Drama, drama, drama! It’s the word that best characterises the week that was in Television Land – and I don’t mean of the scripted variety either!
From an on-air guest brazenly lighting up a juicy joint while the bewildered news anchors looked on during a debate around the legalisation of cannabis; to average Joe’s playing the Rich Kids’ game, and divas desperate for ratings resorting to some good ol’ bitch-slapping shenanigans, there was plenty of fodder to keep them Twitter feeds full.
You may not agree *cough* with Andre du Plessis (aka Head of the Cannabis Working Group) and his *puff* penchant for Mary Jane, but at least his ballsy display of anarchy-in-action upped the interest factor in an otherwise humdrum take on how not to tackle the news.
As for the whole pseudo-party-boy-living-off-his-mama’s money fiasco that centred around Alekssandre Fortunato of the reality series, Rich Kids infamy… sigh, what can one say? As the title of the series suggests, it glamorises the lifestyles of the spoilt, entitled, indolent offspring of parents who actually worked for their money. Or at least, that’s what it purports to do.
As it so happens, however, Fortunato hasn’t been quite as prosperous on the financial front as his name would suggest and was unceremoniously outed for being a fraud (by a friend, no less).
Cue the incensed diatribes fired in producers’ J’Something and Dale Herbst direction for brazenly misleading the public, with the producers in turn feigning shock and sadness at the betrayal. Boo-bloody-hoo.
Then, along came the Diski Divas who swiftly jumped on the “if you can’t make it, fake it” bandwagon, with two of the soccer WAGS getting physical with a –pregnant – third, resulting in their instant dismissal from the series.
The altercation took place live on air while the ladies (I use the term loosely) were being interviewed by Kaya FM’s Sotho Lenkoe. But as fellow Kaya FM presenter, Kuli Roberts, pointed out, the whole affair was likely staged in a desperate attempt to garner material for the rapidly-running-out-of-ideas creative team behind the show.
(Yes, Divas is a television programme, but the participants were being interviewed on radio. Keep up now, children…)
So, aside from the fact that a) striking a grown woman, much less one with child, is so Joubert Park; b) the WAGS’ conduct in general is textbook material for the old adage that money doesn’t buy you class and c) as such, that they should be inclined towards a little Orange is the New Black girl-on-girl-style assault is hardly surprising, why all the hoopla?
Well, because both the Kids and Divas debacles are a gross distortion of what the shows are meant to represent (whatever that means) and are, therefore, hoodwinking viewers. Or something to that effect, if the online comments are to be believed.
What – reality television isn’t real? Say it isn’t so!
Yup, that’s a healthy dollop of cynicism you detect. Because the simple fact of the matter is this: there has never been, nor will there ever be, anything remotely real about reality television.
So to all those couch critics who have yet to come upon this basic fact of the money-making world that is the small screen and who *snigger, snigger* genuinely believe Big Brother/Survivor/MasterChef/ Idols/Project Runway/The Real Housewives of… (insert city here)/ The Amazing Race/Jersey Shore/ Keeping Up with the Kardashians are unscripted and true-to-life, I can but say, askies nê.