Posted on 09/02/2013 6:22:23 AM PDT by PJ-Comix
TV Reality shows have become incredibly popular the past few years. However, some Reality Shows are more real than others. Therefore, rate the TV Reality Shows in terms of how REAL they are.
At the bottom in terms of reality, I have to list "Amish Mafia." Even its name sounds unreal. And even more unreal than the sound of the show title is the show itself. Yeah, like Amish folks are going to pay protection money to Lebanon Levi. The show is soooo unreal as to make the viewer laugh which is why I watched it during the first season. But any relationship at all with reality is pretty much missing.
At the other end of the scale I would rate "Deadliest Catch" as the among the most real of the Reality Shows simply because you can't goof around too much on those boats catching crabs. Too dangerous. Of course, that doesn't mean it is completely real. Anytime you have a camera on people, that fact alone will make them act as a bit different.
My personal favorite TV Reality show is "Storage Wars" in part because I used to do that years ago for a time. Okay, perhaps the storage bins are seeded but I did once buy a bin for just 10 bucks and found a few hundred bucks worth of Black Hills gold jewelry in it. I also like "Storage Wars Texas" but "Storage Wars New York" is unbearable. Not only does the location seem wrong, I just don't like the characters. Is it still on the air?
Finally, some of the shows I have a hard time getting into. Like "Jungle Gold." I mean do you really want to travel all the way to Ghana to lose your shirt to chase dubious gold deals? I just don't get it.
True dat.
Least: Hard Core Pawn (When do they get body mics?)
Most: Top Shot. Honorable mention to The Ultimate Fighter. Also the new Bellator series.
True...but I give Lizard Lick Towing and possibly that show Small Town Security (whatever) the runners up.
An anecdotal story to lend credence to the premise that there’s little reality left in Reality TV.
We recently sold our home, and my daughter’s, best friend’s mom (stay with me here) was house shopping. HGTV had approached her and her Realtor to film an episode for House Hunters. The un-reality TV element was that the home shopper had already picked out a home, and wanted to know if our home, which was in the same price range as her chosen home, could be used as a second or third choice for the show. She was never at all interested in our home. It was simply available at the time.
That is the very essence of contrived.
“The decline of Western Civilization”
You’re correct because people watch them. To the extent they’re real, you’re even more correct.
Yup... two guys acting like they are desperate for money, meanwhile they are making big bucks from the show.
Many "reality" shows are prime examples of how NOT to behave or operate.
For example, I point and laugh at many episodes of "Doomsday Preppers" (which The Bride and I refer to as "Doomsday Attention Whores"). Occasionally, we have a "Gee-I-Didn't-Think-Of-That" moment, but the amount of offal you have to plow through to find the nuggets is daunting.
(I used to watch "Cake Boss," and liked it, but I don't have time to keep up with it now. I sometimes watch "Pawn Stars," and it's OK.)
I imagine "American Pickers" has to be real to some extent, because you could not stage all those packed barns and garages, and the people who own those collections are the real people, not actors. But I don't think Danielle is lining up all those picks all on her own, and I'm not sure how "free" some of that "freestyling" is.
Can I include Al Sharpton’s show?
I don’t have much use for so called “Reality” shows, but I do like Bar Rescue. I realize the people in the bar play to the cameras, but it is interesting to see the remade bar and the “bar science” behind some of the changes made by Jon Taffer.
Anything on “Tru-TV” is B.S..
I was watching when they pulled one of the river logger boats down the highway. It came off the trailer hitch and went into the ditch. By sheer coincidence, they had mini cams in place looking down at the hitch, on the tongue pointing towards the hitch, and at least two cameras set up in the ditches on the exact stretch of road where the trailer came unhooked. Lucky for the editor to have so many shots to choose from on an accident.
What I don’t get about “Doomsday Preppers” is they’ve on TV....
Telling everyone and their brother....
About their....
“Secret stashes”...
I’m know where my “doomsday stash” is(racks shotgun)
I largely agree, with the caveat that the "wacky" interpersonal stuff straight out of a bad sitcom is rather obviously scripted.
I look at those “prepper” shows as a future “coupon” store where you can get free shit with the right implements. First rule...never tell anyone what you have, never brag or advertise....
The most ridiculous show I’ve seen this season is that contrived “Castle” show... horseshit.
1st Rule of Prep Club: You do not talk about Prep Club.
2nd Rule of Prep Club: You DO NOT talk about Prep Club.
3rd Rule of Prep Club: If someone says “SHTF”, do a shot.
4th Rule of Prep Club: No more than two people to a retreat; one must be a buxom blonde coed for repopulating the human race.
5th Rule of Prep Club: One BOL at a time.
6th Rule of Prep Club: No tie-dye shirts, no socks with sandals, no ponytails, no drum circles.
7th Rule of Prep Club: Prepping will go on as long as it has to.
8th Rule of Prep Club: If this is your first post to Prep Club, you HAVE to buy all other posters a shot.
Asa chick too, I am addicted to LOVE OT OR LIST IT and all the HGTV shows. I also love the Chopped. Don’t know if that’s considered reality show, though.
Although I do like Storage Wars, American Pickers and Pawn Stars, I wish they would stop putting them in obviously scripted situations. I have news blastnfor the Producers: These people are not actors, we know when they are acting. Yeesh.
I say almost all present day reality shows should be listed under desperately seeking entertainment to escape reality.
That’s what ‘reality’ entertainment has always been about since the miserable days of Rome and the Gladiators, the more hardships the public has to endure, the more they gravitate to ‘entertainment’ to escape their reality.
OUR reality we are living today is no different and what we watch is proof things haven’t changed.
Post script: There IS one reality program that deserves the title reality because it educates the public to the reality of the declining condition of the black community.
The First 48.
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