The genre of reality television is my new vice. (If you watch network TV, what option do you have?) Tonight’s entry, Amish in the City had the makings of something tawdry and insulting.
What happened? I was as good a model for exploring differing worldviews in microcosm that TV is likely to produce, and for your (first) hour’s viewing you get.
- insight on how a consumer society can deeply threaten the fabric of traditional societies.
- a notion on how re-entrenchment is an understandable, but fruitless, response by some traditionalists.
- evidence of how clueless “consumerists” (as a value-neutral term for what we are) are (or at least can be) in appreciating other cultures
A more riviting series might be Taliban in the City – but that’s more Fox’s schtick. Until then, you can catch a repeat of the first episode, on UPN, this Friday.