Reality TV Shows "Real" or Scripted?
Why do we love to hate reality television? For the millennial generation, there seems to be an obsession with reality tv because this type of content is expanding largely; this increase includes a wide variety, ranging from competition to dating to family life drama. According to the Washington Post, there are currently over 300 reality television shows.
For decades, television games shows have made up the genre known as reality television. However, that genre would soon expand tenfold into a completely new concept of reality tv. The first reality television show began in 1970, titled “An American Family.” The show followed a family of 7, known as the Loud family. It chronicled their lives over a seven month period.
During the 1990s, MTV began its transition out of a strictly music video world of the 1980s and into reality television. Such shows include The Real World (1992) and The Challenge (1998), which are still on the air. This trend continued to increased drastically in the early 2000s. MTV was constantly creating new reality television shows during this time; from the Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica (2003), Laguna Beach (2004) and its spin-off The Hills (2006), My Super Sweet 16 (2005), and the list continues.
I remember watching so many of these shows when I was in high school. Partly if I had nothing else to do on a Saturday. Mostly because these programs were the majority of the content that aired on MTV. Whereas today, there is more of a selection with choosing what you want to watch from your computer; with programs like Netflix, Hulu, and network companies online sites that give you access to choose a show.
Yet, reality television still maintains its place as a preferred television genre today among the younger generations. Lets take a look at the numbers.
According to August 2015 records from statistic.com, the genre of reality/competition television programs ranked second most popular among the age group of 18 to 35 year olds. Deadline.com reported that Keeping Up With the Kardashians had increased in viewership from season 11. The Kardashians raked in a total of 3.2 million viewers during the season 12 premiere.
Tvline.com reported that in May 2016, The Bachelor ranked number 4 in the top reality show category, with a demographic of those ages 18 to 49. The Bachelor brought in 3 million viewers in its last season. Big Brother kicked off the season 18 premiere with 6.1 million viewers. Yet, despite this large viewership, tvline.com reported that this outcome was a 13% decrease from Big Brother season 17 premiere.
But how much of this is actually true. Does any or the majority of reality tv content use a type of script? In an article by bustle.com, Whitney Port of The Hills tv show reported to US Weekly in an interview that the show was not scripted. Yet, Port did confess that the production team did influence the cast to be more dramatic in certain situations. Port’s co-star, Kristin Cavallari, had a different opinion from her time on The Hills. Cavallari reported in a 2013 interview that the production team did influence what the cast said. “We never got an actual script, but they would text us what to say,” she stated.
The 2007 popular reality show Keeping Up With the Kardashians, has also faced allegations of some scripted and staged material. In an article posted by business insider, blogger Mariah Smith analyzes each episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians to a painstakingly, meticulous degree. Smith matches the shows episodes with the Kardashians’ Instagram accounts in order to tell how scenes of Keeping Up With the Kardashians may be out of order and somewhat false.
What do you think? Are reality television shows completely staged and scripted, or “real”? Maybe these reality shows have some implements of scripted material and staged actions to them. Could this result be for the sake of what people in the television business view as entertainment? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
[Review] MTV's Scream: Betrayed
As I noted last week, I'm in full on hate watch mode for Scream at this point. But this week's episode managed to turn that around just a bit. I don't really know what's going on at this point since there are so many poorly written plot points and character motivations, but I think it's lumping together to get to that same apex of entertaining awfulness that made "Wanna Play A Game?" such a fun episode.
"Betrayed" gives us multiple suspects, more of the adorable podcaster Piper Shaw, and sequence that's so badly thrown together it actually circles around to being good again. Am I still watching the same show here?
At the beginning of the episode, Emma has a dream that's laid out like most generic Scream sequences. It's pretty dumb overall since you know Emma's never going to be in actual danger, but her dream actually works for the rest of the show. You get the sense that she blames herself for the killings (as she should because she's terrible), and it sets her on a great path of self destruction. In horror fiction terms, she's going to make a lot of ludicrous decisions going forward, and it's definitely going to be fun watching it go down. Following that, there's this scene between Noah (the horror nerd) and his best friend Audrey (the girl who was outed in the beginning of the show, she really hasn't been important until now hilariously enough) as Noah has such a Scream-esque speech that once again summarizes the show's mystery as the characters he mentions walk through the background behind him. You just can't make this stuff up, folks. It's pretty wonderful. We also have a new detective in town who's doing her job, but terribly. She was introduced a few episodes ago, but hasn't had any bearing on the story until now. Basically she starts bringing in all these kids for questioning without really caring how laws work. It's pretty funny horror fiction logic as she decides to just start questioning everyone about the murders without any of these kids asking for a lawyer. She's far too aggressive for someone who has zero evidence.
