I've never been a real big fan of so-called reality television shows.
Programs like Survivor don't seem all that based in reality to me.
Well, unless most people who get stranded on a desert island really do spend their time competing against each other in fun, wacky races and voting people they don't like off the isle instead of - you know - trying to get rescued or find food and shelter.
In most reality shows, the people on the screen are only there because they want to win money and of course get their mugs on television so they can write a diet book or be one of the "stars" on Dancing with the Stars.
It's fake people conniving, manipulating and generally being duplicitous and nasty to other fake people - or people with too many kids.
You never see what really goes on during a particular week either, only the hour-long highlights that producers have edited and stuck together for your salacious viewing enjoyment.
Even shows like Jersey Shore or Kate Plus 8 that are supposed to show the sordid lives of people are full of set ups and liberal editing, making these programs as scripted and about as "real" as a sitcom or CSI Miami.
If I'm going to watch something that purports to be "reality" then I want something akin to the Jim Carey movie The Truman Show.
One of my all-time favourites, The Truman Show is about an average Joe whose life is broadcast (unknowingly to him) 24/7 for the rest of the world to see.
Seth Green, creator of television's Robot Chicken (as well as a voice on Family Guy), has done just that in the form of ControlTV, a new Web series that adds a bit of innovative interaction to the reality show format.
ControlTV (found at controltv.com) documents 20-something Tristan Couvares as his life is streamed live 18 hours a day for six weeks (we're about two weeks in now). The fun part is viewers get to vote and make decisions for him, from how he gets awoken in the morning to what he eats for breakfast, who he dates and what he wears - all in real time.
It's hard to say if the show is really about Couvares or how sadistic and unkind the community of viewers and voters can be.
But so far the choices have been pretty benign - I voted on the first morning to wake him up with a Mariachi band instead of a wake-up call - if not amusing.
I don't know how many of us would allow a whole slew of people to decide what we eat, what we wear and what we do during a given day - well, except if you were in the military.
But it is an interesting concept, although not always an interesting viewing choice.
As ControlTV is broadcast live 18 hours a day, we get to see Couvares engaged in such scintillating activities as sitting for hours in front of his computer checking emails, reading a book, or playing with his cell phone.
Of course, watching Couvares' life unfiltered is still much more preferable to the scripted and overly edited highlights that typify the rest of the genre.
Then again, you'd get the same approximate experience by going to a bus stop and watching random strangers, although you couldn't vote on what they do during the day and you might get labeled as "creepy" or possibly get arrested for stalking.
Now that's reality.
