Charger Opinion

Reality TV should get real

Emilee Chaffin, Associate Editor

The conversation at our lunch table almost everyday consists of Jack Sallee’s AP history class and occasionally American Gladiators, which is on the TV in the cafeteria.

The other day, however, The Real World show was brought up, then proceeded by other various reality television shows which we cannot really stand.

The basic consensus that we gathered was a mutual dislike for the same old repetitive plots and story lines episode after episode, season after season.

I guess the idea was to tape many complete strangers living together, constantly arguing, and, in some cases, eating various, disgusting, non-edible things (Road Rules or Survivor ...take your pick!).
Then the producers call this reality TV, and the public goes crazy over it.

The strange arguments, the overly religious conversations, and the oversensitivity of one’s own ethnic backgrounds make for “unreal “ scenarios which make Beverly Hills 90210 look like an A&E documentary.

I honestly would have to say that, like everyone else, I jumped on the Survivor bandwagon, but after seasons seven or eight, or something like that, I lost all interest.

Same goes with The Amazing Race, Big Brother, and virtually all the rest of them. Now I may occasionally check in on The Real World, but I can miss several episodes and pick back up with a complete understanding within the first five minutes. For the most, part every season holds the same conflicts and arguments as the previous.

The show consists of seven strangers picked to live in a totally not-realistic loft, mansion, or house with a volcano in the swimming pool, who work in a totally cushy job where you really have to mess up to get fired, and who “conveniently” have their lives taped “to find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real.”

First, when were they ever polite? And second, they can start getting real any time now.

They are bound to have figured out that they make TV Guide headlines if they fight the most that week, or cry the most or something along those lines.

Reality is what we live in everyday. It cannot be edited or bleeped-out. It is not cushy and fancy or even all that great at times. It is ever-changing.

It has always been said, “The only thing constant is change.” Change is good and we all, including reality television, should try it sometime.

Article prepared for web by Jeremy Holt.