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captwinghead 's review for:
Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV
by Emily Nussbaum
dark
informative
sad
slow-paced
Pretty interesting! There were quite a few parts that went on longer than I cared for, so it was a struggle to get through some of this to find the aspects by which I was most intrigued.
I thought more would be made of the “New aristocracy of people who have had the imagination to have an intention to wound themselves". The book briefly discusses the trauma porn genres of things like Jerry Springer, sob stories on Oprah and Sally Jessie Raphael, the radio shows. When it delved into Jackass and Viva La Bam, I thought more would be made of the reality stars that were willing to debase and even injure themselves for fame. However, the Jackass portion is quite short and the focus on this show was more about the practices and creative origins of these shows. It discusses how the production and their goals led to harming contestants, but not as much was made of the constestants' willingness to hurt themselves.
Don't get me wrong: I think nearly (if not all) of these productions and studios are cruel for a lot of this. The only recount that didn't sound horrific and adept at putting marginalized people in horrible situations was the original Queer Eye show. Casting a serial killer on a dating show, a former spousal abuser on a dating show, glossing over an eliminated contestant's suicide, provoking contestants with relatives' deaths and their own mental illnesses - all of these things are horrific. This doesn't even get into the prank shows and this book didn't delve into everything wrong with Fear Factor. There's moral issues with all of these and I didn't feel as if the book wanted the reader to just forgive the editors and production team becasue they were being ordered to get "good material".
There were quite a few parts I found difficult to keep interest in reading. I found the An American Family portion incredibly boring. It was a bit difficult to follow all of the very generic names of this family to keep track of who divorced who and who drove who to go home and get divorced. It also sounded like a super boring premise for a show. I get that it serves the purpose of showing what the long term effects of that kind of "fame" were, but overall, I think it would've been easier if that was like 30 pages shorter?
The Survivor and Big Brother origin stories were somewhat interesting, but I personally didn't care for that much detail in the origins and personal lives of the producers of the show. I think Nussbaum got a ton of interview material from these producers and wanted to use it, but for me personally, I found a lot of it uninteresting.
There's a strange lack of present data or even anecdotes on current reality TV. I expected more mention of the controversies of recent shows, or even just more mention of recent shows like Love Is Blind, the Mr. Beast show, really any of the Netflix reality show issues. This was primarily about American shows with a little mention of foreign inspirations for some of them, so I thought it would've been interesting to at least mention the shows that ended up overseas or the controversies with the "competition" in South Korea's Physical 100 or the concept of a reality show version of Squid Game. There was also no mention of the current issues that befell the recent Queer Eye production. So, I was left thinking Nussbaum must've stopped writing in 2020?
I wished more had been made of the treatment of marginalized people having to explain the bigotry they suffer to castmates. I think it was such an incredibly unfair, disingenuous thing to put these people through. Not only are they frequently painted as angry and violent, they were expected to answer any and all invasive questions or appear the reason why bigots just "can't seem to meet us halfway". Aside from Black contestants being asked to speak about racism on the Real World, I will never forget a transwoman in one season being asked incredibly invasive, disgusting questions about her medical history by another castmember.
Also, oddly enough, I was surprised not to have any discussion of MTV's True Life or 16 and Pregnant. No mention of TLC's reality TV shows like Jon & Kate Plus 8, Little People Big World, or Toddlers & Tiaras and Honey Boo Boo. No mention of Dance Moms. Basically, no mention of the reality TV shows that normalized parents being extremely exploitative and creepy towards their own children. Especially the reveal that TLC allowed a known child abuser to work on these productions. There was also no real mention of the exploitative reality TV shows that targeted addicts and those with medical disabilities. Also, thought there would be a section on the horrors that befell America's Next Top Model, but there was maybe one or two sentence mentions.
So, of what was discussed here, I was interested in some background on why some of these productions were greenlit despite obvious issues. That the genre was partially responsible for Fox's descent into no longer caring about producing factual programming was an awful learning experience. I struggled to get through the Apprentice section because that man keeps reaching new lows. I remain utterly confused as to why anyone thinks he's anywhere near competent to run a bath, let alone a country.
I think the book did a good job explaining the origins of the different subgenres of reality TV. It delved too much into the personal lives and background of people that created the shows, which wasn't something I was all that interested in. It also wrote at length about topics that weren't that intriguing to me personally. So, I would say, if you're really into reality TV, you might find this really interesting. Especially if you're curious about the minutia that went into the editing processes and managing contestants and casting. There was less focus on the contestants than I personally wanted and I wished it had dug a little deeper into the exploitative practices of the most vulnerable communities. I was honestly very shocked there was little (or no?) mention of TLC's influence at all.
