Women’s programming

When I told my father I was going back to school to get my masters and become a psychotherapist he replied with a question: “You want to sit in a room all day and hear people talk about their dicks?” As I think and write this many years later I can’t remember a single conversation […]

What has reality TV done for us, LATELY?

If you watched this story unfold it was corny AF, of course, but most expressions of intimacy on the screen are. I remember cringing at sex scenes when I was young…not just because I was uncomfortable with sex, but also because my young brain knew that it was phony baloney. This relationship, and the way […]

Life as a Reality TV moment

One of my favorite Instagram tags is #subwaycreatures because it is full of point-and-shoot ridiculousness that speaks to diversity, civic engagement and humor. If there were an upside down world of subwaycreatures it would be the street-fight hashtags and the YouTube fight pages. Both are born of cultural schadenfreude and both are possible thanks to […]

How to make a Villain

If a reality show is going to have legs, it has to have a great cast. Having a good cast is a complex alchemy that is very much like a band. It’s not about skill, or experience or looks or likability, though that’s all a help. A good cast is about chemistry. In many instances […]

You’ll be your mirror

This article, by the intelligent and culturally engaged Amanda Hess, is a series of short essays about the way that fan culture has affected (infected?) election politics. The theme I am drawn to jump off from is the mirror between reality TV subject and the public. Namely, if any member of the public can easily […]