trading Spouses" where he lampooned the idea of these types of shows before either one had hit American shores. I just can't take either show seriously after seeing that.
I was going to counter that all reality shows are bad. But you brought up a good amount of them that are still good to this day.
30 Days is probably the best of the bunch. Take the premise of 'Super Size Me' (30 days of one thing) and try letting ordinary people do it. The one where a christian had to be muslim for a month was probably the best episode.
Others like Top Chef, Wifeswap, and most shows on the Food Network are really great as well. The only reality show I don't like is what you put in on your picture, although it is the british logo.
Kitchen Nightmares and Hells Kitchen (both American version) show why reality tv gets a bad wrap. It's horribly scripted, it has very dumb people associated, it's not produced well, and at the end of the day it doesn't provide entertainment.
Other then that, great article as always josh.
I love Hell's Kitchen, but I also admit it is terrible. It is the worst possible example of staged reality shows (short of the shows on VH-1 we will not speak of.) Yet I can't not watch it.
The UK version of Kitchen Nightmares is super fantastic, taking out a lot of the sensationalism they put in the US version.
At first I thought seeing Ramsay shouting would make the shows. But clearly the food making and 'real' aspects of running a restaurant is not the foucs of the show.
Just watch two episodes back to back of Kitchen Nightmares (US version). It's like they put the same soundtrack for the entire hour, then cut the episodes to fit that soundtrack. The music swells up at the same time and the outcome of each commercial break is the same.
The U.K. version showed us how hard it was to maintain quality with the people. Was it scripted? It sure was, but the people behind the scenes worked it in a way where it totally didn't seem staged. It really is about the editing and music of both shows that make it strikingly different.
Hells Kitchen is just a mess because the people invovled are just dumb. Just dumb....
How about this then: When the "characters" are stupid, the reality TV is stupid.
I watched the first season of Survivor and felt dirty for having contributed to its success. I swore off "reality" TV and didn't watch any of it for years. I have since opened my mind a bit and realized that it can be good if done right.
Just like scripted TV, it's all about the characters. If I don't care about them, I don't want to watch it.
Man, the first season of SURVIVOR was great! I love the psychological intrigue that it and BIG BROTHER provide.
Yeah I remember the first season of Survivor as being a lot of fun too. It was a combination of the best and worst of people, and a really interesting grouping. I was never able to watch it after that season.
You're damn right it was Colleen. She ended up doing a Rob Schneider movie because that's how much America fell in love with her.
I agree that the first season was interesting, but then it became awful (in my opinion) and I can't help but feel that my gawking contributed to its success and the proliferation of the worst aspects of the genre.
I think I actually watched the Rob Schneider movie. I think it was "The Animal". Wonderful film making.
Hell, even I watched the first season of Survivor. We had parties every week. That first showed everything that reality shows could be. Imagine pitching that storyline as fiction: "The villain everyone will hate is the gay guy, see. He'll spend a lot of time waddling around all naked and gross and stabbing the heroes in the back. Oh, and then he'll win, by the way." What kind of episode commitment you think that'd get on a network? That's what has kept people glued to the genre ever since: unlike the simulations of scripted drama, you literally never know what's going to happen next.
Of course, after Richard won I never watched it again. I mean... who needs that?
The difference between good show and bad, I think, is contrivance. The shows that most liberally use creative editing to manufacture Drama are the ones the naysayers are thinking of.
Respond
The September 25, 2009 episode of On The Media had an interesting segment on documentaries and "the truth". It felt relevant to this discussion.
The segment is titled True Enough.
Download directly - otm092509h.mp3
(right click and choose "Save As...")