The New Reality TV
Many of 2016’s freshmen shows went out of their way to reflect the world not as audiences might wish it to be, but as it really is.
“Reality seems tired. It seems derivative,” a former network executive told Vulture in 2015. “There hasn’t been a really loud, innovative reality show in a while.”
The executive was correct, unless you consider television’s fictions—which, in 2016, became more realistic than ever. , on FX, : money., on ABC, found humor and heart in the details of living—and having a family member who is living—with cerebral palsy. , on NBC, portrayed its central family with sentimentalism, but also with a clear-eyed look examination of the tensions that can bedevil even the closest of families., on HBO, portrayed the ins and outs of friendship and romance in a way that was designed to hit, the show’s creator, Issa Rae, , “a
