Guilty Pleasure Shows

The Real World. One of my biggest "guilty pleasures" on TV is the genre of reality TV shows. Over the years I have watched a myriad of shows that can fit under this descriptor, including: Top Chef, Project Runway, Next Food Network Star, Jersey Shore, Fear Factor and - of course - The Real World. I'm not sure what it is, but there is something about that last show that draws me in when I watch it.

The history of The Real World is an interesting one. In 1992 MTV set out to produce a scripted TV show, very similar in form to a soap opera. But after realizing they didn't have the budget to continue with the project - they decided that cutting actor and writer fees (among other things) would work with their funding. They also figured that putting 8 interesting people in a house together would create enough drama in itself - easily as much as a scripted program. And, as they say, the rest is history. In the first few seasons of the show - it really hit on some difficult issues, no more compelling than that of the cast member on the third season who had AIDS. In those early days, the show was actually full of substance, bringing important issues to light, and allowing real people to talk about them in front of millions of others.

Sadly, in the past years, the show has degenerated into an excuse to put 7-8 people together in a house to drink, pass out and hook up. Not always in that order. In the most recent season, airing now, there are 7 young people living in the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas. One (Adam) has already been kicked off the show for getting so drunk he broke just about everything in the suite, and also was breaking things in the hotel's clubs which the cast members frequent. He had been warned once, and instead of responding like a normal person ("I'm sorry, this won't happen again), he told the other cast members that he couldn't promise it wouldn't happen again and continued to act exactly the same.  He seems like a real winner...as you can see from the following video:



Furthermore, this past week, a new cast member joined them to replace the recently kicked off Adam. Instead of welcoming her in a friendly way, the females on the show decided she was ruining their status-quo and proceeded to attack her verbally (I'm rather surprised it did not come to fisticuffs - yes you heard me, fisticuffs). It was quite atrocious to watch.

Most of this season has been that way - really difficult to watch. And yet...I do. I watch every week. I even get excited to watch. Why? Maybe I live vicariously through their "free" and young lives. Maybe I find it interesting to observe people with such different value-systems than I adhere to.  Maybe I just find it fun to watch people screw up their lives on national TV.  Whatever the reason may be, I tune in every week and will probably continue to do so. 

And there we have it, the first of my "guilty pleasure shows."  I'm sure there will be more.

Until the next episode...
Chris