SubscribeThis post begins a series that will become an overanalysis of MTV's Jersey Shore. Bet you didn't expect this to be the subject of a post, let alone a few of them. Hah!
Reality TV has always had a structured approach--contests, games, tasks, etc.--that is intended to produce an emotional range in the characters and viewers. Think of shows like the Bachelor, Survivor, or Road Rules. The casts of these shows change each season, and viewers follow the show because of its variety within the format. Jersey Shore is something altogether different.
I remember the first time I watched Jersey Shore a couple of years ago. I was sick and staying with my family on a break from grad school. All I had the energy to do was watch TV (I don't own one, so this was something of a novelty). After skipping through hundreds of channels of vacuous matter, I settled on the most vacuous network of all--MTV. An episode of Jersey Shore was just beginning. I think it was a Season 1 re-run. I watched the episode in a confused haze. I couldn't understand what it was about. I was familiar with the general structural approach to reality TV, and as best I could figure, this show was an extension of The Real World. From what I remember of The Real World, the characters seemed to always have something to do--some kind of regular job or special event or something--and these mundane regularities were peppered with scenes from the house. Jersey Shore seemed to have no format, no point, no content. I couldn't understand why it was a cultural phenomenon and a successful show.
About a year later, a friend of mine confessed that Jersey Shore was a guilty pleasure, and given the quality of this person, I was taken aback and became determined to find out what Jersey Shore had to offer.
I learned that the show has some structure, that the characters stay (generally) from season to season, that it's the most minimal of reality shows, and that it's by far the best reality show out there. I've come to understand that Jersey Shore strips away as much as possible from the normal TV format so that we viewers are left with the personalities of eight people. And that, fundamentally, is what makes the show successful. Personalities are fun to watch.
Next in the series: Elisions & Edits.