REALITY TV

I know as a writer I should HATE unscripted ( Reality) television, but I LIKE American Idol.  There I said it, and I know the first step is admitting you have a problem.

I like Survivor and Big Brother in the summer and Top Chef too.  Is it so wrong?  Should I feel guilty that I enjoy getting invested in these people?  I am fascinated by the social and psychological aspects of the games as well as the competition.  It is no different than watching a football game…really.

In my defense I do NOT like the Bachelor/Bachelorette; anything with “The Real Housewives…” in the title or any show that determines paternity, catches spouses cheating or follows the family of burned out rock stars.

I LIKE the Pickers, and the Pawn guys, Antiques Road Show and the Storage Unit guys.  The possibility of finding long lost treasures is always fun.  I am educated AND entertained by the Mythbusters, but could care less about the loggers, fishermen, and gold miners.

Then there are the “Cop Shows.”  At first I found it interesting; seeing how they enforce the law in other parts of the country.  Then it got frustrating because I saw so much BAD police work, it was embarrassing.  I worked for a major Southern California city for 2 decades and in one episode of a reality cop show I saw more things that would get you in trouble than I did my entire career on the street.  Now I know watching a group of officers doing things right would probably be boring television, but I resent showing marginal work for the sake of entertainment.  The scripted shows are not any better.  To those who may not know…..Crime Scene Investigators DO NOT interrogate suspects, knock down doors to take bad guys into custody and NEVER work a scene ALONE with no one there to protect them.  I cringe when I watch some of the things on these shows.  But I stray, sorry.

In a world with hundreds of channels it would be near impossible to fill them all with something a writer created.  How cool it would be if it was though; a lot of writers would be working in television.  Shakespeare said there were only so many plots to be written and when you think about it he was right.  Reality TV allows all the participants to be writers, for all the world’s a stage and all the people players.