B7

Wilfred Langmaid
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We got the bubble-headed bleach blonde comes on at five

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AP

Happier times: In this publicity image released by TLC, reality TV stars Jon Gosselin, right, and his wife Kate Gosselin, from the TLC series, "Jon & Kate Plus 8," are shown in Hawaii. They were there to renew their wedding vows, but the couple is now plagued with rumours and accusations of infidelity, all of which are playing out in their reality TV series.

She can tell you 'bout the plane crash with a gleam in her eye

It's int'resting when people die

Give us dirty laundry.

Dirty Laundry by Don Henley

Call me out of touch or call me boring.

Call me a stick in the mud or call me uptight. I really don't care. My view on this matter is firm.

I find reality TV shows, on the whole, to be depressing and utterly reprehensible.

I realize that I am certainly out of step with many North Americans.

Since The Real World made its debut some two decades ago, the genre has mushroomed.

Certainly, Survivor brought the genre to a whole new level of awareness and popularity, and there are now splinter niches galore.

If you want to watch would-be movers and shakers, there is this decade's effort to make Donald Trump a pop icon, The Apprentice.

If you want to watch celebs engage in competition over something that is not their claim to fame - namely, cooking - there is Hell's Kitchen.

Or, if that new crack at fame is dancing, there is Dancing With The Stars.

If, by contrast, you want to travel the world and watch cut-throat competition, there are Survivor and its related wannabees like The Amazing Race.

If you want a mixture of deceit, greed and desire for love, there are shows like The Bachelor and The Bachelorette.

If you want to see flimsy relationships shatter, there is fare from earlier this decade like Temptation Island and Forever Eden or even Trading Spaces or Trading Spouses.

If you want to see people chase the dream of becoming a music star, there are shows like American Idol and Canadian Idol.

The genre is rampant with new shows. The networks know what sells.

In fact, the website, Reality Blurred: The Reality TV Weblog, lists nearly 100 shows, and it mainly sticks to American examples.

Granted, some of them are not what one would associate with the reality TV idiom, like The Osbournes, but in hindsight, you can see why they are included.

My dislike of this genre is not snobbery on my part. I love television. I watch a lot of it. Some of it is pretty vapid.

Much of it is just relaxation and the fulfillment of a personal passion on my part, whether I am watching a profile of a favourite artist on Much More Music or taking in a Red Sox baseball game.

There is one big difference, though. When I laugh at the high jinks and incongruous plots on a soap opera or get caught up in the ebb and flow of a baseball game, nobody gets hurt.

By contrast, much of reality TV - or "non-fiction improvised drama", if you prefer - is driven by real people who are getting exploited and hurt.

As I see it, this is not far down the slippery slope from peering at a crash scene.

We peer at their joy and their hope, but we also see the deceit and we witness the very real pain.

The fact that it is real makes it visceral and rather transfixing.

That is the secret - and the danger.

Let me put it this way. I have pursued various vocations since leaving the University of New Brunswick as a student a couple of decades ago.

What they have had in common is a frequent dealing with people's pain and an attempt to help them through times of struggle.

I have always had little patience with anybody who delights, be it through gossip or loose lips, in spreading the sadder and/or potentially more titillating of these tales to others.

As I have done my job, I have been exposed to people's pain as part of that job, and I cannot fathom anyone else getting any fulfillment from talking about such pain experienced by other human beings or entering into it as a voyeur.

To be fair, though, one must acknowledge that some reality TV shows are relatively benign.

One can say that a show like The Surreal Life is simply another kick at the can by washed up actors and other stars who know what they are getting into and still seek that one last moment in the sun.

One can caught up in the excitement of The Amazing Race, which would likely qualify as the one reality TV show that I would watch if, say, forced by federal edict or chance happenstance to have to watch one particular example of the reality TV idiom.

Far more troubling and depressing to me are the many reality shows which literally celebrate and normalize infidelity or shows like The Swan which allege that the skin-deep beauty is what matters and makes a person of worth.

The latest example is the train wreck that is predictably hitting the family on Jon and Kate Plus 8. Season 5 just began this week.

It began in the wake of tabloid magazine and TV news that the bickering and not-that-likeable parents of twins and sextuplets have marital discord.

In April, it was reported that Jon Gosselin was having an affair after he was seen partying late one night with various women and leaving with one of them.

Jon and Kate went to their children's birthday party in episode one in separate vehicles. On the show, they both implied that their relationship is over.

"Very swiftly, we turned into two different people, and it's just hard," Kate said at the end of the episode. Jon said they are "going in two different directions now."

And, our entertainment is sitting back and watching this all go down - on this, a show whose main market is tweens.

Reality shows which showcase infidelity or promote the concept that beauty is all that matters are a lie. We contribute to that lie by patronizing the genre.

When we blur the line of entertainment to make it part and parcel with the exploitation and belittling of other human beings, it is just plain wrong.

Long-time Daily Gleaner columnist Wilfred Langmaid is employed by the University of New Brunswick. He resides in Fredericton. His column appears Fridays.