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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
"Too bad it turned into a Black Mirror episode"
The line above, said by a writer/editor on an early 00s show, sums up why you should read this book.
I didn't watch a lot of the popular reality shows. I was a Project Runway fan in college and got into The Bachelorette during the pandemic, but otherwise the big things like Survivor were just never on my radar. For that reason, I wasn't sure if this book was going to be for me, but I think it's important to understand the effects of pop culture on the wider world, whether you personally like the thing or not. And, while, I just happened to not get into it by virtue of being a really nerdy teenager who wanted fantasy plots and historical dramas or nothing at all, reality TV has had a huge impact on the wider world. This book lays that out in an accessible and clear way and I think it's an important read to understand the current state of culture in not just the TV world, but online (in the early days of Reality TV, there were concerns people wouldn't be interested in being filmed all the time, can you believe it?) and beyond.
It's somewhat hard to get through at times, knowing what comes next, but still important. There are also places it could have gone deeper, but I think that would have sacrificed accessibility to those who weren't part of the reality world.
The line above, said by a writer/editor on an early 00s show, sums up why you should read this book.
I didn't watch a lot of the popular reality shows. I was a Project Runway fan in college and got into The Bachelorette during the pandemic, but otherwise the big things like Survivor were just never on my radar. For that reason, I wasn't sure if this book was going to be for me, but I think it's important to understand the effects of pop culture on the wider world, whether you personally like the thing or not. And, while, I just happened to not get into it by virtue of being a really nerdy teenager who wanted fantasy plots and historical dramas or nothing at all, reality TV has had a huge impact on the wider world. This book lays that out in an accessible and clear way and I think it's an important read to understand the current state of culture in not just the TV world, but online (in the early days of Reality TV, there were concerns people wouldn't be interested in being filmed all the time, can you believe it?) and beyond.
It's somewhat hard to get through at times, knowing what comes next, but still important. There are also places it could have gone deeper, but I think that would have sacrificed accessibility to those who weren't part of the reality world.
dark
informative
medium-paced
funny
informative
medium-paced
funny
informative
sad
fast-paced
Highly recommend to almost anyone. Just not people who don’t want the Bachelor to be ruined for them… although maybe especially them.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
It was interesting, I wish there was more to the bits about labor practices and labor rights. The last chapter about the Apprentice is… uncomfortable to read right now.
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Skipped around but honestly just didn’t find this attention grabbing
informative
informative
this book presents a very thorough history of reality tv and how it came to be. when you deal with this history you are relegated to the world of executives and people out to make a quick buck on the cheapest form of entertainment, and nussbaum presents such cases when that notion gets convoluted and producers realize that the people they are filming are human after all, in whatever decade of tv that is covered in the book.
to say that the detail in this book is a detriment would be false but because of its methodological summary of deals and network chatter, it did get a bit boring for me at times
to say that the detail in this book is a detriment would be false but because of its methodological summary of deals and network chatter, it did get a bit boring for me at times
