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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13969994\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1372px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13969994\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/perfect-home.png\" alt=\"A book cover illustration depicts a grand house shown on a TV screen and painted in luminous colors.\" width=\"1372\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/perfect-home.png 1372w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/perfect-home-800x1166.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/perfect-home-1020x1487.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/perfect-home-160x233.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/perfect-home-768x1120.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/perfect-home-1054x1536.png 1054w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1372px) 100vw, 1372px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The Perfect Home’ by Daniel Kenitz. \u003ccite>(Blackstone Publishing, Inc.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Dawn and Wyatt Decker are a reality TV couple renovating homes on-screen and dealing with fertility problems off-screen. Their story and their marriage seem like a foregone conclusion, but only a few chapters in, a sharp twist turns this unassuming world of domesticity upside-down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Daniel Kenitz’s debut novel is a cleverly paced domestic thriller named for the protagonists’ TV show, \u003cem>The Perfect Home\u003c/em>. The story shifts between the husband and wife, taking turns with the narration building up sympathy for both characters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13969287']Dawn has the role of the nagging wife. If a stranger recognizes her on the street, they’re liable to send a backhanded compliment Dawn’s way and then expect an apology from her. Wyatt, on the other hand, is the stunningly handsome, joke-cracking, all-American husband who only has to flash his charming smile to subdue an upset fan. But it’s an emasculating revelation that his low sperm count is behind the couple’s lack of offspring, and he has an image to uphold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These first few chapters are easy enough; a silky-smooth journey through character introductions and early plot developments. Dawn and Wyatt have small tiffs but manage to get pregnant. They trade inside jokes and Tennessee lore. Their story is predictable, comfortable and perfect for lulling you into a sense of security so you never see what’s coming next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, a shocking discovery has Dawn taking their newborn twins on the run. Suddenly, all the trappings of their perfect home and life seem like traps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dawn and Wyatt soon become entrenched in a game of public relations chess where both of their lives and the things they hold most dear are at stake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kenitz carefully aligns the pieces so the odds are stacked almost insurmountably. It’s going to take something really big to overcome the sheer cliff-face that is reality TV and how it shaped the country’s perception of Dawn, from the hotel clerk to the local police chief.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13969449']You could easily devour \u003cem>The Perfect Home\u003c/em> in one sitting if it wasn’t so nerve-jangling that you have to put it down to regain your composure. This book had me shocked, despondent and furious in turns, and I loved it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kenitz crafts a terrifying modern-day villain. And he’s refined exactly what makes domestic thrillers so gut-roiling: They turn the places and people that should be safest — home and family — into something to be avoided at all costs. Kenitz turns the perfect home into a nightmare with proficiency and horrifying pizzazz.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960318\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 810px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960318\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/untitled-design-74.jpeg\" alt=\"A book cover showing a family gathered around a pool being filmed by TV cameras. \" width=\"810\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/untitled-design-74.jpeg 810w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/untitled-design-74-800x1067.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/untitled-design-74-160x213.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/untitled-design-74-768x1024.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 810px) 100vw, 810px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV’ by Emily Nussbaum. \u003ccite>(Random House)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Pulitzer Prize-winning \u003cem>New Yorker\u003c/em> critic Emily Nussbaum first conceived her sweeping chronicle of the rise of reality TV in 2003 — shortly after the debut of \u003cem>The Bachelor \u003c/em>and three years into \u003cem>Survivor\u003c/em>. But back then the reception from fellow writers was as icy as public attitudes towards the genre. “You better write that one fast,” she recalls a friend warning her. “Reality television was a fad … a bubble that would pop before I could get anything on the page.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Twenty years later, Nussbaum’s \u003cem>Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV\u003c/em> is a near definitive history of the genre that forever changed American entertainment. The book’s 20-year journey to publication is a tiny mirror of its subject’s rise to the center of American culture. As Nussbaum shows, “Critics had written off reality programming as a fad back in the 1940s, when mouthy civilians first shook up the economics of radio; and in the 1970s, during the flareups over \u003cem>An American Family \u003c/em>and \u003cem>The Gong Show\u003c/em>; and then again in the 1990s, when Fox and MTV set out to disrupt the major networks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13960267']The dismissive pattern continued for decades — and critics were wrong every time. The much maligned reality genre has “always been a trap” for someone in Nussbaum’s profession — as a critic you would either “clutch your pearls,” failing to “see the fun in it” or succumb to the temptation to “treat reality too lightly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across 14 chapters, Nussbaum successfully walks a tightrope. Avoiding censure and trivialization, her narrative keenly captures the reality genre “through the voices of the people who built it” — “step by step, experiment by experiment” in riveting, energetic detail. Determined to see it as the makers and audiences did, and to translate the genre’s diversity, appeal and significance to the page, Nussbaum conducted interviews with a staggering 300 people who worked in every conceivable capacity — from network executives to show creators to crafts people and cast members — on some of the most important reality shows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From these interviews, Nussbaum fashions a compelling oral history, transforming the scattered highs, lows, and tipping points of a genre constantly in flux into a cohesive exploration of the invention, evolution and importance of the modern reality show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As juicy and provocative as it is analytical, \u003cem>Cue the Sun!\u003c/em> exposes the seamy underbelly of reality TV where that’s needed but also corrects unduly negative, and unfounded, assumptions. For example, on the motivations of the people who become the casts of these shows, Nussbaum concludes: “For many people, doing this kind of television wasn’t a naïve misstep at all — it was a conscious choice to participate in an extreme sport, one whose risks they embraced.” This insight emerges as a common theme across most of these chapters in the voices of wildly diverse on-screen participants — across programs as disparate as the 1970s \u003cem>An American Family\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire\u003c/em>, and \u003cem>Survivor\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While many critics have painted reality TV in broad strokes, Nussbaum captures fascinating complexity and nuance. Perhaps the most poignant chapter focuses on PBS’s pioneering precursor to modern reality programming. The tip of the spear in an emerging genre dubbed the “dirty documentary,” in a single season \u003cem>An American Family\u003c/em> exploded the traditional nuclear ideal through California’s prosperous Loud family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13959693']Putting a microscope to five teenage kids and two parents at odds, for seven months, the show delivered a microcosm of America’s rapid cultural shifts as the Louds navigated infidelity, a son’s sexuality, and divorce. While the filmmakers played it straight, according to Nussbaum, the Louds felt stung by the 24/7 cameras and scathing public reaction. It was a startling precursor of what was to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Decades later, with the possible exception of a \u003cem>Dating Game\u003c/em> contestant who turned out to be a serial killer, perhaps no episode is as jaw-dropping as the story of \u003cem>Survivor\u003c/em>. Nussbaum’s storytelling reaches the height of its powers in a blow by blow of \u003cem>Survivor\u003c/em> season one that will give you the creepy crawlies: fleas under the skin, snakes on the belly, parasites in the intestines. But it’s hard to figure what’s more treacherous, the wildlife or the humans committed to making compelling TV at any cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the book’s strengths, at crucial times the accounts of insiders prove insufficient; context and a critical counterpoint are needed. But in its commitment to handing the mic to the makers, the book eschews outside perspectives. There are exceptions: With \u003cem>An American Family,\u003c/em> we gain insight into the challenge of being gay man on TV in the ’70s through snippets of contemporaneous media and viewer letters. The book also nods to criticism of \u003cem>Queer Eye for the Straight Guy \u003c/em>from the gay community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when it comes to the situation with \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/02/20/1232527337/tv-critics-association-bachelor\">race on \u003cem>The Bachelor\u003c/em> franchise\u003c/a>, \u003cem>Cue The Sun!\u003c/em> is noticeably quiet. It acknowledges that creator Mike Fleiss stepped down after an internal investigation into allegations of racial discrimination led to a “racial reckoning.” And Nussbaum spoke to one of the two Black contestants from \u003cem>The Bachelor\u003c/em>‘s first season, LaNease Adams. Following her stint on\u003cem> The Bachelor,\u003c/em> Adams buckled under relentless public scrutiny and racist online attacks, with mental health concerns \u003ca href=\"https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/a33075184/bachelor-alex-michel-lanease-adams-depression/\">eventually sending her to the hospital\u003c/a>. Still, she blames herself for being “naive about racism” and defends the show’s treatment and handling of race. Adams’ comments are fascinating, but not exactly illuminating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13959550']Nussbaum declines to explore the perspectives of Black critics and viewers. Given that \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/02/21/969943721/in-a-season-highlighting-diversity-the-bachelor-lands-in-controversy-around-race\">\u003cem>The Bachelor’\u003c/em>s racial conflicts were legion\u003c/a>, and Black women are both a vibrant part of the audience and of the critical community, that seems an odd choice. In a complex chapter with plenty of controversy about gender, ethics, and exploitation, maybe there wasn’t room, but it still reads like something is missing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite that blind spot, overall \u003cem>Cue the Sun!\u003c/em> is both entertaining and enlightening — full of eye-popping insight and rollicking prose. An enthusiast herself, Nussbaum makes even a reality-show-skeptic understand the appeal. She describes \u003cem>The Bachelor\u003c/em> as “a schmaltzy, sexist carnival that doubled, for viewers, as a swoony stunt, the Evel Knievel canyon leap of matrimony.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And she writes just as vividly about how \u003cem>Queer Eye\u003c/em> led to the reinvention and precipitous rise of the Bravo network as executive Lauren Zalaznick “gentrified the sketchy neighborhood of reality programming, with all those basic bachelorettes and bug-eating contests,” transforming it into a “glimmering Tribeca of the mind.” There are dueling interpretations of how this new Bravo emerged from the invention of \u003cem>Queer Eye. \u003c/em>But the brilliance of the show, as Nussbaum smartly highlights, is that it was — in the words of \u003cem>Queer Eye \u003c/em>Director of Photography Michael Pearlman — “a pleasant change of pace: a reality show that was all about empowerment, rather than humiliation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bravo’s successes might be the ultimate symbol of a sunnier story about the genre that upended television. But Nussbaum ends in a darker place, explaining how the genre remade American politics by reinventing Donald Trump on \u003cem>The Apprentice\u003c/em>. Love it or hate it, that titillating and consequential tale is the writer’s mic drop to a virtuoso performance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A slow runner and fast reader, Carole V. Bell is a cultural critic and communication scholar focusing on media, politics and identity. You can find her on Twitter \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/bellcv\">@BellCV\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960318\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 810px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960318\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/untitled-design-74.jpeg\" alt=\"A book cover showing a family gathered around a pool being filmed by TV cameras. \" width=\"810\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/untitled-design-74.jpeg 810w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/untitled-design-74-800x1067.