With the downtime of summer and ability to watch TV on a device not limited to just Netflix, I find myself often vegging out on my family room couch utilizing our cable subscription. Being that the family room is the hub of the home, it’s not a rare occurrence for my siblings or parents to wander in and out of the room amidst my television binges. Being that throughout the school year, I barely have time to brush my teeth, never mind watch entire episodes of TV, I am going to take full advantage of this seasonal free time when I have the chance.
I’m no stranger to more respected shows, whether they be “Game of Thrones” or “Orange is the New Black,” but I’m equally as likely to be caught sitting in front of a screen projecting shows such as “Real Housewives of New Jersey” or “Keeping Up With The Kardashians.”
Both my parents, one being a lover of National Geographic or HBO original series and the other advocating for crime shows, never filter their absolute dismay at my amusement of watching these shows. I cannot count how many times I have been accused by sayings such as:
“How can you waste your time on such crap?”
“What’s the point of watching this garbage?”
“For a smart person, it’s hard to believe you can actually enjoy something as terrible as this.”
To all of these remarks, I rarely have an answer off-hand. However, I would like to defend the genre of the reality show and the large amount of criticism it often receives.
Most importantly, I would like to point out that just because I watch shows with outlandish characters that perform absolutely absurd portrayals of their “reality,” that does not mean that I intend to act in a similar way. In the same way that I wouldn’t expect a lover of National Geographic to start acting like wild lions and tigers, I would hope that just because I’m a fan of Bravo and E! networks that others don't expect me to act like Kim Kardashian or Theresa Giudice.
I don’t watch reality TV shows with the actual belief that they accurately depict the true lifestyles of their stars. However, they do depict a lifestyle completely different from my own. Whether it be surviving in the wilderness while naked as seen in “Naked and Afraid” or signing up to meet a husband on competitive shows like “The Bachelor,” I watch merely because it’s interesting to see the associations people are willing to make to their name.
The concept of people watching magnifies tenfold when watching said shows. I know that the editing process is entirely capable of inaccurately portraying what truly occurred. However, I’m not watching to have a legitimate understanding of these characters’ lives, but instead follow a storyline, fictional or not.
I don’t have enough fingers and toes combined to count how many times I have received an eye roll, dismissive shoulder shrug or judgmental comment regarding my choice of TV entertainment. I get that watching housewives flip tables or seeing women combat over a stranger as a future husband is not everybody’s cup of tea, but everyone has their guilty pleasure.
