As I sit here watching the penultimate episode to season one’s gossip girl, which I started last week, I start to ask myself, why are we, as a society, so addicted to dramas and reality TV?
Gossip Girl ( if you haven’t seen it) is based around the lives of the elite rich kids in Manhattan who take limos to school and on weekend have a glass of wine followed by a line of coke. Let’s face it, that isn’t the life of most ordinary fifteen-year-olds, in fact, at fifteen I was struggling to maintain a social life and keep my mum from killing me.
So why do we watch it? Some people say that it mixes fantasy with reality, I mean, rich children do exist, those ‘legacies’ that get everything they want, not because they really deserve it but because it’s handed to them on a silver platter. But I have failed to meet one yet, feel free to contact me though...
And, although we see some ‘out there’ events that happen in the series like people getting murdered or drug addictions most of it involves more realistic aspects such as; teenage dating, losing your virginity, friendships and learning to be yourself. I mean what fifteen year old has access to A class drugs and expensive alcohol? No, really...
Another aspect is people fantasising about what might have been, ‘what if the characters were from a working class background?’ ‘What if one day I become rich, would I let my children act this way?’ I can list a number of series that involve looking at how ‘the other half’ lives, and isn’t that what we all want? The ability to buy what we want, when we want and not have to worry about paying for our rent each month. But, these TV series show us that there can be consequences to living the high life, well, nothing that a bit of money can’t solve but it’s still drama.
The series 90210 focused on the rich kids of Beverly hills, but the main family who got involved with these children were not rich themselves, much like the Humphrey family in Gossip Girl. This slant on the series enables us, as ‘normal’ people to empathise with the characters that just want to fit in, in a crazy world of plastic and money. But I mean, what chance have I got in moving to Beverly hills and making friends with Justin Bieber? Zero to none.
In hindsight, escapism is something we all want, whether that is in a good fiction novel, a superhero movie or a reality TV series, sometimes we need to escape from the nine to five working day and watch someone embarrass themselves by flashing their boobs at the camera. We want to be part of something bigger, something that matters and something we can relate to (kind of) and something that we desire.
When it comes down to it the real reason is we are all bored, there is a vicious circle when it comes to life and it involves money. We’ve got to work to earn money and for some of us, we like work, for the majority it is simply a means to earn the money to pay the rent and bills. However, in order to do activities on the weekends or take holidays we need extra expenses and for most of us, that’s not possible. So if we can’t go on adventures ourselves, what’s the next best thing? Watch somebody else doing it. This seems like a very sad state of affairs and for most of us -- it is. We save up money to go places but then an emergency will arise, say you lose a tooth and have to pay for dental or your car breaks down and you have to buy a replacement part, life doesn’t always go to plan.
I wish life was like a TV series, there’s always drama, always a party to go to and an endless supply of money. But, unfortunately, I’m stuck here in my mum's flat watching Gossip Girl and moaning about why I watch too much TV. Oh well, you know you love me...xoxo.
