No villains or fake breasts, just brushing up on some reality TV that’s … real
As TV franchises become ever more contrived and concocted, Michael Blucher celebrates someone putting the ‘real’ back into reality
A few hard heads were reminiscing during the week about the good ol’ days of television.
You know.,..when TV shows featured actors – properly trained professionals – rather than people with neck tattoos and breast implants, sitting around talking, fighting, plotting, scheming.
Yes, I may or may not be declaring my hand here. Not a huge fan of the current “trend”.
I must confess, bar a couple episodes of The Bachelor, showcasing the malintentions of a maladjusted Noosa councilor, I haven’t actually supped on the succulent reality TV offerings.
My preconceptions are based purely on the salacious promos, and of course the daily updates on all the relevant news sites. They’re hard to miss.
Sometimes you get the impression the only breaking news overnight was the latest betrayal on “MAFS”, or a bachelor in paradise calling out a rival bachelor for cheating. Isn’t that the point of the whole game?
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Anyway, the sense of indignation among the gaggle of grumpy middle aged men (GMAM) was finally put to rest when one pointed out that we were all narrowly outside the declared demographic of the said reality shows. Thank goodness for that.
As an aside, exactly where do the producers of these shows unearth their talent? And temporarily setting aside the prerequisite extremes of “likeable rogue” and “detestable villain”, how do they settle on the final cast? Perhaps an idea for yet another reality show? I’d probably watch it.
Diluting my disillusionment of the current free to air reality television suite is the recent return of Anh Do, and his poignant painting show, “A Brush with Fame”. This is reality television in the raw. Unscripted (as far as I can tell), free flowing, conversational, evocative, and not a Champagne flute, rose or dapperly dressed host in sight.
How good is Anh?
Last year I went to watch and listen to him live at QPAC – I arrived with minimal expectations, but left after two of the best hours of entertainment I’ve experienced. All the different dimensions of his life – the drama, the humour, the adversity he encountered before and after arriving in Australia, by refugee boat from Vietnam – the show was brilliantly packaged up into one rollicking roller coaster ride that probably left a lot of the audience thinking – “Geez – what I have the done with my life?!”
What I most enjoy about “A Brush with Fame” is the vulnerability – high profile people sitting and opening up to a virtual stranger. On the strength of what we see, he strips his guests bare (figuratively speaking – this is not Bachelor in Paradise), without them even knowing he’s doing it.
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A year or so ago, a retired athlete I know was invited to appear on the show – he ummed and ahhed for weeks, before finally agreeing to have his inner self teased out by Anh Do’s beguiling brush.
Despite of his initial reservations, he rated the experience as one of the most rewarding of his life. And this bloke has a few gongs to his name.
“There’s something almost spiritual about Anh,” he admitted. “You find yourself sitting there, volunteering all this information – stuff that you’ve never told anybody before – not even your wife! And you’re doing it on national television!”
If there’s a secondary appeal to Anh’s arty undertaking, it’s the ready reminder that television doesn’t necessarily need conflict and drama to be entertaining.
It can be enjoyable to simply sit and watch while two people talk, more meaningfully than they might in say… the
Big Brother house, after the lights have been switched off.
But once again I’m showing my demographic bias. For honest, real, and substantive.
I wish all the contestants in this month’s round of realty TV shows the very best. May you find your 15 minutes of fame, your fortune, a bigger social media following, a new husband, a second wife or whatever it is that you’re looking for, with minimal fuss and next to no public humiliation.
I won’t of course be watching, but I’m sure I’ll read about all the winners in the “news”.
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