Enter
LOOKING
FORWARD
IN ANGST
JASON
LINKINS
HUFFINGTON
05.12.13
REALITY TV IS NOT DONE
RIDICULING RURAL AMERICANS
TV’S “JERSEY SHORE
in Appalachia” reality
series Buckwild had a
very brief and very unhappy lifecycle. It launched amid
censure from critics and lawmakers, over its largely cheap depiction
of kids from rural West Virginia
AP PHOTO/MTV, FILE
M
communities. It concluded ignominiously, with one cast member arrested on drug charges, and
another dead of carbon monoxide
poisoning, the results of a tragic
accident unrelated to the filming of
the show. One week after that cast
member, Shain Gandee, died, MTV
opted to cancel Buckwild.
Since this crass experiment in
rural poverty voyeurism ran badly
The cast
of MTV’s
Buckwild,
with Shain
Gandee at
the far left.