Term Paper 3

 

 

Reality Television

               The first show that I will be critiquing is a Children’s Reality Show called Dance Moms. Dance Moms became an interest of mine when I keep seeing pieces of the episodes on Facebook Watch and ultimately my roommate and me discussing things about the show.

               The show Dance Moms is centered around the original seven girls: Maddie, Mackenzie, Chloe, Brooke and Paige, Nia, and Kendall at the Abby Lee Dance Studio. Though at the time I was currently on season one, again, I will be influenced to further watch from seeing the girls on all social platforms all grown up and the fact that the owner (Abby Lee) was paralyzed due having cancer. At first, I felt bad, but then watching the show on and on and seeing the other girls’ outlooks of Abby Lee and the way that she diminished their confidence and ultimately made most of the steer away from dance altogether.

               The demographics that this show has are those who have seen the dancers online bashing their horrible dance teacher and want to know more. Another demographic that the show has are those who may or may not dance but are only interested in the dance competition/ competitive aspect of the show. Then there’s me who learned about the show through Facebook clips that also is intrigued to why the teacher treated them like that and interested in the dance competitive parts.

               One good thing about the show far as who’s watching is that it is not tailored to one race by having one girl on team who was African American to which I am, and I always wanted to see her succeed more than others because I felt like she was overlooked due to her skin color and the softness at which she danced. This is something that I feel like the show failed on, though there were other girl of color that came after her but did not stay long due to the same issues and being overlooked.

           

        In my opinion, this show succeeded if it did for eight seasons, because us as viewers were watching these girls grow up online and on the television show. Before, during, and after the show, I was always super interested as to what the girls are doing now and what do they look like all grown up because I feel like I watched them elevate in their career and into womanhood.

               Like I mentioned before, I was drawn into the show from Facebook watch to which is a part of Facebook where they show clips of shows, but also skit and videos from other platforms. The producers also succeeded with promoting the show through social media by showing the girls at the dance competitions where you could literally come and watch them in person and potentially meet them, so ultimately, they helped them to produce some fans. Also, though the show has been canceled since twenty nineteen, it is talked of ultimately because of the mistreatment and favoritism of the dance teacher and the bickering that it caused between the moms.

               The next Show that I will be analyzing is a Reality Drama Show with various sub-shows called Black Ink Crew (Tattooing Show). Black Ink Crew has several subs shows like: Black Ink Crew New York, Black Ink Crew Chicago, and Black Ink Crew Compton. My favorite of the bunch would be Black in Crew Chicago.

              

               Like I mentioned before, Black in Crew Chicago is my favorite of the show franchise because it the only one of the three that I have watched from the first airing of the show till now. The character on the show Charlamagne, Don, Phor, Danielle, kat, and Van are the original cast members though only two remain due to drama, fights, and disagreements with the owner Ryan.

 

    Even though there is a lot of drama among the castmates in the show, there are still moments where they are a family, or they are excited for a celebrity client to come to get tattooed by them, or just a simple interaction doing a tattoo in general in the comfort of their own booth.

 

             

         From my observation of the show, it is mostly tailored to those who either love drama, interested in tattoos, or both. I am interested in both because I have no drama of my own, so why not watch theirs unfold, plus I have watched the characters from the beginning to now and even watched the ones who are no longer associated with the show.

 

            This show has gone on as long as it has because when one subgroup show goes off, another is ready to follow right behind it. The producers have succeeded with keeping the viewers interested by having an ongoing line up between the three shows, like how Love and Hip Hop used to be before covid.

           I originally found out about the show from watching parts of the first of the series Black Ink Crew New York and then from commercials, I saw that they would be making another but in a different location with different castmates to where I began watching.

                The producers have also succeeded in making sure that we viewers get to see that though there is a drama within each of those shows, they all often come together from their shows to either host events, settle differences, or even have a big get-together of all the castmates.

               Social Media plays its role within the show because after that season is over, that’s when all the drama online starts with the castmates throwing shade towards one another and giving their opinions on what was shown to the world. In addition, I follow all of them on various platforms to see how they’re doing and plus, most of them do some awesome tattoos and their work is phenomenal depending on who it is.

               Lastly, if I could produce my own reality program, it had something to do with the insides and outs of a college student. I wouldn’t host it here at SAU only because the demographic that I would like my show to have would be more so tailored to people that I could relate too more not in particularly the race concept, but also those who are having the same struggles that I’ve had in college. Also, the college of my choice for the show would have to be very well-known across the nation and very active in their community and on campus.