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Food
For Thought
Reality
Tv:
Not
Much Reality (but A Lot of TV!)
Farah
Ghuznavi
The
verdict is in, and it doesn't look promising: Reality TV is
here to stay - for the time being, at least (much as one might
wish it otherwise). For those who have been living in another
solar system for the last couple of years, or those few individuals
fortunate enough not to have come across this phenomenon (presumably
they don't have a TV!), the term "Reality TV" refers
to the recent mania for TV shows about "real" people
in situations that are often far from real. The range of shows
falling under this umbrella also covers (or perhaps, exposes?)
a multitude of sins.
The
first time this form of "entertainment" really hit
our screens in a big way was through the screening of "Big
Brother", in which a selection of mildly maladjusted
individuals purporting to represent a cross-section of the
public in their country of origin were thrown together for
a fixed period of time (usually 100 days) in the glare of
twenty-four hour television cameras. The footage was then
edited to provide "highlights" for the enjoyment
of viewers. Over a period of time, participants were gradually
voted out by the public, leaving one winner. A harmless enough
formula, you might think, though perhaps with limited entertainment
potential but the public (in over a dozen countries) really
took to it! So much so, that the fifth series of Big Brother
was recently concluded in the UK, after the producers (increasingly
desperate to boost the entertainment value of this programme
to a virtually un-shockable public) had put together a truly
mind-boggling selection of weirdos, specifically chosen for
their extreme personality types. Sadly enough, it obviously
worked, since the public continue to follow the (further)
antics of some of the key participants through the regular
gossip magazines…
If
you have gathered from this that I am not a fan of Big Brother,
you are right!
But
I have to admit, that in its early days, I was not completely
immune to the attractions of some forms of reality TV (blame
it on a lifelong preoccupation with documentaries). For example,
the BBC series "Castaway" held my attention for
pretty much the duration of its first run. It was based on
the idea of putting together a group of about 25 people (including
families) from diverse racial, religious and class backgrounds,
and leaving them on an uninhabited island, with the aim of
building a society of their own.
They
were provided with help for certain tasks building shelters,
farming, raising and killing livestock etc. Since the aim
was for the community to be self-sufficient, they also included
individuals with key skills e.g. a doctor, a teacher and so
on. Actually, it was interesting, particularly in terms of
the interactions between people, their successes and failures
in getting along, and their attempts to build this "castaway"
society. In my defence, I have to say that the clear difference
between this kind of programme and the "Big Brother"
version of a social experiment lay not least in the fact that
these were (reasonably) real people facing practical challenges
in adapting to a different environment. Purist critics of
reality TV may of course be unimpressed by such distinctions!
Another
category is the themed reality show. Star TV screened one
such programme "Fight School", where a number of
martial arts champions from the United Kingdom were taken
to some kind of monastery in China, where they had to compete
in a series of traditional martial arts challenges (many of
which they were unfamiliar with), as well as adapt to a completely
different style of living. Indeed, a rather more Spartan lifestyle
than they were used to (as evidenced by various bouts of frustration
and occasional tears, including a hysterical scene upon discovering
that one meal contained most of the recognisable body parts
of a duck, including its head presumably these contestants
had been used to eating their Chinese food so sanitised that
they were not aware that roasted ducks actually had heads!).
This kind of show probably appeals to those with special interests
i.e. martial arts, as well as a more standard curiosity around
how disparate personalities/egos will deal with such testing
situations.
 More
recently, particularly in the US, there has been a shift to
some fairly bizarre reality TV shows usually involving one
Alpha (attractive, rich, good-looking) male or female, who
spends time with a number of less interesting members of the
opposite sex (in the form of supervised dates, pseudo romantic
walks on the beach all of which are filmed of course!). After
a gradual process of elimination - often long drawn out and
painful (for the viewer, if not the participant!), one non-Alpha
man or woman is ultimately selected as the winner. This person
is therefore wins a prize e.g. a trip with the "Hawaiian
Queen" or "Prince Charming Bachelor" who is
the lead character in the show…hardly, one would suspect,
the beginning of a lasting relationship!
A
more intelligent (as well as funnier, and therefore more entertaining)
variation on this theme is a programme like "Meeting
the Parents", where three participants are chaperoned
by the parents of the lead character (usually a reasonably
attractive young man or woman). In the case of a woman, the
three men then have to impress the woman's parents, during
a weekend in their home, and face quite a few challenges including
being put through a session of parental questioning with the
use of lie detector equipment, which often has them squirming!
I can imagine quite a few parents out there would like such
an opportunity to grill potential candidates interested in
their offspring…
Another
current hit is what I would call a variation on the "endurance"
theme, where a bunch of "Z-list celebrities" (the
kind you probably wouldn't recognise if you ran into them
in Agora), spend two weeks in the Australian rainforest, where
they are also put through a series of challenges e.g. swimming
through a (non-poisonous) snake- infested lake to win prizes
(e.g. extra blankets) for their fellow jungle dwellers. Another
element of this is the "bush tucker trial" where
selected participants face the challenge of eating something
quite disgusting e.g. live caterpillars, in order win (nice)
food rations for the entire team. Unsurprisingly, this programme
is entitled, "I'm a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!",
and thrives precisely on putting people in situations they
haven't faced before. The extent of the change of environment
is evident in the fact that some contestants have been known
to weep because they weren't given any deodorant in their
survival packs! And to think they actually vie to be on the
show - clearly some people will do anything to be on TV…
Copyright
(R) thedailystar.net 2004
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