Unless you live under a rock, you have probably heard a great deal about Jon and Kate Gosselin and their marital problems. And, unless you can handle the shrill screaming of 6 4-year olds and lots of eye-rolling and bitchiness, you probably don't watch Jon and Kate plus Eight often. (As a related aside, my 12 year old sister is obsessed with the show b/c she thinks the little kids are cute, but my family collectively begs her not to watch the "baby show" in the living room because the show stresses us out.)
Anyway, it seems that another reality show couple is about to go bust. And this time, it's a couple made famous on a reality show about raising a large family with the intended message that you have to have good morals and family values to make it work. Yet, the same couple that quoted scripture to one another during a lavish [free] vow renewal at the posh Mau'i resort where my husband and I paid an arm and a leg to honeymoon is facing allegations that both have been unfaithful and are estranged, despite renewing the show for another season. It looks like the Gosselins are about the join an illustrious list, including Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson, Shanna Moakler and Travis Barker, Hulk Hogan and his wife Linda, Dave Navarro and Carmen Electra, Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston, Katie Price and Peter Andre . . .and on and on. With the exception of the Osbournes (who faced their own fair share of post-show media and public bashing), it seems like any couple that signs on to have cameras enter their home and follow them around is doomed to fail.
Of course they are!!! Can you imagine if there was a cameraman in your house, 24/7, allowed to tape everything and anything except for bathrooms and nocturnal activities? The odds of them taping cringe-worthy moments AND editing the episodes to highlight those specific gaffes are not in your favor. Why? Because Americans love to watch couples implode on television. We are a bunch of haters!
It makes sense, if you think about it. Who wants to watch a sickeningly cute, functional couple or family on reality television? Why would a country, in which slightly more than 50% of marriages end in divorce, possibly want to be reminded that some couples do make it work and can have a respectful, fulfilling relationship? Don't get me wrong, we love these reality couples at first---remember how Jessica Simpson's "career" took off after the first season of Newlyweds? Or how people thought the Hulk and Linda were such "good" parents to Nick and Brooke the first season? But, as Jerry Springer has taught us all, normal and nice don't get ratings. Nasty, dysfunctional and ridiculous certainly do.
Americans are inherently haters of love---we want others to be as miserable in their marriages/relationships as we are in ours. Sure, people will tell you they watch Jon and Kate because the sextuplets are so cute (which I am loathe to admit, is definitely true) and that may be why they initially tuned in. But, after a while, cute sextuplets get kind of old and the viewer's attention turns to how many ways Kate can find to completely belittle Jon's abilities as a father and a husband in one episode. At from what I can tell, she is constantly finding new ways to make Jon look like an idiot, on the show and in her interviews. And, the crazier shit gets, the baser the interactions and exchanges, the more people will watch. It makes us feel better to know that these couples have to pay a price for fame and money---their marriages. And, I think it makes average Americans feel superior and we ultimately judge them by saying, " What did they expect? They put themselves out there, of course we will judge their qualities as individuals and as a family! How dare they ask for privacy during their relationship woes? Don't they know by commodifying themselves, they have lost all rights to personal dignity in the wake of a break up?"
And I am not completely sure that we are wrong in reveling in their demise. I mean, look, when Jessica and Nick broke up, it was a real shock and a first. But any couple that has tried their hand at the reality-show-about-the-couple-or-family concept can't say that they haven't been warned. What makes anyone think that they won't become a statistic or that they are somehow better equipped at seeing all the bad aspects of themselves shown OVER and OVER again on cable television? Obviously, such people do in fact exist and as long as they do, we can all relax knowing no matter how bad our lives are, cable television will continue provide us with some crazy shitshow of a relationship to make us feel better.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I have never agreed with anything more in my life, haha.
ReplyDelete