Spotlight on reality TV
This week’s podcasts include a probe into the dark side of one small-screen genre; a post-apocalyptic drama, and we revisit celeb chef’s popular series
EDGE OF REALITY
When former Love Island contestants Sophie Gradon and Mike Thalassitis took their own lives after appearing on the show, it moved many viewers to consider the morality of a TV genre that some argue has often favoured ratings over its participants’ wellbeing.
Yet they were actually two of a long line of former reality TV contestants – more than 40 across the globe – to have turned to suicide.
Journalist Jacques Peretti investigates and exposes the dark side of reality TV of which many of us tuning in each night are unconsciously complicit.
Suicide has dogged the genre since the first person voted off the first show of its kind – Sweden’s Expedition Robinson in 1997 – took his own life before the series was even aired.
In this meticulously researched podcast, Peretti speaks to contestants, producers and industry insiders as well as to those friends and family members left behind.
He reveals the economic decisions that led to the explosion of programmes such as Big Brother and Survivor on our screens, always keeping the contestants at the heart of his story.
WHERE TO START: This Audible exclusive features many triggering subjects so play the trailer to ensure you are comfortable listening.
OUTLIERS
Lesser-known Culkin brother Rory narrates this post-apocalyptic story about a teenager known only as ‘Boy’ and his adopted ‘Da’ surviving together in a compound, with no electricity or tech, protected against a race of ‘Outliers’ with lavender skin, no ears and a taste for flesh.
The single narrator means we don’t hear any other sides to the story, which fits nicely with the theme that people’s accounts can’t be trusted.
Culkin is convincing as Boy, whose understanding of the world and sense of morality comes from books scavenged from ruined homes. Then he meets ‘Girl’, an Outlier, and his reality shifts.
WHERE TO START:
Episode one in which we are introduced to Boy and Da who are potentially the only