Newlyweds- the Nightingales of the Nighttime Reality

¶ … Newlyweds"- the Nightingales of the Nighttime Reality TV Airwaves? Or Nightmares? Or Something in Between?

It's easy to mock reality TV as a unified class of shows -- often, all reality TV seems to blend together in a blur absurd catchphrases like 'you're fired,' on "The Apprentice," with contrived situations like the tribal meetings of "Survivor." But while most of reality TV is hardly what one would call elevating entertainment for the mind and spirit, all reality TV is not created alike. Rather, "The Newlyweds" provide at least one crucial cultural function -- it demystifies the life of rock stars and demystifies the marriage of the attractive pop stars Jessica and Nick. The show suggests that even attractive and glamorous singers, as opposed to Ozzy Osborne, have problems in their daily lives -- and ordinary ones at that, unlike Osborne's struggles will illness and drugs.

Unlike "A Hard Day's Night," Jessica Simpson and her beloved Nick are seen warts and all, unscripted and raw, rather than full of catchphrases and witty retorts. The couple fights over Jessica's clutter, and they spat over the same things other couples find irritating about living together. Beauty, fame, money, and possessing a marketable talent (even if a viewer thinks the last is debatable) are no protection against the grind of developing a relationship in the same space.

Relationships are tricky, and dual careers are stressful. No one needs to create challenges for Jessica and Nick, there are no Donald Trump-like puppeteers pulling their emotional strings or devising challenges -- simply living with another human being is challenge enough, the show suggests. Additionally, even individuals involved in nonromantic relationships can learn from the show. Anyone who has ever been paired with a congenitally neat roommate who is a slob at heart, or vice versa can sympathize with the couple's fights. Living with a person, the show teaches, is different from merely spending time with someone. It draws forth a different set of emotional resources. Unlike shows that merely show the crafted personas and the conspicuous consumption of the rich and famous, implicitly asking the audience to aspire to be like the objects of the series, to be like these individuals, "The Newlyweds" suggests that indeed, the rich and famous are not objects of desire or covetousness, they are like us -- perhaps not in appearance, but certainly in their emotional stability and resilience when negotiating the closeness of space and emotions in a marriage.