When things start getting real

So we apparently have our first reality show murder suicide and I guess it was only a matter of time. Given that VH-1’s reality dating shows tend to dredge the bottom of the barrel in terms of contestants it seemed to almost be expected that tragedy would occur at some point. Take a bunch of people who will whore themselves out for a few minutes of fame and over time one of them will turn out to be a really bad egg.

For those who don’t know the story, Ryan Jenkins who was a contestant on “Megan Wants a Millionaire” has apparently been found dead in Canada. He is suspected of murdering a stripper he may have possibly married in Las Vegas. Her body was found missing her fingers and teeth but she was still identified by the serial numbers on her breast implants. I’m not making that last part up. I guess there is no need for inserting ID chips in everyone if breast implants can be tracked.

Now I watched that show, which has since been pulled off the air, for about five minutes a week or so ago. Basically it has Megan, a former Rock of Love contestant, trying to find her soulmate amongst a group of millionaires. Or at least guys who claim to be millionaires. Given the vetting process that was done on the contestants I have a hard time thinking that they all had that much of a net worth about them. Ryan was a contestant who was eliminated after a few episodes. This did not keep him from appearing on I Love Money 3, which he apparently won. That show also will not be seen by anyone.

I guess this story is tragic and sad. Maybe it says something about me that I am so jaded by my years of watching reality shows that something as incredibly real as this has absolutely no impact. As I’ve been mentioning when talking about More to Love, one of the main features of these reality dating shows is that the contestants aren’t considered to be real people. I can’t even consider them to be television characters. You were crushed when you found out that Col. Blake died on MASH. This story, real and involving meaningless deaths, doesn’t seem to have any impact at all.

That is the shame about reality television. It has made us numb to reality. We start viewing the world through this very cracked prism that no one can ever correctly interpret. We all become cynical and protect our souls with a layer of lead. Maybe it would be better if we stepped away from this genre for a while. Or at least started getting back to a point where it has a bit more of a human heart attached to it.

Best of 120 Minutes: I just need to listen to The Sundays at the moment.



The five random CDs for the week:
1) Caroline Herring “Wellspring”
2) The Connells “Still Life”
3) U2 “The Eye of the Fly”
4) Sting “Nothing Like the Sun”
5) Cirque du Soleil “Varekai”