I don't know about you but I'm pretty much 'realitied' out. If I see another behind the scenes, fly on the wall or real people confined to a televisual prison program I think I might well have to tear up my TV licence... and with Big Brother 7 (I think) on its way here in England that might well happen (although, now that I think of it, BB 7 might well end up sharing some unintentional similarities with Series 7 of the Contenders... more on this shortly).
To tell the truth, I have never liked any reality TV shows. Instead of showing you something positive they seem to rejoice in the negative and encourage only the worst sort of backstabbing, vindictive and childish behaviour we should be discouraging, rather than rewarding. Unfortunately the trend doesn't look to be slowing down any time soon and this is a very worrying possibility.
In recent years there has been a counteract against the reality TV boon, best personified cinematically in Battle Royale (which is close if not quite a reality TV satire) and, bang on the money, Series 7: the Contenders (henceforth Series 7). There are other voices of sanity out there, particularly in books (see Ben Elton's Dead Famous for a brilliant example), which seek to satirise reality television, but only the medium itself can really show us where the end will finally happen, television and real life of course...
Series 7 represents a logical step in reality TV. With audiences losing interest in physical and psychological hardship of volunteers, an alternative will have to be found. Therefore why not have a lottery based killing game where five people, along with a sixth champion of the previous game, must compete to slay each other within the limits of a small town in American. As I'm sure you can guess, this barbaric program has yet to be made but it is highly likely that television executives have thought long and hard about the possibilities... it wouldn't take a genius to think of the boost in ratings that, for example, Death Row inmates given a chance to win their freedom if they kill five of their fellow cons in some sort of last man standing style battle royal. Those men would all be scheduled to die anyway, so why not make it for entertainment rather than just justice...? Such a possibility, very fortunately, hasn't yet come to fruition, nor am I aware of any attempts to do so, but one only has to imagine such a show to see that it would be very possible to make it and, moral concerns aside, it really would sweep all before it for audience popularity.
Series 7 represents such a program to the nth degree and, very accurately, portrays the emotions a disparate group of the lottery 'winners' might feel upon being selected. I won't dwell on the film itself, simply because I don't want to spoil the humour and utterly spellbinding violence it creates, particularly the juxtaposition of both aspects... you find yourself giggling at an 8 month pregnant woman's attempts to psych out a 50 year old nurse, only to feel the laughter die in your throat as the same woman garrotes, drowns and shoots three people, amongst others, seconds later...
The closeness of Series 7 to the formats of other 'reality' shows is striking, from the hideous melodrama, 'I'm going to win' speeches and sad, pathetic individuals more needing sympathy and a bit of cash than the fame they crave. When this is held up alongside the same people brutally killing each other it makes for a very real and chilling portrayal of reality television, particularly in America though by no means limited to that country. These people don't have to fight. They don't have to kill each other. THey certainly don't have to put up with being videoed, attached to GPS monitors and hooked up to microphones 24/7. If it was me I'd blow the cameraman away and go from there... but these people obey the rules of the game, even though the show purports to have no rules, and hence are hostages in a very real sense.
This is best demonstrated by the subtle allusions to the fact that the game may well be fixed. By a staggeringly remote chance, Dawn (the pregnant woman) ends up face to face with a former school friend... one of the competitors claims the show is faked... one man suffers a 'self inflicted stab wound to the back' while fleeing... and footage of various situations disappears and must be 're-enacted' by actors. These are just some of the issues mentioned but, as we are supposedly watching the TV show rather than a film about the show, the details aren't explored, which is a place the film falls down a little. Other problems are the TV gimmicks, like sudden 'what will happen next?' montages every 10 minutes or so. Sure, this would happen on TV, but in a film (I saw this at the cinema) it gets quite annoying. However, these quibbles are mostly minor.
Anyone who is addicted to reality TV shows and people who genuinely despise them will find something here, although they might not like what they see. As for the Series 7 scenario...? Just how implausible do you think it is? I only ask because, in one of the series of Big Brother in Australia, one of the 'cast,' while making out with another member of the cast, asked her whether she was excited. When she gave her answer he then picked up a knife and held it to her throat.