I thought more would be made of the “New aristocracy of people who have had the imagination to have an intention to wound themselves". The book briefly discusses the trauma porn genres of things like Jerry Springer, sob stories on Oprah and Sally Jessie Raphael, the radio shows. When it delved into Jackass and Viva La Bam, I thought more would be made of the reality stars that were willing to debase and even injure themselves for fame. However, the Jackass portion is quite short and the focus on this show was more about the practices and creative origins of these shows. It discusses how the production and their goals led to harming contestants, but not as much was made of the constestants' willingness to hurt themselves.
Don't get me wrong: I think nearly (if not all) of these productions and studios are cruel for a lot of this. The only recount that didn't sound horrific and adept at putting marginalized people in horrible situations was the original Queer Eye show. Casting a serial killer on a dating show, a former spousal abuser on a dating show, glossing over an eliminated contestant's suicide, provoking contestants with relatives' deaths and their own mental illnesses - all of these things are horrific. This doesn't even get into the prank shows and this book didn't delve into everything wrong with Fear Factor. There's moral issues with all of these and I didn't feel as if the book wanted the reader to just forgive the editors and production team becasue they were being ordered to get "good material".
There were quite a few parts I found difficult to keep interest in reading. I found the An American Family portion incredibly boring. It was a bit difficult to follow all of the very generic names of this family to keep track of who divorced who and who drove who to go home and get divorced. It also sounded like a super boring premise for a show. I get that it serves the purpose of showing what the long term effects of that kind of "fame" were, but overall, I think it would've been easier if that was like 30 pages shorter?
The Survivor and Big Brother origin stories were somewhat interesting, but I personally didn't care for that much detail in the origins and personal lives of the producers of the show. I think Nussbaum got a ton of interview material from these producers and wanted to use it, but for me personally, I found a lot of it uninteresting.
There's a strange lack of present data or even anecdotes on current reality TV. I expected more mention of the controversies of recent shows, or even just more mention of recent shows like Love Is Blind, the Mr. Beast show, really any of the Netflix reality show issues. This was primarily about American shows with a little mention of foreign inspirations for some of them, so I thought it would've been interesting to at least mention the shows that ended up overseas or the controversies with the "competition" in South Korea's Physical 100 or the concept of a reality show version of Squid Game. There was also no mention of the current issues that befell the recent Queer Eye production. So, I was left thinking Nussbaum must've stopped writing in 2020?
I wished more had been made of the treatment of marginalized people having to explain the bigotry they suffer to castmates. I think it was such an incredibly unfair, disingenuous thing to put these people through. Not only are they frequently painted as angry and violent, they were expected to answer any and all invasive questions or appear the reason why bigots just "can't seem to meet us halfway". Aside from Black contestants being asked to speak about racism on the Real World, I will never forget a transwoman in one season being asked incredibly invasive, disgusting questions about her medical history by another castmember.
Also, oddly enough, I was surprised not to have any discussion of MTV's True Life or 16 and Pregnant. No mention of TLC's reality TV shows like Jon & Kate Plus 8, Little People Big World, or Toddlers & Tiaras and Honey Boo Boo. No mention of Dance Moms. Basically, no mention of the reality TV shows that normalized parents being extremely exploitative and creepy towards their own children. Especially the reveal that TLC allowed a known child abuser to work on these productions. There was also no real mention of the exploitative reality TV shows that targeted addicts and those with medical disabilities. Also, thought there would be a section on the horrors that befell America's Next Top Model, but there was maybe one or two sentence mentions.
So, of what was discussed here, I was interested in some background on why some of these productions were greenlit despite obvious issues. That the genre was partially responsible for Fox's descent into no longer caring about producing factual programming was an awful learning experience. I struggled to get through the Apprentice section because that man keeps reaching new lows. I remain utterly confused as to why anyone thinks he's anywhere near competent to run a bath, let alone a country.
I think the book did a good job explaining the origins of the different subgenres of reality TV. It delved too much into the personal lives and background of people that created the shows, which wasn't something I was all that interested in. It also wrote at length about topics that weren't that intriguing to me personally. So, I would say, if you're really into reality TV, you might find this really interesting. Especially if you're curious about the minutia that went into the editing processes and managing contestants and casting. There was less focus on the contestants than I personally wanted and I wished it had dug a little deeper into the exploitative practices of the most vulnerable communities. I was honestly very shocked there was little (or no?) mention of TLC's influence at all.