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Has what the reality game-show genre requires but is also an interesting and awareness-raising show about being environmentally aware
A group of ordinary people sign up with Channel 4 to take part in an eco-challenge reality show they have mixed hopes for what it will involve. Some of the group are dedicated environmentalists while others are in it for the money or exposure that television will give them. Nobody knows where they are going but there is the hope that they will be some sort of survival task on a tropical island or something. Nobody really expected to be dropped onto a landfill dump made up of household and commercial rubbish and told to make the best of it for three weeks.
Although I'm not really a fan of reality television, this show did appeal to me because, as part of my role is to supervise the management of wastes generated from a large factory I am all too aware of how much rubbish gets thrown away and how much of it is of value. Obviously I cannot name my employers but they are not an exception parts of my office have come out of skips along with tools, not to mention the coppers and such that get dumped. Anyway, the show itself is a household waste collection, in that it is a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand it is educational and eye-opening for those who just see rubbish as something of no value or importance that can be just made to go away (and unfortunately many of my bosses are in this group) but on the other hand it is still a reality television with infighting and personal tensions keeping it lively.
For those that genuinely hate reality TV then I suspect there won't be enough to make you watch. However this is a more worthy version of Big Brother and might be the sort of reality TV that it is "OK" to watch. Environmentalists will find pleasure in watching recycling and carbon footprints being laid out so graphically. OK, there are collection and segregation issues but it is hard to argue with the money they make from simply segregating out copper etc from mixed waste. Expert Rob guides them through the weeks, providing information, education and challenges to demonstrate the scale of the problem (eg sorting through the 1000 mobile phones that get thrown away every 30 minutes in the UK).
For those looking to watch it for a reality show then there is still plenty of what this genre requires in the contestants. Some are fairly normal and provide the base of the show. Ian is a marine engineer and a really good rock to the group. Likewise Jason, a metals salesman is a sturdy bloke. Below these we have a few minor characters such as Selina, a woman so eco that she lives on a boat and has no hot running water in her life; Jarvis, a bit of a indie dude in his thirties and Silvia is a young PR girl who works in the eco-tourism sector. Sound boring? Well, you haven't met the others. Sasha is a model who goes from horror to enthusiasm in a pleasing way. Aaron is every camp cliché you can imagine rammed into a frame that makes Kenneth Williams look like a Navy SEAL; he himself declares he is "bone b*stard idle". Christine is also a bit of a cliché a middle-aged, middle-class American artist, cooing over her art and earthy sentiment. All of them stand in the shadow of the wonderfully arrogant and unaware semi-pro footballer who picks fights with everyone and seems completely unable to see that he might be in the wrong in any situation. He starts quite a few fights, although it is telling that people like Ian and Jason generally just look on in tired disbelief.
Overall then, this is a reality TV show that does deliver the fighting and tensions between "ordinary" people that fans of the genre would expect. However it does have more value than that because it does serve as a good educational and awareness-raising tool at the same time and has enough about it to appeal to those who would be put off by it being just another reality show with exhibitionists shrieking at one another.
Although I'm not really a fan of reality television, this show did appeal to me because, as part of my role is to supervise the management of wastes generated from a large factory I am all too aware of how much rubbish gets thrown away and how much of it is of value. Obviously I cannot name my employers but they are not an exception parts of my office have come out of skips along with tools, not to mention the coppers and such that get dumped. Anyway, the show itself is a household waste collection, in that it is a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand it is educational and eye-opening for those who just see rubbish as something of no value or importance that can be just made to go away (and unfortunately many of my bosses are in this group) but on the other hand it is still a reality television with infighting and personal tensions keeping it lively.
For those that genuinely hate reality TV then I suspect there won't be enough to make you watch. However this is a more worthy version of Big Brother and might be the sort of reality TV that it is "OK" to watch. Environmentalists will find pleasure in watching recycling and carbon footprints being laid out so graphically. OK, there are collection and segregation issues but it is hard to argue with the money they make from simply segregating out copper etc from mixed waste. Expert Rob guides them through the weeks, providing information, education and challenges to demonstrate the scale of the problem (eg sorting through the 1000 mobile phones that get thrown away every 30 minutes in the UK).
For those looking to watch it for a reality show then there is still plenty of what this genre requires in the contestants. Some are fairly normal and provide the base of the show. Ian is a marine engineer and a really good rock to the group. Likewise Jason, a metals salesman is a sturdy bloke. Below these we have a few minor characters such as Selina, a woman so eco that she lives on a boat and has no hot running water in her life; Jarvis, a bit of a indie dude in his thirties and Silvia is a young PR girl who works in the eco-tourism sector. Sound boring? Well, you haven't met the others. Sasha is a model who goes from horror to enthusiasm in a pleasing way. Aaron is every camp cliché you can imagine rammed into a frame that makes Kenneth Williams look like a Navy SEAL; he himself declares he is "bone b*stard idle". Christine is also a bit of a cliché a middle-aged, middle-class American artist, cooing over her art and earthy sentiment. All of them stand in the shadow of the wonderfully arrogant and unaware semi-pro footballer who picks fights with everyone and seems completely unable to see that he might be in the wrong in any situation. He starts quite a few fights, although it is telling that people like Ian and Jason generally just look on in tired disbelief.
Overall then, this is a reality TV show that does deliver the fighting and tensions between "ordinary" people that fans of the genre would expect. However it does have more value than that because it does serve as a good educational and awareness-raising tool at the same time and has enough about it to appeal to those who would be put off by it being just another reality show with exhibitionists shrieking at one another.
helpful•11
- bob the moo
- Oct 28, 2007
Details
- Runtime1 hour
- Color
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