Reality TV for Writers: What's Wrong with Masterpiece
This is the third week and third episode for Masterpiece, the Italian TV reality show pitting aspiring writers against each other. Now, I believe that we've seen enough to have a judgment as to whether it works or not.
For me, it doesn't.
The show is well done and has some high points:
the elevator pitch given to a literary celebrity; this time it was Silvia Avallone, a brilliant new author whose first book has already been translated and sold in 28 countries;the reality immersion tests that provide for the contestants contrasting and intriguing views on our society ; this time two of the contestants (male) attended a show for muscular men and women where vitamins, strengthening pills and equipment are sold:
Versus life in a convent (the two contestants were women plunged for two days among nuns):
Clearly two worlds that couldn't be further apart both visually and culturally.
But there's a problem for viewers. Each week, a dozen new contestants are introduced and we, as viewers, are expected to interest ourselves to a minimum of 9 new writers, out of which four are eventually selected and then again, only one wins out in the end. Each comes with his/her own novel and personality. Too much to digest!
The only people who remain the same from one episode to the next are the three from the jury and the coach. That's too little and of course, they are not the contestants, we can't become their fan or root for them.
For this to work as good reality TV, we'd need to have at least one of the contestants, the winner of an episode, to take part in the next episode and be challenged by three new writers. That would make us remember to turn on our TV and look for the show, see if last week's winner survives the challenge.
As it was, I forgot to look at it last night and ended up viewing it this morning on my computer. You can see it here, it's aired on RAI TV's website for Masterpiece.
I feel sad...I really thought Reality TV could be a cool way to revive the general public's interest in reading and, at the same time, launch new writers on the scene. I still think it can be done, but for the show to become successful, it would need to have fewer contestants and better focus on a winner that has to undergo repeated challenges: this would help build up suspense and make us want to see the next episode.
Perhaps it's too late to change it now, the rules of the reality game have been set down and are probably, for all sorts of technical reasons, impossible to modify. But in future, consideration should be given to a different model of competition that would aim at maintaining the audience's interest throughout the series.
For me, it doesn't.
The show is well done and has some high points:
the elevator pitch given to a literary celebrity; this time it was Silvia Avallone, a brilliant new author whose first book has already been translated and sold in 28 countries;the reality immersion tests that provide for the contestants contrasting and intriguing views on our society ; this time two of the contestants (male) attended a show for muscular men and women where vitamins, strengthening pills and equipment are sold:
Versus life in a convent (the two contestants were women plunged for two days among nuns):
Clearly two worlds that couldn't be further apart both visually and culturally.
But there's a problem for viewers. Each week, a dozen new contestants are introduced and we, as viewers, are expected to interest ourselves to a minimum of 9 new writers, out of which four are eventually selected and then again, only one wins out in the end. Each comes with his/her own novel and personality. Too much to digest!
The only people who remain the same from one episode to the next are the three from the jury and the coach. That's too little and of course, they are not the contestants, we can't become their fan or root for them.
For this to work as good reality TV, we'd need to have at least one of the contestants, the winner of an episode, to take part in the next episode and be challenged by three new writers. That would make us remember to turn on our TV and look for the show, see if last week's winner survives the challenge.
As it was, I forgot to look at it last night and ended up viewing it this morning on my computer. You can see it here, it's aired on RAI TV's website for Masterpiece.
I feel sad...I really thought Reality TV could be a cool way to revive the general public's interest in reading and, at the same time, launch new writers on the scene. I still think it can be done, but for the show to become successful, it would need to have fewer contestants and better focus on a winner that has to undergo repeated challenges: this would help build up suspense and make us want to see the next episode.
Perhaps it's too late to change it now, the rules of the reality game have been set down and are probably, for all sorts of technical reasons, impossible to modify. But in future, consideration should be given to a different model of competition that would aim at maintaining the audience's interest throughout the series.
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