It seems extremism in all shapes and forms is permeating so many aspects of our lives these days; aside from the everyday worries of horrendous working hours and fanatical dieting, it has also got something of a stranglehold on entertainment. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not for one minute your pipe-and-slippers type, but forgive me for thinking that watching pranksters throwing themselves down flights of concrete steps on snowboards and people voluntarily hoisting themselves into small glass boxes and starving themselves for weeks is getting just a little bit wearying. The latest addition to the ranks of those who will seemingly do anything to get on television is the cast of yet another reality show, Channel 4’s Shattered. Bereft of the brain-splattering possibilities of Derren Brown’s Russian Roulette set-piece, the producers obviously thought they still had a cunning gimmick to save this one from mediocrity. Not only were the contestants the usual mixed bag of urban innocents and serial killers in-the-making we have come to expect from such shows, they were also prohibited from sleep for eight days and seven nights. But what could have been an intriguing and informative psychological documentary was dumbed-down into a second-rate game show. As if the likes of Big Brother hadn’t sent us into enough of a stupor, we now got to watch a few lacklustre Joe Publics yawning at each other every night. Hardly extreme enough to grab an audience.Then again, what would? Obvious ethical barriers prevent human subjects from participating in the kinds of experiments conducted on animals that would provide the high-risk hit we're assumed to crave. One test by scientists from the University of Chicago deprived rats of sleep by placing them on a wheel above a pool of water; if they tried to rat-nap, the wheel was turned and they would have to walk in order to stay on it. After two weeks, the sleep-famished rats mysteriously died. Although two episodes of Shattered later, I felt like doing the same – surely just a strange coincidence. The issue here, though, is not that the multiplying breed of programmes centred on extreme stamina and crazy feats needs to be made more intense to draw audiences; they need to be completely replaced. The format thrives on its ability to offer something unusual, but there has been such a flock to shock in the media recently that people are simply becoming numb to it. As a novelty, people doing crazy stunts for exorbitant cash wasn’t a bad idea; natural human curiosity (or was it voyeurism?) made sure the first batch of these offerings succeeded. But we’ve already seen how the ratings dropped when Big Brotherdecided to cash-in with yet another series, and how badly Jackass: The Movie flopped – the more we see people trying to reach those elusive “extremes,” the more it becomes run-of-the-mill. And for many of us, Fear Factor’s idea of making people hurl themselves between speedboats at full pelt before force-feeding them maggots is hardly great entertainment. Hopefully, plummeting interest in most other TV-endorsed extreme stunts should persuade the hyperactive commissioning bods to can the tedium and take a valium. Would you be content with watching a blue movie instead of doing the real thing? Thought not. So why watch others having all the fun? Snowboarding, parachuting, bungee-jumping; whatever takes your fancy, get the rush firsthand. But better, if you can’t join them, beat them. My award goes to the punter who, having obviously heard of nothing more ridiculous than starving yourself in a box over the Thames, hovered a remote-controlled helicopter/Big Mac combination outside Blaine’s box. In a truly British welcome, our favourite mad magician was made to endure not only this airborne temptation but also the usual projectile eggs, tomatoes, Paul McCartney insults and the lure of a burger van parked directly beneath him, replete with the smell of freshlycooked hotdogs.His girlfriend complained that the New York public “gave Blaine peace” when he pulled a similar stunt in the
States. What can I say? They also lap up Jackass…Archive: 0th week HT 2004
Balk at the Wild Side
