OPINION: Why I'm done calling reality TV a guilty pleasure

Reality TV can sometimes be a hot button issue. On the one hand you have people who live for it, spending their nights bingeing consecutive episodes of The Real Housewives series or waiting for months on end for the next installment of Married at First Sight, on the other hand you have those who think reality TV is some mind-numbing fake fodder that offers little to no intrigue, captivating plot or even likeable character. I fall somewhere in the middle.

For me, reality tv really became a thing when Big Brother was first premiered way back in 2000. 12 contestants from various different backgrounds enter a house and live together for approximately 2 months, each week one person getting evicted until the last one standing leaves the house thousands of pounds richer. 

The show captivated audiences, bringing real people together in an altogether unreal scenario, and all we had to do was watch how it all played out. Although Big Bother was not the first reality TV show to exist, it seems to be the one that gave way to a myriad of other shows following a similar formula; real people in an unusual setting and seeing what happens. 

What began as a voyeuristic social experiment turned into a full-blown entertainment machine culminating in spin-off's, scandals, love affairs, and household-name contestants. Irish viewers were hooked, especially when one of our own was flying the flag in the famous house i.e. Brian Dowling. Big Brother, especially in it's first years, really gave us a front-row seat to raw, unscripted, and sometimes unhinged, human behaviour.

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Today reality TV is everywhere and has become prime-time TV in Ireland. Shows like Gogglebox, First Dates and of course Love Island has us gripped each and every week. Irish people have a tendency to pull each other down when one of us gets too big, and it's often meant in the nicest of ways, an almost "humbling" experience maybe. But when we watch ourselves on shows like First Dates we really are rooting for each other and hoping that the person on the date will have the best outcome.

Love Island is a prime example of this. A show full of young attractive singles, all looking for love and, certainly for some contestants, fame. But in 2019, in walked Maura Higgins, a young budding model from Longford. Maura stunned everyone, and not just the Irish. Her humour, straight-forwardness and sincere authenticity rocked the show and I honestly don't think there was every another bombshell that had the same reaction.

Maura is now a huge household name in her own right and is about to enter another reality tv house in the form of The Traitors US, another show that has us all hooked. In the latest series of Love Island that is running now, two more Irish hopefuls have been living and breathing the highs and lows of the Love Island house. Megan Forte Clarke and Conor Philips are holding their own, hoping to find the one and make it to the end. Even if you don't like their personalities all that much, you find yourself backing them because they're Irish.

Whether you want to admit it or not, most of us have been glued to a reality TV show at some point, judging those on our screens for something we would pride ourselves on never doing, tearing up at emotional scenes that tug at our heart strings or following a budding romance as we root for them to get together. It's like a soap opera but more relatable.

Reality TV is often dismissed as shallow, scripted, and set-up for dramatic purposes to keep us on the edge of our seat so that we'll tune in for the next exhilarating episode, but in Ireland, it can sometimes hold a mirror to who we are, what we value, and what we love to watch others get right, or more cynically, spectacularly wrong.

But like everything, it's not all sunshine and happiness. Reality TV has also come under fire over the years and has sparked some serious conversations about mental health, fame and exploitation. Whether it's on our TV screens or our little screens in our hands, we are constantly living through other people's realities. On TikTok especially, content creators have made their living through their "What I eat in a day" videos, trad-wife content and even daily videos of young children. 

From influencers taking social media breaks to protect their mental health to whole careers being ruined by a slip of the tongue or worse, people taking their own lives for the scrutiny and criticism from some person on the internet they've never even heard of, reality TV shows how real-life stories and unscripted formats can hold power beyond entertainment.

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So why watch it?

In the simplest answer; pure escapism. Yes, we can pour over the masterpiece of TV shows and how they will forever be engrained in history as some of the most influential and significant shows in history i.e. The Sopranos, The Wire and my personal favourite Severance, but reality TV takes all of the seriousness, stress and pressure of every day life and transports your brain to a place where thinking is not required.

Being able to turn your brain off and focus solely on rich housewives in Beverly Hills arguing over who is less of an alcoholic or watching some young shy lad from Waterford going on a first date with someone who just gets him and wants to get to know him, is TV gold.

Reality TV has carved out a lasting space in our cultural landscape and whether you're laughing, crying, or cringing, it's clearly something we can't stop watching. So before you judge someone for rushing home to catch Love Island, maybe go easy on yourself and give it a go, you might just enjoy it!