Reality TV is a hotbed of narcissism. The standard formula is to take talentless attention seekers, often with subclinical personality disorders, and put them in a highly charged, competitive environment. Then you throw in some social rejection and/or alcohol and entertainment ensues. It has a very “fall of Rome” quality to it.
There are some reality TV shows, however, where the entertainment comes from watching talented people using their talent. Some of the cooking shows fall along this line. I watch because I find the cooking itself fascinating. Robert Lloyd, a critic at the LA Times, made an eloquent case for “Top Chef Masters”.
Reality television gets a lot of mileage out of bad behavior; framed as comedy or drama, strife is the fuel on which it runs. (“Coming up! Something awful!”) Over the last week and a half, for instance, NBC has been making hay from the hash that narcissist-provocateurs Spencer and Heidi Pratt have made, or attempted to make, of “I’m a Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here!,” its bungle-in-the-jungle survival contest.
(I should I watched some of this “I’m a Celebrity show….” – strictly for research purposes. All I can say is please, please don’t believe your hype, or you will end up broke, bitter and alone.)
I am that perhaps odd duck who thinks that amity, cooperation and achievement at no one else’s expense can be exciting to watch. Indeed, it seems to me that television, scripted and unscripted — postscripted might be a better word — is far too heavily invested in manufactured, or at least artificially enhanced, conflict and crisis. And so I find “Top Chef Masters,” a spinoff of “Top Chef” that premieres tonight on Bravo, a real mental vacation. A thing of pure delight, it takes all the ego out of the equation and leaves only the art.
Well put. And thanks for allowing me to note something positive in the media culture.
