Over the past few weeks, my roommates were sick of me. I would sit myself on the couch,
watching a four rectangle split screen, of just some guy sleeping. To the unaware, I would
probably come off as a total creep. And rightfully so. But in my mind, I was watching a brilliant
display of the raw human experience: the Big Brother live feeds.
When they did not catch me at an inopportune time where the Big brother players were merely
sleeping, these feeds give a 24/7 look into everyday people put into an intense and insanely
isolated environment, designed to turn the players against each other. Just the concept of being
able to watch these people at any given time for three whole months, was so insanely
fascinating to me.
Since leaving home and moving to college, I have delved deep into the world of reality
television. Growing up it was not in my family’s rotation, my mom rolling her eyes when my
sister and I would try and watch Dance Moms, saying it was trashy. We would watch survivor on
occasion, but that was the extent of my history with the genre.
Slowly, I became captivated by these shows, even the most “trashy” of them. From typical
docudramas of The Secret lives of Mormon Wives and The Real Housewives, to the more high
stakes competitions of Big Brother, RuPaul's Drag Race, Dancing with the stars, and so many
more. I am a people watcher first and foremost. I have always found myself fascinated by the
people around me, and their behaviors. I could spend all day just sitting and watching,
completely content with observing others. These shows gave me an outlet to see humanity's
most high strung individuals navigate their unordinary circumstances.
Because of this, the “trashy” label for these shows did not make sense in my mind. Theatrical?
Absolutely. But to the people on the screen, these nonsensical problems in their lives are all
consuming, and can result in made-for-television level drama. This is not coincidental, TV
producers know what kind of people will create good content, and exactly what to do to push
them to that point. While yes, this is their real lives, but the manipulation of certain situations in
their unconventional lives creates unconventional, or “trashy” reactions.
In reality, no other type of program gives this kind of bird's eye view of these people’s lives. In
my eyes, no other show fits the bill for this more than The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. On
the surface, you have a bunch of young moms throwing parties, making tiktoks, and asking “Is
Momtok going to survive this?” every ten seconds. Under the surface, it displays the result of
the deep rooted misogyny within the Mormon Church, and the long term effects of how women
are subtly victimized by this community. We get deeply personal backstories of these women,
detailing their troubled toxic marriages, through the perspective of individuals so thoroughly
ingrained in this culture. It's normal for them. You watch these women slowly unravel their lives,
mentally and with their actions. The show is most infamous for Taylor Frankie Paul’s troubles
and domestic assault allegations, and those who actually watch the show get an almost too
intimate look into her life, and how her family treats her. Not to excuse, but provide context of
how normal these types of toxic romantic and familial relationships can shape someone’s life as
an adult.
Big Brother also provides this intense intimacy with the audience through their 24/7 surveillance,
with the difference of these being normal people. They aren't rich or already famous, the show
makes a point to cast everyday people you would see on the street. This makes for a show very
psychologically relatable to the audience, allowing them to put themselves in the shoes of the
player they relate to most.
I am not here to counter the argument that these kinds of shows are exploitative, and in many
cases you cannot argue this fact. But, even in what people consider to be “garbage”, the level of
raw human psychology displayed cannot be refuted. When you stop and ask yourself why these
people are creating such theatrics, the question more at hand is what drove them there. The
sometimes unrelatable lives of these stars hit home more often than not, on the level of person
to person interaction. And whether this is a beneficial thing for the members of these shows or
not, no other medium gives such a deep view into how the minds of real people function.
Strike out,
Lillian Mclemore, Writer
