Thursday, September 29, 2011

Top Ten

Hello all... on today's post I am going to unveil my top ten worst reality shows. They are all terrible in my eyes but these really take the crown.  So here they are....

10. Flavor of Love : One of the original stinkers this show was full of shit... literally, one of the contestants pooped on a staircase during a taping of an episode. Mix in a bunch of class less, fame hungry hoe bags and you got yourself a show with some of the most unfortunately unforgettable memories in reality television. 3 seasons spawned a spinoff...equally as terrible called "Strange Love". Note...Flava Flave did not find love and is still currently single... big surprise.

9. I Love New York : One of the worst reality personalities that was given birth to by Flavor of Love was back to back season finalist "New York" aka Tiffany Pollard. She was loud, obnoxious and as ignorant as a human being can be. Mix in a bunch of testosterone hyped steroid pumping meat heads who were equally as ignorant as contestants and your have #9 on my list. This show survived for 2 seasons and even worse than New York was that the show included New York's mother "Sister Paterson" and if you saw the show you'd see exactly where New York got her personality from. Like mother like daughter... unfortunately for viewers you had to deal with both in one show. Spinoffs were "New York goes to Hollywood" and "New York goes to Work". Thankfully shes no longer "working" starring in terrible Reality TV shows.

8.  The Bad Girls Club: I didn't really see too much of this show but when I did all I ever I saw was naked girls cursing, kicking, screaming and fist fighting. From what I later found out  almost every cast member has been involved in some sort of a sex tape as well... big Surprise! Shows like this give girls a bad name...

7. Real World  : Sad part is I used to like this show. The older seasons were actually pretty good Reality TV dealing with some "real"  hot issues such a Alcoholism, Drug Abuse, and Homosexuality to name a few but it seems now with Jersey Shore and co. Real World in recent years has felt the pressure to keep afloat and that in my eyes has allowed it to take a back seat and suffer. I have to give credit where credits due though, Real World was one of the "Originals" and is in its 26th season. It doesn't look like its going anywhere anytime soon either... Spinoffs include Road Rules, Real World vs Road Rules Challenge

6. Basketball Wives : This show is just ridiculous....A bunch of grown ass women acting like clicky high school teens. Oh and they aren't even married to their aforementioned professional basketball player husbands anymore! So how the hell are they still called "Basketball Wives" ??? They are a bunch of middle aged Mothers running around the country bad mouthing their ex's and each other... Terrible

5. The Hills/ Laguna Beach : These shows really fire me up. They are both about a bunch of snotty rich kids from Cali who don't even do anything with their lives except spend their trust funds and date each others boyfriends. Oh and they also travel and get invited to red carpet events and receive loads of plastic surgery. I just scratch my head.

4.My Super Sweet 16 : Speaking of spoiled brats, this show highlighted them and put them on their own stage for all to see. I mean this show literally featured 16 year old's crying because they got a Mercedes Benz in the wrong color for a birthday gift. REALLLYYY????

3. Toddlers and Tiaras : This show just saddens me and shows a terrible dark side to parenting. Some of what these parents do to their own children should be labeled as abuse. These kids are 3 or 4 years old and are taken on tour and dressed up as if they were 23 or 24 year old hookers all to win a trophy in a beauty padget for kids. One of the most frightening shows on television.

2. Jersey Shore : Shocking that this wasn't my number one with my previous post reaming into it but there is worse TV out there than these Guidos. If you read my previous post you know exactly why this is # 2 on my list.

1. Teen Moms : I will eventually make a separate blog post about this show but low and behold this is my #1 worst Reality TV show. Glorifying teen pregnancies these teen moms have become reality celebs for all the wrong reasons. This show has wrongfully spawned real life teenagers to make "Pregnancy Pacts" in hopes that if they get pregnant they can get on the show and become "famous". Like raising a teen isn't hard enough for parents as is but now they have to deal with this. Thanks MTV!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Fist Pumpin @ The Jersey Shore

So I must admit that the main reason why I created this blog was not just for my disdain for reality TV as a hole...but for my immense disdain for one particular reality TV program...The Jersey Shore...Now I will also admit that I am a bit jaded with my hatred toward the show because I had an opportunity to work on the show during its inaugural season but turned it down to work on another show that at the time I thought had a better chance of sustaining interest, but flopped, so I guess you can say my hatred is laced with a bit of jealousy. That being said you cannot dispute the popularity of the show and its entertainment factor. I however do not like the show. I don't  approve of what it stands for and the messages it portrays to its younger audiences.

Point in case, my 13 year old cousins idol is the "Situation"...A guy known for his elaborate haircuts, 6 pack abs and knocking himself unconscious by beating his own head against a wall during an argument with other cast members in the house. I find this alarming...when I was 13 my hero's were men of substance...my grandfather, a man who came to this country with $17 to his name and worked his entire life so that now he can have over a million in the bank, or  Micheal Jordan, a man who transcended the NBA and sports in general. Not some drunk fool who "gets with" a lot of woman at clubs...What has the "Situation" ever done to improve society...or even attempt to...Dancing with the stars????

