Could there be a Television of the Real?
Series 7: The Contender is arguably one of the most depressing films ever made. It blends together the brutalist aesthetic of Michael Haneke, and the subject of reality television, producing as a result unremitting queasy despair. Nonetheless, it does at least succeed in making itself clear, in making clear the nature of the fundamental problem with reality television. Namely, the problem that the production design strictures of reality television imposes, upon those who choose to participate in it, this certain immutable and unchangable frame finally not subject to subversion, critique or contestation of any kind.
This was the fundamental mistake made first by Germaine Greer, and then subsequently by George Galloway, in the flirtations of each with reality television - both believed that they could détourne reality television by means of the power of their charisma alone.
They should each have read Marx a little more closely, or Guy Debord for that matter - if they had, then they would have realized that such a strategy simply could not succeed. The major point here is an obvious one - as with all modern forms of spectacular domination, power in reality television belongs to those who control the temporal interval - this is to say, the final cut. It is irrelevent how charismatic you are on camera, so long as somebody else with a hostile agenda has the power to leave all of your brilliance on a cutting room floor.
This tragic fate is ultimately that of the young lovers of Series 7 as well, who near the end of the movie finally reject the artificial war-of-all-against-all frame, and recognize their real enemy - those who have imposed this frame upon them. Joining forces, they revolt - but the last laugh belongs to Capital. They are assassinated, a whitewash is enacted, and planning for "Series 8" has already begun.
This was the fundamental mistake made first by Germaine Greer, and then subsequently by George Galloway, in the flirtations of each with reality television - both believed that they could détourne reality television by means of the power of their charisma alone.
They should each have read Marx a little more closely, or Guy Debord for that matter - if they had, then they would have realized that such a strategy simply could not succeed. The major point here is an obvious one - as with all modern forms of spectacular domination, power in reality television belongs to those who control the temporal interval - this is to say, the final cut. It is irrelevent how charismatic you are on camera, so long as somebody else with a hostile agenda has the power to leave all of your brilliance on a cutting room floor.
This tragic fate is ultimately that of the young lovers of Series 7 as well, who near the end of the movie finally reject the artificial war-of-all-against-all frame, and recognize their real enemy - those who have imposed this frame upon them. Joining forces, they revolt - but the last laugh belongs to Capital. They are assassinated, a whitewash is enacted, and planning for "Series 8" has already begun.
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