Only a real fan could have written Picked the sun! The invention of reality TVAnd Emily Nussbaum is a real fan. The winner of the Pulitzer and Critique Prize is the perfect scribe for the history of unicenized television. We are lucky that she gave us a complete story of the genre, from its roots to the radio to the present day.
An effortless reading, the book goes beyond passion; It is like following the intensive course of your smartest friend on their most attractive niche interest. Of course, at this stage, reality TV is an industry of several billion dollars and could hardly be considered something other than the dominant current. However, for any reason, he continues to be treated like marginalized by many academic and cultural circles, even if they enlighten the candles on their Marshall McLuhan Altars.
Nussbaum assesses reality TV with the gravity that it deserves in an optimistic and conversational tone which clearly shows that it revels in the “Dirty Documentary”, a term that it is in the introduction: “It is Cinema Truth Filmmaking which was cut with commercial contaminants, like a street drug, in order to slide the price and intensify the effect.” These are lines like these, as well as the breathless reports on corporate quarrels and the behavior of the expectations by producers and actors Picked the sun! Not just edifying but a pleasure to read. A genre built on casualness requires a critic that knows how to wink.
The book is the strongest during the presentation of a story of the form. Nussbaum has clearly made a huge amount of research, and she draws fascinating details from the past to strengthen a pages story, like Stephen Chao Short As president of Fox TV for a few wild weeks in 1992. He finished his mandate by offending the wife of Rupert Murdoch, Anna, with a presentation on moral indignation in the American public who presented a male stripper. It was the final straw: at a previous party, Chao had thrown the new Anna puppy in a swimming pool to see if he could swim. He sank.
While Picked the sun! Excellent when it comes to the past, it vacillates as the present approaches. After two completely captivating chapters on Survivor And Big brotherTwo reality TV pillars that still go to 47 and 26 seasons, respectively, the last quarter of the book has trouble dealing with a period of training which should be a riot: the aughts. Perhaps we are all a little too attached to the programs with which we grow, but I could not help feeling personally injured by the dull concentration on what I consider some of the most emblematic years of reality TV. The section on The baccalaureate It was very good, as is suitable for franchise, but the chapters devoted to Bravo and The apprenticeAlthough informative, felt rushed. As a participant of the second Bravocon in 2022 (a period without law), I maintain that there is much more work to do when it comes to examining the impact of the network on the media. And the chapter on The apprenticeAn original story by Donald Trump featuring several jumps Survivor producer Mark Burnettcould easily be extended to his own book. Maybe we need a little more distance from this programming era to really understand what fresh hell has unleashed.
When Picked the sun! Parade in subjects such as misogyny, racism, homophobia, capitalism at an advanced stage, surveillance state and fascism, Nussbaum is capable of drawing nuggets from the obscurity that helps to shed light on what brings back the viewers to find out more. These insidious elements are as fundamental for gender as its most admirable characteristics, such as its openness to formal innovation and its desire for marginalized platform voice. The mandate of reality TV is to do everything you need to make a good story, and as disturbing as this approach can be, it always maintains a horrible look.
Contrary to what its criticisms say, however, reality TV is not all that is wrong with culture. While Nussbaum never stands out from the dirty aspects of the company, its meticulously factual told of its history, improved by revealing interviews with primary sources, leans towards cautious optimism. Perhaps what is so uncomfortable – and so convincing – about reality TV, is that it presents a reflection of society difficult to watch, but impossible to deny. While technology accelerates while civil liberties are eroding and the real world becomes more artificial every day, perhaps the way to truth is that pseudo-simulation this gender misunderstood, poorly judged and entirely human offers us.
Picked the sun! The invention of reality TV (2024) by Emily Nussbaum is published by Penguin Random House and is available online and via independent booksellers.
