I feel the what Gabler says is a generalization for example he says “Watching these programs is a way of safely exercising mischievousness in a society that allows few opportunities to do so.” In the show that I watched they did nothing mischievous but it is considered a reality TV show. I don’t think that in this show there is any one who is the hostage. The show I picked to watch was “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” It is a show in which a group of designers take a family that does things for the community in some way, has a rundown home and can’t afford to fix it and they tear it down and build a new one. At the beginning of the show they give you a sad sob story about the family and if it isn’t really that bad the people make things seem worse and prod the family until they cry. The show you the run down home and describe the horrible conditions they have to live in. You can’t help but keep watching to find out that things do get better. Yes I enjoyed watching the TV show. The fact that they take families who are average and build them an entire new house for free is what makes the show alluring. Also the fact that they turn nothing into something makes it alluring. What keeps you interested is that they give you hints of what is going on but you don’t get to see the rooms they created for each family member until the end of the show. In this episode it was a family who started a boxing arena to give underprivileged kids something to do, they even adopted one of them. However their house and their gym was rundown and was need of repair. They transformed both of them and gave the family a new start. The person in charge is TY Pennington. The family that is run down are the characters in the show. My part as the viewer is to be interested in the show and want to watch it again, it also is to feel sad for the family in the beginning and feel happy for the family in the end.
In this show you can determine what is going to happen next because, the set up is always the same and the things they film are usually the same the only thing that changes is the family. Since the show I picked to watch does not seem to match Gabler’s opinion I find what he says to be a generalization because if he is going to write about Reality TV and us being voyeurs personally I feel that it should be true of all Reality Programming and as I have figured out this is not always the case.
I am really glad that you used this particular show as an example. I love watching this show and I find the stories so compelling. At the same time though, I know that there is a person behind all of it trying to make it seem worse than it actually is. There are definitely alterations made to all reality television shows but I definitely feel that there are a bunch of shows out there that show raw and real emotions. I agree that what Gabler said was a generalization and not all reality television is bad.
ReplyDeleteI have also gotten sucked into this show. I think its moderately repulsive that some behavioral analyst has proven and dispersed information aiding in show producers in playing on our emotions to the point that we are their pupeteers; watching episode after episode of this garbage called reality Tv.
ReplyDeleteI like that you chose a reality show that does not include the negative drama that most reality shows include. You chose one that is suppose to be inspirational and make the viewers feel empathetic of the family that is in need. I also agree that they make the situations seem worse than they already are. I understand that the families in those situations have it bad, but the producers make them far worse than they really are to play on our emotions.
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