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What’s happened to resilience?

Are people getting wimpier with each generation? I’m only asking because once upon a time people had meltdowns when there was a really good reason to do so, but if the contestants on the 2020 season of The Block are anything to go by, the answer is yes, people may be getting wimpier.

I am not a reality TV fan of a general rule but I do love The Block because I am interested in renovations and I like to see what contestants do with their wrecks of spaces, because some of them have really clever ideas. Inevitably most of them understandably end up in tears at some stage because it’s a lot of pressure and a really hard, exhausting slog, but until this season, I don’t think any of them have done the tearful on Day One.

They wait at least until Day Three or Four but this season has got off to a bit of a soggy start. (In the interests of fair play though, one couple did receive some sad news just a few days in, which was very upsetting for them and that’s completely different).

Anyway, generally speaking, I’m starting to ask… why participate in something like this if you’re going to cry at the drop of a hat? Apparently it’s a common thing on reality TV though; you cry over next to nothing and that’s that. Something that may rule me out should I ever opt to participate in one (heaven forbid!) because I’m not a crier. I can cuss with the best of them but I need a biggie to do the tearful.

Meanwhile we have contestants with a brief explaining what they need to do, which is to adhere, wherever possible, to the era of the house they are renovating.  Simple right? The couple on the winning streak are doing just that, and not crying. The rest of them? Can’t decide on the wall colour for the guest bedroom? Cry. Not sure which tile to choose for the guest bathroom? Cry. Have no idea of the decor for the era they have been asked to recognise? Cry. Plumber does not turn up? Okay, definitely cry-worthy, so that particular couple get a pass on that occasion.

But they all have access to the Internet, right? So Google the era for goodness sake and take it from there.  Or talk to the people in place to help with these sort of questions. So why aren’t they doing this? Okay, so maybe they are but if that’s the case they should have it sorted, yes?

So why are they crying???

As I mentioned, there is a (so far) non-crying couple who appear to have their era down pat. They are comfortable with Google, have already had a few wins (of which they were definitely deserving) and have done all this without succumbing to tears. Which makes them pretty unique! Who knows, they might even win this season.

But look, just to be clear, I see nothing wrong with expressing emotion and/or having a cry when there is a genuine reason, so surely these guys can save the tears for the week they smash a digit with a hammer, nail-gun a foot to a floor joist, break a fingernail, or the newly-installed stunningly-detailed plaster ceiling (or whatever) has a moment and it’s not good. These are all valid reasons to cry, even loudly, and a few choice cuss words coming into play would be considered normal too under those circumstances, but going down in a flood of misery over decor choices is not. They have a brief. They have Google. They have informed sources to fall back on. Tears at every turn is just…just…there’s a word for it but I can’t think of it right now.  I’m not going to cry about it though.

I won’t even cuss.

 

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Oh brother. Not again!

Some networks never learn, do they?

One of the television networks here has revived that tired old chestnut, Big Brother, and I am finding myself asking why? I remember the first season and even watched a couple of the episodes, but got tired of it pretty quickly because I couldn’t really see the entertainment in watching a houseful of people lolling around doing not very much. Season Two was more of the same…and then it started to sink.

What I think continued to attract people to sign up for it though, was the sudden shot at instant fame, after a couple of the contestants from the first two seasons ended up falling into lucrative media careers or slots on the popular soap operas. In rushed the hopeful wannabes and it all went downhill from there. I think it was Season Three or Four were where the narcissists started to appear, along with the sleazy types, and before we could say, oh no, not another season of this tripe, it was wiped.

Viewers were tuning out, rating were seriously dropping and the networks that had aired it sensibly decided not to air it again. Good for them! And the insta-fame wannabes moved on to such drivel as Married at First Sight, The Bachelor and it’s trashy spin-offs, and anything else that go their names and faces out there. You’ve probably guessed by now that reality television is not a favourite of mine.

But anyway, one of the networks has decided to revive Big Brother once again, but seriously, I think they’re flogging a dead horse. After the sleaziest of seasons (I forget which one) where viewers actually complained about the overtly trashy sexual behaviour of some of the contestants, it was cleaned up. The next one though was so sanitised that even the most diehard fans of the show stopped watching because they were bored! So what does that tell you? There doesn’t appear to be a middle ground with this show; it’s either too explicitly trashy or it’s too bland, with no in between. People don’t want to see smut, but on the other hand they do?

And that’s the problem with Big Brother. Put a couple of dozen people of mixed sexes, who don’t know each other from a bar of soap, in a house with a large share bathroom, in dormitory style sleeping quarters where strangers will share  beds and then give them little else to do, they will soon find their own ways to amuse themselves, and more often than not they will do so at the expense of each other. There will be pettiness, there will be jealousy, there will be bitchiness and eventually there will be downright nastiness.

Okay. so that is sort of the name of the game. Break down all the normal social structures they are used to and air the fallout nationally and this is supposed to be entertaining? Some may still think so, but the number of viewers tuning out of the last couple of seasons should have been the red flag for the makers of this season and the network that opted to show it this time around. Perhaps shouldn’t have because I think it’s going to flop.

But guaranteed every one of those housemates signed themselves up with an agent, to manage their new online social media “careers” as soon as they heard they were Big Brother bound, because that’s what they all do now. Reality TV has become a launchpad for fame-hungry unknowns hoping to become a name and a face off the back of their (often embarrassing) “big break” in reality TV. It has absolutely nothing to do with talent and they won’t automatically become household names (well okay, maybe briefly) no matter how badly they behave in front of the cameras.  But they will try.

