The Watchtower of Destruction: The Ferrett's Journal - Bad Reality Shows
[Recent Entries][Archive][Friends][User Info]
|
10:42 am
[Link] |
Bad Reality Shows
Regency House Party - a show with a great setup. Take several people who are looking for love, stuff them in a Regency-era atmopshere (complete with chaperones and some vague concerns about marrying well), and have them try to find romance within the strict constraints of an old culture.
These shows are always awesome, because it puts lie to the idea that we're independent people. Every time you put someone in a past era, even if that era is obviously fake, their behaviors start changing. We are shaped by our environment more than most of us are comfortable admitting, and Regency House Party is no different (even if they are, undeniably, 21st-century personalities).
But in the end, there's tragedy. We've been rooting for various couples to get together for weeks, and we know these are honestly single people. Some folks don't make it, while others survive, and there's a heartbreaking twist at the end - great!
Then everyone gets "married" in the game and the screen fades to black.
Hey, you fuckers! You made us like these characters! Are they still dating off-screen? Did they make it romance-wise? Was this all some stupid game to them? You don't have us follow you around for several hours and then not do anything! That's breaking the reality show trust. Bigger shows can have people flog the talk-show circuit afterwards, but you should at least have a coda posted on your useless, crappy website so we can see what happened to Mr. Foxworth.
Fuckers.
(In other news, Who Wants To Be A Superhero? holds the distinction of being the only reality show in recent memory to make me cry. But that's another post for a later time, perhaps.)
|
|
| | | From: | (Anonymous) |
|---|
| Date: | August 19th, 2007 03:52 pm (UTC) |
|---|
| | | (Link) |
|
About the title to this post... there are good reality show? I am not anonymous! It was me! | | From: |  theferrett |
|---|
| Date: | August 20th, 2007 12:33 am (UTC) |
|---|
| | Re: Ooops... | (Link) |
|
Actually, a lot of 'em are good. I'm a fan, in general. Yeah, I kinda regretted the smart-arse comment - the moment I posted it (well, the moment after I realised I'd posted anonymously and rectified that...) I found myself thinking of ones I did actually enjoy.
I think the ones I like are where the players are actually learning something, instead of just playing a game. The Frontier House (a personal favourite, although I think that straddled the line between "reality show" and "documentary" or even "experimental archaeology"), Boot Camp, WWE Tough Enough (no, really) and the Ultimate Fighter series all seemed like that.
I guess "Reality TV" tends to bring up images of the backstabby survive-at-all-costs we're-all-in-a-fishbowl type of shows, in my mind, leading me to dismiss the others out of hand...
So which ones are good, and you would recommend? Dude! WW2BASH is the only reality show I've ever had a fantasy about being on! I loved it! Has the comic book come out yet?
-- Dagonell Yes, the Feedback comic came out. Unfortunately, it's poorly written and there's no Dark Enforcer. I'm hoping the Feedback movie will be better. I am so very very addicted to Who Wants to Be a Superhero! It's like the anti-reality show, because instead of rewarding the biggest dick (ie Big Brother/Apprentice) or the best manipulator (ie Pirate Master/Survivor), Stan Lee and Co. reward the best person(a). It's Reality With a Heart (TM). ![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/64734455/384372) | | From: | mamadeb |
|---|
| Date: | August 19th, 2007 07:15 pm (UTC) |
|---|
| | | (Link) |
|
"Who Wants to Be a Superhero?" is wonderful - it actually penalizes for backbiting. Stan Lee is looking for (for lack of a better word) a mentch - a decent human being, and not only is he finding them - he is *making* them. It's hoky and probably semi-scripted, but the contestents change during the course of the series.
And it made me cry, too. "Who Wants to Be a Superhero?" is wonderful - it actually penalizes for backbiting.
Precisely. The other day I reread your article about going to your ten year high school reunion, which I loved reading. I've been thinking about this topic quite a bit lately since my 20th high school reunion is next summer. I've never went to any of the reunions so far. In part because of just not being able to make them because of other commitments, and also because of being absolutely terrified of the prospect of doing so.
I was just curious: Did you go to your 20th? I seem to remember you mentioning how that the pretty classmate who kept telling everybody she was now an actress found this article was not amused. Did she write to you about it? | | From: | theferrett |
|---|
| Date: | August 20th, 2007 12:33 am (UTC) |
|---|
| | Re: Off Topic | (Link) |
|
She threatened to sue, in fact. Me? I wussed out and didn't go.
Not that there was much of one anyway, from what I heard. | From: | tom_nyce |
|---|
| Date: | August 20th, 2007 03:37 am (UTC) |
|---|
| | "...In other news..." | (Link) |
|
Wait!!?! Do tell!
Cry like, in pain or along with Whip Snap??
Ha ha...I find that show and Stan Lee to be a load of laughs!!
Sheryl's going to go to Penguicon next year, at least. I'm just saying this because you seem to be on a kick reading the same books and watching the same shows.
About two weeks ago, she said that the worst part about Regency House Party was... Why am I typing - you wrote EXACTLY the same thing above. ![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/70430862/7304089) | | | The Best Reality Show On Right Now... | (Link) |
|
...is on the Fox Reality Channel (I _know_). It's called Solitary. It's absolutely fascinating. They stick 9 people in a box and fuck with them. Continuously. How about no sleep? Or standing on a bed of nails without knowing when you can get off (i.e. the first person to step off loses...but they're in complete seclusion so they have to 'do this to themselves). It's like a vanilla version of Saw. I love the hell out of it. http://www.solitary.tv/ |
|