But then we figure out Audrey's DNA was on the inside of the killer's Brandon James mask. As Audrey (or is it Aubrey? Really doesn't matter) hastily calls Emma to destroy a memory card, while being detained so it looks double suspicious, we find out Audrey was super angry after first victim Nina leaked a video of her. The whole episode was trying to set up Audrey as the killer, but none of it made any sense. It's all arbitrary plot stuff that's obviously establishing her as a red herring. Speaking of red herrings, there's plenty of them in this episode. The whole "The Mayor killed his wife" plot came to a head as one of the jock bros chickens out and gives him back the footage of the Mayor possibly killing his wife. It's all so stupid. The only reason this sequence is great is because it involves Piper Shaw and she instantly makes all scenes she's in that much better.
But the scene is so badly thrown together it all works. The Mayor saying things like "Be careful, there's a killer on the loose," meeting in a warehouse in the middle of the night, the stuff that led to that where one jock bro threatened the other jock bro in the gym, and finally the killer shows up and stabs somebody. It's a good time, for sure.
Assorted Musings:
- I can't keep accidentally liking this show. It's not good for my heart.
- Despite my wishes, MTV has picked up Scream for a second season. Either that means the story won't actually end at season end, or that we'll get a second season with a mostly new cast and story a la the Scream films. I'm hoping for the latter.
- I'm hoping there's an endgame in sight because there's a huge difference in this episode because it's finally active. Major difference from before.
[Review] MTV's Scream: Exposed
All the things I've been complaining about the last few weeks (the uninteresting and unlikeable characters, the lack of immediacy, reliance on death to further interest) have come to a head. We're at the halfway point of the first (and hopefully only) season, and I'm in full on "hate watch" mode. The further the show distanced itself from the film series, and from its machinations, the further it's gone from actual entertainment. The only reason to watch now is to see how terrible it'll be by season end. I guess it's accomplished one thing: The viewer wants these character deaths.
Rather than care about who lives or who dies, here we are wanting everyone everywhere to stop doing things.
Continuing the trend from last week, this episode also lacked a character death to base an entire episode around so it had to find something else of importance to fill the gap. As part of the two bro dudes' weird hidden camera enterprise, they end up blackmailing Rich Girl Brooke's father, the Mayor as I forgot to mention last time, because he may or may not have killed his wife. This kind of world building is appreciated, but ultimately useless. Thanks to the lack of immediacy since a single slasher film's plot is being stretched out over ten hours, all of this feels like its wasting time. It's an intentional red herring without all of the finesse you'd come to expect from a better written murder mystery. The show wants us to both constantly guess who the slasher is while caring about the little goings on in the town. But it just hasn't earned that yet. Neither mystery is compelling. First of all, everyone in this show is terrible, including the main girl Emma, and capable of killing other characters. Before her sex video leaked, she totally had a hand in some of the other hidden video stuff (as seen in the pilot). So why should we care what happens to her?
Thankfully, Scream is starting to reel that back a bit. While she'll never be Sidney (I should stop comparing her to the main girl from the Scream films, it's just not fair), it's a bit more interesting to watch Emma take on this whole thing by herself. Since the Scream films were built on ensembles as it went on, they were able to bounce off of each character and make each of them interesting (i.e. rootable). But since the show lacks any appealing characters, it's backpedaling to make Emma as interesting as possible. She's taking this lone wolf route to fighting the killer as she refuses to trust anyone around her, and that's pretty neat. If she continues down this path, as shown by her ever increasing annoyance in dealing with the killer's constant contact, then the final episode of the season is bound to be interesting. It'll be a full on fight. That is, assuming the series plans to reveal the killer at season end. If not, I guess I'll never find out who it is because I won't be around for season 2.
Buuuuut, that's not to say I can't hate watch the rest of this season. Nothing's more therapeutic than complaining about bad TV.