I won’t bother watching this latest effort to revive Big Brother, despite the promo promising something different this time around (it won’t be) because I’m not into utterly self-focused people behaving badly. I have a feeling not many others will be either. It had its fifteen minutes years ago.

It’s over.

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Do Networks Never Learn?

Not long ago I saw an ad on television promoting the return, next year, of the has-been reality TV series, Big Brother and I had to ask…do networks never learn from past experience? I am guessing not if they are planning to revive this one.

I think the first series did reasonably well because it hadn’t been done before and viewers were curious. They also got in on the voting out thingy and some of the more popular housemates went on to bigger and better in TV land once it was all over, and that’s probably where it started to go downhill.

Wannabe starlets (male and female) saw the Big Brother series as a springboard to fame and celebrity (as they do with reality TV full stop) and so applications to be part of the following seasons began coming in from the narcissists and the talentless in the hope that media stardom would land in their lap too and, inevitably, the context of the show went from mildly entertaining, to same old same as, to tasteless, until it finally bottomed-out at crude and offensive. It was at this point that the television station airing it at the time wisely decided that it wouldn’t be airing it again.

Yet here we are. Again. Okay, so it’s on a different network but guaranteed that other than the change in station, nothing else will have changed at all. And this is the problem with reality television. The Internet is overflowing with talentless individuals who believe they are the whole package and I suspect many of them will be making a beeline to the auditions  for this resurrection because they will view the experience as great exposure in their relentless pursuit of instant fame and fortune.

The thing is, there are a lot of hopefuls out there who have studied for the degrees and worked themselves ragged to make their way in the media world, be it television, online or the print media. They have the goods but are often sidelined by a reality “star” who gets the role, sans skills, degrees or working experience, because they look nice onscreen and/or were popular with those who sat through whichever mind-numbing reality rubbish they appeared in, and that is really wrong. But it happens and that’s why casting for Big Brother 2020 will be flooded with applicants hoping to up their Instagram profiles and/or get their names and faces out there to the people that count. Instant fame, easy money.

Except the shows they are appearing on are not very challenging, intellectually. On the other hand though, I suppose they don’t need to be, as many of today’s media jobs, especially television roles, just want you to look good. You don’t need a good head on your shoulders, just a pretty one.

But Big Brother 2020? That is scraping the bottom of the barrel and it was scrapped for a reason. It degenerated each season, with the time slots getting later and later as the content and behaviour of the housemates sunk to sleazier levels until it finally bit the dust. Then it had a banal revival that was short-lived and after that, it looked like networks finally saw the light and shelved it permanently. Best move they ever made.

Except now it looks like it’s coming back for another stab at popularity and of all they rubbish they could have revived, they chose the rubbish-est. Are they kidding or what?

Giving this one a Big Miss.

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The Reality of TV Hook-ups

What is it about The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, and their spinoffs that have people believing it is an ideal setting for meeting Mr/Ms Right? Ditto Married at First Sight?

We are talking reality television here. An artificial environment, lots of competition and in no way does it compare with meeting someone on a normal footing outside in the real world.

To begin with, you have a couple of dozen hopefuls trying their damnedest to make the right impression on the “star” of the show, while outfoxing the rest of the contestants, and the whole sordid affair takes place in an artificial environment of cocktail parties and the kind of “dates” only the very wealthy can pull off in real life. They are cooped up in a harbourside mansion/tropical island setting for several weeks and the only member of the opposite sex they encounter during those weeks is the “star” (except on the island thingy, lots of opposites there) on the lookout to meet someone; with view to relationship.  Hence all those attractive options falling all over themselves (and the “star”) in the hope of snaring his/her attention and no one ever says “multiple partners” which is what this really is.

The “star” meanwhile, has a really good time.

But in the real world, who would tolerate a situation where the person they were dating was also dating so many others at the same time? At a guess, I’d say none. But reality television being what it is, some of the wannabes have discovered the possibilities a slot on a reality television show can offer; such as a lucrative media career, even if they don’t manage to get the guy/girl. What has convinced me that many view this type of TV as a springboard to bigger and better things is the number of reality show contestants who have scored such placements as a result of appearing on one of them. No experience, no qualifications, no having to work their way up in the field, they just have to either look good, appeal to the viewers or both and…viola! Media Star! If they also score the Bachelor/Bachelorette as well? That’s a bonus. It has definitely had an influence on other hopefuls vying to make the same jump.

Call me a cynic if you wish, but my back-up is the number of narcissistic ex-reality show types now calling themselves a “brand” and expecting doors to open for them all over the industry and getting downright antsy if they don’t. Like one of the women from the last season of Married at First Sight, who is having issues with the fact that high-end fashion houses, cosmetic companies and the media in general are not beating a path to her door. If anything, the feedback has been a bit negative. I think she fully expected to become everyone’s favourite overnight but celebrity appears to have eluded her.  The viewers didn’t like the type of person she appeared to be and I think that may have been a factor here. She not alone though, her co-stars look to be in the same boat; no offers, and obscurity staring them in the face.  But they’re trying hard.

Okay, reality shows based around “romantic” hook-ups can be entertaining. up to a point. Viewers like the drama, but with contestants now seeing it as a free-for-all on the partner level and a chance to get television exposure, I find myself questioning their motives more and more. Add in that they get paid while appearing on the show and some have even made it a kind of career (finding their way into the spinoffs) and I have some serious doubts about their commitment to potential Mr/Ms Rights. The other thing I find myself querying is why they have to resort to reality TV to “find love” in the first place? Too shallow to form an enduring relationship in real life?

Could be.