So this week, President Obama appoints the first Hispanic justice, Sonia Sotomayor, who also is the second woman on the court and only the third female justice in history, The Supreme court upholds prop 8 insighting further civil protest, but most importantly we saw the season 5 premiere of Jon and Kate plus 8 - woot woot. Happy Belated Memorial Day folks!!!!
Now, I think I've come across the Learning Channell all of two times in my life. Home of such groundbreaking programs as "American Chopper", "Cake Boss", "18 kids and counting" (which I don't know how this is different than Jon and Kate plus 8 plus 10), and "Little People, Big World." However until last weekend, where I caught a potty training episode where baby turds were front and center, my life was drama free in that I had never seen a single episode of Jon and Kate plus 8. ohh how this show has taken up so much space on the web and in grocery store checkout ailes. I had to take notice. But does this beg the questions, is reality programming and therefore reality TV tearing apart the very moral fiber by which we operate and interact with one another.
Its really no big secret that there is very little reality to reality programing. As sound bites have demonstrated, statements and actions can be completely twisted by snipping here and there, thus changing the context. But what about a whole show devoted to documenting two sets of multiples and the parents who care for them. I write about Jon and Kate plus 8 half embarrassed, but they are the perfect subject in that what we are witnessing in season 5 is equivalent to season 5 of "the wire" where the microscope is hovering over the media's role in the families demise.
Before we touch on that though, there really must be something said for the public's interest in the "drama" between these two. I get that watching them bicker is far more interesting than watching Jon and Kate pack lunches for their 800 kids. But what about watching them bicker makes us feel better about ourselves and our lives. A while back I wrote about a film called "Not Easily Broken" which discussed several relevant topics today. Mainly how we are not armed in this day and age with the tools to keep us together in hard times and how there are so many forces that are designed to tear families apart that we didn't have to worry about 10 years ago. Namely reality TV. But it seems that when it comes to our programming choices, we love to be there when folks are on the up and up and we take a front row seat when that rocket lands flat on its face. At first this rise and fall was somewhat "authentic" but now its manufactured as a ploy to increase ratings. Somehow, I don't see this being the case with Jon & Kate plus 8.
So I watched the season premiere online of Jon and Kate plus 8 and I was even more confused by the naivete of this seemingly happy couple. He, a hopeless slacker, who appears to be a devoted father getting steamrollered by his 8 kids and wife and she, an overzealous novelist, devoted mom, and/or perfectionist who is desperatly trying to hold each brick in place while traveling the country doing a book tour. Their dynamic is nothing new to the American family, but just how they didn't understand that they are "public figures" is astounding. So in the premiere we have Kate blaming the media and the paparazzi for scrutinizing their lives, while TLC super hyps up the fact that their family is falling apart thus amplifying the attention even more and its like - does anybody get who the real enemy here is.....well its greed.
The problem with reality TV programming is that it basically is a platform to showcase the worst in human thought, action, and emotion. We crave drama, fighting, backstabbing in this format because why else would we watch "real" people on TV. But like the kids in Jon and Kate plus 8, we the viewer get tossed around, occassionally peering through the iron curtain to get a glimpse of the true nature and motivation behind these programs....money. Its reported that these two make an upward of $75,000 per episode and other reailty programs shelve out similar payments for their "contestants" or "stars". I have no problem with this, I mean promotion is the game - especially when everyone on a reality program is hawking a book, lip gloss, leggings, or shoelace line. Thus making the reality program the new pimp, think about it, if this is the case...who is the hoe.
I can't imagine that folks on reality programs are so unsavy to the inner working of their show. I mean if you watch more than two then you pretty much know how the editing works and that one format dominates them all. So when people on reality shows act ignorant to the media backlash their show befalls on them, its like a slap in the face to intelligence in general. I get that you would want to maximize the format, but how exactly does reality programing allow you to get to your long term objectives.
Its like the world is having its own reality who right now with the war, Swine Flu (where the hell did that go all of a sudden), recession, Proph8 debate - so I see how reality programming provides and escape. But an escape to what exactly. A fantasy based on a reailty so fractured that the actual "contestants" aren't even permitted to explain their actions in a real-time explanation for fear of giving the show away. And then ther is that issue, the "Show" of it all that seems like a direct conflict of interest. Its like, how can a show that has to worry about advertisers and rating actually benefit or enrich the lives of those that chose to be on one.
Frankly I miss the good old days where peope went to school for things like acting/writing/directing and then a committe of writers shelved out a nice little half hour script that was based on reality, but was tidied up with a nice silver bow by credits end. You still had people fulfilling their dreams and promoting their craft or er products, but you knew that when you turned the TV off that their actual lives and yours were not too different in that they would also be setting their alarms clocks to show up on set and report for work. And there was no way in hell you were gonna see their toddlers shit on tv.
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