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readingissosexy's review against another edition
3.0
I'm a sociology minor, who maybe would've majored had I only known what to do with it.
No one told me I could obsessively deep dive into the sociology of reality TV ??! teach a class on it ??! Write a BOOK ??! Wasted potential, wtf.
I want Danielle J. Lindemann's job, or maybe, i'd just like to take her class. This was fascinating.
No one told me I could obsessively deep dive into the sociology of reality TV ??! teach a class on it ??! Write a BOOK ??! Wasted potential, wtf.
I want Danielle J. Lindemann's job, or maybe, i'd just like to take her class. This was fascinating.
ramossnr's review against another edition
3.0
This is a good overview of how reality TV reflects our societal values, and I liked the progression from individual to society. If you've read other structural critiques of reality TV (say a feminist critique of the Real Housewives series), then Lindemann treads familiar ground. Overall, I found her prose insightful and engaging, without any academic pretension. However, there is an anti-fat bias that runs through the text that I hope Lindemann can address, at least in her teaching and any future books. She takes it as a given that smaller bodies are better, healthier bodies and does not explore societal responses to fat people. That's a big miss in my opinion and only reinforces dominate societal views instead of interrogating them.
darthvargas's review against another edition
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
3.75
kaiolenatac's review
5.0
Phenomenal educational breakdown of how media affects society and our perspectives of it. I was intrigued through all the sections and was very eager to hear about new shows and characters.
katiesendlesstbr's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting book on how reality TV both reflects and can sometimes transcend society's strict structure and rules, mostly using examples from reality TV to explain sociological concepts. I would recommend this to people new to sociology, but people that already have at least some understanding may find it repetitive and unenlightening. I myself am in the latter camp, so it was pretty straight forward and okay for me, though I did find the chapter on Class thought-provoking.
And as a personal note that does not affect my rating - I wanted more discussion of Drag Race.
And as a personal note that does not affect my rating - I wanted more discussion of Drag Race.
samdavfish's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
good look into how reality tv intersects with every day / gender / race / class / sexuality and what that says about American culture. basically that it’s a mirror (even it’s a clown mirror that distorts the picture a little bit) and we see reflect who we are
cdeck's review against another edition
2.0
Super disappointing. As someone who watches some reality tv (especially Survivor) with an interest on how it reflects society and culture, this fell super flat. It read more like a Marxism 101 textbook with individual reality tv tropes dropped in as examples, rather than a real look at how reality tv has changed over time and reflects the culture. No discussion on international shows or their differences. Just felt very much alike a series of pre-planned lectures with an extreme bias and some pithy cultural references to try to frame it all.