REALITY TV: IS IT LEGALIZED VOYEURISM?

Unscripted television has insinuated itself into prime time, becoming the excuse for programming to be raw and unsophisticated. It has effectively stolen countless hours out of audiences’ lives. Granted, no one is holding the TV remote hostage, but there is a lure, a draw, a promise of something steamy and juicy. The consumer winds up being served a huge, cold dish of…who gives a flying you-know-what…

Why does anyone care about the day-to-day lives of a housewife from Anywhere, USA, or a family with 38 children? They run the gamut from snarky to bitchy to pollyanna to smugly matter-of-fact about their wealth (even in a horrific economy!). God help me, I almost fell off my chair when they showed highlights between the ‘relevant’ shows, as one of them had the gall to say someone else isn’t interesting enough or shallow. JESUS H., HAVE THEY LOOKED IN THE MIRROR? And please, is it fair today to see a 16 year-old get pissed off because their birthday Lexus didn't come in the color they wanted, rubbing it in the face of kids who can't even afford to buy a CD? That's not 'entertainment', my friends, that is SALT.

There is perhaps, PERHAPS I say, an exception: one of the reality series depicts the ongoing challenges of ‘little people’. Now I can understand how a documentary on this subject may be interesting and relevant, but why it was necessary to expand it into a weekly series is beyond me. Being invited into someone’s living room is one thing, having the camera at hand during every private moment is quite another.

I suppose the guilty parties in these hollow timewasters are the producers, who are undoubtedly under pressure from their networks to jack ratings. Everybody has to make a living these days, but a difficult economic situation should not be a pass for the networks to throw their hands up and say they do not have the resources to come up with anything thought provoking or clever. I have made a conscious decision: if I stumble upon a company who sponsors such programming, they will be boycotted.