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/untitled-design-74-160x213.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/untitled-design-74-768x1024.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 810px) 100vw, 810px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV’ by Emily Nussbaum. \u003ccite>(Random House)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Pulitzer Prize-winning \u003cem>New Yorker\u003c/em> critic Emily Nussbaum first conceived her sweeping chronicle of the rise of reality TV in 2003 — shortly after the debut of \u003cem>The Bachelor \u003c/em>and three years into \u003cem>Survivor\u003c/em>. But back then the reception from fellow writers was as icy as public attitudes towards the genre. “You better write that one fast,” she recalls a friend warning her. “Reality television was a fad … a bubble that would pop before I could get anything on the page.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Twenty years later, Nussbaum’s \u003cem>Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV\u003c/em> is a near definitive history of the genre that forever changed American entertainment. The book’s 20-year journey to publication is a tiny mirror of its subject’s rise to the center of American culture. As Nussbaum shows, “Critics had written off reality programming as a fad back in the 1940s, when mouthy civilians first shook up the economics of radio; and in the 1970s, during the flareups over \u003cem>An American Family \u003c/em>and \u003cem>The Gong Show\u003c/em>; and then again in the 1990s, when Fox and MTV set out to disrupt the major networks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The dismissive pattern continued for decades — and critics were wrong every time. The much maligned reality genre has “always been a trap” for someone in Nussbaum’s profession — as a critic you would either “clutch your pearls,” failing to “see the fun in it” or succumb to the temptation to “treat reality too lightly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across 14 chapters, Nussbaum successfully walks a tightrope. Avoiding censure and trivialization, her narrative keenly captures the reality genre “through the voices of the people who built it” — “step by step, experiment by experiment” in riveting, energetic detail. Determined to see it as the makers and audiences did, and to translate the genre’s diversity, appeal and significance to the page, Nussbaum conducted interviews with a staggering 300 people who worked in every conceivable capacity — from network executives to show creators to crafts people and cast members — on some of the most important reality shows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From these interviews, Nussbaum fashions a compelling oral history, transforming the scattered highs, lows, and tipping points of a genre constantly in flux into a cohesive exploration of the invention, evolution and importance of the modern reality show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As juicy and provocative as it is analytical, \u003cem>Cue the Sun!\u003c/em> exposes the seamy underbelly of reality TV where that’s needed but also corrects unduly negative, and unfounded, assumptions. For example, on the motivations of the people who become the casts of these shows, Nussbaum concludes: “For many people, doing this kind of television wasn’t a naïve misstep at all — it was a conscious choice to participate in an extreme sport, one whose risks they embraced.” This insight emerges as a common theme across most of these chapters in the voices of wildly diverse on-screen participants — across programs as disparate as the 1970s \u003cem>An American Family\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire\u003c/em>, and \u003cem>Survivor\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While many critics have painted reality TV in broad strokes, Nussbaum captures fascinating complexity and nuance. Perhaps the most poignant chapter focuses on PBS’s pioneering precursor to modern reality programming. The tip of the spear in an emerging genre dubbed the “dirty documentary,” in a single season \u003cem>An American Family\u003c/em> exploded the traditional nuclear ideal through California’s prosperous Loud family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Putting a microscope to five teenage kids and two parents at odds, for seven months, the show delivered a microcosm of America’s rapid cultural shifts as the Louds navigated infidelity, a son’s sexuality, and divorce. While the filmmakers played it straight, according to Nussbaum, the Louds felt stung by the 24/7 cameras and scathing public reaction. It was a startling precursor of what was to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Decades later, with the possible exception of a \u003cem>Dating Game\u003c/em> contestant who turned out to be a serial killer, perhaps no episode is as jaw-dropping as the story of \u003cem>Survivor\u003c/em>. Nussbaum’s storytelling reaches the height of its powers in a blow by blow of \u003cem>Survivor\u003c/em> season one that will give you the creepy crawlies: fleas under the skin, snakes on the belly, parasites in the intestines. But it’s hard to figure what’s more treacherous, the wildlife or the humans committed to making compelling TV at any cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the book’s strengths, at crucial times the accounts of insiders prove insufficient; context and a critical counterpoint are needed. But in its commitment to handing the mic to the makers, the book eschews outside perspectives. There are exceptions: With \u003cem>An American Family,\u003c/em> we gain insight into the challenge of being gay man on TV in the ’70s through snippets of contemporaneous media and viewer letters. The book also nods to criticism of \u003cem>Queer Eye for the Straight Guy \u003c/em>from the gay community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when it comes to the situation with \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/02/20/1232527337/tv-critics-association-bachelor\">race on \u003cem>The Bachelor\u003c/em> franchise\u003c/a>, \u003cem>Cue The Sun!\u003c/em> is noticeably quiet. It acknowledges that creator Mike Fleiss stepped down after an internal investigation into allegations of racial discrimination led to a “racial reckoning.” And Nussbaum spoke to one of the two Black contestants from \u003cem>The Bachelor\u003c/em>‘s first season, LaNease Adams. Following her stint on\u003cem> The Bachelor,\u003c/em> Adams buckled under relentless public scrutiny and racist online attacks, with mental health concerns \u003ca href=\"https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/a33075184/bachelor-alex-michel-lanease-adams-depression/\">eventually sending her to the hospital\u003c/a>. Still, she blames herself for being “naive about racism” and defends the show’s treatment and handling of race. Adams’ comments are fascinating, but not exactly illuminating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Nussbaum declines to explore the perspectives of Black critics and viewers. Given that \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/02/21/969943721/in-a-season-highlighting-diversity-the-bachelor-lands-in-controversy-around-race\">\u003cem>The Bachelor’\u003c/em>s racial conflicts were legion\u003c/a>, and Black women are both a vibrant part of the audience and of the critical community, that seems an odd choice. In a complex chapter with plenty of controversy about gender, ethics, and exploitation, maybe there wasn’t room, but it still reads like something is missing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite that blind spot, overall \u003cem>Cue the Sun!\u003c/em> is both entertaining and enlightening — full of eye-popping insight and rollicking prose. An enthusiast herself, Nussbaum makes even a reality-show-skeptic understand the appeal. She describes \u003cem>The Bachelor\u003c/em> as “a schmaltzy, sexist carnival that doubled, for viewers, as a swoony stunt, the Evel Knievel canyon leap of matrimony.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And she writes just as vividly about how \u003cem>Queer Eye\u003c/em> led to the reinvention and precipitous rise of the Bravo network as executive Lauren Zalaznick “gentrified the sketchy neighborhood of reality programming, with all those basic bachelorettes and bug-eating contests,” transforming it into a “glimmering Tribeca of the mind.” There are dueling interpretations of how this new Bravo emerged from the invention of \u003cem>Queer Eye. \u003c/em>But the brilliance of the show, as Nussbaum smartly highlights, is that it was — in the words of \u003cem>Queer Eye \u003c/em>Director of Photography Michael Pearlman — “a pleasant change of pace: a reality show that was all about empowerment, rather than humiliation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bravo’s successes might be the ultimate symbol of a sunnier story about the genre that upended television. But Nussbaum ends in a darker place, explaining how the genre remade American politics by reinventing Donald Trump on \u003cem>The Apprentice\u003c/em>. Love it or hate it, that titillating and consequential tale is the writer’s mic drop to a virtuoso performance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A slow runner and fast reader, Carole V. Bell is a cultural critic and communication scholar focusing on media, politics and identity. You can find her on Twitter \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/bellcv\">@BellCV\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "In Pursuit of Radical Honesty, ‘Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show’ Delivers Ambiguity",
"headTitle": "In Pursuit of Radical Honesty, ‘Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show’ Delivers Ambiguity | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Peruse any online thread discussing \u003cem>Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show\u003c/em>, the disquieting HBO series created by and starring the titular comedian and filmmaker, and colorful descriptors like “pretentious,” “mega narcissist,” and “self-righteous piece of [\u003cem>redacted\u003c/em>]” are bound to appear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This show seems kinda invasive,” one observer noted\u003ca href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/JerrodCarmichael/comments/1brcpr5/jerrod_carmichael_reality_show_kinda_weird_to/\"> on Reddit\u003c/a>. “… I’m not sure what the obsession is with public humiliation … About a year ago, I was very much a fan of his honesty and what seemed to be [a] down to earth personality but it looks like it’s morphed into the narcissistic cry for help.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carmichael earned a lot of good will from his 2022 breakout standup special\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/04/11/1091748272/jerrod-carmichael-rothaniel-standup-special-hbo-comes-out\"> Rothaniel\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, in which he — among other things — came out publicly as gay and processed his mom Cynthia’s devout homophobia. It launched him into the “mainstream”; that is, a stratosphere where one wins prestigious awards, guest hosts \u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em>, and makes headlines for\u003ca href=\"https://variety.com/2024/film/news/jerrod-carmichael-regrets-dave-chappelle-criticism-trans-jokes-1235974314/\"> easily agitating\u003c/a> the ever-crotchety elder statesman Dave Chappelle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13957959']He was easy to root for because he treated the performance like a therapist’s couch, a safe space where he could break through the silence that encourages shame and deceit. It was different from, but in the lineage of,\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUUCnt0Jexg\"> Richard Pryor’s recounting of his own drug addiction\u003c/a> in \u003cem>Live on the Sunset Strip\u003c/em> — confessional, blunt, and refreshingly relatable to those who’ve shared a similar experience, delivered in the way only a gifted and self-aware comedian can.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But \u003cem>Reality Show \u003c/em>practices an entirely different mode of candor. On camera, Carmichael cheats on his boyfriend Mike and later lies about it during their couples therapy session. He misses a friend’s wedding because he makes a pit stop to get a hot dog along the way. (He was supposed to be the best man.) He goads his parents Joe and Cynthia into having raw, painful discussions about their once-private lives and tightly held beliefs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of this is done in service of what he sees as a greater good: radical honesty, which he in turn hopes will lead to stronger bonds with his loved ones. Yet for some, the show has morphed the perception of him from that of an artist valiantly speaking the truth to an exhaustingly selfish crusader for a very specific truth — his own. And whether or not he succeeds at repairing his fractured relationships is only partially answered by \u003cem>Reality Show\u003c/em>‘s finale, which aired Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5Jly91mvGA\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Reality Show\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003cstrong> stands apart\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>If \u003cem>Rothaniel \u003c/em>was presented as catharsis, \u003cem>Reality Show \u003c/em>arguably functions as exploitation. It’s one thing to process grief, pain, and pathos through your art; it’s utterly baffling to directly involve the sources of that pathos in your artistic process, particularly when they seem formidably resistant to even acknowledging themselves as the source.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This isn’t the first time. In 2019, Carmichael released two HBO documentary specials that also featured him in conversation with his family, \u003cem>Home Videos \u003c/em>and \u003cem>Sermon on the Mount. Home Videos \u003c/em>is where he first tested the waters to see how his mom would react to him coming out to her. On camera, he offhandedly dropped in an admission that he’s hooked up with men but stopped short at identifying as gay. Cynthia barely acknowledged the unexpected disclosure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Carmichael told Dave Holmes for\u003ca href=\"https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a60341676/jerrod-carmichael-reality-show-profile-2024/\"> \u003cem>Esquire\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, the silence from his parents after coming out is what pushed him to create \u003cem>Reality Show \u003c/em>in the first place: “The lack of acknowledgment is what made me go, ‘Okay, I’ll turn the volume up.’ How do I make it as extreme as possible? It’s testing the limits of their cognitive dissonance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The extremities make up a strange gumbo: One-part old-school docu-style reality TV (in a different era, this could’ve been \u003cem>True Life\u003c/em>: “My Mom’s a Homophobe”); a dash of trashy celeb-reality (think \u003cem>Being Bobby Brown\u003c/em> or \u003cem>Britney & Kevin: Chaotic\u003c/em>); and another part self-referential prestige experiment (Sarah Polley’s \u003cem>Stories We Tell\u003c/em> or \u003cem>How To with John Wilson\u003c/em>).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13957624']For all its cross-cultural parallels, though, \u003cem>Reality Show \u003c/em>stands apart. To his credit, while he has near-total creative control as the creator, co-executive producer, and star, he’s willing to show himself being challenged by his own cognitive dissonance. Within the first few minutes of \u003cem>Reality Show\u003c/em>, he makes his MO plain: “Cameras make me feel more comfortable, I like this — it seems permanent, and it feels really dumb to lie.” And yet, we later watch him lie on camera about being monogamous during a couples therapy session with Mike, proving he struggles to adhere to his own ethos, at least at first. (As the season carries on, he and Mike try out non-monogamy together, and seem to find that it works for them.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reality TV genre feeds heartily upon the judgmental instincts of its viewers. It needs audiences to engage with it as gossip fodder and opinion-generator, encouraging those who tune in for the “real”-ish drama to scoff at the foolish personalities, cheer on the likable heroes, and boo the flamboyant antagonists. Carmichael clearly understands the format — unscripted in theory, though manipulated and edited to make the “real” fit more neatly into a dramatic arc — and bends it to his will. And while the crudest entries in the reality genre tend to bring up social issues and prejudices either unintentionally or superficially, with \u003cem>Reality Show\u003c/em>, Carmichael chooses to purposefully expose the issues in the name of raw, unfiltered honesty.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>“I think this will be good for you”\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In the mid-2010s, he co-created and starred in the loosely autobiographical network sitcom \u003cem>The Carmichael Show\u003c/em>. Far more subversive than its multi-camera, live studio audience format let on, it positioned him as a nihilistic provocateur who revels in frank, multi-generational conversations on an assortment of hot-button issues with his fictional family: abortion, assisted suicide, mass shootings, depression. (It’s frequently, and aptly, been referred to as a modern-day \u003cem>All in the Family\u003c/em>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Season 2 episode focuses on Jerrod’s dad Joe (David Alan Grier) as he prepares to deliver a eulogy for his own father, who was abusive and abandoned the family long ago. Jerrod doesn’t understand why Joe would want to honor him — “Am I the only one who remembers what a deadbeat that man was?” — but Joe feels bound by the tradition of never speaking ill of the dead. Jerrod counters that if Joe is going to give the eulogy, he should at least tell the truth about who the man was: “I think it will be good for you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAM0GQW-Q04&t=3s\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video\">\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That line could’ve been the tagline for \u003cem>Reality Show\u003c/em>, which finds Carmichael butting up against the people in his life — many of them older — who bristle at his desire to revisit painful memories from the past. In the fourth episode, Jerrod attempts to have a straightforward conversation with his real dad Joe, and pelts him with a rapid-fire series of questions about the double life Joe led for years, which included having a secret second family with another woman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Would you say you loved [the other woman]? Or was it just like, sexual, or was it — ’cause it was a long time, what – like, 40 years of a relationship? Was it hard every time? Did you feel like a bad person?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13956944']Joe, clearly uncomfortable, begins to shut down and insist that the past is the past, but Jerrod keeps pressing him. Joe snaps back: “Why are you digging into this so deep, son?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>I think it will be good for you\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Is this gonna be on your special?” Joe wearily asks. “This is hard for me to discuss on cameras.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doing this in front of cameras is the only way Carmichael, a late-30s millennial who came of age in the early years of oversharing — \u003cem>The Real World\u003c/em>, blogging, Facebook — knows how to have (or force, really) these conversations. It’s telling that, spliced throughout some of the episodes, \u003cem>Reality Show \u003c/em>includes footage from the Carmichael family’s home videos going back decades, some of which Jerrod himself shot as a kid with a camcorder. The grainy images root the present-day points of conflict firmly in an “authentic” past, suggesting that this project was predestined, something this artist has unintentionally been working toward for decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Your option is \u003cem>no\u003c/em> option,” Jerrod snaps back at Joe around that campfire, “so don’t criticize the way I do it. If the cameras help me, then they f—— help. But your way is nothing\u003cstrong>, \u003c/strong>your way is silence\u003cstrong>, \u003c/strong>your way is death.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eventually, Joe is tapped out. “You’ve expressed yourself … can I go home?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The camera gives Jerrod courage, a security blanket to wear while attempting to address the distance between him and Joe, yet it’s not yielding the results he’s looking for. It’s hard not to wonder if the cameras are actually hindering him in the long run, keeping him stuck on the false hope that others around him — who have thus far only proven rigid in their stances — might open up to him the way he wants them to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958132\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1789px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958132\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/jerrod-carmichael_custom-67d8224a2611e29d2511ebe6abc728591a1f07f7.jpg\" alt=\"Close up on a young Black man's face and shoulders. He is glancing downwards and smiling.\" width=\"1789\" height=\"1078\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/jerrod-carmichael_custom-67d8224a2611e29d2511ebe6abc728591a1f07f7.jpg 1789w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/jerrod-carmichael_custom-67d8224a2611e29d2511ebe6abc728591a1f07f7-800x482.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/jerrod-carmichael_custom-67d8224a2611e29d2511ebe6abc728591a1f07f7-1020x615.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/jerrod-carmichael_custom-67d8224a2611e29d2511ebe6abc728591a1f07f7-160x96.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/jerrod-carmichael_custom-67d8224a2611e29d2511ebe6abc728591a1f07f7-768x463.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/jerrod-carmichael_custom-67d8224a2611e29d2511ebe6abc728591a1f07f7-1536x926.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1789px) 100vw, 1789px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jerrod Carmichael in ‘Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show.’ \u003ccite>(HBO)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Bending his truth for his mom\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>At the core of \u003cem>Reality Show,\u003c/em> nestled beneath the layer of a mission for radical truth, is Carmichael’s determination to radically alter worldviews. “Could my mom \u003cem>change\u003c/em>?” he ponders at one point. He surmises, “It’s reason to keep fighting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not going to sit here and lie to you,” his uber-Christian mom Cynthia insists in the finale, while repeating yet again that she’d “prefer” that he isn’t gay. (In an earlier episode, she likened homosexuality to being a murderer.) Cynthia might be the most authentic of all the figures in \u003cem>Reality Show\u003c/em>, unapologetically herself. His impasse with her has less to do with avoiding the truth than it does the fact that \u003cem>her\u003c/em> truth stands in direct opposition to \u003cem>his\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13957776']She visits Jerrod and Mike in New York City for Mother’s Day weekend, and he takes her to a queer-friendly Harlem church, where the pastor pushes back against her insistence that the Bible condemns homosexuality. Later they meet with a queer therapist for joint counseling. Neither of these experiences sees her budging from her stance: “I’d like for him not to be gay,” she tells the therapist during one-on-one time, adding matter-of-factly, “I can go further [with my acceptance], I just choose right now not to … I don’t want to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Later, when she reiterates her desire for him to find a woman to settle down with, he tries meeting her on her terms: He consents to letting her attempt to pray away the gay in front of him. She’s truly giddy; it might be the happiest she appears in the entire show. “I love you. That blessed my heart,” she says, satisfied. She’s completely unaware (or unbothered?) by how her son’s body seems to recoil out of deep discomfort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an effective bit of dramatic editing, the prayer immediately cuts to Carmichael remarking on the moment during a standup performance. “She was so happy that I let her do it. I immediately regretted it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958135\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1290px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958135\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Screen-Shot-2024-05-20-at-10.44.03-AM.png\" alt=\"A Black man wearing a red shirt leans forward and smiles towards a microphone. He has one arm raised next to him.\" width=\"1290\" height=\"722\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Screen-Shot-2024-05-20-at-10.44.03-AM.png 1290w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Screen-Shot-2024-05-20-at-10.44.03-AM-800x448.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Screen-Shot-2024-05-20-at-10.44.03-AM-1020x571.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Screen-Shot-2024-05-20-at-10.44.03-AM-160x90.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Screen-Shot-2024-05-20-at-10.44.03-AM-768x430.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1290px) 100vw, 1290px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Carmichael in ‘Rothaniel,’ his 2022 special. \u003ccite>(HBO)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Throughout \u003cem>Reality Show\u003c/em>, Carmichael imagines standup snippets as if they were a more elevated version of a confessional booth, that reality TV convention where the cast members get to narrate their perspective of the story unfolding. It’s devastating watching him concede to her, to allow her this delusion. But there’s life as-it-happens and life as reflected upon later. And it’s important to note this doesn’t come out of nowhere; this has been years in the making, with long periods of absence and occasional heated exchanges, some of which were captured on camera. Through his extravagant attempts at familial reconciliation, Jerrod’s ultimately realized he has to bend his truth a little to maintain some sort of relationship with Cynthia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>I think it will be good for you.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know what I realized I need is a reason to believe everything will be OK,” he adds. “I’m always looking for that. When I was young, I found it in my mother. And now, I’m finding a lot of that in [Mike].” As he says this, a montage of images flurry by: Cynthia packing her bags in her hotel room to go back home to North Carolina; a younger Cynthia smiling for the camera in a home video; Mike teaching Jerrod how to swim in a pool.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A revelatory viewing experience\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>And yet the finale also suggests a small but perceptible shift in Jerrod’s relationship with Cynthia, and proves the show is more than a masochistic, navel-gazey affair (though it’s certainly that, too). This is soap opera verité in its most anarchic state — almost certainly a terrible idea for everyone involved, but quite possibly a learning experience for those observing from the outside looking in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The post-credits sequence is jarringly optimistic. The final image is of Mike and Cynthia laughing together in her kitchen in North Carolina a few months later; she even places her hand affectionately on his back for a quick moment. We have no idea if Cynthia still believes Jerrod and Mike are on equally sinful footing with murderers, though the scene implies something within her has softened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13957264']It’s unclear what we’re supposed to make of this — that maybe Jerrod’s persistence has actually helped him reconnect with his family? If so, it’s worth considering \u003cem>Reality Show \u003c/em>a success for what he’s said he wanted out of this project, even if there’s reason to be disappointed in the concessions he may have had to make to get there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The impulse to question why any of this needed to happen in such a public manner doesn’t completely recede with this conclusion, though maybe it makes the show’s existence easier to digest. In any case, the ending is hardly pat — real life plays out on its own terms away from the cameras — and \u003cem>Reality Show\u003c/em>‘s frank depiction of a Black queer man attempting to push back against his family’s culture of silence moves the needle even further than \u003cem>Rothaniel \u003c/em>did. He’s provided viewers with an imperfect guide for how to have difficult but necessary conversations with the people they care about (preferably without dropping a camera crew in the mix).