yellowdaisy4, 2/8/09

The examples given in the last class really help clear up what exactly realism is for me. The concept of verisimilitude, which is having the sense that the characters you are watching on TV or in a film are real, is very fascinating because most people do it without even realizing it or knowing there is an actual word for it. I, myself have definitely done that before especially back when the drama “The O.C.” was on. I would get so into the storylines and show that I actually cried when Ryan almost had to move back to Chino, even though it was obvious he was coming back or else there wouldn’t have been a show, and the time when the character Marissa died. I remember calling all my friends on the phone in shock of what had just happened even though it was clearly not real at all. This also brings me to what we talked about regarding reality TV. I feel like this concept is so confusing to most people because it promotes itself as being real but most people are not put in the situations like being trapped on an island having to play survival games or stuck in a house fighting for one semi-famous guy with twelve other women. The MTV show “The Hills” was one of the shows that has been called out on their use of the term “reality” recently with gossip sites revealing how they shoot scenes multiple times and set up fake drama for the supposedly real people and not actors to live out in front of the camera. This connects to the danger that Lyotard was talking about when we confuse what is fake with what’s real. This got to be so bad on “The Hills” that real magazines were reporting on the fake fights on the “reality show” and people like Senator McCain were commenting on them. This also reminds me about the Dan Quail and “Murphy Brown” example we heard in class. I find it really ridiculous yet funny how a smart enough man to be vice president would base an issue on a made up character in a TV show as if she was this real role model for unwed mothers and not just a character dealing with storylines on TV. Some people even get disappointed when they finally get to meet an actor and they are not like the characters they play at all. It is like they get so into that character that they want them to be real and don’t see the person playing them as an actor. I think that is why some actors get bad press and have to worry about their image so much so they don’t disappoint people more while also having a clear separation of personal life so they don’t have to deal with a stalker.