Reality TV vs TV Reality

I have been having a revival of sorts when it comes to old TV shows I used to watch.  The past month or so it has been the turn of Sex And The City.  Seeing the show evolve through six seasons makes me acutely aware of the time frame in which it was set.  Although I look back on the part of my life the show reminds me of most - my time as a senior in High School - the show itself was produced and aired over a longer time frame than that period of my life.  The show lasted six years in all, from 1998 to 2004.  My life completely changed during that time yet when I look back at the show I tend to associate more with a few fixed points and key moments, forgetting the fact that between those times much more happened.

This got me to thinking about how duration is a concept that is only relevant to us in the present and in anticipation of the future.  Beyond these two frames of reference, duration has little meaning to us when we look back at our lives.  When we rewatch old TV shows we can binge on them and watch the whole thing in one go if we really want to, it's only when we watch shows that are now airing or will soon air that we begin to associate time with them, more specifically the time between episodes and awareness of the fact that for many shows being a week between each episode, you actually have a life to live - we don't automatically extend our points of reference in the same way when we look back at old shows.

However, it is important to add, how long something lasted doesn't necessarily imply significance - perhaps that is why when things often come to an end in our lives we have a hard time finding closure because finding a balance or an emotional equilibrium depends on many other factors yet duration is the one we jump to most.  There's one little nugget of advice Charlotte York said in Sex And The City "It takes half the total time you were going out with someone to get over them" that epitomises this misdirection.  I don't believe that's true at all, I think the amount of time it takes to get over someone relies more on how much they meant to you, with duration having very little significance.  What she said however, ultimately being what the writers had penned in the script represents something I like to call "Hollywood wisdom" - thoughts, ideas, and beliefs that are presented to us through Movies and through TV shows [not necessarily produced in Hollywood of course] and try to influence our thinking, or which draw on perceived notions of popular thought, in other words what is deemed to be reality within the show itself.

The wisdom we see conveyed in TV shows is something which you would expect most people to take with a pinch of salt and actually think for themselves, contemplating the idea presented but ultimately forming their own.  That is what you would expect but I have the feeling that for most people that's not true.  Nowhere is this more evident than with reality TV where people completely buy into what they see and think because it's a reality show that it is unscripted and ultimately genuine.  That isn't strictly true though as you will find out if you read some of the auto biographies of people who have presented those shows, the reality is that everything first and foremost is cut for entertainment purposes with the aim of providing the most value to the production companies.  The likes of The Apprentice for example take contestants that will be the most entertaining, not those that would be best in business.  People fixate on the idea that only people who lack any real talent apply to be on these shows, dismissing the idea that an auditionee would or could be dismissed for being "too good" at the audition stage.

Once you are aware of the fact that everything is done for entertainment value and not for the sake of accuracy or sincerity you must then realise that the same applies to scripted TV shows.  The dialogue of characters isn't meant to sound as true to life as it can be, it's meant to be entertaining.  The more you hold this as true in your mind the more aware you become of how people talk to one another.  Even when you are a writer and you try to write natural dialogue there comes a point when you have to consider readability over reality.  To convey everything that needs to be conveyed your characters inevitably, invariably, end up talking to one another with language and detail that most people never will. 

This same deniability is true for characters on TV shows, as realistic as people like to believe they are, the more attention you pay to what they actually say the more you repeat the same thought "you wouldn't actually say that though" - the biggest flaw in on-screen dialogue however, once again, is a question of time.  If you want reactions and responses to be natural then there should be natural pauses.  Most people don't have conversations that flow effortlessly with immediate responses, even if they are completely engaged in the conversation the only time you actually respond with that immediate flow is during an argument because in those moments you let go of all reason and say the first thing that comes to mind.

All of this beggars the question, what "wisdom" have you learned from fictional characters in TV shows?  Does that wisdom stand up to scrutiny when you stop and break it down?