Thursday, January 24, 2013

Catfish: The TV Show (2012)

Good morning!

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Boy oh boy-- confession time. I am a HUGE fan of tv shows that have an extensive full episode web presence. I don't have a cable subscription, and am always on the hunt for something I can marathon up online and hearken back to olden days with my college roommate, eating a pizza, breaking down the events of the night before ("I did WHAT? He said WHAT? Do you have my phone?"), and wishing away a hangover with consecutive episodes of Law and Order: SVU or Project Runway (Caroline, I miss you!). Last night, to celebrate the first meeting of the last class I'm taking for my master's degree, Matthew and I did get a pizza (a Whole Foods, vegan pizza, so it was less guilty than the Papa Johns of yore) and queue'd up a several episode spree of Catfish: The TV Show for our viewing pleasure. Now, I haven't watched an MTV property since sometime just before The Hills became "a thing", so I wasn't expecting much-- but I have to admit, I am ABSOLUTELY into this semi-reality-documentary type serial television event. Have you heard of it? Seen it?

WE. LOVE. THIS.

Host Nev Schulman was the subject of an independent documentary a few years back, also called Catfish, which dissected his own failed online romance as it happened. The girl he'd been chatting with in a call-you-everyday, check your email every five minutes, as-real-as-an-internet-only-romance-can-get turned out to be less of the city dwelling, freespirited, twenty-ish Leslie Mann lookalike she presented herself as online, and more of a suburban, middle aged, mother of two who bore no resemblance whatsoever to the photos of the woman Nev thought he'd been dating. Riveting, right? "If you're not who you say you are, then who are you?" is a question that makes for GOOD. DRAMA. on the big reveal of who the person really is and WHY they pretended to be someone else.

The show takes that idea and follows a person in an online relationship (sometimes for years!) with someone who they've never met in real life, and attempts to get them together with the person...in real life.

OH. NO. SHE. DID. NOT. (This one did not go so well) (Spoiler alert, almost none of them go well)


Wondering what the title means? According to Urban Dictionary: "A catfish is someone who pretends to be someone they're not using Facebook or other social media to create false identities, particularly to pursue deceptive online romances." Now, not all the people on Catfish: The TV Show are actually 100% not-who-they-say-they-are-- but I will tell you, every single one of them has SOME kind of deception going on or information that should have been disclosed in the interest of continuing their relationship. My thing is, ok, everyone in my general age group with access to the internet has probably had at least one friend or acquaintance or something that they've never met with in real life, that they also would correspond with on a regular basis. Right? Do you remember someone daring you to IM this one guy's friend that they know from working at Blockbuster or three way call this other guy who went to summer school with so and so's boyfriend, and you'd end up talking to them, haha, and see where that went? You might send an email back and forth in those pre-text message days, but you'd never get around to actually hanging out in real life. I understand the lure of "meeting people" on the internet-- but my question for you guys: wouldn't you actually have to MEET them after a certain period to call it a real relationship? I've internet dated, and successfully, in the past, but I only ever used the internet as a means to set up a real life meeting, not the basis around which to construct the entire context of the relationship. Am I wrong? Isn't that how it should ideally work?

These  guys'  insistent taste in glasses' frames aside, I like them pretty well as the singular voices of reason in the show.
Between this show, "Nice Guys of OkCupid", and Dateline,  and that whole Manti Te'o's dead fictional girlfriend, you really wouldn't think there were any normal people out there on the internet or people just freakin' not misrepresenting themselves on the internet out there! But I can't stop watching it. No joke, we watched like five episodes back to back, shouting at the TV "YOU KNOW THAT IS NOT HIS REAL PICTURE. HE DOES NOT LOOK LIKE THAT IN REAL LIFE." as a pretty, perfectly nice, if vulnerable exotic dancer in one episode shyly showed the picture of the guy she'd been talking to for a year. The guy in the (obviously professional modeling shots) picture ended up being a real person-- just not the real person she was talking to. UGH! THE FRUSTRATION OF THIS SHOW! She could have got a guy like that in real life, is the thing-- just as handsome and caring as the one she thought she was in a relationship with. The girl was attractive enough, and nice enough-- but ignoring warning bells of "this is too good to be true", she wasted a year of her life in something that wasn't even real. And I put the blame more squarely on the deceiving one than the deceived ..but STILL.

It reminds me of nothing so much as the people who come up to the help desk (I'm talking more than five) for help on the public computers, claiming a laptop or a $500 Walmart certificate or some speciously suspicious thing they've "just won". "I just need you to help me claim it after I answer these surveys, it says something about a credit card," one told me. Shouldn't there be public service announcements about this kind of stuff? Maybe someone, sometime, in the history of the internet, has won a laptop for nothing-- but I guarantee you a lot more people have laptops that just saved up money and went to the store and bought it. Ditto to a relationship with some supermodel looking guy-- what is the ratio, in internet dating, of urbane, smart, but lonely professional models to obese, homely, socially awkward, lying single dudes out there? Hint: it is way more likely that you are talking to someone who bears more in common to Harry Knowles than Harry Connick, Jr. in this whole internet crapshoot thing.

