Drama as reality TV

Télevision
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CULTURE
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DÉCOUVERTES
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ENJEUX
SOCIÉTÉ
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Drama as reality TV
EN DIRECT LIVE. En matière de télé-réalité vulgaire mettant en scène des post-ados délurés, les
Américains ont The Hills et Jersey Shore… et les Britanniques The Only Way Is Essex ! Cette série, qualifiée de « Big Brother en décors naturels », fait un carton outre-Manche. Son secret : des « personnages » choisis avec soin, et des scénarios dignes des meilleurs soaps brésiliens.
Drama as reality TV
La télé-réalité en vrai
freely librement, facilement / available disponible, accessible / not that you’d know it
vous ne le saviez peut-être pas / previously
auparavant / all-region toutes zones.
2. homecoming retour au bercail / roots
racines, origines / milestone jalon, repère,
ici événement historique, phénomène / play
(on words) jeu de mots / anthem chanson,
titre phare / to revile fustiger, vilipender /
pestilent nocif, nuisible, pernicieux / leading
principal, éminent.
3. channel chaîne / to apply appliquer /
conversion ici nouveaux adeptes, nouveaux
convertis / Snooki star de la télé-réalité américaine jouant dans Jersey Shore / to top out
plafonner / so far jusqu’à présent.
4. party promoter organisateur de soirées /
beautician esthéticienne / model mannequin
/ wealthy riche, huppé / suburban de banlieue (résidentielle) / precinct enceinte, ici
quartier / to border longer, être frontalier
avec.
5. clean-cut à l’apparence soignée, impeccable / to bear, bore, borne no resemblance
to ne ressembler en rien à / goombah
membre d’un gang / to be akin to s’apparenter à, ressembler à / publicist agent de
relations publiques, de publicité / intern stagiaire / actual vrai / to feature présenter,
mettre en scène / to spray tan mettre de l’autobronzant / to wax (s’)épiler (à la cire) /
jewelry (US)= jewellery (GB) bijoux.
6. to trace to (faire) remonter à, ici expliquer
/ to amp up amplifier / to tone down tempérer, modérer, atténuer / baldly abruptement / serial en série / dating rencontre(s),
rendez-vous, flirt(s) / cheating tromperies /
breaking up ruptures / breathless haletant
/ pace cadence, rythme / off screen hors écran
/ drunkenness ivresse /
24 • VOCABLE Du 15 au 28 décembre 2011
BY MIKE HALE
he most talked-about British television
show of the last year is now freely available in the United States – not that
you’d know it. Previously visible only to those
with all-region DVD or media players, “The
Only Way Is Essex” has made its U.S. premiere not on television but online at
Hulu.com, a victory for Internet video in its
guerrilla war against the TV industry.
2. Not that everyone would see the show’s
arrival here – a kind of homecoming, given
its roots in MTV reality spectacles like “The
Hills” and “Jersey Shore” – as a cultural milestone. “The Only Way Is Essex” (a play on the
show’s theme song, Yazz’s 1988 dance anthem “The Only Way Is Up”) has been reviled
in Britain as a pestilent example of depraved
New World values and a leading indicator of
the apocalypse.
3. Which didn’t stop its second season this
spring from exploding in “Jersey Shore” fashion, nearly doubling its audience on the ITV2
channel and reaching close to 1.9 million for
the season finale in May. Apply a populationconversion factor (multiply by five), and that’s
better than any episode of Snooki & Co.,
which has topped out so far at 8.9 million.
T
The show
4. So what is this 26 episodes monster
all about? (A third season began in Britain in
September.) In concept it’s totally familiar:
a reality show about a group of young party
promoters, club managers, beauticians and
“glamour models” in the wealthy, suburban
precincts of southwestern Essex County, bordering London.