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oddly enough, \u003cem>Reality Show \u003c/em>shares a bit in common with the most recent season of the absurdist Netflix dating series \u003cem>Love Is Blind\u003c/em>, which featured Clay, a young Black man who also dealt with unresolved trauma stemming from his own dad’s infidelities in a very public manner. The show’s silly “social experiment” — above all designed for maximum gawking and entertainment — inadvertently stumbled into a candid and relatively honest discussion about Black masculinity and generational trauma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/17/love_is_blind_n_s6_e12_00_39_17_08rc.jpg-love_is_blind_n_s6_e12_00_39_17_08rc_custom-77d3eee5e4f32c0f5926a2d07484a391247d72ea.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\" alt=\"A young Black man in a smart suit walks arm-in-arm with an older Black woman who is wearing a green formal dress and yellow shoulder wrap.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"707\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Clay and his mom Margarita on ‘Love is Blind.’\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At Clay’s doomed wedding ceremony to AD, his mom Margarita, no longer married to his dad Trevor, gave the series its truest moment thus far, when she explained to Trevor how his actions were affecting their son all these years later. “Your past and things that you witness, it’s part of your DNA. It’s part of your inside. And if you don’t get freakin’ help, you bring that s— into the next thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clay brought his baggage into \u003cem>Love Is Blind \u003c/em>and Jerrod brought his into \u003cem>Reality Show. \u003c/em>Disarray ensued and feelings were hurt. There’s a silver lining though: In making highly questionable decisions for all the world to see, they forced conversations that need to be had but often aren’t, and perhaps some viewers may come away feeling inspired to confront similar issues in their own lives. Even amid all the mess, some honesty managed to break through the silence.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Season 1 of ‘Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show’ is streaming now on Max.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The comedian’s Max series has been called invasive and narcissistic — but it's also a natural progression for Carmichael.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Peruse any online thread discussing \u003cem>Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show\u003c/em>, the disquieting HBO series created by and starring the titular comedian and filmmaker, and colorful descriptors like “pretentious,” “mega narcissist,” and “self-righteous piece of [\u003cem>redacted\u003c/em>]” are bound to appear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This show seems kinda invasive,” one observer noted\u003ca href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/JerrodCarmichael/comments/1brcpr5/jerrod_carmichael_reality_show_kinda_weird_to/\"> on Reddit\u003c/a>. “… I’m not sure what the obsession is with public humiliation … About a year ago, I was very much a fan of his honesty and what seemed to be [a] down to earth personality but it looks like it’s morphed into the narcissistic cry for help.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carmichael earned a lot of good will from his 2022 breakout standup special\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/04/11/1091748272/jerrod-carmichael-rothaniel-standup-special-hbo-comes-out\"> Rothaniel\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, in which he — among other things — came out publicly as gay and processed his mom Cynthia’s devout homophobia. It launched him into the “mainstream”; that is, a stratosphere where one wins prestigious awards, guest hosts \u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em>, and makes headlines for\u003ca href=\"https://variety.com/2024/film/news/jerrod-carmichael-regrets-dave-chappelle-criticism-trans-jokes-1235974314/\"> easily agitating\u003c/a> the ever-crotchety elder statesman Dave Chappelle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>He was easy to root for because he treated the performance like a therapist’s couch, a safe space where he could break through the silence that encourages shame and deceit. It was different from, but in the lineage of,\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUUCnt0Jexg\"> Richard Pryor’s recounting of his own drug addiction\u003c/a> in \u003cem>Live on the Sunset Strip\u003c/em> — confessional, blunt, and refreshingly relatable to those who’ve shared a similar experience, delivered in the way only a gifted and self-aware comedian can.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But \u003cem>Reality Show \u003c/em>practices an entirely different mode of candor. On camera, Carmichael cheats on his boyfriend Mike and later lies about it during their couples therapy session. He misses a friend’s wedding because he makes a pit stop to get a hot dog along the way. (He was supposed to be the best man.) He goads his parents Joe and Cynthia into having raw, painful discussions about their once-private lives and tightly held beliefs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of this is done in service of what he sees as a greater good: radical honesty, which he in turn hopes will lead to stronger bonds with his loved ones. Yet for some, the show has morphed the perception of him from that of an artist valiantly speaking the truth to an exhaustingly selfish crusader for a very specific truth — his own. And whether or not he succeeds at repairing his fractured relationships is only partially answered by \u003cem>Reality Show\u003c/em>‘s finale, which aired Friday.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/r5Jly91mvGA'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/r5Jly91mvGA'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003ch3>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Reality Show\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003cstrong> stands apart\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>If \u003cem>Rothaniel \u003c/em>was presented as catharsis, \u003cem>Reality Show \u003c/em>arguably functions as exploitation. It’s one thing to process grief, pain, and pathos through your art; it’s utterly baffling to directly involve the sources of that pathos in your artistic process, particularly when they seem formidably resistant to even acknowledging themselves as the source.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This isn’t the first time. In 2019, Carmichael released two HBO documentary specials that also featured him in conversation with his family, \u003cem>Home Videos \u003c/em>and \u003cem>Sermon on the Mount. Home Videos \u003c/em>is where he first tested the waters to see how his mom would react to him coming out to her. On camera, he offhandedly dropped in an admission that he’s hooked up with men but stopped short at identifying as gay. Cynthia barely acknowledged the unexpected disclosure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Carmichael told Dave Holmes for\u003ca href=\"https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a60341676/jerrod-carmichael-reality-show-profile-2024/\"> \u003cem>Esquire\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, the silence from his parents after coming out is what pushed him to create \u003cem>Reality Show \u003c/em>in the first place: “The lack of acknowledgment is what made me go, ‘Okay, I’ll turn the volume up.’ How do I make it as extreme as possible? It’s testing the limits of their cognitive dissonance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The extremities make up a strange gumbo: One-part old-school docu-style reality TV (in a different era, this could’ve been \u003cem>True Life\u003c/em>: “My Mom’s a Homophobe”); a dash of trashy celeb-reality (think \u003cem>Being Bobby Brown\u003c/em> or \u003cem>Britney & Kevin: Chaotic\u003c/em>); and another part self-referential prestige experiment (Sarah Polley’s \u003cem>Stories We Tell\u003c/em> or \u003cem>How To with John Wilson\u003c/em>).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>For all its cross-cultural parallels, though, \u003cem>Reality Show \u003c/em>stands apart. To his credit, while he has near-total creative control as the creator, co-executive producer, and star, he’s willing to show himself being challenged by his own cognitive dissonance. Within the first few minutes of \u003cem>Reality Show\u003c/em>, he makes his MO plain: “Cameras make me feel more comfortable, I like this — it seems permanent, and it feels really dumb to lie.” And yet, we later watch him lie on camera about being monogamous during a couples therapy session with Mike, proving he struggles to adhere to his own ethos, at least at first. (As the season carries on, he and Mike try out non-monogamy together, and seem to find that it works for them.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reality TV genre feeds heartily upon the judgmental instincts of its viewers. It needs audiences to engage with it as gossip fodder and opinion-generator, encouraging those who tune in for the “real”-ish drama to scoff at the foolish personalities, cheer on the likable heroes, and boo the flamboyant antagonists. Carmichael clearly understands the format — unscripted in theory, though manipulated and edited to make the “real” fit more neatly into a dramatic arc — and bends it to his will. And while the crudest entries in the reality genre tend to bring up social issues and prejudices either unintentionally or superficially, with \u003cem>Reality Show\u003c/em>, Carmichael chooses to purposefully expose the issues in the name of raw, unfiltered honesty.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>“I think this will be good for you”\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In the mid-2010s, he co-created and starred in the loosely autobiographical network sitcom \u003cem>The Carmichael Show\u003c/em>. Far more subversive than its multi-camera, live studio audience format let on, it positioned him as a nihilistic provocateur who revels in frank, multi-generational conversations on an assortment of hot-button issues with his fictional family: abortion, assisted suicide, mass shootings, depression. (It’s frequently, and aptly, been referred to as a modern-day \u003cem>All in the Family\u003c/em>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Season 2 episode focuses on Jerrod’s dad Joe (David Alan Grier) as he prepares to deliver a eulogy for his own father, who was abusive and abandoned the family long ago. Jerrod doesn’t understand why Joe would want to honor him — “Am I the only one who remembers what a deadbeat that man was?” — but Joe feels bound by the tradition of never speaking ill of the dead. Jerrod counters that if Joe is going to give the eulogy, he should at least tell the truth about who the man was: “I think it will be good for you.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/oAM0GQW-Q04'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/oAM0GQW-Q04'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video\">\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That line could’ve been the tagline for \u003cem>Reality Show\u003c/em>, which finds Carmichael butting up against the people in his life — many of them older — who bristle at his desire to revisit painful memories from the past. In the fourth episode, Jerrod attempts to have a straightforward conversation with his real dad Joe, and pelts him with a rapid-fire series of questions about the double life Joe led for years, which included having a secret second family with another woman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Would you say you loved [the other woman]? Or was it just like, sexual, or was it — ’cause it was a long time, what – like, 40 years of a relationship? Was it hard every time? Did you feel like a bad person?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Joe, clearly uncomfortable, begins to shut down and insist that the past is the past, but Jerrod keeps pressing him. Joe snaps back: “Why are you digging into this so deep, son?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>I think it will be good for you\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Is this gonna be on your special?” Joe wearily asks. “This is hard for me to discuss on cameras.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doing this in front of cameras is the only way Carmichael, a late-30s millennial who came of age in the early years of oversharing — \u003cem>The Real World\u003c/em>, blogging, Facebook — knows how to have (or force, really) these conversations. It’s telling that, spliced throughout some of the episodes, \u003cem>Reality Show \u003c/em>includes footage from the Carmichael family’s home videos going back decades, some of which Jerrod himself shot as a kid with a camcorder. The grainy images root the present-day points of conflict firmly in an “authentic” past, suggesting that this project was predestined, something this artist has unintentionally been working toward for decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Your option is \u003cem>no\u003c/em> option,” Jerrod snaps back at Joe around that campfire, “so don’t criticize the way I do it. If the cameras help me, then they f—— help. But your way is nothing\u003cstrong>, \u003c/strong>your way is silence\u003cstrong>, \u003c/strong>your way is death.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eventually, Joe is tapped out. “You’ve expressed yourself … can I go home?