Assorted Musings:
- Emma's Mom and Sheriff cop guy make out for some reason. I haven't been paying enough attention to their story to care, so I'm sorry.
- Every make out scene is punctuated by a cheesy single MTV is trying to oush out and it makes everything just a bit more hilarious.
- Skeet Ulrich mustache transfer student returns in this episode, and if he isn't one of the killers I'd be totally surprised. Also he has sex with Emma in a field at like midnight. So creepy.
- As part of all that, he shows Emma how to fire a gun. It breaks so many slasher movie rules; I hate the concept of it. Also, it just reminded me of that one hilarious Futurama quote, "Why need courage when you have...a gun!"
[Review] MTV's Scream: Aftermath
Like most horror television shows, MTV's Scream is what you would call an "event" series. While nothing may be going on in the the day to day narrative, these kinds of shows rely on "events" to keep people hooked and talking. In The Walking Dead, for example, at the end of one of these event episodes would spell out a character death or some kind of grisly action. It's basically the same principle here. Since Scream has been so reliant on character death to anchor each episode, the first episode without one certainly has a lot to make up for.
We're four episodes in now, so it's time for some actual development. How does the show stack up now that it's not killing anyone off? Well...
The TV series has been trying to separate itself from the films for a while now. One major way it's drawing distance is the whole Brandon James thing. As I mentioned before, Brandon James was a previous killer that terrorized the TV series' town and the new killer is modeling himself after him. The new Ghostface mask is based on James' face, and a lot of the story is wrapped up in trying to solve both of those mysteries. This episode, as the title suggests, is dealing with the fallout of Riley's (the nerdy girl who was killed in the last episode as she Facetimed with the nerdy guy) death. As people scramble around trying to cradle up some emotions, Emma (the main girl) is finally a bit interesting. After being forced to choose between friends' lives last episode, she's distrusting everyone and is finally making some proactive choices, which is something Sidney Prescott, the main girl from the Scream films, is known for. But it's just a shame that what she decides to do is just so damn stupid.
Emma, Best Friend Whose Name I Forget, and Noah end up going to the killer's former lair and find all of the stuff the killer wanted them to find. While this scene was meant to play out as tense it's just goofy all around. And unlike the fantastic goofiness the show's been able to enjoy so far, this episode just dragged on and on. As the characters find out the same things the audience is already aware of, the only new bit on info is on the two Bro Guys' hidden camera enterprise. Through this we learn the killer is aware of all of their hidden camera shenanigans, we learn that main girl Emma isn't a horror trope virgin (as she explicitly states the video they have of her is her first time), and we learn that these kids are terrible with technology. A couple of clicks onto a laptop end up sharing a private video across multiple phones and devices. At least we know how the killer was sharing to everyone's phone now.
I know this show's main goal isn't to reveal who the killer is, but why's they're killing, but I need something more to go on. Since we're nearly halfway through the first season, I hope there's a change coming soon.
Assorted Musings:
- Rich Girl Brooke also had a story this week. We learn a little about her absentee mother and father who's wrapped up in some scandal, but any scene that attempts to give her character also has her in a bikini. Really hard to take seriously.
- Also, kids voting on which popular girl should die next is sadly all too true.
- You might wonder why I'm sticking to this show as I grow increasingly tired of it, but like other horror shows, it's the only one of its kind. I really want to see where this experiment goes. Can't say I'd be here for Season 2, however.
[Review] MTV's Scream: Wanna Play a Game?
In my review of the last episode, I said I was a fan of Scream's willingness to be awful. There's always an inherent fun with shows that are written, acted, and directed terribly if there's a commitment to the bit. With episode three, the commitment is in full force and we've gotten some pretty cheesy murder television. Either I've been subject to this for too long that I've become numb to it, or it's making its way around to being interesting again, but episode three is definitely a highlight.
Then again, it's a highlight of a show that increasingly aims low so I'm not sure what to think.
One of the bigger tidbits floating around during this year's San Diego Comic Con was that the showrunners weren't planning to kill someone every episode. Well, three episodes in and we've gotten a new victim for each one. But there's still the same problem of not giving a damn every time one of these kids dies because we don't know them well enough beyond stereotypical horror movie tropes. This week's victim was Riley, the nerdy girl who liked the nerdy boy Noah (who's the Jamie Kennedy stand in, and is way more annoying than that character ever was). It was a heavily telegraphed murder since we actually got some development of her character. Although it was only that she wanted to pursue a relationship with Noah (and that she cares about others, something the rest of the cast doesn't seem to share), the fact that she got any attention at all meant she was marked for death. If there's one thing the show can learn from other horror shows' mistakes, is that you could totally develop folks without killing them minutes later.
