cpat13 's review for:

Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV by Emily Nussbaum

3.75

informative slow-paced

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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.