Contenders Challenges the Depth of the Line Term Paper

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Contenders challenges the depth of the line between the so called reality-based survival shows and fictionalized genres. Series 7 to the greatest degree is a spoof on the idea that a game with real stakes, reputed to be stakes of life and death could truly exist within an entertainment venue. Series 7 proposes that the impact of such a situation upon the viewer can only be judged through the representative stakes of just that, life or death. The represented goal of the film is the actual violent death of opponent players in the game. The implications of such a production weigh heavily upon the viewing public and leave many questions to be answered by the phenomena of television ratings. Though the Series 7 movie is an attempt to challenge the lines between reality and fiction, in much the same way the sensational Blair Witch Project did a few years before it, this film and others like it seem to be just what the reality show viewing public is in search of next.

The Blair Witch Project was originally a low budget production of a college film crew attempting to propagate a supposed true story of a mythological banished witch in a spooky forest in Maryland. The film crew supposedly disappeared in the process of the filming, and then this information was sensationalized into a feature length film. Though the creators presumably went farther than had ever been intended the supposed true story is still believed by some and was a national sensation completely outside the scope of the old fireside ghost stories we all heard as children, in many ways the source of the idea for the project. (http://www.blairwitch.com/main.html)

In many ways Series 7 is making fun of the serious and dramatic tools used by other reality show marketing to represent the stakes as high as the viewers imagination can go. Yet the undercurrent of belief, for those who have not suspended their belief to such a degree, is that if a contestant in one of the programs actually needed immediate medical attention, due to injury, exposure or even physical exhaustion the system in place would save the person rather than allow them to die.

Series 7 goes even farther by upping the stakes and supposedly choosing contestants via a lottery, so they are simply everyday people with the self-determination to win the game and kill all of his or her opponents.

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Yet it is clear that other reality-based programs, at least the survival kinds have an extensive interview and selection process that weighs issues such as physical stamina, overall health, and even personality (of coarse to up the dramatic interplay and therefore the ratings).

Other genres of reality television, such as detective or forensic true crime, dramatizations go completely against the believability of a movie such as Series 7 in that they lead the viewer to believe that all crimes, and especially those of murder will be solved through the science and ingenuity of law enforcement.

The closely related cousin to the police show, the detective drama, depends less on action and more on character, moving in the direction of romance and fantasy where the police show stays grounded in reality. The police show is television's version of telling it like it really is, often with help from real policemen. A little like voyeurs, the audience gets to ride in the back seat of the squad car and experience firsthand the seamy side of life.

(Robards 12)

Yet, there is some evidence that the same people interested in power driven psychological thrillers, such as Series 7 also spend at least some time viewing and dissecting the reality true crime genre. Be they on the side of the crime fighter or the criminal it….....

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