Reality TV: Are You Not Entertained?

Some time back, I spoke about role models for girls and how I thought that this new generation of girls and women didn't have good fictional heroines to look up to. Sure, talking about fiction is all nice and dandy, but what about when it's real? What are we aiming for with reality TV? What are we supposed to take from it?

I guess the answer is nothing. It is meant to be entertainment after all. But when you inject reality into the equation, we have to begin to question how disturbing is our desire to be entertained. What do we as a society consider too much in regards to our amusement?

 As my other colleagues have already explained in their entries, there exists a myriad of reality shows. Competitions, "following a group of people", etc. are all examples of such entertainment. Some are good and some are not, but all appeal to some sort of visceral aspect of our nature in order to gain our attention. We watch them even if we don't admit it, raise their cast to celebrity status and dream of either being in the next season or meeting a star from said show. Don't believe me? Then you explain to me how and why the Kardashians are celebrities.

But again, what exactly is it that we look for when we watch these shows?  My theory is that we watch them for the same reason the Romans watched the gladiators fight back in the day. To watch the blood run.

Think about it. Back in the day, VH1 had a series of dating shows that seemed to spawn from the previous one aired. First it was Flavor of Love, then came I love New York. Later on we had Rock of Love, Daisy of Love and Charm School. These sequel shows all stemmed from a hand selected, desperate, train wreck of a contestant and served to provide us with even more degrading entertainment than the previous one. It was a conglomeration of trashy television and we, myself included, as an audience watched it religiously. I bet some of us can even highlight some of the trashier moments from each season. I know I can. 

Reality TV!

These days it's not limited to adults either. Now we have a bizarre trend sprouting on TV which makes it all a family affair. Shows like Here comes Honey Boo Boo, Keeping up with the Kardashians , Duck Dynasty and Dance Moms now include children in their repertoire. We watch them grow up in a pre set environment, toss booze and money at them and show their every move to the world while we emphasize the negative aspects and then pretend to be surprised when they grow up and end up in jail. After the initial frenzy and shock that we pretend to have goes away, the celebrity either continues with this self destructive behavior or they fade into obscurity since we no longer find them amusing. We then demand a new lamb to go down the downward spiral, with a special preference for children, because then we have the extra perk of blaming the parents when it all goes down. Don't believe me? Then how come we remember the self destructive spiral of the Osbourne kids, but never heard of their recovery? Though they are still famous and celebrities by all rights, they were not nearly as documented in their recovery as when they were misbehaving.

Which brings us to another point. Will reality TV ever go away? While some of us condemn it  and others religiously live by it, our more vicious natures will always demand it. We will still pay the paparazzi, tune in to all the shows that show things that embarrass us as a society, blame the parents and then complain or praise it in various forms of social media.  

And since humans are known for never really being satisfied, then I guess a fake reality lived on through someone we consider worse than us, will always be better than our mundane reality any day.

Because nothing makes it more real than being able to smell it too.

Currently Listening To: Timber - Pitbull Ft. Ke$ha

Book on My Nightstand: Supergods - Grant Morrison

On my TV: The Avengers 

Currently Retro gaming: Final Fantasy VI (Yes, I'm still at it.)

Random Pop Culture Thought of the Day: "Why is it that in every RPG, no matter how retarded your weapon of choice is, even if it's rainbow farts, some store sells an upgrade for it?"