Management and I have been huge fans of the Houses series on PBS and when we heard about Texas Ranch House premiering May 1st we just about did a little jig of joy. It has been two years since Colonial House, which kept us junked out with its quasi-educational format replete with reality show drama even though it lacked the bat-shit insane individuals and post-show divorce proceedings like Frontier House. Well, actually the professors from Colonial House were certifiable, especially the wife, and gave a sobering look at how people who spend their lives mired in the politics of tenure act in the world at large.

The Houses series are a fascinating look into how far we have come in terms of technology and how those conveniences have changed us socially and culturally. The British show 1940s House really hammered that home when the family, lacking the foresight with regards to what “lean times” could mean gave away all their rabbits which proved to be disastrous as it was to be their only source of fresh meat in the months to come. Understandably, they viewed the rabbits as pets and could not bear with the thought of killing and eating them, a sign of how far we as individuals have removed ourselves from the food chain. Though, I think what complicated it further for the family was that they spent their months straddling the two worlds, one of sacrifice some 60 years in the past and the other of quick fixes and plenty of today.

In contrast to the BBC counterparts, the PBS produced shows find the participants isolated from society at large. Interaction with the nearby communities is discouraged and the producers often try to locate the production in remote areas: wilderness of Montana and the rough coast of Down East Maine. That isolation helps put the participants into the role they are to play by forcing the focus on the immediate tasks at hand be it building a house or trying to coax crops from a thin rocky soil. Additionally, the work and isolation help strip away the artifices that we cover ourselves in and often near the end of the project the real person begins to emerge for good and for bad and it is that which makes it such fascinating television.

Most reality shows are a competition, each individual is striving for a prize be it money or fame it still remains a race. PBS and BBC spin on the reality show are not competitions between individuals, though at times the circumstances and differing values and beliefs can pit one persona against another. The goal is just to survive the project and working together is the best way to achieve that which immediately makes it more interesting than all the elimination challenges in the world.  Now, if only I had the cajones to sign up for one of these projects.

Tags: Cool, Television

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