A Valid Point

In today’s Guardian, Rupert Smith reviews a programme from BBC2 last night called “Blame the Parents”, and along the way sums up a lot of my feelings about ‘reality TV’.

Something turned them from innocent babes into teenage gremlins, and it was obvious that the parenting skills on show were somewhat lacking. But here lies the problem with Blame the Parents. This was not just about the fine-tuning of family dynamics. These weren’t naughty, unruly kids. These were people who appeared to have serious emotional, mental and behavioural problems, and to parade them on telly as if we can learn something from them while enjoying a good wallow in other people’s misery seems questionable at best. You can’t hold up an extreme as if it’s a commonplace. It’s like showing black people as muggers and crackheads, or gay men alternately shopping, shagging and taking crystal meth. If TV has gone so far into the realms of stereotyping that it’s even trashing white heterosexuals, then we’ve officially lost the plot.

© Guardian Newspapers 2005

I couldn’t have said it better myself.