18 | Steel Notes Magazine steelnotesmagazine . com | October 2014
Brodian ’ s Banter — Why I Hate Reality Shows
Brodian ’ s Banter Why I Hate Reality Shows
I could summarize this entire article by saying , “ It ’ s been said that reality shows are anything but reality ”.
However , that wouldn ’ t be going enough into detail .
The way these shows are edited reminds me too much of English class .
The introduction , the buildup , the foreshadowing , the climax , the lesson to be learned , etc .,..
Life doesn ’ t always work that way . Sometimes , things are left unresolved . That ’ s just part of life . But , I guess , that isn ’ t good television .
Add to the fact that there seems to be only drama on these shows .
Think about it :
When was the last time you saw anybody laughing on a reality show ?
And , I don ’ t mean , laughing at ( maybe ) someone else ’ s misfortune .
I mean ACTUALLY laughing because they ’ re enjoying themselves ?
I used to watch some reality shows .
I never was interested in the first season of MTV ’ s “ Real World ”.
I started watching it after I was reading an article on how things were revamped for the 2nd season ( California ).
It was interesting .
The characters seemed to grow with their experience .
And , they tried something new that hadn ’ t been tried in the previous season .
When a cast member left , the cast member conducted interviews for a new room mate .
THAT was creative ! That was intelligent .
But , by the 4th season , things started to get formulatic .
It was obvious ; where was the conflict and ( as one cast member put it in the 4th season opener ) which one is the gay member ?
Road Rules was bit on the creative side ; It was basically Real Road hits the road .
In one episode , they spent the night at a hotel , only to wake up the next morning to find their van had been robbed .
That , at least , was real .
It was also interesting to see how they worked with each other to cope with the situation ( eg : one of the girls offering the other girl some of her clothes ).
Do you see any of that compassion in any of today ’ s reality shows ?
One thing I noticed in some interviews and some personal experiences that has showed me how a lot of this is set up .
There is supposed to be this ‘ invisible line ’ between the cast members and the crew .
However , more often than not , this line in continually violated .
An interview with some of the cast members of the first season told how the crew were trying to
18 | Steel Notes Magazine steelnotesmagazine . com | October 2014