Is Reality TV True Story Telling?
I don’t know about you, but to me it seems that reality TV is l
ong overstayed it’s welcome. Now I’ll admit, that shows like Survivor and The Amazing Race grabbed my attention for the first couple years, but even that has worn off. I don’t mind them too much, and their really more game shows than reality shows. Really elaborate game shows that is, in lots of exotic places and destinations that I’ll probably never get to visit. But I’m not really bitter about it.
True reality shows, like Big Brother, and The Bachelor, and The Biggest Loser I think are the ones that need to go. They’re just far too manipulative and annoying for my liking. To me, television is supposed to be an escape for everyday modern life. I don’t need to watch people on television trying to survive a daily life in overly contrived and controlled situations.Take a show like “The Biggest Loser”. Now if there was ever a reality show, that I didn’t need to watch, then this is the one. Do we really need to watch a bunch of overweight sweat and moan their way to a reasonable weight. Personally, I think they’d be better off getting an elliptical machine, some Sports nutrition supplements, a case of Maximuscle Promax Diet, and a bunch of PhD Pharma Blend then lock themselves in their home gyms and don’t come out till their done. At least this way we wouldn’t have to endure them in our living rooms.
I suppose, one could argue that reality shows are just sitcoms with really bad actors. Actually, some of the actors aren’t any worse than the highly paid ones, but I think you get the point. At least I have a choice of good television shows on one of the hundred of channels I currently get with my television cable package. Maybe that’s were the issue lies. There’s just so many channels, because we needed the room for all the reality shows on top of the real television shows like Battlestar Galactica, CSI and the Discovery Channel.
Thank goodness for the Sci-Fi channel is all I can say. When it comes to watching fiction based television, I like to see lots of fiction in my stories. I think that’s why I gravitate to those kinds of shows. Now, as far as for my original question. Yes, I suppose reality TV is a form of story telling. I mean, they do edit, manipulate, and hide a lot of what goes on with these shows before the video makes it to our living room. The quality of the story telling though is a debate for another day.