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The camera gives Jerrod courage, a security blanket to wear while attempting to address the distance between him and Joe, yet it’s not yielding the results he’s looking for. It’s hard not to wonder if the cameras are actually hindering him in the long run, keeping him stuck on the false hope that others around him — who have thus far only proven rigid in their stances — might open up to him the way he wants them to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958132\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1789px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958132\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/jerrod-carmichael_custom-67d8224a2611e29d2511ebe6abc728591a1f07f7.jpg\" alt=\"Close up on a young Black man's face and shoulders. He is glancing downwards and smiling.\" width=\"1789\" height=\"1078\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/jerrod-carmichael_custom-67d8224a2611e29d2511ebe6abc728591a1f07f7.jpg 1789w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/jerrod-carmichael_custom-67d8224a2611e29d2511ebe6abc728591a1f07f7-800x482.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/jerrod-carmichael_custom-67d8224a2611e29d2511ebe6abc728591a1f07f7-1020x615.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/jerrod-carmichael_custom-67d8224a2611e29d2511ebe6abc728591a1f07f7-160x96.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/jerrod-carmichael_custom-67d8224a2611e29d2511ebe6abc728591a1f07f7-768x463.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/jerrod-carmichael_custom-67d8224a2611e29d2511ebe6abc728591a1f07f7-1536x926.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1789px) 100vw, 1789px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jerrod Carmichael in ‘Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show.’ \u003ccite>(HBO)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Bending his truth for his mom\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>At the core of \u003cem>Reality Show,\u003c/em> nestled beneath the layer of a mission for radical truth, is Carmichael’s determination to radically alter worldviews. “Could my mom \u003cem>change\u003c/em>?” he ponders at one point. He surmises, “It’s reason to keep fighting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not going to sit here and lie to you,” his uber-Christian mom Cynthia insists in the finale, while repeating yet again that she’d “prefer” that he isn’t gay. (In an earlier episode, she likened homosexuality to being a murderer.) Cynthia might be the most authentic of all the figures in \u003cem>Reality Show\u003c/em>, unapologetically herself. His impasse with her has less to do with avoiding the truth than it does the fact that \u003cem>her\u003c/em> truth stands in direct opposition to \u003cem>his\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>She visits Jerrod and Mike in New York City for Mother’s Day weekend, and he takes her to a queer-friendly Harlem church, where the pastor pushes back against her insistence that the Bible condemns homosexuality. Later they meet with a queer therapist for joint counseling. Neither of these experiences sees her budging from her stance: “I’d like for him not to be gay,” she tells the therapist during one-on-one time, adding matter-of-factly, “I can go further [with my acceptance], I just choose right now not to … I don’t want to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Later, when she reiterates her desire for him to find a woman to settle down with, he tries meeting her on her terms: He consents to letting her attempt to pray away the gay in front of him. She’s truly giddy; it might be the happiest she appears in the entire show. “I love you. That blessed my heart,” she says, satisfied. She’s completely unaware (or unbothered?) by how her son’s body seems to recoil out of deep discomfort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an effective bit of dramatic editing, the prayer immediately cuts to Carmichael remarking on the moment during a standup performance. “She was so happy that I let her do it. I immediately regretted it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958135\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1290px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958135\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Screen-Shot-2024-05-20-at-10.44.03-AM.png\" alt=\"A Black man wearing a red shirt leans forward and smiles towards a microphone. He has one arm raised next to him.\" width=\"1290\" height=\"722\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Screen-Shot-2024-05-20-at-10.44.03-AM.png 1290w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Screen-Shot-2024-05-20-at-10.44.03-AM-800x448.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Screen-Shot-2024-05-20-at-10.44.03-AM-1020x571.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Screen-Shot-2024-05-20-at-10.44.03-AM-160x90.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Screen-Shot-2024-05-20-at-10.44.03-AM-768x430.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1290px) 100vw, 1290px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Carmichael in ‘Rothaniel,’ his 2022 special. \u003ccite>(HBO)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Throughout \u003cem>Reality Show\u003c/em>, Carmichael imagines standup snippets as if they were a more elevated version of a confessional booth, that reality TV convention where the cast members get to narrate their perspective of the story unfolding. It’s devastating watching him concede to her, to allow her this delusion. But there’s life as-it-happens and life as reflected upon later. And it’s important to note this doesn’t come out of nowhere; this has been years in the making, with long periods of absence and occasional heated exchanges, some of which were captured on camera. Through his extravagant attempts at familial reconciliation, Jerrod’s ultimately realized he has to bend his truth a little to maintain some sort of relationship with Cynthia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>I think it will be good for you.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know what I realized I need is a reason to believe everything will be OK,” he adds. “I’m always looking for that. When I was young, I found it in my mother. And now, I’m finding a lot of that in [Mike].” As he says this, a montage of images flurry by: Cynthia packing her bags in her hotel room to go back home to North Carolina; a younger Cynthia smiling for the camera in a home video; Mike teaching Jerrod how to swim in a pool.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A revelatory viewing experience\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>And yet the finale also suggests a small but perceptible shift in Jerrod’s relationship with Cynthia, and proves the show is more than a masochistic, navel-gazey affair (though it’s certainly that, too). This is soap opera verité in its most anarchic state — almost certainly a terrible idea for everyone involved, but quite possibly a learning experience for those observing from the outside looking in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The post-credits sequence is jarringly optimistic. The final image is of Mike and Cynthia laughing together in her kitchen in North Carolina a few months later; she even places her hand affectionately on his back for a quick moment. We have no idea if Cynthia still believes Jerrod and Mike are on equally sinful footing with murderers, though the scene implies something within her has softened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>It’s unclear what we’re supposed to make of this — that maybe Jerrod’s persistence has actually helped him reconnect with his family? If so, it’s worth considering \u003cem>Reality Show \u003c/em>a success for what he’s said he wanted out of this project, even if there’s reason to be disappointed in the concessions he may have had to make to get there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The impulse to question why any of this needed to happen in such a public manner doesn’t completely recede with this conclusion, though maybe it makes the show’s existence easier to digest. In any case, the ending is hardly pat — real life plays out on its own terms away from the cameras — and \u003cem>Reality Show\u003c/em>‘s frank depiction of a Black queer man attempting to push back against his family’s culture of silence moves the needle even further than \u003cem>Rothaniel \u003c/em>did. He’s provided viewers with an imperfect guide for how to have difficult but necessary conversations with the people they care about (preferably without dropping a camera crew in the mix).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oddly enough, \u003cem>Reality Show \u003c/em>shares a bit in common with the most recent season of the absurdist Netflix dating series \u003cem>Love Is Blind\u003c/em>, which featured Clay, a young Black man who also dealt with unresolved trauma stemming from his own dad’s infidelities in a very public manner. The show’s silly “social experiment” — above all designed for maximum gawking and entertainment — inadvertently stumbled into a candid and relatively honest discussion about Black masculinity and generational trauma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/17/love_is_blind_n_s6_e12_00_39_17_08rc.jpg-love_is_blind_n_s6_e12_00_39_17_08rc_custom-77d3eee5e4f32c0f5926a2d07484a391247d72ea.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\" alt=\"A young Black man in a smart suit walks arm-in-arm with an older Black woman who is wearing a green formal dress and yellow shoulder wrap.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"707\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Clay and his mom Margarita on ‘Love is Blind.’\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At Clay’s doomed wedding ceremony to AD, his mom Margarita, no longer married to his dad Trevor, gave the series its truest moment thus far, when she explained to Trevor how his actions were affecting their son all these years later. “Your past and things that you witness, it’s part of your DNA. It’s part of your inside. And if you don’t get freakin’ help, you bring that s— into the next thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clay brought his baggage into \u003cem>Love Is Blind \u003c/em>and Jerrod brought his into \u003cem>Reality Show. \u003c/em>Disarray ensued and feelings were hurt. There’s a silver lining though: In making highly questionable decisions for all the world to see, they forced conversations that need to be had but often aren’t, and perhaps some viewers may come away feeling inspired to confront similar issues in their own lives. Even amid all the mess, some honesty managed to break through the silence.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Season 1 of ‘Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show’ is streaming now on Max.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "‘Zillow Gone Wild’ Brings Wacky Real Estate Listings to HGTV",
"headTitle": "‘Zillow Gone Wild’ Brings Wacky Real Estate Listings to HGTV | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>The real estate social media space is packed with influencers focusing on specific niches like \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/luxurymansions__/?hl=en\">luxury mansions\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/midcenturyhome/?hl=en\">mid-century moderns\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cheapoldhouses/?hl=en\">inexpensive yet promising fixer-uppers\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Within this crowded universe\u003cem>, \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/zillowgonewild/?hl=en\">\u003cem>Zillow Gone Wild\u003c/em>\u003c/a> is a place to go if you’re in the market for, say, a home in Kansas City, Mo., shaped \u003ca href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@zillowgonewild/video/7246469852041399594\">like a UFO\u003c/a>; a \u003ca href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@zillowgonewild/video/7348164791539846446\">striking, angular residence\u003c/a> in Kalamazoo, Mich., designed in the late 1940s by Frank Lloyd Wright; or a recently built \u003ca href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@zillowgonewild/video/7158117998404832555\">cruise ship\u003c/a> with close to 3,000 bedrooms. (Yes, there is an \u003ca href=\"https://www.zillow.com/house/royal-caribbean/\">actual Zillow listing\u003c/a> for this property.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Waking up to an ocean view in the actual ocean is the new best way to wake up,” says Samir Mezrahi, \u003cem>Zillow Gone Wild\u003c/em>‘s creator, in his deadpan TikTok commentary on this particularly mind-boggling property listing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"tiktok-embed\" style=\"max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px\" cite=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@zillowgonewild/video/7348164791539846446\" data-video-id=\"7348164791539846446\">\n\u003csection>\u003ca title=\"@zillowgonewild\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@zillowgonewild?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@zillowgonewild\u003c/a> Frank Lloyd Wright house for sale in Kalamazoo, MI for under $1 million!! \u003ca title=\"franklloydwright\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/franklloydwright?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#franklloydwright\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"zillowgonewild\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/zillowgonewild?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#zillowgonewild\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"realestate\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/realestate?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#realestate\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"foryou\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/foryou?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#foryou\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"♬ Epic Music(863502) - Draganov89\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/music/Epic-Music-863502-6873501791145691137?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">♬ Epic Music(863502) – Draganov89\u003c/a>\u003c/section>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>[tiktok]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mezrahi’s prominent account, which has several million followers across platforms, has now been spun off into an equally wild reality \u003ca href=\"https://www.hgtv.com/shows/zillow-gone-wild\">TV show\u003c/a>. The nine-episode series premiered on HGTV Friday, and is out now on Max.