You know, I think with the Heenes (Balloon Boy and Co.) and the Salahis (the infamous White House Gate Crashers) reality TV “characters” have finally reached the tipping point. Or is that “reality” TV characters? Probably both. In the two of those stories, the great entertainment phenomena of the 00s come crashing together.
One of them is the “pushing the envelope” trend. In entertainment in the last decade, everything had to be bigger, louder, sexier, more shocking and more outrageous than the episode before. You won’t believe what happens next. If Britney wore a tube top and hot pants in her first video, she was going to have to wear a thong and a pair of pasties in her second. If The Desperate Housewives made you gasp last week, they were going to have to give you a heart attack this week. And the more shock and awe we saw, the bigger the concussion was going to have to be to get the same reaction the next time. We really got to be shock junkies.
Then there was reality TV. From American Idol and Survivor we learned that real people will do stuff that you just can’t make up. Or wouldn’t believe if somebody did. You can’t say, “Oh, nobody does anything that crazy” if a real-live human being just did it on national TV. Who would believe that we’d actually have a TV show to watch people diet (Biggest Loser)? Or eat bugs (Fear Factor)? Or sit around the house (Big Brother)?
So what people found out was that the only talent you actually have to have to be famous is for being a shocking character. How do you shock? You ratchet it up from whatever the last person did. If Richard Hatch was a jerk, then Omarosa is going to have to be a heinous bitch to get somebody to pay attention. The thing is that you’re not acting on a soundstage. You actually have to DO it. And eventually, there is going to be someone and desperate enough for attention that they were going to DO something illegal, and dumb enough to get caught. If Sylar kills somebody on Heroes, Zachary Quinto doesn’t go to jail. But if the Salahis gate crash at the White House, they could actually go to jail. And I’m not really sure about jurisdiction here, but if it’s DC lockup? I don’t think a chance to be on Real Housewives is going to look all that worth it.
I really can't wait until this decade is over.
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2 comments:
See I love reality tV and I'm going to say this is a case (story of my life_ of the bad seed gets ALL the attention and the good ones get zip. There have been some wonderful folks (Survivor winner #13 Yul Kwon) and deeds to come out of reality TV (such as Extreme Makeover Home Edition) - but do they make the headlines and daily gossip sites - no.
If it wasn't reality TV stars acting bad, it'd be other actors and sport stars amd politicians - the gossip void needs filling and the public must be fed.
I love reality TV too. I'm totally on the edge of my seat for Dr. Drew's Sex Rehab (the NASCAR of reality shows). I just think we've got a societal OCD loop about getting overstimulated. More, more, more. It's the stairstep effect combined with reality TV that I'd love to see end. We're easily bored and looking for the next, bigger high. Wasn't always like that. Look at Leave It To Beaver. 50s show with virtually the same plot every week, and nobody noticed. I think we could do with a whole lot less easily bored, and a whole lot more easily amused.
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