At every cocktail party there is always that one person who turns up their nose at the mention of reality television. Those people (the slightly less obnoxious cousin to the “I don’t own a television” guy) always say that if reality television was actually a documentary about social dynamics then they would watch it. Heck, even reality fans harken back to some sort of ideal they think they lost. Well, guess what, the show everyone says they want is already on television. It is called Utopia and no one is watching it.
Utopia was one of the great hopes of what is turning out to be a disastrous fall season for Fox. Created by John de Mol – one of the 500 richest people in the world after creating Big Brother and The Voice – Utopia is meant to be an experiment where a group of strangers live on a commune with little interference from the outside world or producers and have to build a new society with their own rules. Fox reportedly spend $50m to build the Utopia compound and kit it out with microphones and cameras so that the cast can live without interacting with camera crews, like a hippie version of The Truman Show.
And that’s what Utopia is. Fifteen people, all reality tropes from the free-loving polyamorous dancer to the angry ex-convict, sitting around talking about what kind of government they should have and yelling at each other because someone spent too much money on beans. The show has had more than its fair share of altercations but there has also been a baptism, a wedding, an injury, a trial, several sexual relationships, a huge fight about mayonnaise, and a doomsday prepper named Bella who has to be seen to be believed.
The Real World, TV’s longest running reality show (if you don’t count Candid Camera), gets the lion’s share of the criticism especially since people think it went from being smart and socially conscious to being about drunk kids in hot tubs. “Dubbed ‘the original reality show’, The Real World has devolved over the past two decades – for every thought-provoking season such as the ones in Los Angeles, San Francisco or Hawaii, there are others, such as those in Cancún and St Thomas, that resemble nothing more than a never-ending party,” says the NY Post. Then of course there is the Kardashians “has no value in any category whatsoever” crowd and those that believe there is scientific evidence that this genre is destroying civilization.
But now there is a show about civilization, people trying to build a new one, and discussing just what sort of government it should have. All of these critics should be thrilled, right? Wrong.
Utopia has been almost an embarrassment to Fox if you just look at the numbers. Though viewers can stream footage from the compound 24 hours a day (much like with Big Brother), Fox carved out two hours for the show on Tuesday and Fridays. Ratings were so low on Tuesday, with only about 2 million viewers, it was quickly cancelled and kept just to Fridays. A marginally successful YouTube video still racks up more viewers than this $50m show. Despite their investment, Fox is certain to cancel it in the coming months.
So what happened? Well, Fox didn’t market this thing well for starters, but it also seems that people aren’t nearly as high-minded as they think they are. They say that want to watch an anthropological experiment, but what they really want is a bunch of people yelling at each other, singing karaoke versions of hit songs, or deciding which of three houses to buy in a second-tier city. That’s what reality television is these days.
And there is nothing wrong with that. I love reality television in all its permutations, but as a fan of the genre, it doesn’t get more real or more pure than Utopia. The events so far have been genuinely insightful. We saw the urban liberals on the cast vote out Red, a self-proclaimed redneck, who was street smart but not nearly as formally educated as everyone else. Dave, an unemployed ex-convict, was filled with rage from the moment he arrived and couldn’t integrate himself into the society. Pastor Jonathan left Utopia after only a couple of weeks due to an injury (don’t worry, he hurt his hand playing ball) but was ill at ease on the compound, especially with so many people not sharing his faith and so many women running around naked.
Ah, the nudity. Just like any good reality show there are a lot of attractive people not wearing much clothing. It is television after all. There are also romantic relationships being formed including silly ones like Bri and Chris squabbling all the time and Mike realizing that he couldn’t handle the polyamory of aforementioned free-loving Dedeker. Then there are the hot and heavy (and televised) antics of Hex and her lover Taylor.
It seems like television audiences are like that guy on a dating site who says that he’s looking for something serious, but keeps clicking on the profiles of 23-year-olds in revealing shirts. We all like a little eye-candy, but the problem is taking some superior moral attitude about something but then not supporting it with actual behavior. Yes, we might all pretend like we want to finish Infinite Jest this year, but we’re actually craving for the next issue of US Weekly to arrive in the mail. (Has Jennifer Aniston gotten married yet or what?)
That’s cool, don’t get me wrong, but let’s just put the kibosh on the “I want a real reality show” conversation forever and always. Fox gave those critics the show that they are always asking for and no one showed up. We’re stuck with the Kardashians, Duck Dynasty and whatever show about women screaming through Botoxed foreheads is on Bravo right now. And if that makes you think that civilization is damned, well, then it’s your own damned fault for not watching Utopia.
