Hardcore Heartbreak:
Everything isn't always what is Seems
Catfish: the TV Show is an American reality television show based off the documentary film named Catfish. A "catfish," is a person who creates fake personal profiles on social media sites using other people's identities and pretend to be them. They trick unsuspecting men and women into falling in love with them only to ultimately end up breaking their hearts. It airs on the network MTV and it’s based on the dangers of online dating. Episodes are usually about an hour long and consist of drama filled with lies and deception throughout. Every single episode starts off the same with the hosts Nev and Max reading emails from people who are having trouble dating online. These men and women are usually dealing with people they have never physically met before but they have fallen in love with them through calls and texts. They only know what they look like according to images from social media. Once Nev and Max have chosen a person to help, they contact them through skype or facetime and try to get more info on the situation the person is going through. The next thing they do is travel to meet that person wherever they are.
After they have met the potential catfish victim, they will get to work on finding the person whom the victim has fallen in love with. They search meticulously through the web and social media to find the real identity of the suspect. They usually find info or people linked to the suspect and try to make contact with them to hopefully gather clues to find the suspect. Sometimes they try to make contact with the suspicious person directly. Also, if the suspect is using the image of someone else as their likeness they will contact that person to see if they give them any clues as to who the catfish is. Once they gather all the information they can, they meet up with the victim and determine a location to meet the suspect. Once they get to the meet up location, the big reveal is made. The catfish reveals their true identity to the victim. This reveal usually leaves the victims in shock because majority of the time people aren't who they say they are. They pretend to be someone else and the truth is exposed leaving people heartbroken. After the encounter most of these people vow not to be in contact with each other ever again, but on rare occasions some remain friends, and then there is that ultra rare occasion when they actually become a couple. The show ends every time by Nev and Max contacting the people involved and updating us on their relationship about a month later.
There are many reasons to watch and things to learn from this show. This show features the entertainment aspects that viewers come to expect from any episode of reality television. Strangers are brought on every episode and asked to let the show dive headfirst into the relationships of their personal lives. The "amateur status," which June Deery discusses in the Reality TV chapters we read for class, of each new featured cast is stressed in every episode as they talk about their lives and how everything led up to them being on the show. The stories featured in the show make you question the choices people make and lead you to want more and more, by giving you cliffhangers before every commercial. Every episode features a character that as the story unfolds true emotions show and the viewer gets a sense of those feelings inside themselves which leads them to watch as well.This show can really teach you how stressful it can be in the dating world to find someone who is for you, and how even more difficult it is to do that on the internet.
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| Nev and Max consulting a catfish victim |
This show truly stresses the realities of online dating and teaches you how you should go about navigating the online dating world. Personally I have learned that dating the conventional way is much easier and less stressful in person, but the people featured in this show have their reasons like a fear of dating in person or real life, or just something as simple as a lack of time. It shows the highs and lows that come with every relationship. The show teaches a lesson and the people who are featured on it learn that lesson the hard way. The show teaches how you must be careful when you fall in love with a profile because everything isn't always what is seems. You could think you are talking to the love of your life but that could be a complete and total lie. People are more likely to and feel more comfortable to lie when there is no face to face communication. This leads the people of this show go through major heartaches sometimes and you get to see how they cope with that in every episode. In every episode you learn how you should go about online dating by checking sources and references you may have but for some reason even though people say they watch the show they still somehow end up on it. Maybe they want to be on tv, or maybe they want to find out if the person they met is real or not.
Even though Catfish may send off the message that it is all about the "trust no one," vibe, at the end of the day Catfish is all about finding love. The men and women who result as catfish victims always believe that they have found that special someone that makes everything in the world make sense. They usually end up finding that makes it even more confusing than it already is. I've learned more about what love is from watching this show. I learned that love is more than just an emotional connection, it must be a physical and mental connection to be true. Every episode someone thinks that they have found the feeling of love but they ultimately end up with the idea of love because they are left with a profile of a person that they thought they loved. These ideas lead us to question does love exist, but it does and once you truly find it you should never let it go.
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| Max and Nev cracking a case |
Catfish the TV show offers some great entertainment with real life connections and teaches some very, very important lessons on online dating. From the prosecution of the catfish to the actual confrontation, episodes are jam packed with entertainment and emotion. This show has been the leading force behind the movement to get people stop catfish-ing others and become true to themselves. Do not fall in love with a question mark.
Works Cited
Deery, June. Reality TV. Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2015.
Martin, Denise Vulture Magazine. http://www.vulture.com/2014/05/catfish-mtv-casting-production-process.html
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