'How about now?' he wondered. This man was subsequently taken out of the BB house but the question remains... how far will TV executives go with reality TV? Series 7: the Contenders shows us the depths to which it could stoop eerily accurately.
To tell the truth, I have never liked any reality TV shows. Instead of showing you something positive they seem to rejoice in the negative and encourage only the worst sort of backstabbing, vindictive and childish behaviour we should be discouraging, rather than rewarding. Unfortunately the trend doesn't look to be slowing down any time soon and this is a very worrying possibility.
In recent years there has been a counteract against the reality TV boon, best personified cinematically in Battle Royale (which is close if not quite a reality TV satire) and, bang on the money, Series 7: the Contenders (henceforth Series 7). There are other voices of sanity out there, particularly in books (see Ben Elton's Dead Famous for a brilliant example), which seek to satirise reality television, but only the medium itself can really show us where the end will finally happen, television and real life of course...
Series 7 represents a logical step in reality TV. With audiences losing interest in physical and psychological hardship of volunteers, an alternative will have to be found. Therefore why not have a lottery based killing game where five people, along with a sixth champion of the previous game, must compete to slay each other within the limits of a small town in American. As I'm sure you can guess, this barbaric program has yet to be made but it is highly likely that television executives have thought long and hard about the possibilities... it wouldn't take a genius to think of the boost in ratings that, for example, Death Row inmates given a chance to win their freedom if they kill five of their fellow cons in some sort of last man standing style battle royal. Those men would all be scheduled to die anyway, so why not make it for entertainment rather than just justice...? Such a possibility, very fortunately, hasn't yet come to fruition, nor am I aware of any attempts to do so, but one only has to imagine such a show to see that it would be very possible to make it and, moral concerns aside, it really would sweep all before it for audience popularity.
Series 7 represents such a program to the nth degree and, very accurately, portrays the emotions a disparate group of the lottery 'winners' might feel upon being selected. I won't dwell on the film itself, simply because I don't want to spoil the humour and utterly spellbinding violence it creates, particularly the juxtaposition of both aspects... you find yourself giggling at an 8 month pregnant woman's attempts to psych out a 50 year old nurse, only to feel the laughter die in your throat as the same woman garrotes, drowns and shoots three people, amongst others, seconds later...
The closeness of Series 7 to the formats of other 'reality' shows is striking, from the hideous melodrama, 'I'm going to win' speeches and sad, pathetic individuals more needing sympathy and a bit of cash than the fame they crave. When this is held up alongside the same people brutally killing each other it makes for a very real and chilling portrayal of reality television, particularly in America though by no means limited to that country. These people don't have to fight. They don't have to kill each other. THey certainly don't have to put up with being videoed, attached to GPS monitors and hooked up to microphones 24/7. If it was me I'd blow the cameraman away and go from there... but these people obey the rules of the game, even though the show purports to have no rules, and hence are hostages in a very real sense.
This is best demonstrated by the subtle allusions to the fact that the game may well be fixed. By a staggeringly remote chance, Dawn (the pregnant woman) ends up face to face with a former school friend... one of the competitors claims the show is faked... one man suffers a 'self inflicted stab wound to the back' while fleeing... and footage of various situations disappears and must be 're-enacted' by actors. These are just some of the issues mentioned but, as we are supposedly watching the TV show rather than a film about the show, the details aren't explored, which is a place the film falls down a little. Other problems are the TV gimmicks, like sudden 'what will happen next?' montages every 10 minutes or so. Sure, this would happen on TV, but in a film (I saw this at the cinema) it gets quite annoying. However, these quibbles are mostly minor.
Anyone who is addicted to reality TV shows and people who genuinely despise them will find something here, although they might not like what they see. As for the Series 7 scenario...? Just how implausible do you think it is? I only ask because, in one of the series of Big Brother in Australia, one of the 'cast,' while making out with another member of the cast, asked her whether she was excited. When she gave her answer he then picked up a knife and held it to her throat.
'How about now?' he wondered. This man was subsequently taken out of the BB house but the question remains... how far will TV executives go with reality TV? Series 7: the Contenders shows us the depths to which it could stoop eerily accurately.