Television shows

Twenty years ago, when The Real World first aired on MTV, it would have been hard to guess exactly how much influence reality television would have on American audiences. Reality television gives viewers a window into worlds that they would never be exposed to, along with people to root for, and people to hate, while knowing that these characters are “real.” They are not characters that audiences fall in love with, only to find out what a jerk the actor is in real life. They can see the people we are meant to love and hate, and have the satisfaction of knowing that we are judging them as people and not simply as characters.

Poverty, alcoholism, and parental negligence; sounds more like the plot of a depressing lifetime movie than of Showtime’s latest breakout dramedy. On TV’s Shameless, the Gallagher family accepts these issues as simply the way things are. And they do so with good humor.