I also think the Jersey Shore promotes unhealthy and violent relationships. The star couple of the show (Ronnie and Sammi) are known for their terrible fights, breakups and make ups. Heaven knows what we are not shown and what the cameras don't  record...This puts the wrong idea of a healthy relationship in the heads of young teens who might just be starting out in the dating word...which is already tough enough without seeing these two every week blow up at each other. It promotes non stop partying and binge drinking...all they do on the show is go out and drink, stay home and drink, go to the beach...already inebriated. I mean "Snookie" (who was arrested for being a publicly drunken fool on the beach) was paid 32 grand by Rutgers University to be the key note speaker at their most recent Graduation. Snookie, a girl who's probably never stepped foot into a college classroom...but I'm sure has stepped stumbling foot into many a frat house or dorm rooms.  And her most memorable quote from her speech? " Study hard, but party harder" Like really? This is just absolutely ridiculous to me. Oh and last years previous graduation key not speaker at Rutgers...Nobel Prize Winner Toni Morrison...got paid less to speak than she did...That just shows you the true price of an education...and Rutgers priority scale...

The show also glorifies violence...every episode there are fights, and not just arguments but fist fights...The very first time I heard about the shows success was after an infamous fight at a club where one of the female characters got punched straight in the face by one of the male characters....last time I checked that was illegal...but yet after that episode was when the show gained the height of its popularity...Come ON!

Personally I just think the Jersey Shore is an abomination and glorifies people who don't deserve the attention.  Especially with the economy the way it is and unemployment being so high its a shame that these bums are being paid millions of dollars to "GTL" (Gym, Tanning, Laundry). This is exactly whats wrong with our society and our country, its exactly whats wrong with MTV who has now done a complete 180 from Music Television from its conception to Shitty Television such as Jersey Shore and Teen Moms. I guess you can say my review of the Jersey Shore is not a very good one. This show is the exact reason why NJ and Reality TV get a bad wrap...I mean the state of NJ banned the shooting of the show, that's why they had to go abroad over to Italy to shoot the most recent season. They're not wanted in their own country nor the initial state the show was meant to take place in. I get it, viewers want to see sex, hott guys and girls making out and tons of controversy...but to what extent...and at what cost?

Thursday, September 15, 2011

H8R...HATER

So it was a typical Wednesday night and after hitting the gym I turn on the tube to see if I can find anything worth watching. As I channel surf through crappy show after crappy show something finally caught my eye...A new reality show. My immediate reaction was "great, another new reality piece of sh*t", then I saw "Snookie" on it and almost threw up!....But for some reason despite, my urge to yack I kept watching, and I am glad I did. The name of the show is "H8R" (pronounced Hater), a new show on the CW. The premise of the show is to match up normal everyday people like you or I, who are strongly opinionated or deemed a so called "hater" and have them confronted with and actually have to spend a day with the reality star or pseudo celebrity they hate most. Now this is Reality TV I can actually get in to. Its not set up by  producers hiding behind the scene who get a cast of characters drunk and wait for the fireworks to explode. Its not some corny dating show where a B list celeb is trying to revive their dead career and is set up with 10 skanks and failed porn stars looking for their own 15 minutes of fame.

To me this was real uninterrupted animosity shown between two human beings.  In my opinion at first glance this is what Reality TV should have been from the beginning, instead of what it has become, just sex and story lines. We are made to believe that what we are watching is Reality but its not...its scripted reality. The absolute beauty of this show was that everyone on it doesn't necessarily come out liking the person. In some cases they hated them more than they did prior to meeting them. I'm sure initially its meant so that the celeb can redeem themselves in the eyes of their "H8R" and show their true colors as opposed to what we see on TV, but that doesn't always happen and this show holds true to that. Sometimes ones opinion cannot be changed, sometimes if a person is a douche on TV they really are a douche and its not just some act. Too often in Hollywood every aspect of life is controlled and that's not what real life is. Sometimes the guy doesn't get the girl, sometimes the parents don't survuve the terrible accident and sometimes, the good guy doesn't always win. In my opinion this is exactly what Reality TV is missing, raw un cut actuality, truth and harsh realism. So my hat goes off to the CW's H8R...at least for one episode...and I look forward to seeing more of what this  "Reality TV" show has to offer.

Here is a youtube preview of H8R if it peeks your interest...



Until next time...

VJS

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Intro to Un-Reality TV

I'd like to welcome you all to my very first blog ever. After much thought and consideration I have decided to make a blog on a topic that I have had much exposure to in both my work life as well as my personal life..."Reality TV".  It seems that today's airwaves are bombarded with these reality TV shows, from the infamous Jersey Shore to Toddlers and Tiaras it seems one cannot change the channel without being inundated with such muck. I say such muck because back in 07 when I graduated from college I entered the TV industry hoping to make an impact with my work and be apart of something special, whether it be in TV News or Sports, or shooting Documentaries, I wanted my work to mean something... Naive and new to the business I soon found out just  how competitive and cut throat the industry really was and before I knew it I had found myself crossing the line into the dingy world of Reality TV. Now I cant say exact details of my experiences due to confidentiality agreements but lets just say I was a far cry away from my initial dream...but hey, you got to pay the bills somehow right?...Throughout the course of my blog I will talk about the social ramifications Reality TV has on our society, specifically our youth and also the negative impacts it has demographically just in our state of NJ alone. I hope my readers will find my opinions interesting and I look forward to to sharing my blog with all of you. I now bid you adieu until my next entry....

VJS