But I guess that's the point. The only interesting plot development of note this episode was that Emma's (main girl) mother revealed she was the main girl victim during Brandon James' streak years ago. Because of this new information, awesomely revealed by the killer's voice a la Scream films, Emma's beginning to trust the killer's voice more than her friends and family. As the show's Ghostface begins to show his prowess with phone technology, he's got access to everyone's voices and phone numbers, we're beginning to enter familiar yet unknown territory. It's an homage to the films, yet Emma is getting more and more involved with the deaths. There was some honest to God tension as Emma had to choose which of her friends would die. It also highlighted something the Scream films used to love, that the killer felt like he could be everywhere at once. Too bad the show's writing is still the woooooooooorst.
If things can stay in this direction, we'll get the terrible greatness we deserve soon enough.
Assorted Musings:
- I don't know much about video games, but it's hard to believe they have some of the most "dramatic scenes of all time."
- The whole teacher/student sex thing is starting to bother me. One of both involved need off the show soon.
- The show is clearly setting up the two jock dudes as part of some hidden camera website ring, but I just don't care. Either make one the killer or go home.
- #RunRileyRun? Really MTV?
[Review] MTV's Scream: Hello, Emma
After watching the first episode of MTV's Scream TV adaptation, I had no idea how to feel. It wasn't good enough to be considered legitimately entertaining, and it wasn't bad enough to be illegitimately entertaining. The worst part of it all was the poorly written dialogue. And considering the pilot episode was written by film series' writer Kevin Williamson, I had no idea who or what to blame. But a show is never as wonky as its series premiere, so I had a little bit of hope going into episode two.
From the looks of "Hello, Emma," we're heading into "so bad, it's good" territory with this show and I want to see where it leads.
Episode two essentially follows the same formula as the pilot as it leads off with a teen death that somewhat spurs the plot along. As a fallout from being outed by an internet video filmed by main girl Emma and previous victim Nina, shy Christian girl Rachel cuts herself (with razor blades sitting in a heart container, go figure) and eventually is hung by the killer. As everyone continues to not care (and I had a hard time myself since we've only seen people killed in the episode they were introduced), main girl Emma continues to prove she's just the worst. Not only did she passively bully her former best friend, she also is torn between a terribly conceived love triangle between her jerk jock boyfriend and the mysterious new transfer student with the Skeet Ulrich mustache (who's probably also the killer). We end up at a random basketball game, the nerd guy Noah paints "Doosh" on some jerk guy's truck and goes on a date with the cute nerdy girl, and the killer reveals his masked face to the populace.
Importantly, we got an explanation for the new mask. It's apparently the face of the Lakewood's first killer Brandon James, but it still doesn't save it from looking wonky. And although Scream 4 already dealt with current technology in a cool, interesting way, I'm surprised it took until a TV show to send a mass .gif image. We also got more screen time with the killer's voice and, like in Scream 3, he's got a voice changing device. Hopefully the newly introduced Courtney Cox stand in, Piper Shaw (a podcaster, since news is so old fashioned now), can do something about that. But I'm still having a hard time connecting with any of the characters I keep getting told I'm supposed to care about.
I don't think we're supposed to. When you get moments like a random extra speaking super loudly in the bathroom "They've got blood on their hands" to absolutely no one but Emma sitting in the stall, we're just supposed to enjoy how hyper aware and terrible this is. The fun's starting to poke out of the seams, and "Hello, Emma" is actually filled with a few entertaining sequences. Still not perfect, but not as bad as before. Emma is nowhere as badass as Sidney Prescott yet.
Assorted Musings:
- Hey I remembered names now! Not that it does anything for character development...
- I can't get over how terrible Skeet Ulrich mustache guy's hair is.
- Got to admit, the "Doosh" gag got a good laugh out of me since no one bothered to point out it was spelled badly.
- Did Emma and her mom really share a moment over her friend's dead and open body?
- This episode featured a sloppy hanging death (where the killer actually moved the death scene and showed inexperience not found in the films), but it's a neat way to get around the show's gore-less situation.
