With world leaders taking their cues from the tropes of reality telly this year – from Theresa May creakily dancing around like a dusty cadaver on Britain's Got Talent to Donald Trump helping us all believe we are stuck in some sort of doomsday Apprentice Matrix – reality telly in 2018 has started to cautiously move in a different direction. The unnecessary nastiness and toxic behaviour that viewers have normally relished is becoming a turn-off – this year finally saw the end of Big Brother, after it turned into the uninvited guest that refused to leave, and humiliation game-show The X Factor has lost its iron grip on its prime-time audience, haemorrhaging viewers with each wink of Cowell's tiny, coal-like eyes.
Not only are people struggling with the trauma that rolling news vomits up daily, but the fictional television they are binging on is injected with dark, complex themes where any glimmers of hope are squashed under a jackboot of nihilism. In 2018 the reality shows that have been most popular and most effective have been escapist. They are now an act of self-care; yes, ironically they have become a sanctuary from the grimness of real life.
This year has seen reality television have a psychological breakthrough where kindness and vulnerability have become the most celebrated attributes of the best shows of 2018. The love-bomb that is Netflix's Queer Eye – which gifted its down-trodden subjects with self-respect and positivity, with the irrepressible Fab Five displaying a touching humanity and pathos that has been desperately lacking from our screens – became a salve for weary souls. Then there was the surprise win for the dazzling drag queen Courtney Act (Shane Jenek) in the first Celebrity Big Brother of the year, defeating the drab lads and their redundant banter and filling nightly prime-time TV with conversations about inclusion, gender-fluidity, intersectionality and LGBT history delivered with her trademark wit and whip-sharp humour.
Home-grown hit
The home-grown hit of 2018 was Ireland's Got Talent. What it lacked in dancing dogs it made up for in spirited performances, with body-bending dancer Zacc Milne showcasing the best of modern Ireland, and singing granny Evelyn Williams becoming the nation's sweetheart. With its well-chosen judges featuring Michelle Visage and a permanently bemused Jason Byrne, it managed to breathe new life into a withered format, its good natured, giddy tone moving it away from its laboured, noxious British counterpart. It was all the fun of Ireland's traditional parlour party pieces beamed into your living room. The Irish incarnations of First Dates and Gogglebox also wielded easy comedy, as idiosyncratic behaviour and irreverent humour transformed the franchises into their own separate entities.
RuPaul's Drag Race served a double whammy with its 10th series following straight after the trauma of All Stars 3. Workhorse queen Shangela may have had her moment of RuDemption, but after being denied the chance to snatch the crown, the cruel additional twists to the show made it feel slightly craven and less enjoyable than usual. Coupled with the explosive race arguments on the series, it was a bumpy year for Mama Ru, although, with her popularity and mainstream presence having grown to match the size of her lace-front wigs, it could be to the detriment of the once flawless, sickening show.
Love Island lessons
As the summer arrived so did the aggressive hardbodies of Love Island which has pumped up its popularity to match the inflated chests, lips and abs of its inhabitants. This year World Cup-sized audiences watched a simple pen-salesman woo Danny Dyer's daughter with talk of Greggs steak slices and trips to Wetherspoon, as the Instagram-primed hunks and honeys preened around them, proving once again that viewers are more comfortable with recognisable and relatable as they crowned the more conservative, conventional couple the winners. Not without its controversy relating to its enduring body-fascism, disappointing lack of diversity and dim-witted bro-code, it sparked real conversations and earnest debates spanning beyond the conclave of the social media echo chamber. The show unwittingly becoming a guide – for young women especially – on how to recognise gaslighting and malignant attitudes of modern young men towards women. Proving you can never have too much of a good thing, the islanders return for a winter special.
With any luck, 2018 will end with the gentle soul that is Harry Redknapp being crowned King of the Jungle by a bumbling Mr Blobby and the industrious, magnetic Stacey Dooley twirling off with the glitterball on Strictly, proving that sometimes reality doesn't have to be so harsh.
