How to Appreciate Reality TV Without Becoming a Superfan
Ali Barthwell argues that the way into reality television isn’t bingeing every clip — it’s bringing outside cultural knowledge and curiosity to the shows themselves.
Useful takeaways from this story.
A useful way to approach a show is to ask “Recommended if you like…” and map it to films, novels, or themes you already know.
A critic’s toolkit — comedy training, pop-culture literacy, and broad reading — makes it easier to spot connections between reality TV and larger social narratives.
Ali Barthwell has written recaps of The Bachelor for Vulture for more than a decade, but she revealed she hadn't actually watched the show before she began recapping it. Early on she relied on a friend's quick catch-up moments to avoid embarrassing herself. That anecdote frames her larger point: you can enter reality-TV conversations without exhaustive prior knowledge.
The real secret to enjoying reality TV
Barthwell's guiding idea is straightforward: the secret to understanding reality TV is not absorbing every scrap of related content. It's appreciating "everything else" — the wider cultural, cinematic, and literary references that give these shows texture. Instead of treating reality TV as an isolated category, treat it as a node in a broader cultural map.
In her book Reality TV for Snobs, Barthwell includes a "Recommended If You Like …" line before each essay. Those short comparisons are designed to communicate a show's mood and appeal more effectively than plot summaries. Examples she uses in the essay:
- Top Chef: recommended for fans of films like Big Night and Uncut Gems, and people who read Yelp reviews obsessively — this signals food drama plus high-stakes intensity.
- Real Housewives franchise: placed near Big Little Lies, White Lotus, and Girls Trip to capture overlapping themes of beauty, aging, and interpersonal melodrama.
These specific pairings help readers decide which reality shows will resonate with their existing tastes.
- Pick a show and think of two cultural touchstones (a movie, a novel, a genre) that capture its tone.
- Watch key episodes or seasons that define a franchise's identity rather than trying to consume every spin-off and clip.
- Treat discovery as social: if someone offers to start you on a show, accept — the first-watch experience carries cultural value.
Barthwell references fandom touchstones and memorable arcs — the Chris Soules season of The Bachelor, Andi's self-elimination versus Juan Pablo, Vanderpump Rules' major plot beats, and the Scandoval storyline — as examples of what hooks viewers and generates communal enthusiasm.
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