I'm An Addict
I'm just going off the top of my head here, but I believe this might be my 4th or 5th post regarding a reality tv show on VH1 or MTV. In some cases I throw them under the bus (I'm talking to you, White Rapper Show. You are a bad bad show and I haven't watched you since I swore you off. Shame on you.) but I must admit that not all of the shows are that bad. In fact, some of them are really good. And since MTV shows way more commercials than any other channel, it's not nearly as big a waste of time as it might seem. At least I keep telling myself that. I am not really sure what it is that draws me to these shows and compells me to watch them, but it is an interesting ongoing social experiment.
Which brings us to the topic of today's conversation: Dancelife. The show follows around a handful of dancers as they look to forward their careers by trying to land gigs in live shows or music videos. Admittedly, the show is at times a little to slick and contrived to make me believe that producers didn't step in to "guide" events a little bit, but even this little bit of alleged tampering does not take away from the fact that Dancelife does a splendid job of capturing just how hard it is to make a career dancing.
It would have been easy for MTV to roll out a show that showed all of the glamour of being a dancer with young and beautiful people partying and whatnot, but they really kept from that temptation. The people on the show come across as being real and authentic as we are able to see that they work their fannies off every single day and they all struggle with questions about whether or not they are good enough. They live check to check and, though they are some of the most talented dancers out there, get rejected more often than they.
I think what I'm most impressed with about the show compared to other MTV reality shows is that the plot is not driven by people inexplicably making poor decisions compounded by even more poor decisions. Instead, the show is driven by the audience getting to know the dancers and really rooting for them to do well. It's a clean show in that I've seen no drinking or sex in it through four episodes, and it's encouraging to know that there are people at MTV who can put together a thoughtful show that is even a little bit enlightening.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go work on my B-Boy moves. Holla at ya boy.
Fair Dinkum
Which brings us to the topic of today's conversation: Dancelife. The show follows around a handful of dancers as they look to forward their careers by trying to land gigs in live shows or music videos. Admittedly, the show is at times a little to slick and contrived to make me believe that producers didn't step in to "guide" events a little bit, but even this little bit of alleged tampering does not take away from the fact that Dancelife does a splendid job of capturing just how hard it is to make a career dancing.
It would have been easy for MTV to roll out a show that showed all of the glamour of being a dancer with young and beautiful people partying and whatnot, but they really kept from that temptation. The people on the show come across as being real and authentic as we are able to see that they work their fannies off every single day and they all struggle with questions about whether or not they are good enough. They live check to check and, though they are some of the most talented dancers out there, get rejected more often than they.
I think what I'm most impressed with about the show compared to other MTV reality shows is that the plot is not driven by people inexplicably making poor decisions compounded by even more poor decisions. Instead, the show is driven by the audience getting to know the dancers and really rooting for them to do well. It's a clean show in that I've seen no drinking or sex in it through four episodes, and it's encouraging to know that there are people at MTV who can put together a thoughtful show that is even a little bit enlightening.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go work on my B-Boy moves. Holla at ya boy.
Fair Dinkum