Reality TV

There's a pretty good article by Heather Havrilesky at Salon today explaining why reality TV is doing so well, which is that we just have to accept that right now it's more entertaining than "regular" TV. The whole thing amused me, since I've also noticed that bemoaning the crapitude of reality TV has surpassed bemoaning the quality of TV in general in popularity. And now your average snob has been given permission to watch ordinary TV as long as he/she makes sure to avoid watching reality TV. Well, at least avoids dating shows.

But Havrilesky, while scoring one for those of us who expect TV to be lowbrow, then dodges and starts praising the higher quality shows like "Survivor" that are more like game shows anyway. I'm sure those shows are very entertaining, but they take a time commitment of once a week viewing to keep up I'm just not willing to offer. I prefer the one-off shows, which means of course that makeover shows rule the roost. Oh yeah, and dating shows. Even dating shows with season long "plots" don't have to really be followed from episode to episode, because they are all the same. At the House of Mouse we watched "The Bachelorette" and "Joe Millionaire" sporadically, and there was absolutely no need to know what was to come before or after. Because the entire point of dating shows is to make people conform as tightly as possible to ridiculous gender stereotypes so that we can watch and wonder out loud if anyone actually thinks like that.

Sadly, they probably do. The parade of delusion on these programs is a sight to behold.

Trista on "The Bachelorette" is the prime example of extreme delusion from a reality show "character". (We couldn't bring ourselves to watch "The Bachelor", because the men who were "prizes" on that show we so arrogant that they actually seemed to believe that all these women were fighting for them because they were so desirable, even though any moron could see that they were just wrapped up in the artificial competition.) One got the impression off her that she really thought this was a great way to find a husband and that finding a husband was the exact same thing as finding twue wuv 4-evah. Regardless of how she may be in real life, it was hard to dislike her, though. She was definitely portrayed as the lovable bimbo, too dumb to really dislike. Of course, you couldn't like her, either, since the empty-headed bimbo thing is too irritating to fathom.

The most hilarious thing about "The Bachelorette" was how the producers tried to reconcile their desperate need to reinforce every retrograde stereotype imaginable with the fact that the program had the same premise as "The Bachelor", but with the roles reversed. Trista herself seemed uncomfortable with the fact that she was stepping outside her passive role and actually having to think and make choices. A few of the men were clearly frustrated that they had to focus on impressing her rather than just beating up their competition. The audience, at least the audience in the House of Mouse, could not believe that anyone was so deeply invested in such strictly gendered dating rituals. How can people live their lives like this? The only semblance of an answer was the fact that the people on the program seemed more invested in the trappings of the roles than in the people occupying them, meaning that in the end it didn't matter who Trista picked as long as he fit in a tux. And the audience was freed from any suspense as to who she would pick and could just marvel at the screwed-up beliefs and behaviors that were exhibited on the show. (My favorite was when she bumped heads with a family who could barely conceal their contempt for her, thinking she was slutty and trashy. It reminded me of Marilyn Monroe butting heads with her father-in-law to be in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.)

To my mind, things reached absurd heights when after Trista had gone through what they always unfortunately call "the process" and had picked her man, he fell on one knee and asked her to marry him, as if he had just spontaneously fallen in love with her and wanted to let her know that he had picked her to marry out of all the women in the world, when he had been the one passively waiting to be picked.

Dating programs are like peering into the heart of darkness, if for no other reason than they tend to confirm everyone's worst fear that jealousy makes someone more desirable. No where is this more apparent than on that nightmare of a cat-fight "Joe Millionaire". Oh, the producers wanted you to believe that these women were convincing themselves that they all "loved" that waste of space they hired to be the "millionaire" because of his money, but it was clear that some of them were energized by the sheer sporting nature of it. I was over at a friend's house when the last episode of that show aired and we laughed our asses off at watching the expression on the "winner's" face turn from overjoyed at winning to a little bit sick once she remembered what the "prize" was.

What was completely frightening about the entire fiasco that was that program was how people both managed to condemn its sexism while inadvertently falling into it. Everyone had a snotty thing or two to say about how the show stereotyped women as all money-grubbing whores. But how many people noticed that everyone was climbing all over themselves to condemn one "contestant" who tried to get a leg up on the competition by sneaking off to have sex with the box of rocks, while not bothering to notice that he had done something much, much, much worse by lying to her to get her into bed. Of course, most people I heard say that immediately agreed when I pointed out sexism behind their condemnations, but the scary thing is how the show lulled you into forgetting your scruples like that.

So, I don't know what to think about this interest in these retrograde dating programs. Do people watch them to have their sexist assumptions confirmed? Probably. Do people watch them to laugh at how others are screwing themselves over with their own sexism? Yes, there's that, too. Are these shows damaging to the body politic? Undoubtably, but that doesn't make them less entertaining. However, these shows have a high burnout rate. It doesn't take too many versions of the same show with the same stereotypes before the audience begins to question how "real" all of this is, anyway.

In the meanwhile, there's always makeover shows, which have the primary appeal of showing someone getting Christmas in July, either with a new wardrobe or a new decorating scheme or both.