#Ask Jaquie

Jaquie Brown has a confession to make about her television viewing habits.

Reality TV is good for your health. Stay with me, I’ll come back to my scientific (made up) reasons for this statement in a moment. You may choose to disagree with me but whatever you think, don’t overthink it, that’s my motto this week.

There was a time in my life where I’d hide my TV viewing truth, hoping I’d appear smart or cultured by my choices. ‘‘Mainly I just watch British documentaries about the environment and the occasional political piece if I’m feeling frisky’’. Lies Brown, all lies. In the same way I’ve pretended to like Justin Bieber ironically, but the truth is his lady face and awesome pop hits give me life.

So, while I love watching good-quality drama or comedy or anything zombierelated, I am not ashamed to say that reality TV is the wind beneath my wings.

I’m currently watching Married at First Sight – the social experiment where couples meet for the first time on their wedding day. I love that there is always a fugly dude that nobody fancies who turns out to be the star of the show because he has a winning personality. I always relate to that dude and feel his struggles.

There is a reason for this show, finding ‘‘true love’’ and it’s backed up by compatibility science, don’t forget the science. I figure it’s fine to enjoy this.

In the same way I enjoy The Block; they are building houses and making them handsome inside, and MasterChef; they make chocolate domes and cauliflower foam. Foam! From a cauliflower!

It’s reality TV with a reason. Good things come from it, you could say.

So it was with trepidation this week that I tuned in to the hotly anticipated Real Housewives of Auckland. A show that doesn’t fit my reality TV criterion because there is no reason for it at all, just rich housewives eating and drinking.

My friends had various opinions on it, ranging from hating it and thinking it was a glitzy shameful car crash to loving it and thinking it was glitzy shameful car crash.

I totally agreed, two eps in and I’m hooked.

Here’s why, it’s pure escapism. It’s not real, of course it’s not, I’m sure the Housewives are fed lines and prodded to go in various directions to create those glorious ‘‘I can’t believe she just said that’’ moments, but I don’t care and I’m not going to overthink it.

After a day of routine and chores, I don’t have a lot of fight left in me. Give me some glitz ‘n’ glam, give me something I don’t have to think about, give me lives totally different to mine and people that pull imaginary swords out of people’s guts for hundreds of dollars. Let me sit on the couch and judge and giggle. Let me be dumbed down, because honestly, I quite like it.

Give me some glitz ‘n’ glam, give me something I don’t have to think about.