By
Graig Uhlin
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Personally, I am betting on Susan. That tough-as-nails, conniving truck driver is so going to take home a million dollars.
I am new to this national obsession with reality shows, however, having caught my first episode of CBS's "Survivor" this past week.
The rest of the American viewing public is way ahead of me in their love for reality shows. Currently, these shows dominate the schedule and will continue to do so.
"Survivor" is nearing the end of its run, with "Survivor II" set to debut this fall. Hopefully they'll desert the Food Network's Emeril on the island so he can whip up some fabulous rat entrees for the islanders.
"Big Brother" is presently eating up enough air time to rival Regis Philbin's ubiquitous TV presence. "Seinfeld" was supposed to be the show about nothing, but "Big Brother" has gotten the better of them in that respect - six nights a week of uninteresting people doing uninteresting things. That cast needs an exciting housemate to create some actual drama in that household. I would suggest a circa-1970s George W. or I'd even settle for Puck from "Real World 3."
And if "Big Brother" has taught us anything, it's that reality is boring. Entertainment is supposed to be an escape from reality, a glamorous other world to which we are privileged voyeurs , where the everyday worries and problems of our daily lives are soothed by the flickering glow of the television screen.
Now, with this onslaught of reality shows, the line between fantasy and reality has become blurred, and people are struggling to tell the difference. Moreover, this extends beyond just the realm of television, into our politics, into our news - into, well, everything.
Just look at the media circuses that are the political conventions which aired this past week. Scripted and staged, programmed and planned ahead of time to the tiniest detail, these conventions were neither about the issues nor about the reality of our political system, but rather about projecting an image. Whether Al Gore is perceived as a leader by the American public, a quality he hoped his fiery speech at the convention would bring him, that does not make him a leader. And even though openly-gay Republican Jim Kolbe made a speech at the convention, it does not make his party any more a proponent of gay rights than before.
But after all, it is not actual reality that counts anymore, but the appearance of reality, and television is the medium of choice for all your spin-doctoring needs. Of course, I don't know what kind of image the Democratic Party was going for when they had Mr. Miyagi sing the national anthem. I mean, it's great if your party is inclusive and all, but get someone who can actually sing.
Too often in America image is mistaken for reality, and it is damaging to this country. "Big Brother" may profess to be a show about real people with real emotions but that "reality" is no less constructed than your typical sitcom - only with a less attractive cast. It was recently revealed that the producers often script the already-pathetic challenges that the housemates and the viewing public have to endure, including the "jokes" for when the cast held a roast.
The public needs to start breaking down and questioning the rhetoric of television, neither rejecting it all as fakery nor accepting it complacently, but learning how to spot the image from the reality.
Or we could always completely collapse the line and create "Survivor: The Presidential Season" where the last of 16 presidential candidates stranded on a desert island for forty days assumes the presidency.
More rat, Mr. Gore?
