Television’s Enhanced Reality

Michael Hedges January 17, 2011 Follow on Twitter

Storytelling never really goes out of fashion. All media captivates listeners, viewers and readers with a mix of reality and fantasy spun in story form. While new media seems to reinvent that form television continues to thrive on great stories and storytellers.

“Broadcasters are taking viewers on a roller coaster ride with their old favorite tricks,” notes an analysis of NOTA (New On The Air) (January 11) from Eurodata TV Worldwide and International Media Consultants Associés (IMCA). “The trivial becomes important, and this transfiguration of the commonplace is used to create overwhelming narratives.” This season’s new television offerings, in other words, are going to big places.

The mix of reality and fantasy, says NOTA, is appearing in every TV genre. The docu-drama reality series “Battle of Arnhem: Tour of Duty”, produced by UK’s Popkorn TV and broadcast on Five, placed 15 teenagers together with a group of battle re-enactors to give a history lesson and more. The two-parter was first broadcast last November. The teenagers recreated a parachute drop into the World War Two battlefield near the Dutch village of Arnhem.

Keeping with the war theme, more present day, and adding a bit of celebrity was “The Taking of Prince Harry,” which explored the potential dangers for British Royal Prince Harry’s deployment to Afghanistan.  The docu-drama portrayed Prince Harry of Wales being kidnapped – that part being pure fiction – to illustrate the dangers of current military operations in Afghanistan. It was produced by Juniper Films for Channel 4 (UK) and broadcast last October. Prior to broadcast the head of British Forces Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup asked Channel 4 to cancel the show as “upsetting for the families of people currently serving.”

Away from the war theme but controversial in its own right was the celeb-profile “Sarah Palin’s Alaska,” featuring, obviously, American politician and TV star Sarah Palin showing off favorite guns and fishing spots. The NOTA analysts categorized “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” as an “orchestrated reality experience.” The first episode was a ratings smash in the US, about 5 million viewers. Cable network TLC originally planned a second season but producer Mark Burnett gave up after the third episode attracted a fraction of the debut episode’s audience.

Celebrity always has an honored place on television. The BBC2 sitcom “Whites” truly rocked with a storyline of a celebrity chef, his delusions of grandeur and tension in the kitchen. The six episode series, written by UK comedian Matt King, debuted last September to the praise of reviewers and not-too-bad ratings.

For new media addicts the series to beat was “Addict(s),” produced for ARTE France, Mascaret Films and Pictor Média. Actually, it’s on the website arte.tv because it’s an interactive detective series. Viewers can construct their own story with the complex characters and locations, episodes written on the fly by the actors. Sometime this year the series, reportedly with a €1 million budget, will air on the ARTE channel. The series subtitle is “You love money too much.”  The main theme is the disappearance of a child; for TV addicts it’s the disappearance of any line between linear and non-linear television.

Eurodata TV Worldwide is part of French media measurement institute Médiamétrie. NOTA analysis of television trends are released quarterly.

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