Ouellette, and later McCarthy, view reality television as an “arena” for the “active transformation” (18) of democracy, an arena “in which to observe the vernacular diffusion of neoliberal common sense.” With some sophisticated turns to Foucauldian or psychoanalytic paradigms, McCarthy takes Random 1 as a case study for “traumatized, governmentalized subjects” (34); Ouellette, instead, more convincingly dissects the evolving apparatus of television in her discussion of interactivity and data collection, acknowledging—as one ought—the infrastructures of new technology. In my midterm stupor, I have nothing insightful to say about either piece despite my affinity for their arguments. Instead, I offer a string of questions which, likely of no value, ran through my mind as I read these articles.
1) Reality TV, produced and distributed in the US, obviously finds its way to international markets; the localization of their content, often unaltered, is limited to subtitling or translation. On one hand, I wonder if we could understand these programs through a colonial lens. I could imagine that this “vernacular diffusion” of neoliberalism might extend its tentacles to countries where democracy operates in otherwise different ways. If we consider also that voting or interactivity is nullified upon exportation, how do we understand international subjects as non-participatory but nonetheless engaged observers of these texts?
2) Ouellette’s treatment of the telephone makes me think of my grandfather’s (now decrepit) satellite television which makes use of a phone line for data transmission; it was this technology that not only enabled pay-per-view watching but that introduced new layers of censorship as certain channels became password-protected. What do we make of this political dimension?
3) Lastly, though I expected a broader treatment of Extreme Makeover from McCarthy, I suppose her argument could be extended to include the normalization and standardization of aesthetics in American culture. I have always found it bizarre that every house looks identical here. Would its architectural or design principles also find itself in a larger political structure of governmentalized subjects and tastes?
I find the third question you pose here especially interesting. I would have also liked to hear more from McCarthy on makeover shows like Extreme Makeover. I suspect she'd have a lot more to say now given the proliferation of home makeover shows since the article was first published. I find home makeover shows in particular to be some of the more palatable forms of reality TV. Shows on HGTV seem to be some of the few programming choices my parents and I can agree on when I go home to visit. Streaming services such as Netflix are also attempting to capitalize on the popularity of these types of shows. I started watching one of their more successful shows, Dream Home Makeover, which is now in its fourth season. I gave up on it after awhile because all the makeovers looked EXACTLY alike and I could no longer distinguish how many episodes or seasons I had watched. Although it only had one season, I also find Tidying Up with Marie Kondo interesting to think about in relation to the affective expressions of selfhood within neoliberal discourses.
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