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As on social media, the \u003cem>Zillow Gone Wild\u003c/em> TV show is aimed at a general audience and focuses on homes that defy everyday expectations in some way — whether visible from the outside in the architecture, or hidden inside as part of the home decor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13956737']“It has to be something we’ve pretty much never seen before,” says Mezrahi, a former social media director at \u003cem>Buzzfeed\u003c/em>, in an interview with NPR.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Setting a “wild” tone\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The first segment of the first episode sets the tone: Homeowner Andrew Flair shows off the converted U.S. military missile launch facility in York, Neb. The unusual property has very thick steel doors and no windows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qQ6fx2LIbc\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s all underground, covered in concrete, and if, for some reason, a bomb goes off, you’ll be safe,” Flair says on the show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And in episode three, homeowner Kitty Reign tours viewers around the \u003cem>Pirates of the Caribbean\u003c/em>-themed residence in Las Vegas she’s selling. This swashbuckler’s paradise comes with a decorative wooden helm (“Everybody plays with it!”) and a tavern (“Kind of our own little secret pirate nightclub!”)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hosted by comedian Jack McBrayer, who played Kenneth in \u003cem>30 Rock\u003c/em>, the show features 24 homes from around the country either up for sale or recently sold. But only one of them will be crowned the country’s “wildest” at the end of the series, as assessed by HGTV executives. Viewers who correctly guess the winning home can enter a pool for the chance to win $25,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/02/103_zillow-gone-wild_ships-ahoy_interior_custom-f5c7b8593923a6ac670b75e13ac958fe69d06cc5.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\" alt=\"Two women in short dresses stand in the middle of a room that looks like a pirate-themed bar. They are talking to a white man, wearing basic t-shirt and blue jeans.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"848\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kitty Reign and her wife, Jennifer, show host Jack McBrayer around their ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’-themed house, as seen on HGTV’s new series ‘Zillow Gone Wild.’\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The judging criteria include creativity, commitment to a concept or theme and a quality McBrayer describes as “wackadoo.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That special thing that sets this property apart,” says McBrayer on the show. “We reward impracticality.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The growth of an American pastime\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Ogling real estate listings on social media has become an enormously popular American pastime in recent years. \u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em> even did \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEfsaXDX0UQ\">a skit\u003c/a> about the trend in 2021. (“The pleasure you once got from sex now comes from looking at other people’s houses.”)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video\">\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEfsaXDX0UQ&t=20s\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mezrahi, who’s based in New York, says he has long made a hobby of idly browsing Zillow. He started \u003cem>Zillow Gone Wild\u003c/em> as a side project in the fall of 2020, knowing it would probably catch on. Mezrahi initially launched it only on Instagram, but soon expanded his offering to Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and a newsletter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13952549']“It was, like, prime pandemic. Everyone’s working from home. Companies are saying you can live wherever you want,” Mezrahi says. “So people are moving, thinking about moving, or browsing Zillow just as a bored-on-your-phone thing. So I kind of felt like there was an audience of people out there that are also doing this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rise of TV and online channels devoted to home buying and home improvement, together with the increasingly elaborate social media presence of individual real estate brokers promoting their listings, have further fed the trend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a time when a lot of people are thinking about where and how we want to live,” says Zillow’s home trends expert, Amanda Pendleton, in an interview with NPR. “And these social media accounts captured our imagination and redefined what a home can be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>“Wild” listings can be challenging for real estate brokers\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>That “imagination capturing” quality is what makes \u003cem>Zillow Gone Wild\u003c/em> so compelling on TikTok and TV.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when it comes to actually selling a property, eccentric architecture and festive home decor aren’t necessarily virtues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As a real estate broker, you kind of get nervous about that, because the resale value is not the greatest when you’re making it your own,” says San Francisco Bay Area-based realtor Ria Cotton in an interview with NPR. “It may not be liked by other people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/02/jack-mcbrayer_zillow-gone-wild-39a4782504c66c17d993e2558052aad0bc9c8149.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\" alt=\"A white man smiling broadly stands on a spiral staircase with gold accents.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Host Jack McBrayer taking in the sights of the ‘Golden Saxophone House.’\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While having a marketable property is preferable, Cotton admits the popularity of social media accounts like \u003cem>Zillow Gone Wild\u003c/em> shows there’s a growing appetite among homebuyers and potential homebuyers for the “wackadoo.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think more and more people are kind of bored of the cookie-cutter way of doing things,” Cotton says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Case in point: An unusual music-themed home in Berkeley, Calif., that Cotton recently brokered, featured in \u003cem>Zillow Gone Wild.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13952420']The facade of the “Saxophone House” is dominated by two massive, gold saxophone-shaped columns. On the TV show, new homeowner Adanté Pointer proudly shows off the gold treble clef ornaments on the balcony railings indoors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The gold accents really make it stand out,” Pointer says appreciatively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The smooth jazz vibes and bling of the Saxophone House might not be for everyone. But Pointer says it’s perfect for him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am an attorney, and oftentimes, people come to me to make a statement on their behalf,” he says on the show. “And when you look at the outside of this home, it’s definitely a statement piece.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an interview with NPR, TV show host McBrayer says if visiting all of the homes featured in the \u003cem>Zillow Gone Wild \u003c/em>TV series taught him anything, it’s that even the wildest of homes won’t sit empty forever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For every house out there that is just head-to-toe rainbow-colored, there is going to be a buyer. For every home that is attached to the underside of a bridge, there’s going to be a buyer,” McBrayer says. “There’s a lid for every pot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Zillow Gone Wild’ premiered on HGTV on May 3 at 7:30 p.m.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The real estate social media space is packed with influencers focusing on specific niches like \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/luxurymansions__/?hl=en\">luxury mansions\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/midcenturyhome/?hl=en\">mid-century moderns\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cheapoldhouses/?hl=en\">inexpensive yet promising fixer-uppers\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Within this crowded universe\u003cem>, \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/zillowgonewild/?hl=en\">\u003cem>Zillow Gone Wild\u003c/em>\u003c/a> is a place to go if you’re in the market for, say, a home in Kansas City, Mo., shaped \u003ca href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@zillowgonewild/video/7246469852041399594\">like a UFO\u003c/a>; a \u003ca href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@zillowgonewild/video/7348164791539846446\">striking, angular residence\u003c/a> in Kalamazoo, Mich., designed in the late 1940s by Frank Lloyd Wright; or a recently built \u003ca href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@zillowgonewild/video/7158117998404832555\">cruise ship\u003c/a> with close to 3,000 bedrooms. (Yes, there is an \u003ca href=\"https://www.zillow.com/house/royal-caribbean/\">actual Zillow listing\u003c/a> for this property.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Waking up to an ocean view in the actual ocean is the new best way to wake up,” says Samir Mezrahi, \u003cem>Zillow Gone Wild\u003c/em>‘s creator, in his deadpan TikTok commentary on this particularly mind-boggling property listing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"tiktok-embed\" style=\"max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px\" cite=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@zillowgonewild/video/7348164791539846446\" data-video-id=\"7348164791539846446\">\n\u003csection>\u003ca title=\"@zillowgonewild\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@zillowgonewild?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@zillowgonewild\u003c/a> Frank Lloyd Wright house for sale in Kalamazoo, MI for under $1 million!! \u003ca title=\"franklloydwright\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/franklloydwright?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#franklloydwright\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"zillowgonewild\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/zillowgonewild?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#zillowgonewild\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"realestate\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/realestate?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#realestate\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"foryou\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/foryou?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#foryou\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"♬ Epic Music(863502) - Draganov89\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/music/Epic-Music-863502-6873501791145691137?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">♬ Epic Music(863502) – Draganov89\u003c/a>\u003c/section>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mezrahi’s prominent account, which has several million followers across platforms, has now been spun off into an equally wild reality \u003ca href=\"https://www.hgtv.com/shows/zillow-gone-wild\">TV show\u003c/a>. The nine-episode series premiered on HGTV Friday, and is out now on Max.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As on social media, the \u003cem>Zillow Gone Wild\u003c/em> TV show is aimed at a general audience and focuses on homes that defy everyday expectations in some way — whether visible from the outside in the architecture, or hidden inside as part of the home decor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“It has to be something we’ve pretty much never seen before,” says Mezrahi, a former social media director at \u003cem>Buzzfeed\u003c/em>, in an interview with NPR.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Setting a “wild” tone\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The first segment of the first episode sets the tone: Homeowner Andrew Flair shows off the converted U.S. military missile launch facility in York, Neb. The unusual property has very thick steel doors and no windows.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/8qQ6fx2LIbc'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/8qQ6fx2LIbc'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>“It’s all underground, covered in concrete, and if, for some reason, a bomb goes off, you’ll be safe,” Flair says on the show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And in episode three, homeowner Kitty Reign tours viewers around the \u003cem>Pirates of the Caribbean\u003c/em>-themed residence in Las Vegas she’s selling. This swashbuckler’s paradise comes with a decorative wooden helm (“Everybody plays with it!”) and a tavern (“Kind of our own little secret pirate nightclub!”)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hosted by comedian Jack McBrayer, who played Kenneth in \u003cem>30 Rock\u003c/em>, the show features 24 homes from around the country either up for sale or recently sold. But only one of them will be crowned the country’s “wildest” at the end of the series, as assessed by HGTV executives. Viewers who correctly guess the winning home can enter a pool for the chance to win $25,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/02/103_zillow-gone-wild_ships-ahoy_interior_custom-f5c7b8593923a6ac670b75e13ac958fe69d06cc5.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\" alt=\"Two women in short dresses stand in the middle of a room that looks like a pirate-themed bar. They are talking to a white man, wearing basic t-shirt and blue jeans.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"848\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kitty Reign and her wife, Jennifer, show host Jack McBrayer around their ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’-themed house, as seen on HGTV’s new series ‘Zillow Gone Wild.’\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The judging criteria include creativity, commitment to a concept or theme and a quality McBrayer describes as “wackadoo.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That special thing that sets this property apart,” says McBrayer on the show. “We reward impracticality.