Fiction vs. reality TV – Part 4

Television is enjoyed by many as a means of escape. It fulfills a basic need in all of us; the need for something, bigger, better, more exciting. Television producers and executives put characters into situations where they face drama and conflict as they know it satisfies the audience. However, reality TV has come to offer the same excitement and successfully drawn thousands of people away from long favoured fictional shows. In recent years, reality television has shocked and surprised audiences in a way that fictional shows have not. Our once jaded TV palettes have been once again titillated by the outlandish behaviour of reality TV stars.

Reality television is commonly perceived as some kind of latter day freak show. The people who apply to be on these shows come across as desperate, fame-hungry losers, willing to do anything to achieve five minutes of infamy and an affair with a minor league footballer. We the public are quick to judge these fleeting celebrities harshly but who is really at fault? The very people we criticise have been created to meet our demand. The more desperate and bizarre their behaviour, the more we love to watch (and judge) them.

This is the appeal that reality TV shows have over fictional ones; they meet the human desire to validate one’s own actions by criticising and discrediting those of others. This desire cannot be met by fictional programs because of their very nature. Reality shows over a wider and more satisfying spectrum of human disgraces; drunkenness, casual sex acts, arrogance, lack of intelligence. Viewers lap this up like a delicious opposite of the milk of human kindness gaining a sick yet satisfying enjoyment that cannot be offered by fictional shows.

Another criticism of reality television is its lack of structure. Many Big Brother addicts have found themselves closely watching hours of live Internet streaming of…people sleeping. But this is part of the attraction of reality shows; at any given moment, anything could happen. Reality TV is a very appealing form of entertainment. It is light, easy and the very faults of its characters are what make us sympathise and engage with them. We rarely develop the kind of relationships with fictional characters that we do with the stars of reality TV.

On the whole, reality TV is an enjoyable, if somewhat tacky form of entertainment.It brings out the bad side of contestants and audience alike but is harmless and fun. Reality TV is fabulous and here to stay!