Picture at left usually looks more like picture at right if picture at left is submitted as profile pic. That's just science.
Am I just too susceptible to these feelings? Too harsh? Do I love crazy reality shows too much? Is that a crime? Watch the craziest episode I've seen (below) or check out the website links below that for more info. It's addictive, right?

                 

Have you ever had a strictly online relationship (especially in the late nineties'/early 2000's)? Did you ever go on a date with someone you met online? Are there humans out there on the internet, or are our online romance options in 2013 limited to attractive seeming bots? Let's talk! I'm all fired about this one.

That's all for today-- see you guys tomorrow for Photo Friday!

16 comments:

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    1. Right?! I was watching the first episode all "Well, I guess I'll give this a chance, it IS MTV though," and four episodes later I'm like "I NEED TO GO TO BED. BUT I NEED TO WATCH ANOTHER EPISODE." Compelling tv!

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  2. Normally, I try to stay away from MTV's "reality" shows, but this seems so much better than Jersey Shore. Alas, I have no scary internet-dating stories. Can't wait to see if your other readers have some juicy reminiscences.

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    1. Haha, they did not disappoint! I think MySpecialAgent's married, childful internet date takes the cake!

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  3. i NEED to see that show! i loooooooved the movie,a nd i'm so happy to know i can watch it online. I have met several people "in real life" after talking to them online (you included, obviously) and it has always gone well and we've had fun. it was never a date though. I knew a girl in college who had an entirely online relationship and i am pretty sure she was being lied too. but she was happy so whatever. i can't wait to watch this show when i get home from work!

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    1. Haha, that is true! I have had pretty good luck meeting blog people from online in person. Every online date I went on, I was like "I AM GOING. TO BE. ON DATELINE. My parents are going to be TALKING TO STONE PHILLIPS." but they always turned out fine! Tell me what you think after you see the show. ESPECIALLY the Jasmine and Mike one.

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    2. Whenever I would go on an internet date I always told my mom the dudes name, where we were going, and his number if I had it. That way if I ended up in a ditch they would know who to look at.

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  4. I absolutely obsess over this show. I was just watching the one today with the lady who said she was transgendered but wasn't. That one had horrible results. I've been on so many internet dates that it's not even funny! I met them all rather quickly - I even went out of state to meet two of them...could have TOTALLY been a Catfish type thing and I was a brave, brave lady. Most turned out fine but one was really scary. I still hide from that guy to this day. I'll have to tell you about it sometime....whew.

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    1. I couldn't get over that one! (Spoilers) I love how the dude was like "Oh, remember how I was acting like it was going to be all difficult to try a relationship with a transgendered person and how he'd never been with a biological male, etc, etc-- and now I'm TOTALLY NOT INTERESTED knowing that you're actually a woman?" I don't care if that one was scripted or whatever the comments allege-- THAT IS GOOD TV.

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  5. Confession time: In the early 2000's, I met a guy through Yahoo personals (when it was still free). We decided to meet after talking online and on the phone for a couple weeks. He had gained about 50 pounds since the picture he had posted on his profile but I kind of shrugged it off. We went out a couple of times but something just seemed "off" about him. The "relationship" sort of just fizzled out. He never called or seemed distant or secretive if I called him. He would email a LOT, though. I basically just stopped replying. Fast forward a few months: I met a new guy. New guy took me to his godson's birthday party and, oh, guess who's there. Internet guy... with his WIFE... and THREE children. (One child, I might add, who was only a few months old.) Awkward...

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    1. BEST. STORY. I would have died, right on the spot.

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  6. I'm so glad to know that all my favorite bloggers are huge catfish fans too!! I've always been wary of meeting people online bc I guess I've always watched too much dateline or something. Then ironically enough I met my boyfriend initially online (though not through a dating site). We talked for only about a week or so through soc media before I met him face to face. I don't know how you can be sure of your feelings for someone until you meet them or how you know they are indeed who they say they are. Luckily I knew people who actually knew my fella or had seen him in real life,..and could verify he didn't weigh 700 lbs

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    1. I was so surprised to strike a chord! I was honestly afraid everyone would be like "no, I have never met anyone on the internet, and NO, I HAVE NEVER WATCHED A POST 2003 MTV SERIES, WTH IS WRONG WITH YOU." So this has been nice to get so many good comments! See, I think your path-to-romance is the correct form for online dating-- you meet online, THEN, shortly thereafter or as soon as you can, meet in person. Some of these people have been talking for y-e-e-e-e-e-ears and never meet! Crazy!

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    2. Yep twitter followers can lead to love.

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  7. Ick. The dreadful smile of pleasure on Red Dress's face was horrible to see. Also, the red dress. A little two sided tape, or Putt-Ease, please!!! The mood is SHATTERED if you have to tug the spandex. There's really no discreet way to pull a bandage dress down over one's thong.

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    1. I love how she came out of that apartment complex's parking lot like she was Bond villain. "Ah ha, Jasmine....so we see the tables have turned!" And in THAT dress. BEST. EPISODE.

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