Reality TV We Could All Embrace

Reality TV has become a staple of television ever since the writer striker of the late 90s. While most critiques decry the trend and general decline in quality of programming, there is of course a renaissance of television at the present, driven to a large extent by new entrants into the genre -- HBO, Showtime, AMC and the recent availability of BBC and European programming to the states. Among the gems of the current era are Dexter, Inspector Lewis, Downton Abbey, Breaking Bad, The Killing (although many would disagree), House of Cards (an excellent Netflix show released as 13 episodes all at once) and a host of others I don't personally watch. But what of reality television, which continues to draw large audiences hungry for the mixture of schadenfreude and "real life" drama? I had a thought for a new reality TV show that might brighten the spirits of American and European audiences alike.

When you think of most of the evil perpetrated on the Western world over the past 30 or so years, two entities stand at the center of it all. One is the advertising industry, those sellers of false dreams and the inspiration behind the spectacle society. They used to, of course, underwrite all television and continue to be the revenue-generators of most of what we watch and listen to from sports to movies to the boob tube. It is advertisers, one could argue, who are the spirit behind the sociopathic tendencies we are currently living through, the young women who develop self esteem and eating disorders the moment they hit puberty and the proudly ignorant, arrested development young mooks MTV so adores. And bankers are the ones that fund almost everything that happens in the economy, including the housing bubbles in Japan, America and Spain -- among a host of other wrongs. Even when they fail, as they so often do from both their greed and fear, they know the taxpaying public will come to their rescue; even if they can't be bothered to  pay taxes. In fact, many bankers get their biggest bonuses as markets around the world collapse, as happened on Wall Street in 2009 and 10.

So why not throw the top execs of the biggest ad agencies and banks onto an island and let them fight it out to the death. We could bet on the winners and losers, who would last the longest and root for the quick sending off of our most corrupt Wall Street gurus or the forces behind the degradation of politics the world over. The Spanish would probably tune in with vigorous glee, we could set up satellite feeds for the 10s of millions that lost their homes since 2007-08 here and allow members of the Greek public to throw stones from behind the high fences that kept them in (a sort of updated gate community meets Ibiza gone wild). Given their general psychopathic tendencies and firm belief in Ayn Rand politics and social darwinism one would assume they would relish the opportunity to practice the art of war not just in the boardrooms but the battlefield of real glory. The billionaires have been complaining for a couple of years now that they are victims of Obama and just not loved as much as they should be. As reality stars, as short lived as that honor might last, they can finally gain the fame and notoriety they so strongly desire. 

As to early potential candidates for the show, how about the potential Obama nominee for Secretary of Commerce, Penny Pritzker (she even has the ideal name). As Greg Palast reported on his site a couple of weeks ago, Pritzker is just the sort of corporate hero and average Jane and Joe huckster we think would have a real shot at going a few rounds with her partners-in-legalized-crime (Greg Palast.com).