Reality TV: Breaking Bonaduce
The reality show I watched was the premiere episode of the second season of Breaking Bonaduce. The show chronicles the relationship between Danny Bonaduce, and his wife Gretchen. Last season Dany was drunk, high, and 'roided up. He went to rehab, and hopefully got his marriage back on track. This episode mostly featured Danny's trip to Mexico, but recaped many off the events of the first season. The highlight being when Danny is enraged that his wife is attending a bachelorette party with male strippers. This is extremely hypocritical, as in addition to the drugs and booze, Danny is also a sex addict, and has cheated on her in the past.
The gaze is used a lot in a scene where they recap Danny almost cheating on his wife the last season. The camera travels around a bar lingering on nearly every scantily clad woman. It is so over the top that for most of the girls you never see their face. The camera pans up and down focusing on their legs and breasts.
Breaking Bonaduce is part of VH-1's Celebreality group of shows. Like most of these shows it was heavily influenced by shows like The Osbournes, and The Surreal Life. These shows are really at their best when the people are acting nuts. At this point these shows are so commonplace on TV, that the crazy antics on all the shows often times seem like performance.
The crazy antics are also lacking in this episode. The second half of the program showed brief clips of how crazy Danny will be in the future episodes. In these scenes Danny is tossed out of the house, only to have Gretchen bring him back. The show portray's Gretchen as a victim of Danny's overbearing personality. This is highlighted in the scene that concludes the show where she and their therapist gang up on Danny for being nuts. I don't know if he ever hit her, but Gretchen seems to have battered wives syndrome, she keeps going on with this loser. I wonder if it is all performance on both their parts. Gretchen plays the part well. The audience sympathy is with her, but why should it be? Clearly it is in her best interest financially to stay with him, the reality show is produced by both of them, and the show only works if he has something to go crazy about (her).
I woulld say that overall that the show does not portray women in the best light. They are either seen as sex objects, or with Gretchen as an almost willing victim in what appears to be an awful marriage.