5. These blond Essex girls and their cleancut boyfriends bear no resemblance to the
goombah caricatures of “Jersey Shore” –
i
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Some of the TOWIE
cast shining bright. (DR)
they’re more akin to the publicists and interns of “The Hills” and “The City,” except
that some of them appear to have actual jobs.
Yet they engage in the same Theater of Superficiality. Episode 1 features a woman being spray tanned; Episode 26 opens with a
man being waxed. Cosmetics, tattoos, jewelry, clothes, cars and Champagne are the
show’s oxygen.
6. The popularity of the series certainly can
be traced to the way it amps up the cliches
of the American friendship-reality shows. But
it also tones them down, presenting them
more baldly while maintaining a higher level
of decorum. Serial dating and cheating and
breaking up take place at a breathless pace,
with more clothes on and with actual sex
kept off screen. The drunkenness and sub-
Controversy
The show has been criticised for its negative representation of Essex, and there have been a
number of complaints to ITV2. Some Essex residents felt it was not a true representation of
the area and the people that live there. Kirk Norcross, a main cast member of TOWIE responded
to this criticism by saying, “We are all from Essex, so this is Essex. It’s not acting. It’s not like
they’ve got people from America and said ‘Right,
act like you think Essex is.’ We are Essex people
so what you’re watching is Essex”.
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selling point aspect of a product which makes
it attractive / shacker shack / swimming pool
place with water where people can swim .
J. striking noticeable / ta tune in to turn on,
ta happen ta tune in to turn it on by chance
/ ta surfto change channels quickly with the
remote control.
.. ta drop to abandon / pretense (US) = pretence (GB) false appearance / ta set, set, set
up to create / ta stage to arrange a theatrical
production / ta shoot, shat, shat to film / ta
light, lighted or lit to illuminate / shat cinematie take / ta wander thraugh to walk
through / extraneaus unnecessary, nonessential / ta remave to take away / frame
image.
sequent violence that are a selling point for
"Jersey Shore" are largely absent - it's a
shocker at the end ofSeason 2 when one of
the main characters pushes her boyfriend
into a swimming pool.
Real TV
7. The real difference of "Essex" is stylistic, and it's quite striking: lfit were on television and you happened to tune in while
channel surfing, you would not be able to
tell right away, and perhaps not for several
minutes, that you were watching a nonfiction show.
8. Dropping any pretense that the action has
been accidentally captured on camera - an
opening tiUe announces, "the people are all
real, although sorne ofwhat they do has been
set up purely for your entertainment" - "Essex" is staged, shot and lighted the way a
drama series is, from the multiple camera angles to the too-good-to-be-true reaction shots
to the choreographed entrances. No one wanders through a shot accidentally in "Essex."
Everything extraneous has been removed from
the frame, just as in fictional filmmaking.
9. More centrally, the beach-house dodge - ostentatiously creating an artificial environment
within which you then pretend that what's
happening is real - is dispensed with. The characters in "Essex" enact normal lives, ifwildly
shallow and materialistic ones, in such an obviously artificial way that you find yourself
not giving a moment's thought to what's real
and what isn't. Which somehow makes it seem
more authentic, rather than less.
10. That doesn't guarantee that it's entertaining, of course, but you probably know already whether it's the kind of show for you.
During the spray tanning, Amy the seductive cosmetician sees her friend Lauren's new
tattoo - the name "Mark," right at the bikini
line - and asks, "Is he going to get your name
on his bits?" Ifyou laugh, like 1 did, you've
passed the test. Or maybe you've failed. Either way, you'll probably enjoy the show . •
9. dadge artifice / ta pretend to fa ke / ta dispense with to take away, to get rid of / ta
enact to play / wildly extremely / shallaw
superficial / abviausly clearly / a mament's
thaught the slightest consideration / samehaw in a certain way.
10. casmetician person who works in a beauty
salon / bits genitals / ta pass to succeed / ta
fail to not succeed / either way whatever the
case.
SEJOURS LINGUISTIQUES
Du 15 au 28 décembre 2011 VOCABLE 25