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The growth of an American pastime\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Ogling real estate listings on social media has become an enormously popular American pastime in recent years. \u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em> even did \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEfsaXDX0UQ\">a skit\u003c/a> about the trend in 2021. (“The pleasure you once got from sex now comes from looking at other people’s houses.”)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video\">\u003c/figure>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/yEfsaXDX0UQ'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/yEfsaXDX0UQ'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Mezrahi, who’s based in New York, says he has long made a hobby of idly browsing Zillow. He started \u003cem>Zillow Gone Wild\u003c/em> as a side project in the fall of 2020, knowing it would probably catch on. Mezrahi initially launched it only on Instagram, but soon expanded his offering to Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and a newsletter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“It was, like, prime pandemic. Everyone’s working from home. Companies are saying you can live wherever you want,” Mezrahi says. “So people are moving, thinking about moving, or browsing Zillow just as a bored-on-your-phone thing. So I kind of felt like there was an audience of people out there that are also doing this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rise of TV and online channels devoted to home buying and home improvement, together with the increasingly elaborate social media presence of individual real estate brokers promoting their listings, have further fed the trend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a time when a lot of people are thinking about where and how we want to live,” says Zillow’s home trends expert, Amanda Pendleton, in an interview with NPR. “And these social media accounts captured our imagination and redefined what a home can be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>“Wild” listings can be challenging for real estate brokers\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>That “imagination capturing” quality is what makes \u003cem>Zillow Gone Wild\u003c/em> so compelling on TikTok and TV.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when it comes to actually selling a property, eccentric architecture and festive home decor aren’t necessarily virtues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As a real estate broker, you kind of get nervous about that, because the resale value is not the greatest when you’re making it your own,” says San Francisco Bay Area-based realtor Ria Cotton in an interview with NPR. “It may not be liked by other people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/02/jack-mcbrayer_zillow-gone-wild-39a4782504c66c17d993e2558052aad0bc9c8149.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\" alt=\"A white man smiling broadly stands on a spiral staircase with gold accents.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Host Jack McBrayer taking in the sights of the ‘Golden Saxophone House.’\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While having a marketable property is preferable, Cotton admits the popularity of social media accounts like \u003cem>Zillow Gone Wild\u003c/em> shows there’s a growing appetite among homebuyers and potential homebuyers for the “wackadoo.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think more and more people are kind of bored of the cookie-cutter way of doing things,” Cotton says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Case in point: An unusual music-themed home in Berkeley, Calif., that Cotton recently brokered, featured in \u003cem>Zillow Gone Wild.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The facade of the “Saxophone House” is dominated by two massive, gold saxophone-shaped columns. On the TV show, new homeowner Adanté Pointer proudly shows off the gold treble clef ornaments on the balcony railings indoors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The gold accents really make it stand out,” Pointer says appreciatively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The smooth jazz vibes and bling of the Saxophone House might not be for everyone. But Pointer says it’s perfect for him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am an attorney, and oftentimes, people come to me to make a statement on their behalf,” he says on the show. “And when you look at the outside of this home, it’s definitely a statement piece.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an interview with NPR, TV show host McBrayer says if visiting all of the homes featured in the \u003cem>Zillow Gone Wild \u003c/em>TV series taught him anything, it’s that even the wildest of homes won’t sit empty forever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For every house out there that is just head-to-toe rainbow-colored, there is going to be a buyer. For every home that is attached to the underside of a bridge, there’s going to be a buyer,” McBrayer says. “There’s a lid for every pot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Zillow Gone Wild’ premiered on HGTV on May 3 at 7:30 p.m.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Naked and frail, a shaggy-haired man films himself as he endures solitude in a tiny room for months, and months more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Contestant\u003c/em>, directed by Clair Titley, explores the story behind the late 1990s hit reality TV show from Japan, \u003cem>A Life in Prizes\u003c/em>, in which a comedian nicknamed Nasubi is forced to survive on whatever he can redeem from mail-in coupons, as he is denied contact with the outside world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13955948']The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023 and will stream on Hulu from May 2.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tomoaki Hamatsu — whose nickname “Nasubi,” meaning eggplant in Japanese, refers jokingly to his long chin — never manages to clothe himself and remains naked throughout the show. But he dances to celebrate the things he does obtain, especially food, even if it’s just a pot of kimchi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Canada’s \u003cem>National Post\u003c/em>, in a review of Titley’s documentary, described the TV show as “\u003cem>The Truman Show\u003c/em> meets \u003cem>OldBoy\u003c/em>,” referring to the 1998 American film starring Jim Carrey about a man who unwittingly stars in a reality TV show about his own life and the 2003 Cannes-winning Korean film about an imprisoned man.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The British director Titley said she chanced upon the reality show and reached out to Nasubi because she felt no one had ever told his side of the story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I felt that they were kind of dismissive and even derogatory to an extent about, you know, look at those crazy Japanese. And I really wanted to know Nasubi’s story. I really wanted to know what had happened to him, why he’d stayed in there,” she said in a recent Zoom interview with The Associated Press.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13951078']What makes her documentary more than a just-for-laughs, big-in-Japan satire are the interviews Titley conducts with Hamatsu’s mother, sister and friend, who express outrage, sorrow, pride and a mix of other emotions as the show grew into a prime-time hit. They said they felt sorry for what he endured, including his nudity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The film also explores Hamatsu’s childhood experience of being bullied because of his long chin and how he turned to laughter to protect himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hamatsu says the hardest part of the show was the solitude, although being without clothing — and very little food — for a year and three months also took a toll on him. The comedian was moved to tears when he received a standing ovation at a New York screening of the documentary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel I was able to relay a positive message through the documentary,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSJWxOn2pi0\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Contestant\u003c/em> raises serious questions about how far society might go for entertainment, and the big audiences and money it represents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The show’s producer said in the documentary he just wanted to “capture the moment” and did not mention any reservations about producing the show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think to an extent we are all complicit in these narratives. I think that’s something to be aware of. It’s very easy to stand back and look at all of this, and sort of think, ‘Oh, look at what those producers did.’ But, you know, as viewers we need to take some responsibility,” Titley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The film explores the various emotions of being trapped in different ways, including in relationships, hardships or just feelings of meaninglessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13954702']Hamatsu is from Fukushima in northeastern Japan, which was hit by the March 2011 triple disaster, when a giant tsunami followed a 9.0 magnitude quake and devastated the coastline, setting off the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hamatsu, who still works as an actor, also devotes his time to the reconstruction of Fukushima and raising awareness about the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I want everyone to know the people of Fukushima are working hard,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Life is gradually returning to what used to be in the exclusion zones. Of course, I realize the road to decommissioning the nuclear plants is still a long battle. But I would like people to know the Fukushima of today, feel hope by visiting Fukushima and watch Fukushima rebuild.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a vindication of sorts at the end of the documentary, Hamatsu becomes a climber and conquers Mount Everest, a feat he dedicates to Fukushima.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many people think the famous show 25 years ago was the high point of Hamatsu’s life, since he is not on TV much anymore, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But it’s just the opposite. That was the worst point in my life. I overcame that. And now I am free to do what I want.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023 and will stream on Hulu from May 2.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tomoaki Hamatsu — whose nickname “Nasubi,” meaning eggplant in Japanese, refers jokingly to his long chin — never manages to clothe himself and remains naked throughout the show. But he dances to celebrate the things he does obtain, especially food, even if it’s just a pot of kimchi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Canada’s \u003cem>National Post\u003c/em>, in a review of Titley’s documentary, described the TV show as “\u003cem>The Truman Show\u003c/em> meets \u003cem>OldBoy\u003c/em>,” referring to the 1998 American film starring Jim Carrey about a man who unwittingly stars in a reality TV show about his own life and the 2003 Cannes-winning Korean film about an imprisoned man.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>What makes her documentary more than a just-for-laughs, big-in-Japan satire are the interviews Titley conducts with Hamatsu’s mother, sister and friend, who express outrage, sorrow, pride and a mix of other emotions as the show grew into a prime-time hit. They said they felt sorry for what he endured, including his nudity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The film also explores Hamatsu’s childhood experience of being bullied because of his long chin and how he turned to laughter to protect himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hamatsu says the hardest part of the show was the solitude, although being without clothing — and very little food — for a year and three months also took a toll on him. The comedian was moved to tears when he received a standing ovation at a New York screening of the documentary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel I was able to relay a positive message through the documentary,” he said.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/wSJWxOn2pi0'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/wSJWxOn2pi0'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>The Contestant\u003c/em> raises serious questions about how far society might go for entertainment, and the big audiences and money it represents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The show’s producer said in the documentary he just wanted to “capture the moment” and did not mention any reservations about producing the show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think to an extent we are all complicit in these narratives. I think that’s something to be aware of. It’s very easy to stand back and look at all of this, and sort of think, ‘Oh, look at what those producers did.’ But, you know, as viewers we need to take some responsibility,” Titley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The film explores the various emotions of being trapped in different ways, including in relationships, hardships or just feelings of meaninglessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Two’s Company, Three’s Allowed in New Dating Show ‘Couple to Throuple’",
