Trash TV: A train wreck you can’t keep your eyes from
Reality TV is just gossip on a large scale
In the world of jaw dropping cinema, beautiful cinematography, and empowering story-telling, nothing beats a simple reality TV show. From Netflix’s Love Is Blind franchise, to TLC’s 90-day Fiancé franchise, reality TV shows have one thing in common, how they showcase the good, the bad, and the downright shocking.
It’s my guilty pleasure. It has become a part of my night-time routine. Picture getting back home after a long day, taking a nice shower, doing your night-time skincare routine, only to watch some good reality TV and munch on some snacks. It is the perfect way to end the day. With all of its chaos, reality TV shows somehow calm my mind. It is over-stimulating but calming at the same time. It’s a dopamine rush.
The reality TV show that is near and dear to me happens to be the entirety of the 90-day Fiancé franchise by TLC. It is a chaotic mess, but it is an entertaining chaotic mess.
90-day Fiancé has many shows within. It is a universe. There are shows within shows, within shows. It primarily focuses on couples who fall in love with people from across the world, and the journey they take to get to the path of marriage, and the journey of getting to America on the fiancé visa.
The typical cast features the stereotypical American who believes the rest of the world should be exactly like America, the ignorant westerner who travels to other countries in hopes to take advantage of someone who lacks resources, and the melodramatic person who screams and yells if anything does not go their way.
I first started watching 90-day Fiancé in 2016. I enjoyed being able to learn about different parts of the world and their customs, and the way these customs make their way into relationships. Relationships are already complicated enough. Throw in cultural norms, diverse beliefs, and long distance, and the end result is a relationship that has different circumstances from that which society perceives as a ‘traditional’ relationship.
What stands out to me about 90-day Fiancé is the focus on dysfunctional relationships. It is sad to see TV producers taking advantage of people who would benefit from time away from the limelight and some much needed therapy.
Part of me also feels guilty for watching dysfunction and drama and chaos. It should not be marketed as entertainment. Unfortunately, money makes the world go around. Chaos sells. Drama sells. And as awful as it is to type this out, toxicity sells.
It is the reason why people (including myself) enjoy watching reality shows such as Love is Blind, where people are thrown into a situation where they fall in love with someone without seeing them, and end up marrying them. Only for them to navigate dysfunction once they are able to see each other in real life and try to develop some semblance of a relationship.
Reality TV shows promote unhealthy dynamics and unhealthy relationships. On the other side, although rare, they can portray some positivity within all the drama. What makes reality TV shows even more interesting now, is that for the first time, we have the ability to watch reality TV shows from different parts of the world thanks to subscription services ranging from Disney+ to Netflix. We have access to cultures from all over the world just from our screens. Although reality TV has many pitfalls and shortcomings, it is also a way of understanding how people lead different and unique lives in this.
