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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
informative
medium-paced
I really liked this! Well researched & well written (I thought the writing style was very approachable), I learned a lot & was entertained along the way. Highlights were the chapters on American Family, Survivor, Big Brother & Bravo. Completely unsurprised to learn that Trump was...the same person & personality he is today. Really bleak
Learning about the behind the scenes of these shows and how they're filmed/edited was fascinating to me, a reality TV noob. Also, as a former stage crew person, I really appreciate that she interviewed crew members and hope they're able to win better working conditions! Only critique is that I thought the later chapters were a little fast and I wanted more from them...I guess a Legendary Children read is in order for me
Learning about the behind the scenes of these shows and how they're filmed/edited was fascinating to me, a reality TV noob. Also, as a former stage crew person, I really appreciate that she interviewed crew members and hope they're able to win better working conditions! Only critique is that I thought the later chapters were a little fast and I wanted more from them...I guess a Legendary Children read is in order for me
funny
informative
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I didn't how much of a reality TV junkie I had been as an adolescent in the early 2000s until I listened to this as an audiobook on Spotify. Casual mentions of long forgotten shows like "Joe Millionaire" and "My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancé" instantly took me back to watching these show religiously with my Mom. While many would cite Survivor as the big catalyst for reality television as we know it, or maybe The Real World, Emily takes us WAY back to radio shows in the 1940s to chart the rise of this genre across decades. I enjoyed the whole journey learning about content well before my time and how it led us to where we are today - not just on television, but as the thesis of the final chapters reveal, even politically. A fascinating read that made my commute all the more enjoyable.
informative
medium-paced
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
medium-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
slow-paced
This book is (unsurprisingly) very well written, but it slows down a lot by the end. The beginning was really interesting, tracing the origins of unscripted shows all the way back to radio, and digging up history and little-known facts. As the book got closer to present day, it started to become a list of names—who produced what, who pitched this show to which network—until it became a big blur. I wanted more direct cultural criticism from the author too (basically I wanted it to be more Jia Tolentino-esque, which is all I want from most nonfiction, really). Thanks to hundreds of interviews the author did, you get a first-person view of modern-day reality TV, but it felt like a missed opportunity to always turn to others for their thoughts, especially because by the end it was pretty bleak (The Apprentice takes up a whole chapter) and wasn’t as incisive as if Nussbaum had provided her own take.
