My dirty little pleasure has always been reality t.v. I've been obsessed ever since Big Brother burst onto the small screen in the early 2000s with its first reality tv social experiment by isolating strangers inside a house and away from the outside world.
At the time, Big Brother was a revolutionary concept. These days it's a tired and rehashed model after seeing endless versions of the same thing from BB, Survivor, The Bachelor, Jersy Shore, Love Island and many more. Today we have celebrity versions of many, which low-grade celebrities use to revive their average careers. And we now have new stars that have come out of the reality genre.
It never ceases to amaze me how people are becoming famous for nothing and building their careers from nothing other than their personality, character and brand. It seems to have been a tried and tested model for reality tv stars to start in the world of tv, build a formidable following on social media and branch out to create their products to sell.
My reality of choice used to be Jersy Shore, which saw a group of Italo Americans, each with very different personalities, all in the same house with copious amounts of alcohol and outings to nightclubs to create total utter chaos. The social experiment focused on a specific cultural group with classic stereotypes and personalities. It was all contrived; many of the participants weren't even Italian. But the result is a group of people who have become famous for socialising, getting drunk, having random sexual encounters and violent confrontations.
The group has matured; they all have families; one went to jail for tax evasion, yet his comeback journey from alcoholism has been continued on his social media. There have been spin-offs and several reunions. The ongoing stories of these reality tv characters continue on social media today. It is a mind-boggling process. Their strong public personalities have made people fall in love with them.
For me, the attraction of reality tv is pure curiosity; at first, I wanted to see if there were people who fit the Guido stereotype in America. Then I got sucked in by the various characters and the cheesiness. Watching bad reality tv is a way of switching off from the outside world; there is no thought, no substance, just something so bad you cannot help yourself. It sucks me in without realising it, just like mindlessly scrolling through social media. Before you realise it, you've been scrolling for hours, and it's already after midnight.
The reality tv trend of fame is continually being confirmed through other entertainment platforms beyond television. The massive audiences of top YouTubers, Instagrammers and TikTok stars are much larger than many tv networks. It is exciting to see the potential to create a career out of nothing other than an idea or a personality.
People are currently creating stardom and wealth on their terms; the power is no longer in a studio system or TV network. Heck, you don't even need a publishing house to become a best seller or a production factory to make and sell your merchandise or fashion product. It's a fantastic time of great potential and creativity.
Yet there is an inherent danger in this potential, too; the world of influences, pseudo-experts and false prophets setting themselves up as specialists in their field without any real education or experience makes it a lot like the wild west. There is no policing and controlling content, and there is no way to draw the line between entertainment and marketing.
The most sophisticated version of reality tv has to be the current season of the Kardashians. The new series builds upon the success of 20 seasons of Keeping up with the Kardashians, which established the family's personality, social media presence and business. A carefully crafted reality program focused on each family member's personality and perceived controversies within their personal lives are what gave them so much success.
The first season of the Kardashians seems ever more contrived and manipulative than any of the Keeping Up series; in fact, the new series focuses more on the individual family members' careers and businesses.
In the first few episodes, we've already seen Kim Kardashian's appearance on SNL, her Vogue cover, collaboration with the Balenciaga high fashion brand, how she used her influence to get a man off of death row, her road to passing her bar exam and now her Sports Illustrated cover.
There are more minor family controversies, there have been divorces and new engagements, but the focus is on good co-parenting and keeping the family growing and together. So now we see more subliminal and less subliminal advertisements for Kim, Kortney, Kloe, Kendal and Kylie's businesses. It feels less and less like reality and more and more like an extended brand deal.
I've only briefly watched Keeping up with the Kardashians as I found them too vacuous and entitled. So I started watching the Kardashians out of curiosity to see precisely how extravagant the family makes itself out to me. There is no doubt the Kardashians have more money, wealth and assets than they could ever need. The trappings of their wealth are astounding; their lifestyle is filled with extravagant mansions, designer clothes, luxury cars, private chefs, jets and diamond jewellery that they don't even take off when they bathe. They certainly enjoy their wealth and work very hard to maintain it.
The series is also carefully constructed to paint them in a serious light; family orientated, motivated, gym-going, justice-seeking, feminist businesswomen and Armenian migrant representatives. Sometimes it is all a little too contrived.
I find myself asking whether these people are so out of touch, not to realise that their desire to do fun things like grocery shopping, going to the car wash and putting gas in the car aren't only ordinary things that everyday people do. Still, these are things that many people are struggling to do right now.
Perhaps it's the socialist in me, but I think the super-wealthy should be more aware of their privilege and give back more to those less fortunate rather than keep desiring more and more. It's pretty grotesque to witness how none of the Kardashians has a social conscious other than to boost their influence and ego.
I admire what the Kardashians have built; their business has a natural skill and gift. They have created an empire. But the Kardashian's privilege has blinded them. They are so out of touch with reality that they have become little than a farce.
I don't feel like watching any more of the series for the time being, as I feel like I am being pulled into a clever marketing trap.
Unless it's too late and I have already been hypnotised. Then I might find myself mindlessly watching next week's episode without knowing how it happened.
