Reality Extravaganza: MTV

MTV: Home of Ridiculous Reality

So apparently I forgot to post a blog entry on Friday. No excuse this time other than I forgot. Whoops!

The good news is that I saw a different reality show on MTV on Saturday to tell you about. I unsuccessfully tried to find a link to it on their website, but it was about OCD. They followed three young people who have OCD: a guy in his late 20s, a girl in her early 20s, and a girl that was a senior in high school.

MTV seems to have more reality shows than there is spandex in Dolly Pardon's prodigious bra collection. Nothing is too little to document with several cameras and hundreds of hours of footage and in-depth interviews. I think the existence and perseverance of "Real World" attests to MTV's status as reality TV's true home. I can't even count how many shows they've had on the topic of overweight teenagers trying to fit in. I think that MTV's theory is that no day should go by without hearing one of their sob stories.

But actually, the show I watched on Saturday was a little "weightier" in the sense of the topic addressed. I was fascinated by all of the different rituals that the subjects felt the need to perform. Some of them were hygiene-related; I think we've all seen Jack Nicholson's character and his pile of soap in As Good As It Gets. But other ones were simple and just strange: All of the light switches needing to be flipped up instead of down; an apple touched 3 times before being taken from the fridge; you must step into the bathroom twice and not look at the mirror.

What surprised me the most about this show is that, of the three case studies, two of them underwent intensive treatment and actually saw marked improvements in their symptoms. The two women went through a kind of shock therapy to get rid of their fears and help them realize that the rituals were just preventing them from having a normal life. By the end, both of them were living almost ritual-free, although the possibility of a relapse always exists. In contrast, the guy was taking medication to control the anxiety but wasn't seeking any additional treatment, and was spending 2 hours a day on rituals.

I can't even imagine. Two hours a day?!? I feel pressed enough for time as it is. At least with this reality show, I could claim that it was slightly edifying and not a complete waste of time. It did seem wrong, though, that during commercials there was a short MTV piece that was a very abridged band bio called the ADD bio. Does MTV not feel a little guilty for using a disorder as a marketing ploy, while broadcasting a reality show about a disorder? Is that life imitating art, or is it completely inappropriate to use the word "art" in conjunction with reality TV?