- More Piper Shaw please.
[Review] MTV's Scream: Pilot
I've been very interested in MTV's TV adaptation of the Scream films since it was announced. I was mainly concerned about how any of it would work. Taking the core essentials of the horror genre like tension, gore, and very little characterization and stretching it out over an entire season is a big task. After seeing the first eight minutes of the premiere the other day, I just had to see the rest of the episode. But how does it hold up? Does the TV series hold any of the charm of the original films, or is it just so different that it's good in its own right?
Well a little of column A, a little of column B, and a little of neither.
It looks like the TV series has adapted the feel of the original films more than anything. There's a completely new cast, completely new story, and a completely new "Ghostface." But at the same time, there's a lot of the same goofy meta narrative and bad writing. I should explain. The first episode begins with a Scream staple, killing off an actress with the biggest draw in the cast. Bella Thorne was touted as a cast member throughout most of the advertising, and her sequence, while entertaining, is hilarious in a different light. In terms of opening scenes, it doesn't quite rank up to the films but there's definitely enough to tantalizing things in there to draw for the rest of the episode. Then we get into the actual story.
The show takes place in Lakewood as Bella Thorne's death spurs talk of a similar chain of murders that took place 20 years ago where a man named Brandon James killed a bunch of students. There's this plot where he eventually gets captured thanks to his crush on a girl named Daisy, who happens to be the main girl's mother, and we'll eventually see how that all ties in. It's too early to say whether or not this new killer has a connection with that story, but since there's so much time devoted to fleshing that out I'm sure it's a big deal. As for the teenagers so far, I don't know what to think. I can't remember any of their names. They're all essentially horror archetypes: the girl who's forced out of the closest, the overbearing douchebag duo, the promiscuous one in a relationship with her teacher, the nerdy guy who spouts the stuff about the rules, the guy with the porn star mustache who just transferred in from another school, and the main girl.
While the script pulls a Scream and points out its flaws, it also delivers a meaty mission statement - That it's hoping we'll care about these characters as the show rolls on before any of the murders take place. And if it can accomplish that, it'll definitely separate itself from other slasher fiction. Basically, if it can make us care about these terrible people, then the game is won. Nothing else of note really happens,as the plot of the pilot is just mainly to establish these archetypes. There's a party to mourn Bella Thorne's character, there's a bit of tension to remind folks there's a killer running around, but there's a lack of immediacy and that's sure to be the show's downfall.
Assorted Musings:
- Everyone has weird, weird hair. It's kind of nice since it reminds me so much of the early 00s. Maybe that's intentional.
- I'm already annoyed with the show since it uses fake social media sites (like "Chirpster" and "Cliplicious") yet mentions the real ones by name.
- I don't know if this can hold up as an hourly show week by week, but that's why I'm here.
- This recap doesn't have much summary or plot because there wasn't really any. None of these characters matter, and none of them are memorable.
- Wow, these actors are not great. Is this how it is with all MTV shows?
- I'll be here every week to give you a rundown of the show, so stay tuned! Maybe future episodes will be more substantial than this.
Watch the First 8 Minutes of MTV's Scream TV Series
[youtube id="TtJypNcyNsA"]
I'm not a big fan of horror films, but I've always loved the Scream series. Its slasher horror tinged with a goofy and meta rule book really stood out among a genre where every film was nearly the same. It came out at exactly the right time, too. The rebellious 90s angst was fit for skewering and no better horror film caught the feeling of the time. Which is why MTV reviving the series with a TV show is so weird.
Slasher films (or horror in general) don't lend well to TV, so I'm wondering what the long term effects of this will be. With this first 8 minutes, the series establishes a completely different tone than the original films. Gone is the kooky humor (and pop referential killer), and replaced with faux social medias. On one hand, I'm digging the new tone. There's still a weird sense of humor that a teenager would be in a house that lavish (and will continue walking around in a bikini despite being frightened), and the "Heads up" bit made me laugh. On the other, why take the name if you're going to change everything about the original.
Then again, there was a time where MTV would've censored that gore. The kills in this opening scene are impressive, so I've got to admit I'm hooked. I'll keep an eye out on this show and see if it can keep up this interesting take.
Scream premieres on MTV, Tuesday at 10/9c.