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"content": "\u003cp>The only reasons people watch dating shows, really, are sex and mess.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dating shows have been around for ages, swelling* when there’s a big success like \u003cem>The Bachelor \u003c/em>or \u003cem>Joe Millionaire \u003c/em>or \u003cem>Love Is Blind\u003c/em>. But they take all kinds of different shapes — it’s a test to see if you’ll cheat, or there’s a chance the person is ugly, or you have to get married, or whatever. They certainly have wildly varying levels of sex. \u003cem>The Bachelor \u003c/em>takes a kind of “and then the door closes and the music plays and you definitely do not even hear anybody making any noises,” while some other shows will give you considerably more than that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13952409']They all have mess, too. Not just mess, but messy messy mess. As I was telling a friend this week, Peacock’s \u003cem>Couple to Throuple \u003c/em>is really just more mess (and it’s on the high end for the amount of sex you’ll see), and in that sense it’s very conventional. But at least it’s a different \u003cem>kind\u003c/em> of mess than most other shows offer, particularly on mainstream outlets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The setup is this: Four couples arrive at a resort. A bunch of single people also show up. Each couple is interested in potentially exploring a throuple, which (for the uninitiated) is an awkward portman-ménage-à-teau for an ongoing relationship among three people. Three of the couples include a man and a woman: Brittne and Sean, Dylan and Lauren, and Wilder and Corey. The other is two men, Rehman and Ashmal. All of the couples have some experience with experimentation with other people, but not in this kind of throuple arrangement. The show brings in some single people, all of whom also have some relevant experience, and each couple gets to pick one to try out as a possible third for their relationship. (If you think this sounds kind of strange and possibly a little unfair to the single person, that does come up.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1_YG-EKIQU\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I want to make clear that there is nothing inherently salacious about polyamory. There are plenty of people who make it work. So when I say the show is joyfully trashy, that’s because of the show, not the relationship structure. After all, you can make joyfully trashy shows about couples, too. There’s also nothing particularly new about the throuple life \u003cem>if \u003c/em>you happen to know people who do it or have tried it, which an increasing number of us do. But at least it’s new mess. Different mess. Mess that makes you go, “Oh, yikes, that’s tricky.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first thing that experienced polyamorous people will tell you, I have learned, is that it requires a lot of work and communication. There are people who go into it — or who just think about it — imagining, “Whee, this must be a no-strings-attached sex festival!” But my first thought after watching two episodes was, “This seems like a relationship structure perfect for people who like to attend a lot of meetings.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13951751']Even on dating shows, I have rarely seen this much \u003cem>talking about the relationship\u003c/em>. Does the third like both of the people in the couple equally? Do both people in the couple like the third equally? Do these people connect physically but those people emotionally? What are the reasonable expectations of the potential third?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Familiar dynamics take on new specifics, as when the couples do an exercise with their potential thirds where one partner engages in sexier and sexier contact with the third, and the other sees how long they’re comfortable before they say the safe word to put a stop to it. In one couple, an argument breaks out in which the partner who was watching later gets mad and basically says, “The question isn’t why I didn’t use the safe word if I was getting upset, the question is why \u003cem>you \u003c/em>didn’t use the safe word when you should have \u003cem>known\u003c/em> I was getting upset.” You gotta think that level of expected mind-reading is going to make a throuple arrangement very, very difficult — as it would a couple arrangement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952554\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952554\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-20-at-8.22.39-AM.png\" alt=\"Two men stand in a tropical looking resort, both wearing white shirts and pants, both looking serious.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"738\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-20-at-8.22.39-AM.png 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-20-at-8.22.39-AM-800x492.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-20-at-8.22.39-AM-1020x627.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-20-at-8.22.39-AM-160x98.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-20-at-8.22.39-AM-768x472.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ashmal, left, and Rehman in the ‘Boundaries’ episode of ‘Couple to Throuple.’ \u003ccite>(Paul Castillero/ Peacock)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There are also some intriguing power shifts where at first, the thirds seem to be trying to put their best feet forward to be “chosen” by the couples, and then trying to impress them, but then before you know it, some of the thirds are sort of looking around saying, “Uh, it was nice knowing you guys.” Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug; sometimes you’re the pursuer, and sometimes you’re the pursued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a mess. I will watch it all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>*I apologize for using the word “swelling” in a discussion of dating shows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This piece also appeared in NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter. \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/newsletter/pop-culture\">\u003cem>Sign up for the newsletter\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> so you don’t miss the next one, plus get weekly recommendations about what’s making us happy.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour on \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"http://n.pr/3xNgYt9\">\u003cem>Apple Podcasts\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"http://n.pr/3ELR3n6\">\u003cem>Spotify\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\">visit NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Two%27s+company%2C+three%27s+allowed+in+the+dating+show+%27Couple+to+Throuple%27&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The only reasons people watch dating shows, really, are sex and mess.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dating shows have been around for ages, swelling* when there’s a big success like \u003cem>The Bachelor \u003c/em>or \u003cem>Joe Millionaire \u003c/em>or \u003cem>Love Is Blind\u003c/em>. But they take all kinds of different shapes — it’s a test to see if you’ll cheat, or there’s a chance the person is ugly, or you have to get married, or whatever. They certainly have wildly varying levels of sex. \u003cem>The Bachelor \u003c/em>takes a kind of “and then the door closes and the music plays and you definitely do not even hear anybody making any noises,” while some other shows will give you considerably more than that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>They all have mess, too. Not just mess, but messy messy mess. As I was telling a friend this week, Peacock’s \u003cem>Couple to Throuple \u003c/em>is really just more mess (and it’s on the high end for the amount of sex you’ll see), and in that sense it’s very conventional. But at least it’s a different \u003cem>kind\u003c/em> of mess than most other shows offer, particularly on mainstream outlets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The setup is this: Four couples arrive at a resort. A bunch of single people also show up. Each couple is interested in potentially exploring a throuple, which (for the uninitiated) is an awkward portman-ménage-à-teau for an ongoing relationship among three people. Three of the couples include a man and a woman: Brittne and Sean, Dylan and Lauren, and Wilder and Corey. The other is two men, Rehman and Ashmal. All of the couples have some experience with experimentation with other people, but not in this kind of throuple arrangement. The show brings in some single people, all of whom also have some relevant experience, and each couple gets to pick one to try out as a possible third for their relationship. (If you think this sounds kind of strange and possibly a little unfair to the single person, that does come up.)\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/C1_YG-EKIQU'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/C1_YG-EKIQU'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I want to make clear that there is nothing inherently salacious about polyamory. There are plenty of people who make it work. So when I say the show is joyfully trashy, that’s because of the show, not the relationship structure. After all, you can make joyfully trashy shows about couples, too. There’s also nothing particularly new about the throuple life \u003cem>if \u003c/em>you happen to know people who do it or have tried it, which an increasing number of us do. But at least it’s new mess. Different mess. Mess that makes you go, “Oh, yikes, that’s tricky.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first thing that experienced polyamorous people will tell you, I have learned, is that it requires a lot of work and communication. There are people who go into it — or who just think about it — imagining, “Whee, this must be a no-strings-attached sex festival!” But my first thought after watching two episodes was, “This seems like a relationship structure perfect for people who like to attend a lot of meetings.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Even on dating shows, I have rarely seen this much \u003cem>talking about the relationship\u003c/em>. Does the third like both of the people in the couple equally? Do both people in the couple like the third equally? Do these people connect physically but those people emotionally? What are the reasonable expectations of the potential third?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Familiar dynamics take on new specifics, as when the couples do an exercise with their potential thirds where one partner engages in sexier and sexier contact with the third, and the other sees how long they’re comfortable before they say the safe word to put a stop to it. In one couple, an argument breaks out in which the partner who was watching later gets mad and basically says, “The question isn’t why I didn’t use the safe word if I was getting upset, the question is why \u003cem>you \u003c/em>didn’t use the safe word when you should have \u003cem>known\u003c/em> I was getting upset.” You gotta think that level of expected mind-reading is going to make a throuple arrangement very, very difficult — as it would a couple arrangement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952554\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952554\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-20-at-8.22.39-AM.png\" alt=\"Two men stand in a tropical looking resort, both wearing white shirts and pants, both looking serious.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"738\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-20-at-8.22.39-AM.png 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-20-at-8.22.39-AM-800x492.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-20-at-8.22.39-AM-1020x627.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-20-at-8.22.39-AM-160x98.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-20-at-8.22.39-AM-768x472.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ashmal, left, and Rehman in the ‘Boundaries’ episode of ‘Couple to Throuple.’ \u003ccite>(Paul Castillero/ Peacock)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There are also some intriguing power shifts where at first, the thirds seem to be trying to put their best feet forward to be “chosen” by the couples, and then trying to impress them, but then before you know it, some of the thirds are sort of looking around saying, “Uh, it was nice knowing you guys.” Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug; sometimes you’re the pursuer, and sometimes you’re the pursued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a mess. I will watch it all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>*I apologize for using the word “swelling” in a discussion of dating shows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This piece also appeared in NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter. \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/newsletter/pop-culture\">\u003cem>Sign up for the newsletter\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> so you don’t miss the next one, plus get weekly recommendations about what’s making us happy.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour on \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"http://n.pr/3xNgYt9\">\u003cem>Apple Podcasts\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"http://n.pr/3ELR3n6\">\u003cem>Spotify\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\">visit NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Two%27s+company%2C+three%27s+allowed+in+the+dating+show+%27Couple+to+Throuple%27&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"possible": {
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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},
"radiolab": {
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"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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"reveal": {
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"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
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},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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"userAccountReducer": {
"user": {
"email": null,
"emailStatus": "EMAIL_UNVALIDATED",
"loggedStatus": "LOGGED_OUT",
"loggingChecked": false,
"articles": [],
"firstName": null,
"lastName": null,
"phoneNumber": null,
"fetchingMembership": false,
"membershipError": false,
"memberships": [
{
"id": null,
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"lastName": null,
"familyNumber": null,
"memberNumber": null,
"memberSince": null,
"expirationDate": null,
"pfsEligible": false,
"isSustaining": false,
"membershipLevel": "Prospect",
"membershipStatus": "Non Member",
"lastGiftDate": null,
"renewalDate": null,
"lastDonationAmount": null
}
]
},
"authModal": {
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"view": "LANDING_VIEW"
},
"error": null
},
"youthMediaReducer": {},
"checkPleaseReducer": {
"filterData": {},
"restaurantData": []
},
"location": {
"pathname": "/arts/tag/reality-tv",
"previousPathname": "/"
}
}
