Unreal TV

[the_siobhan]

I KNOW there are people on my f-list who watch reality shows. Can't fool me, I know you are out there.

So I ask you, what shows do you like? Which ones do you hate? Which shows do you love to hate?

And Why?

Let's call it research.

(And it just occurs to me now - are there communities devoted to such things?)

Comments

[a-carnal-mink.livejournal.com]

Hate them as a rule, including all the reality doco things like COPS (which the hubby has a weakness for). The three exceptions have been...

The First 48 - this is a US follow-the-cop doco thing that follows homocide detectives on the first 48 hours of their investigations. Actually very well done. Whoever makes it obviously has some talent for story-arc and narrative and creating character from dialogue and setting. Hits my writerly buttons.

So You Think You Can Dance - umm, yeah. There was heaps of things I despised about it (including the fact it was the US one, so immediately got me Bolshi about why it should even be on our tellies, heh), and D & I only came in when it was already down to 10 people or so, but damn if we didn't get sucked in to that thing! It's one of my Beeg Seekrits[tm] that I'm a bit of a dance nerd. Believe it or not. I even have a favourite choreographer, if ya can believe such a thing. :) It appealed to my dance nerdery, but also to the muchly lacking sports appreciation bits of my nerdery, too, because (another beeg seekrit here) I actually consider dance as a sport. Nerd-a-rama! *cackle* Yes, I watch gymnastics, too. ;D

Australia's Strictly Dancing. It's hosted by an ex-flame of mine. Heh. :) See dance-as-sport nerdery above. It's a ballroom dancing competition show where the dancers don't know what they'll be dancing to until the music starts. AND it allows same-sex couples to compete, which gets the big thumbs up from our household. It even has deadpan "sports commentary" of the ballroom technique! What's not to love. ;D It's doing for ballroom dancing what Pot Black did for snooker in the '70s.

Oh! And I like Jamie Oliver shows. Do they count?

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Oh! And I like Jamie Oliver shows. Do they count?

That sounds familiar - are they cooking shows?

[a-carnal-mink.livejournal.com]

He's a chef, yeah. His earliest shows were all cooking (which I wasn't into - Dom is, heh). Then he got full-on into working with youth in Bwitain - took on the school dinner system in British schools and proved that kids could be given good, nutritious foods for bugger all money. Then started up a restaurant called 15 in which he gave homeless and chronically unemployed kids a chance at a cook's apprenticeship. That's what really won me over - he was fantastic with those kids. Firm and fair and no-nonsense. He's back to his full-on cooking shows now, but I'm a fan. :)

[greylock.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I did dip in and out of Jamie's Kitchen and the first two seasons of My Restaurant Rules.

I found them compelling for different reasons - Jamie's Kitchen because it had pluck and drama (street urchins make good, or not) and MRR because it was the lead in to Lost, and because the struggle to get a restaurant of the ground, and the need to operate a business, was compelling.