Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Reality Television Gone Bad

I have been loosely following the debacle that is the John and Kate Plus 8 series lately. Why? I have to ask myself. I don't really watch television much at all anymore. The screenwriters strike last spring helped me to become unaddicted so to speak. I must admit, however, that the John and Kate Plus 8 series was one that I followed closely in earlier times. I am the mother of multiples and a singleton. While I have twins and the Gosselins have six plus twins, I still found that I was able to relate to many of the things featured when the series was still young. Also, I liked how Kate was more normal, organized, and realistic than some other moms of large families featured on reality T.V. With that said, I gave up the series some time ago when it was not longer reality T.V. I don't want to get caught up in the tabloid presentations of the current state of the family, but one could see where it was headed long before the Gosselins became tabloid headliners.

Subtle hints of things to come like Kate's persistent need to remain obsessive with eight young children at home, fairly consistent talk of needing things to be bigger and better, focusing on freebies and perks, involving more and more outsiders in the family, yada, yada, yada. These things started to turn me off from the series. I don't begrudge a family success, but when it starts to look like it is at the expense of their children, rather than for them I start to lose interest. I don't get too caught up in the fact that Kate appears selfish and overly concerned about her appearance. Most women who have had their heads down in dirty diapers, spit up, and bottles for years on end go through a period of selfishness while they try and re-find who they are. Most women don't go through this on live television. Will the show go on? I don't know. It seemed like a good thing...in the beginning...now it has all just become too Hollywood for me.

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