Reality TV part 3

Today, almost every proffession is a reality show from parking meter maids, swamp gator farmers and even house wives whose sole purpose seems to be -just being alive. This is what prompted this series of blogs in the first place -I might as well just start following people and see what they do all day. It would probably be just as entertaining.

What concerns me are the dangerous, violent and confrontational shows like Ice Road Truckers or Axmen. These are shows that follow dangerous jobs, but are people tuning in for the triumph or the possibility of disaster? Is the threshold being pushed further and further towards the line that borders entertainment and sadism?

Most reality shows today involve a very high level of danger, none more so than Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch. Crab fishing in the Bearing Sea is the most dangerous job according to the US senses bureau. So maybe it begs the debate; are the producers interested in the fishing or are they hoping to capture some dramatic "real" moments that could result in death? Why is it entertaining?

Our level of shock and awe is rising at an alarming rate where I don't even flinch if someone gets shot or punched in the head in a non-reality TV drama. It's consistently taking more and more daring things to entertain us. And, it's not just drama we want. We want the real thing, we want real blood and real pain. For me, personally, the line was drawn with the death of Sea Captain Phil Harris on The Deadliest Catch. In his last two seasons we saw him dealing with stroke like symptoms as his two feuding sons watched. It was his wish to keep filming, the producers honoured his decision and in the next season he passed away in front of 8.5 Million viewers.

Personally, I thought the decision to keep rolling was Harris' legacy. I would never have known a wonderful man like him if they hadn't. But it does beg the question as to what the line is? It was a man's death, albeit his wish, was a line crossed? Does it matter that it was the third highest rated broadcast ever in Discovery Channel history? All I know is that stuff that used to shock me doesn't anymore and I'm not quite sure if that's a good thing.

Reality TV part 2

Human's love conflict, well some of us do and according to Aristotle there are 16 basic motives. These motives are things like romance, social contact, and honour. We like to connect with those feelings because they make us feel different then our everyday lives, now depending on if you are strong or weak (we'll get to that shortly) will determine which motive you most connect with.

However, we also desires things like power, vengeance and status. The way Aristotle described these 16 motives is that you are either strong or weak in each. For example if you have like a clean house, you probably have a strong desire for order, and notice when a bag is left on the floor or there are a few crumbs on the table. Someone weak in the desire for order wouldn't care if the sink was full of dishes or if there were clothes lying everywhere. Another example is someone who desires social contact will seek out social situations where as someone with a weak desire for social contact won't care who is throwing a party on the weekend. If you put strong and weak profiles together, let's say, on an island in The Pacific, your bound to have sparks fly.

Survivor manipulated these motives the same way a hooker does, by playing into everyones strong and weak desires. Candy-Lynn, who works the North East corner of my block not only has great legs but also a keen interest in psychology. This gives her an edge over the other hookers. She's able to fulfill each guy's desire (while they fill her, ah thank you!) by exploiting their strong and weak motives. She knows what he wants and most of the time its not just the act of sex but the whole production of it. Hookers are the modern Shakespeare.

 Let's look back to the first season of Survivor (actually any season will do because the formula is the same, i.e. our desires for strong and weak motives doesn't really change - surprise.) Each season their's  the young beautiful people, the old wise ones, the trouble maker, ,the one everyone likes,  the swindler and the lazy person. You have all these archetypes for both strong and weak personalities confined to a beach and forced to interact. YA! There's going to be conflict alright. However, occasionally a bright spot is seen.

In Survivor All-stars Rob and Amber actually fell in love. Argue with it or not, I have this season on DVD and it's pretty genuine if you look closely. They eventually got married, which was the highlight for those of us who have a strong desire for romance. But, it also set the stage for sacrifice and back stabbing. In the end it was a beautiful romance and very positive now what about those who want to see the exact opposite, which unfortunately is more of us.

Go to Part 3

The Stomach Ache

The Link on the pic is one of my first youtube videos ever posted. It's of my little buddy who was just born and the new toy I got him. No more than a few weeks old, Uncle Fred got him a stuffed toy from Giant Microbes. The cell you're looking at is Shigella a common pathogen associated with a stomach ache. It's plush and enlarged 1000000 times so that its cute and cuddly!

Shigella, the blue glowing hotdog shaped
cells that make your tummy hurt.

Reality TV Part 1

Mark Burnett Creator of Survivor and
Destroyer of hilarity.

Mark Burnett is the Robert Oppenheimer of Television. In 1992  he created the Eco-Challenge, which in my opinion, is the very first reality show. It featured teams of four (originally five) highly skilled adventurers who trek through thick jungles, canoe rapids and climb mountains in a non-stop race to the finish.  From there he went on to spawn Are you smarter than a 5th grader, The Apprentice and of course 24 seasons of Survivor. By the turn of the millennium  Burnett's reality TV mushroom cloud would kill most sitcoms the same way Oppenheimer's bomb did in Japan. And, like all nuclear bombs it's the fallout from the blast that does the most damage. In TV land that fallout shows up in the form of swamp people, parking meter maids and truck drivers in an all out "shock war" to keep us glued to the TV. But where will it end?

Rick Harris Pawnstar

Survivor really opened the door for both the commercialization of reality and filmed psychological experiments as entertainment (re: survivor, the apprentice, big brother). The commercialization is a no-brainer, you get the same amount or more viewers  to sell to advertisers without the hassle of dealing with a TV star's temperament and salary demands. The later however is Pandoras box. You never know what you might get with reality, which is part of the excitement but also taps into the darker side of humanity. It's the shock value that now sells most reality TV. I've narrowed it down to two categories: Triumph and Carnage. Who knows what will happen when you put a group of people that tend to clash together in a house for 6 weeks. No one does but it's probable that some will triumph and others will not, but one thing is for sure, it's a lot more entertaining then a group of friends -or so says a study conducted at Ohio State in 2004.

Go To Part 2

Funny Kitkat meme

This is a short Post. I love this meme and can't stop laughing. Tomorrow's blog will be about Reality TV and why you should just follow someone around instead.