written by Tania on 15/10/2007
Well I can't say I'm the biggest fan of Mr Kyle, as a member of the working population I feel that there are better things to do with a morning off than sit and watch people air their dirty laundry in public. However, when I received an invite for a free afternoon of live Kyle action, I just couldn't turn it down.
Now good old Jeremy has received a bit of bad press recently, his show has been criticised as 'human bear bating' by a judge, labelled trash and branded inappropriate by it's government backed sponsors Learndirect. To be completely honest, it's not hard to see why.
So first up, as a live audience we get a briefing from a crew member barely out of school. Here we are introduced to todays stories, told to react to anything and encouraged to make comments. Next, Jezza himself does a bit of a warm up, here you can't help but question the sincerity of this host when he jokes along and even makes cheeky comments at some of the audience.
Next the show itself; we're introduced to a woman who's daughter is in a destructive and somewhat violent relationship, however on meeting said daughter and boyfriend, your left wondering who is the lesser of two evils. Next a lady who wants to prove who the dad of her baby is, and lastly a woman accusing her poor husband, a man who clearly didn't want to be there, of cheating with a secret phone that he'd supposedly been hiding in the cushions.
This is ultimately an entertainment show, where lets say, the less affluent are brought on stage to cause havoc, all under the guise of a therapy style chat show where guests come along to resolve issues. These are issues that are often sensational, hyped up and sometimes even ridiculously trivial to any outsiders. But instead of resolving, there just seems to be more arguing and Kyle's input is not that of assistance, but rather provocation as he shouts down, patronises and sometimes even ridicules his guests. The shows producers may argue that this is a no nonsense approach to helping people by telling it like it is; which is feasible but personally I feel it is simply to create more sensation.
Whatever the point of the show is, one cannot argue that all of this makes successful television, and why? Because looking in on the lives of others and casting judgment makes the rest of us feel better about ourselves. Where I personally don't feel that the show has any other real purpose than to excite people who haven't got anything better to do, I have to admit that I was drawn to the show for this very reason.
All in all, I don't necessarily agree with the idea of the show as a therapy show, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't mildly entertained by it.