Survivor thoughts :: Interests meme

Eep. I was confused by the fact that Survivor aired last night, and forgot to watch American Idol. Could somebody fill me in on what happened?

( Survivor spoilers )

On a non-spoilery note, I've been thinking about the fact that everything we see on Survivor is manipulated, and how little that bothers me. I see a lot of people remark that they don't like seeing misrepresentative portions of what happened, and find it hard to judge the players' actions based on what's on TV.

I completely disagree. To me, there are two different things going on here: 1) What Actually Happened, the events as the people involved experienced them, and 2) The TV Show Survivor, an intentionally manipulated storyline populated by characters molded out of the raw material of What Actually Happened.

When I say "I don't like her" or "He shouldn't have done that" or what have you, I'm speaking solely in the context of 2). I'm basing my judgments on what we saw, and not worrying about the fact that I don't know enough to judge in the context of 1). It's a story, these are characters. It isn't real, and I knew that going in.

A strange collision happens when we see something meta-game on TV, like Sue's evidently real emotional breakdown. I don't much like the fact that some fans passed "real" judgment on the players' reactions to those events, because what we saw was manipulated, just like any other event on the show. The seriousness of the situation didn't change the producers' commitment to creating characters and a storyline. I'll happily judge what Tom or Kathy said in the context of the show -- their callousness probably hurt their game, and was icky on top of that. But are they nasty people in real life? Possibly, but I don't think I have the grounds to say so.

Just my take.

*

And, hey, I'll do the interests meme. Take a look at my LJ interest list, pick one, and ask me 1) what it is, or 2) why I'd be interested in it.

*

[EDIT: Comments contain American Idol spoilers.]

Survivor thoughts :: Interests meme

Eep. I was confused by the fact that Survivor aired last night, and forgot to watch American Idol. Could somebody fill me in on what happened?

( Survivor spoilers )

On a non-spoilery note, I've been thinking about the fact that everything we see on Survivor is manipulated, and how little that bothers me. I see a lot of people remark that they don't like seeing misrepresentative portions of what happened, and find it hard to judge the players' actions based on what's on TV.

I completely disagree. To me, there are two different things going on here: 1) What Actually Happened, the events as the people involved experienced them, and 2) The TV Show Survivor, an intentionally manipulated storyline populated by characters molded out of the raw material of What Actually Happened.

When I say "I don't like her" or "He shouldn't have done that" or what have you, I'm speaking solely in the context of 2). I'm basing my judgments on what we saw, and not worrying about the fact that I don't know enough to judge in the context of 1). It's a story, these are characters. It isn't real, and I knew that going in.

A strange collision happens when we see something meta-game on TV, like Sue's evidently real emotional breakdown. I don't much like the fact that some fans passed "real" judgment on the players' reactions to those events, because what we saw was manipulated, just like any other event on the show. The seriousness of the situation didn't change the producers' commitment to creating characters and a storyline. I'll happily judge what Tom or Kathy said in the context of the show -- their callousness probably hurt their game, and was icky on top of that. But are they nasty people in real life? Possibly, but I don't think I have the grounds to say so.

Just my take.

*

And, hey, I'll do the interests meme. Take a look at my LJ interest list, pick one, and ask me 1) what it is, or 2) why I'd be interested in it.

*

[EDIT: Comments contain American Idol spoilers.]