Reality TV - Don't Take It Personal, It's Still Just Entertainment!

What ever happened to the good old Sitcoms of the 90's and the early 2000's? Lately I've fallen victim to the whole Reality Television Circuit, much to my dismay! It all began when I started to watch this train wreck of a show called the "Flavor of Love" and it was almost like I couldn't turn away, it was to me a ghetto (for lack of a better phrase) version of "the Bachelor". This show was the worst, but I couldn't turn away! I tuned in every week to see who was going to go home. For those of you who are not aware of this show, it aired on VH1 about 2 or 3 years ago and has managed to have 3 seasons and yes I must admit I've watched all 3, (I know I'm ashamed no need to bash me) it is about a former Hip Hop Hype Man finding "true love". Which leads me to my next question; seriously can you find true love on a television dating show? The show's format was that of a mansion that was supposedly owned by this Hype Man and a group of ladies were chosen to stay there until they were elminated. Eliminations were based on the way they handled certain task from cooking and clean, to dancing and prancing (what a range). If the task were performed to the liking of the this Hype Man then you would stay on for the next round, and if you stunk at the task at hand, then "your time was up"! Obviously this show was successful, because this guy had the chance to find "true love" for 3 seasons and I managed to stay tuned for that long too! Having said that, is this what Entertainment has become, are we living our lives vicariously through characters on a "game/realitiy show? Should I even be calling these regular joe people characters? Which leads me to my next statement about this show which has also lead to 3 spinoff series, while on the Flavor of Love, if it was found out that you were only there for TV time then you were also eliminated! Are you serious TV Producer guys? I think the whole purpose for auditioning for this show had to be everything but finding "True Love", which ultimately includes TV time! What a joke I thought, as I kept watching, which was ultimately what the producers and other show execs wanted. Mission Accomplished!

Moving on to the next type of show, in which the Discovery Networks have made famous; Family Reality TV! There is a show on the TLC channel from the Discovery Networks, called Jon & Kate, plus 8. This show is ultimately why I decided to write this article. It consist of 2 Adults (Jon and Kate Gosselin), 6 four-year-olds (Sextuplets), and 2 seven-year-olds (twins). The show follows this family through their everyday life and chronicles the lives of the children, well mainly the entire family. It lets us see what life would or could be like if we someday had 1 pregnancy and received 6 babies! I started to watch this show, because I could relate! Now, No I don't have 6 children, or 8 for that matter, I have one 10 year old and that's it, for now! I could relate to the mom, because we suffer from the same disorder (see my article; PCOS - Almost, But Not Quite), and I was curious as to how she ended up with the 6 children, and while curing my curiosity I became a big fan. I enjoyed watching the children grow and learn, and I enjoyed seeing a real family, with real spats, and real issues, that I could relate to, and I must admit I continue to watch. Not that that is something that you should be ashamed of, it's so interesting and intriguing to me to see how 2 adults deal with 8 children, when having to deal with a 10 year old literally tires me! Recently the family has come under some scrutiny for having help with the children, recieving handouts from the community, recieving various gifts and perks from sponsers, advertisers, etc. and my initial thought to all of this was, are you joking? I couldn't for the life of me figure out why in the heck this was such a big deal? If said situations are true, is it really any of our (the viewers) concern? I've visited various different blog spots, the family's website, and several different newspapers, to read up on what people were saying about this family and I've even commented in defense of them as well. After reading a few of the posters comments on one of the sites listed in my links columns, it was like I had some sort of awakening, this is not my family, these are not my kids, and this is crazy to care so deeply about something that I really don't have a clue about. Which ultimately lead to this article. Reality TV - Don't Take It Personal!

If you view some of the links, you will be able to see that people have really taken on someone elses problems as if it were their own. This to me can not be good mental health. Have we become so bored with our own lives that we have to live the lives of others? Have we become so desperate for debate that this is what we choose? Have we become this disillusioned to believe that what we see is literally what we get? I've seen people argue over what is best for this family, I've heard people argue over who was best for the aformentioned hype man, and now I've become apart of it! Now I take back my mental health. There is good debate, and there is rediculous debate and reality tv should'nt even be a debate at all, it should be a laugh or a learn, and that's it no more no less. So, I ask when is enough, enough? Where should the reality realm draw the line and say, "No, we're not going to do a show about this, that, or the other", or should there even be a line drawn?

Im a bit of an athlete and so I watch College Basketball, Summer Olympics (all games), Swimming, Tennis, Boxing, Football, etc, and that's reality that I can get into, with these type of events you root for your favorite team, and I guess with reality tv you root for your favorite person, but can you really determine that you have a favorite? If we really knew the type of person or people these "characters" were/are would we really be rooting for them?

Enclosing with the aforementioned information and now a semi-bias opioion, please everyone lets remember that reality tv is still just entertainment and what we see, may not always be what we get, SO DON'T TAKE IT PERSONAL, IT'S STILL JUST ENTERTAINMENT!