“…then the reality program—produced…without union labor and
proposing the makeover (rather than state assistance) as the key to social mobility,
stability, and civic empowerment—is an important arena in which to observe the
vernacular diffusion of neoliberal common sense”- McCarthy (17)
I want to use this post to think through McCarthy’s
formulation of reality television as a “neoliberal theatre of suffering” and how
it can be applied to makeover shows like Extreme
Makeover: Home Edition (ABC 2003-2012, HGTV 2020-) (19). As McCarthy notes, ABC (and now HGTV)
actively sought out families that had experienced trauma: the victims of hate
crimes, parents whose children were killed by drunk drivers, or were struggling
to pay for care for terminally ill or disabled family members (17). The callous way the show’s family casting
coordinator spoke of the tragedies she thought would make good television in
the source McCarthy sites was especially appalling.
EM:HE makes plain
many of the points that McCarthy articulates in her article. The series makes obvious
the intense need for universal healthcare and more access to services and funds
for families with disabled individuals. Here is Season 5, Episode 2 about the Byers
family whose daughter has stage 4 cancer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEDGJ2E5Lzg
The opening five minutes of the episode details the family’s
really heart wrenching story of their daughter’s illness. As McCarthy notes, for series like EM:HE and Random 1, the subject of her analysis, people are expected to
perform personal pain to illustrate that they are worthy of a televised
makeover. The application video
submitted by the Byers family that makes up much of the opening of the episode. The clip reiterates that not only has Bowie battled cancer, but she has actively worked
to help other children cope with their own illnesses, for example emptying her
piggy bank to buy teddy bears for other children in the hospital. Especially notable in the opening clip is
Ty’s voiceover as the camera moves across the outside and inside of their home. He tells us that the family’s battle against
cancer has also had ramification on their house, stating “What used to be a
fixer-upper is now a lost cause due to medical bills.” Their house is made literally unsafe by faulty wiring and mold growing in multiple rooms.
It is clear that this family would benefit from a systematic
overhaul of our healthcare system.
However, in the opening of this episode (and in really every episode of
this series that I have seen), we see how the series relies upon a “position
based in the acceptance of the irresolvable state” (31). EM:HE exemplifies
the “neoliberal theatre of suffering” that McCarthy characterizes in her
analysis. Problems that the state should
intervene and provide solutions for are foisted onto
the goodwill of individual or corporate actors, pushing people to perform their
trauma and tragedies for a mass audience in the hope that the “benevolence” of a television network can help them.
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