I'll go against the flow here. As I've hopefully conveyed in my various postings here, I like to think of myself as something of an intellectual, or at least a media consumer of above-average intelligence.
I really like reality TV. I watch it almost to the exclusion of all other types.
I'd seperate reality TV into three categories. Skill-based TV, everyman competitions, and matchmaker shows.
Skill-based shows are my favorite by far. Top Chef is my favorite, followed by Project Runway, and distantly followed by America's Next Top Model (which receives demerits for modeling being completely subjective, and the whole show being basically a masturbatory endeavor on the part of Tyra to see how batshit crazy she can be and still have people take her seriously). I've also enjoyed Next Design Star and Sheer Genius, during their runs. Hells kitchen seems too extreme for the sake of extremity, but once this season of Top Chef is over, I'll get a season of Hell's Kitchen and give it a fair shake. I like these shows because I like watching creative people accomplish something impressive. I appreciate watching people go through the creative process, and thinking about what and how I would do things differently. I don't think anyone familiar with my hobbies legitimately could level any sort of 'durr you should be doing not watching durr' insult, as I do plenty of creative doing myself. I also put biggest loser in this category, although their creative task is losing weight...also something that is impressive to me specifically. I even tolerate the almost infomercial-like ad placement, as I like to support the products that support the show...in a sea of "who should I marry?" a show that helps teach America about responsible weight management should be lauded at every opportunity.
The everyman competitions I enjoy most are Survivor and Amazing Race, and I like them for different reasons. I like Amazing Race because I like to think about how I'd approach the different challenges, and I feel like it's well edited in a respectful way that actually tries to convey the contestants as real people. I like that they don't waste time voting people off, but rather just eliminate them. I like Survivor for the pure application of game theory (I really liked the Vampire game we played last year for the same reason!), and for the production value of the goofy challenges, and for the quality of the writing (more on that below also). Survivor has been going on long enough now that they have a good idea about what would be fun things to watch people try to do, and they're usually right.
My enjoyment of matchmaking shows falls purely in the 'meta enjoyement' category. I enjoy watching these people try to take the whole thing seriously. I enjoy seeing the producers set everyone up with fake personalities (villain, hero, victim, fall girl) through editing. A lot of my enjoyment of Survivor falls in this category as well. I enjoy the scriptedness. I enjoy seeing the lengths producers and writers go to concoct interesting drama. I enjoy seeing them always be sure to focus on two people as elimination candidates to preserve the drama of not knowing who is going to be voted off.
The worst insult that can be leveled against most reality shows is that it's "Fake." This blows my mind--how can people scream 'fake' at shows at least cut from reality cloth, and then propose completely fictional programs as the suggested alternative, with no irony? I know they're scripted to manipulate both the characters and impressions. I don't see this as a downside, rather, I like seeing the producers fit the pieces together into a coherent storyline!
---------- Post added at 08:22 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:17 AM ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by FuglyStick
the worst part of reality tv is that is glorifies the worst traits of humanity--pettiness, vanity, pride, ignorance, etc.
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Watch better reality TV. I feel like Top Chef, Project Runway, Biggest Loser, and (to a lesser extent) Amazing Race celebrate people's accomplishments, be they professional, weight loss, or goal oriented. I'd say these skill shows are the exact opposite of the traits you've just described, with the possible exception of pride, but I'd say pride in a job well done is NOT one of the worst traits, and in fact is one of the better.