90% of reality TV is just the modern version of circus freak shows

yes these shows are designed to make ugly, mean-spirited people feel better about themselves by providing ridiculous caricatures of "trashy" people to feel superior to

I've noticed that max became flooded with some of the most disgusting reality TV schlock after the Discovery merger. Zaslav's personal mission is to make the average American meaner and dumber, if that's even possible

the worst I've seen was a show called [slur for Romani people] Sisters

The ”look how fat this person is!” and ”look at this horrible disease!” kinds are by far the most disgusting.

On second thought, the cop-based ones too.

The cop ones in my country are pathetic. It's a small country with little crime so they don't really have any car chases or gunfights to film. Instead they make shows full of the most boring and mundane cop shit. Most of these shows are about traffic cops where you see them handing out speeding tickets, interspersed with interviews with cops saying things like "speeding next to a school in a residential area is very dangerous". No shit Sherlock. It is so pathetic they even made a show about mall cops once.
- I honestly like finding those kinds of cop shows. Its like an escapism where a kid watches movies about functional families.
  I'll watch and be thinking "that's right, let that person know about social responsibility, they shouldn't speed in school zones!".
- German reality cop shows at this point have just branched to include like pretty much everyone who works for some sort of enforcement agency, tow truck drivers, pest control and private security, I suppose because there's only so many times you can watch some cop stop somebody cycling on the sidewalk and explaining to them how that's very unsafe and countering every "every time I ride on the road a lorry nearly flattens me, the fuck am I supposed to do you dicks" with "well that's also illegal"
- The Finnish cop show was similarly pathetic. It kinda makes it feel even grosser to me when there's not even any spectacle, just someone being drunk in public being put on national TV for everyone to ogle.
  At least it showed how little the cops actually do, lmao
Its funny that the EP of the fat people show is the kid of the doctor they all see. The kid wanted a media career and could only get it by exploiting his father's real job. And funnier that its not the first show like that.

Reality shows are just what happens when they don't want to pay writers well.

I have been saying this for my entire life and it has never not been true.

Check out The Curse

I think a blanket recommendation for anything Nathan Fielder is good. Nathan For You is fantastic. The Rehearsal is fantastic. In fact, the Rehearsal has an entire arc that ends up calling out Evangelical fundamentalists and Zionists for their insane beliefs
- That arc in The Rehearsal actually made me cry, just gonna put that out there. It's a good show.
- Another good show is "The review" which is fiction, but kinda in the same vein as Nathan for you
Definitely has its moments, but God damn does it drag in the middle.

They make these micro celebs do the most embarrassing things for a small chance at fame. It's demeaning, dehumanizing, and exploitative (except when the microceleb is some nepo with nothing else to do)

But more importantly it's just bad writing. Most of the "reality" shows I've seen have the actors ab libbing within the thinnest tracks of whatever narrative the director wants to push. The narratives are often racist or some other brain worm laden rot.

Most of the "reality" shows I've seen have the actors ab libbing within the thinnest tracks of whatever narrative the director wants to push.
It's so bad when they try to come up with little plots and character arcs for episodes. Oh no! Dr. Pimple Popper has forgotten the true meaning of Christmas!

Reminds me of the 2000's when VH1 and MTV reality TV shows were nothing but that. Does VH1 even exist anymore?

Vh1 and mtv were both viacom from waaaay back in the late 90s or early aughts iirc
- stop making me feel ancient 😢

I am in a similar predicament, but there's also the type of show that's about rich assholes with dozens of kids who live in giant houses

something about mormonism gives it this weird proclivity for subjecting children to the panopticon of broadcast television
Righteous Gemstones?

I often wonder what 90 Day Fiancee is up to since I haven't seen an episode since mom passed. She watched that trash religiously and hoo boy it was something.

cirque du freak but the vampires are network executives and hollyweird producers

I only read the first three books. Is it worth going back to some 20 years later?
- I also haven't read it in about 20 years tbh
  recently I read Lord Loss (the first in a different series from the same author), and it was decent despite being clearly for a young audience
- Yes and no. Good story but holy fuck does it get convoluted later on.

FBoy Island is Ulysses for the modern age and no I will not elaborate.

