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The Fake Reality of Breaking Amish

I grow increasingly distressed that there is a genre of television called reality that is anything but reality, and that there is far more reality to be seen in scripted television than current reality television shows. Case in point — Breaking Amish, a program that shows a group of men and women in their late teens and early twenties that have left their respective Amish communities in order to visit New York City. The reason they are visiting the city is to explore it and to see what life is like outside of being Amish as they have been Amish since birth.

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How Bristol Palin Ruined Dancing with the Stars and Why Nicki Minaj Tanked American Idol

Reality Television bores me now, but what really angers me is when television shows pretend to be honest contests when they’re really all a pre-determined setup from the get-go, just as we have indelibly learned this week with Bristol Palin’s horrible — but she’s staying! — routine on Dancing with the Stars; as well as Nicki Minaj’s fake meltdown with Mariah Carey on American Idol… which hasn’t even officially aired yet!

Websites like Vote for the Worst tend to take credit for contestants like Bristol Palin beating the odds and staying when it is really all about contractual agreements set in stone before the first dance begins:

They said it was impossible… She’s by far the worst dancer; She’s has the personality of a rock; She’s as likeable as the plague. But it doesn’t matter as VFTW and The Tea Party have done it once again as not only was Bristol safe, she wasn’t even in jeopardy! Meanwhile, VFTW and Bristol knocked off Joey Fatone, who even as the worst dancer in N’Sync can dance circles around Bristol.

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Is There any Reality Left in Reality Television?

I am old enough to remember the debut of “reality” television when it was actually interesting and meant something.  Season one of “The Real World” on MTV and “Big Brother” on CBS are hallmarks.  Even though those shows were “live edited” there was a certain authenticity about the series that bled through the television screen indicating human life. Why is it today that so many “reality” shows come across scripted and fake and inauthentic? Could it be because those shows are now brewed to be, from first blush, scripted, fake and inauthentic? True reality is too hard, too tough to touch. Fake reality is much easier to control and sell to the masses. Don’t think. Just believe.

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I Would Like Less Reality On Television

When I was growing up, watching television meant watching television programs that were written by creative writers, produced, and involved actors saying the words that those writers wrote and rewrote and deliberated over — sometimes pouring their hearts and emotions into the words that the actors would say. These television programs came in different genres. There were comedies that were situational and not, dramas, soap operas — it was all out there and waiting for us to consume it.

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The Death of Mike Starr Questions the Value of Celebrity Rehab

The death, at age 44, of former Alice in Chains bassist Mike Starr brings into question the real value of reality television shows like Celebrity Rehab and Sober House with Dr. Drew Pinsky.  Should we be gawking at the medicated and the mentally ill for pleasure and profit?

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Why I Find Reality Shows Upsetting

I have long ago learned that for the most part, reality can be quite subjective. What is real for one person and makes up their world makes no sense to another. Yet when used in the context of television programming, reality can be a frightening thing.

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