Facing Reality with…Reality?

Life, lately, has been an adventure for me, to say the least. 2009 has already been filled with ups and downs, twists and turns, some good, some bad. But at the end of the day, I knew there was Booth and Brennan, Patrick Jayne, Sarah and John Connor, Echo and Co., and all the other Nice Girl’s faves to look forward to. They are all there to help me escape reality for an hour or two. The writers of all these shows deserve a nod as well. It’s great to see our favorite actors from week to week, but it’s the stories that really take us away to places we can’t, in our normal, every day lives, really go. And help us forget.

All that being said, it still amazes me that so many people are so gah-gah over these reality shows. It’s that word, ‘reality’, that boggles my mind. Why would so many want reality today? Isn’t reality kind of a downer? Unemployment, foreclosures, bankruptcy, downsizing, all reality today. I don’t care who will be America’s next Top Model. I’m not impressed with the choices we’re given for an American Idol. The word ‘idol’ in the dictionary means “any person or thing regarded with blind admiration, adoration, or devotion”. Another definition was “a false conception or notion; fallacy”. So we should adore a false conception or notion? Excuse me if I haven’t got the time. Dancing with the Stars? I’m so bored.

Some of the best movies that were ever made came from a time when people needed to forget. Times when reality in this country was just too overwhelming. We had the Marx Bros. movies, the classic horror films that thrilled us into forgetfulness, like Frankenstein, The Invisible Man and The Mummy; It Happened One Night, The Thin Man, and W. C. Fields; the beautiful musicals from Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers; Pinocchio and Snow White. Television was just getting started, but we still had The Little Rascals. Radio was our entertainment then. It gave birth to memorable shows such as Little Orphan Annie and The Lone Ranger. The hard times gave us Bob Hope.

After 9/11, people flocked to Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Movies that made us forget and Friends that made us laugh again.

So excuse me if I’m not thrilled over who made it to the final round on reality tv. I just don’t give a damn.