I hate competition reality shows with eliminations like Drag Race and Lego Masters.

I think there's too much financial incentive to be inauthentic/make a brand and the censorship and editing keep people from acting human. Everything feels artificial and I feel bad for the people sent home.

Genuinely creative people alongside people who can afford to take weeks off work.

Something like British Bake Off is a little better at least, but thinking about the countless hours of reality TV churned out every year, it's overwhelming to think about.

Lego masters
I keep pushing back the misanthropy but with things like this I don’t think I can. I’m outraged

My wife really likes Naked and Afraid, and there is an element of "sure seems like it sucks to be nude in the swamp and harassed by 10,000 mosquitoes, glad I'm on my couch under a comforter and not in the Everglades right now," but I think there's also an element of rooting for people to be successful at using their survival skills in a harsh environment.

My wife really likes Naked and Afraid
You could just play that one mode in Rimworld for similar effect

I guess it depends on how you define reality show. Are home buying/renovation shows reality TV?

Anything which is a contrived scenario but not dramatised. So yes, home reno is reality TV.
- I mean yes it is reality TV, and does serve the same purpose of telling boomers "Yes, everything is fine", but it's from the opposite direction of a freak show.
  Instead of atypical people getting punished, it's folk conservatives would approve of getting rewarded by buying million dollar houses.
I dunno, by choice I don't watch much TV, but most of what I've caught on my parents' tv seems to consist of "let's laugh at these people going through the carceral system (who are most likely suffering from a mental illness and clearly not getting the help they need)" and "let's laugh at these people embarrassing themselves in public (who are most likely suffering from a mental illness and clearly not getting the help they need)"
It's the network television version of r/PublicFreakout
- My dad has been wrongfully detained before, yet he still can't comprehend that maybe the cop shows where loitering drunks are being baited into acting aggressive so the police have an excuse to play basketball with their skull might be wrong.
- One of the formats I really hate is "let's laugh of people in debt" where the actors have fucked up personal finances due to irresponsible spending but then, when the grown up experts intervenes, scolds them for being stupid, makes a budget for them and forces them to sell their motorcycle/caravan/other expensive luxury item things are going to be fine. None of the actors are poor, they are just really bad with money but that format has completely muddled the public perception of what poverty is. It is right wing propaganda spreading the lie that "financial trouble" is a question of individual responsibility and morals.

When I try to explain this to my friends who watch reality tv, they accuse me of also watching reality tv because I watch Horizon and old episodes of Mythbusters. 😒

I hate reality-esque shows. I will admit though Ink Master is a guilty pleasure.

The competition reality shows are generally a little better, but yeah, not by much lol

I'm just here for Kitchen Nightmares and brutally unfair cooking contests like Sweet Genius and OG Iron Chef. Gordon Ramsay yelling at effigies of my former bosses is always cathartic. He only goes off at management and owners and I can say, he always has a good point. The suggestions he makes are generally pretty good and work with what they could manage to do consistently.

Homesteading reality TV is great for old folks who want to go "Nyeah, I could do that if I had to, I just don't want to."

It's all heavily scripted too, and not what most of the target audience thinks is "reality TV".

I don't mind dumb TV but there's something that gets old about how formulaic they are and without anything to make up for it.

I heard of a recent one about an anarchist community.

Black Hammer got its own show?
- That actually sounds like amazing TV.

I can be in and out of a freak show inside 30 minutes, but Reality TV gets churned out in high enough volume to fill every waking hours for months on end.

I got to watch a little bit of "Is it cake" Christmas eve and thought it was pretty okay for a show.

Bad girls club

I bet they don't even pay the "freaks" as well as actual freak shows did.

I dont think thers such thing as bad TV and good TV ,here we only have the First One even the news are trash ... We have some great science TV shows but are so rare i dont think anyone watches It on TV .... And the fun parte Is that parents and grandparents are so brainwashed by It.... My 80 years old grandma Yesterday didnt took the elevator for 3 floors just because the tv sayd there's new cases of covid and the elevator still has the old sign on it .... Btw the second person in the elevator was my grandpa ...

You say that and it’s true but I also sometimes hyperfixate on some shitty reality show for a bit just cause I wanna hear rich LA women gossip about shit and be distracted from my boring existence after work