Why I typed these 17 recommendations for you with just two fingers
Dear newsletter friends,
I’m typing this using only my thumb and index finger on my right hand, because on Wednesday I had a little mishap with a hedge trimmer, and found myself in the exact same exam room at the exact same quick-care place that I was with the flu several weeks ago.
I was looking pale—more than usual—and also had to wait while someone else was getting stitches, so the nurse offered to turn on the television. I was glad to be distracted, especially from the horrifying shrieking screams of the child who was getting stitched-up first. (Poor kid!)
The nurse turned on the TV and left, and after a few commercials ended, I looked up: it was a soap opera. A soap opera! I thought reality TV killed all of those. And if ever a moment called for HGTV or Food Network, this was it. I couldn’t sit and watch fake melodrama when there was real melodrama elsewhere on cable.
So I stood up and, while trying to maintain pressure through the gauze wrapped around my finger, tried to change the channel. I could press the channel buttons but nothing changed, alas. I was distracted for a few minutes, so perhaps that was the plan all along.
I’ll spare you the other details, but I am very grateful for access to quick medical care and health insurance (well, the fact that we have for-profit companies controlling our medical care is absurd! I had to hand over my insurance card while bleeding!) But I’m grateful for the care and that this wasn’t worse.
Okay, on to the abundance of reality TV news and recommendations for you.
Survivor, Love is Blind, Lego Masters
The Love is Blind reunion came out yesterday, and the show is undeniably one of the biggest reality TV hits of the past few years. But what does that mean for a Netflix show?
And why did Love is Blind explode? I have a few theories.
I also have a few theories about a show I’m really enjoying, Lego Masters, and its worst parts: Why is Lego Masters’ judging so bad? Why do we see so little Lego building?
Meanwhile, I recapped this week’s Survivor, which made me (briefly, temporarily) love the Edge of Extinction. Thanks, Ethan!
I also wrote about Why Sandra sitting out back-to-back Survivor challenges is allowed—and while she tied the record for challenge sit-outs this week, there’s some surprising details in the data.
News and reviews
The big news of the week: The Bachelor franchise is making a big change with its Bachelorette casting. And it’s a welcome change!
The Masked Singer revealed its latest celebrity and totally wrecked the standard I use to exclude people.
I reviewed Netflix’s Restaurants on the Edge.
I also have other recommendations for you: a podcast, a parody, and more.
Next week, I’ll review Food Network’s new Tournament of Champions, but after one episode and three rounds of competition, I can enthusiastically recommend it.
I’m not sure if I’ll review it, but one of this week’s premieres is Hulu’s Hillary, on which Hillary Clinton talks more candidly than I’ve ever heard before. Do yourself a favor and at least watch the quick title sequence, which is pretty awesome.
Also, I want more shows to have title sequences and opening credits! I’m a child of the ‘80s so I can’t help myself.
Recommended reading
How The Bachelor played itself (Buzzfeed)
How HGTV Maintains Its Grip on Comfort Television by Constantly Evolving (Variety)
Cable networks are swinging back toward reality TV and abandoning expensive and not-exactly-blockbuster scripted series. (Hollywood Reporter)
In related news, here are two stories about Netflix’s reality TV:
Inside Netflix’s Reality-TV Invasion (The Daily Beast)
Harvey Weinstein Is Going to Prison. But That’s Just a Starting Point. A great essay by Manohla Dargis about how “sexism is both systemic and symptomatic of the industry’s history of acting as if it is above the law.” (New York Times)
One final story
Phew! If that wasn’t enough, I also published my quarterly guide: Here’s your spring 2020 reality TV premiere schedule, which I will keep updating during the next three months.
I hope you have a terrific Friday and weekend, and hope you are very, very careful if you do any yard work.
best,
Andy
🌄 This is Reality in Focus issue 184, first sent 6 March 2020, and it’s hoping to be typed by all 10 fingers next week.
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