Reality TV, how does that mesh with disability and able bodied actors in disabled roles? Read Jonny Wilkinson’s latest column for his take on it.
Either love them or hate them, reality TV shows are about as pervasive as TV itself. Why have they been around for so long and why are they so popular when most of us know just how orchestrated, scripted and predetermined they are?
Well, one theory is that people love to see someone else losing. The final winner in a contest-themed show is always an anti-climax (in fact, in real life the runner up seems to always do better). This theory can account for the endless bouts of eliminations and competitions that encompass cooking, dieting, dancing, singing, entertaining for entertainment's sake – but not all reality TV shows have a competition impetus.
Lizard Lick Towing has got me hooked. A family of American southern hillbillies with a tow truck company who specialise in repossessions that are so obviously pre scripted it’s written in super script.
Mind you, even David Attenborough had his own stint of scripted reality TV when he filmed a polar bear and her new-born cubs which were really staged in a zoo using fake snow, as opposed to a snow cave in Antarctica.
I’m looking forward to Reality Check, a new New Zealand TV series, in which self-professed shopaholics go to work in sweatshops in Third World countries,where the products they consume are actually made.
Teasers and trailers for this series include shots of the show's participants in incredibly cramped conditions, whinging, weeping and whining about how tired they are, how miserable they are and how tired they are again. Good Job!
The Undateables was a reality TV programme I found ethically challenging – a programme about a dating agency specifically for people with various impairments.
On the one hand it challenges people’s perceptions about what is beautiful and what is attractive and it opens up a debate on a usually taboo subject - disability relationships and sexuality. On the other hand, I find the name Undateables extremely negative, sensationalist, exploitative, antiquated and just, well, corny really.
At least with reality TV shows they are using real people in real roles. I have always cringed when I have seen able bodied actors playing the parts of disabled people.
Daniel Day-Lewis gave a portrayal of Christy Brown, an Irish writer born with cerebral palsy, in My Left Foot. Dustin Hoffmann was the main actor in Rain Man playing an autistic man, and more recently Eddie Redmayne body-doubled in for Stephen Hawking in A Theory of Everything.
Should I be outraged at the number of non-disabled actors playing the increasingly popular, triumphant disabled role?
Should I be outing them the way Milli Vanilli were outed when they lost their Grammy for lip-synching someone else’s song, or like high profile black civil-rights activist Rachel Dolezal, outed this week for not bring African American but white?
Or should I get grip and remind myself that these are actors and that’s what they do – act out?
Breaking Bad broke the mould by using an actor with a disability. RJ Mitte, who played Walter White Jr (Walt’s son) in Breaking Bad, has cerebral palsy. It’s a pity his role was so nerdy.
But that's reality; the spectrum of disability covers us all – even the nerds – and I think, love it or hate it, Reality Rules OK! If in doubt just watch the goggle box.
Downloadable pdf here:
| Available Downloads | Type | Size |
|---|---|---|
| Heavy dose of reality okay in main | 227 KB |