Bring the real back to reality TV

CHANNEL HOPPING

Reality Television was envisaged as a space where we, the public, could analyse ourselves and the way in which we interact.

The first Big Brother was heralded as a social experiment. The question was simple and in many ways provocative. What would happen if we removed people from society and put them in a house for a month? How would they behave? What would they talk about, if they knew nothing about what was going on outside.
While the original Big Brother in many ways did bring some people’s issue to the surface, as the franchise grew in popularity and scale, the depth of the conversation deteriorated, forcing the producers to look for more wacky characters to fill the void that had been left by the departure of conversation.
A decade has passed since the reality television bomb first exploded on our televisions and we have had reality glossed up, dumbed down and smacked across our faces in every guise since.
From survival in the jungles of the world’s hottest countries to dating in the dark, television companies have tried to answer the question – what would happen if we threw a load of people together and filmed them?
None of these series have really captured real life, though, because real life cannot be limited to one island, one house or even to one group pf people. Reality is a mixture. Reality is variety. Reality is lots of people, places and things.
Our lives are filled with high performance technology and, despite recent figures saying that one in three Irish people have never logged on to the internet, most of us are hooked to their phones and, even if they are not surfing the web constantly, they are connected to people from all aspects of their lives, past, present and future.
So, as Big Brother has finally left our stations and we grow ever-tired of ridiculous shows like Dating in the Dark, it seems that reality TV has finally come full circle and some lessons have indeed been learned from the past.
In fact, I would go so far as to say that the reality of today could not have been realised without the passing of the reality TV years. What do I mean? Simple, finally we have a programme that actually deals with reality even though it involves the public.
Seven Days first aired last week on Channel 4. It follows a few small groups in the London borough of Notting Hill, a very fashionable postcode that is known as much for being a melting pot of all cultures and creeds as it is for being the spot where Julia Robert courted and was courted by Hugh Grant in the most puke-inducing manner ever committed to celluloid.
Despite this unfortunate association, what exists in Notting Hill is real life. People from all over mix together, intertwine and live normal lives. They work, they eat, they party and they use technology to contact people who do not live with them or are far away. So we have moved from the contrived reality of the Big Brother party house to the reality of washing piles, small flats and paying rent. Despite a slow start that caused me to turn away from the show at first, once the teething process of getting to know these people was over and they began to talk about their lives, my interest was piqued.
Seven Days tracks people in Notting Hill but viewers can send messages to the subjects of the show and tell them exactly what they think about them, their lives and the decisions they are making.
It finally takes the viewer from outside the glass room and places them in the programme. Of course, the viewer is still not as exposed as the contestant but it adds a reality dimension to the proceedings.
What makes this programme particularly interesting is that everyone is very comfortable on camera. Not for one second do I believe that Channel 4 went around hiding cameras and that this was done all cloak and dagger, quite the opposite in fact and what has been achieved is a far better image of reality.
Are people completely themselves? Probably not, but when are people really and truly themselves in front of others. Are we not always reacting and adapting to our environment and the people that we find there.
The decisions the subjects of this programme make are not risking their lives, nor are they much above the mundane but the very fact that this is reality and that there are real consequences to these decisions makes for interesting viewing.
Could this programme have been made 10 or even five years ago? Absolutely not, the Jade Goodys and Brian Dowlings of this world had to come first, just as the Dating in Darks and Wife Swaps were necessary to allow this idea to take hold and for the public to respond to the mundanity of ordinary life and to learn something from it.
However, that in itself raises questions and have we collectively killed off the creative parts of brains with constant reality programming and the search for meaning in the collective social psyche have we finally succeeded in what Neil Postman said we would in his classic musings on modern culture – have we amused ourselves to death? I like to think not, but many will argue the opposite. Tune in every Tuesday night on Channel 4 for five more days of reality as reality was intended – flawed!

One to watch
One to watch this week is Downton Abbey. Set after the Titanic sank, an heir to the Downton Estate must be found but mystery and intrigue abound. Check it out on ITV on Sunday nights.