A dose of reality? Euthanasia instead, please.

What a load of crap. Reality TV seems to be in its dying days, and the end cannot come soon enough. The evidence is in abundance that the concept has run out of legs, and audiences have woken up to the fact that whilst the set-ups might be mildly interesting, the completely self-indulgent sycaphants who parade themselves on these shows are near unwatchable.

In the latest sign of desperation, Ten are dropping everyone's favourite pre-operative Mexican trannie Miriam into the Big Brother house (sorry, BB4, obviously the marketing kids at Work4daDole again), presumably to bore the housemates with his vacuous and inane comments. Come on. What a lame and cynical excercise, completely lacking in wit, subtlety or creativity, the very things which made the format work for so long. At least it shows more guts that simply upping the cash.

The reason why the concept is dying is because the latest batch of reality TV shows have missed the point - rather than being about watching ordinary people live their lives, participants are instead placed in bizarre situations, where a normal, human reaction is near impossible because of the ridiculousness of the situation. Extreme makeovers, dating a trannie, a knuckle-dragging fiance are all so far beyond anything likely to be experienced that the shows lack authenticity. Rather than being interesting studies of the human psyche, they instead become b-grade ham acted sit-coms. Unless they will bring back Sylvania Waters, reality TV is dead.

The question is, will anyone miss it?

Comments

Anonymous said…
Reality TV.

Who wants to see losers cry when they don't get on to Australian Idol? Get a life - face it, you can't sing.

How many times must The Block have a token gay couple? What next, endangered whales?

You got it right Big Ari, Big Brother is bad. How many big brothers would you want? Cut out reality TV? Put on more cooking shows, have Dennis Cometti on daily and just keep replaying Simpsons and Get Smart if you want ratings.
8 June 2004 at 22:29
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