Netflix’s reality TV banquet and lessons for Nollywood

Reality TV shows are pretty big on Netflix nowadays or so it seems. With shows like Selling Sunset, Love is Blind, Million Dollar Beach House, Indian Matchmaking, Bling Empire, The Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives, Singapore Social, What The Love! Netflix may have hit the jackpot. Now, it’s debatable whether Netflix was big on reality TV shows before COVID-19. I cannot speak to that with certainty. Truth is, no matter how prominent reality TV shows may have been on Netflix pre-COVID-19, I doubt I would’ve noticed as I wasn’t paying that much attention.

Before it became obvious that we were going to be home for a long time, in March of last year, I had an on and off relationship with my Netflix account for varying reasons. When I’m home in Nigeria, between DSTV and sundry online sources, Netflix occupied a distant position. More than data cost, the quality of internet connection was another matter entirely. Who has the time for all that buffering? If I’m outside Nigeria where internet speed is not an issue, that then means I have much more options to explore. And just how much time does one person have in a day to justify a regular Netflix subscription after all this? I haven’t even mentioned the cost of the almighty foreign currency involved. Anyway.

Then COVID-19 happened! All of a sudden, most people had too much time and nowhere to go. With strict lockdown rules in place, what else was there to do? Netflix and Youtube became the platforms you turned to for entertainment. During the first phase of the lockdown, I simply concentrated on Spanish drama. I must’ve watched all the recommended (and not recommended) Spanish shows on Netflix. At that point, I was more interested in killing time and I didn’t want anything too heavy. Make of that what you will but life was already depressing enough, and I definitely didn’t need to be cracking my head about any show. I have since gone on to Korean drama, British police shows, etc. In between these shows, there was the occasional Nollywood release. Now, cinemas are open again in Nigeria so Netflix can’t be Nollywood’s first point of call.

In as much as Netflix has almost everything, let’s focus on the reality TV shows today. And even for those, there’s almost a show for every type of viewer: food-cooking, baking; dating/finding love; adventure; you name it and there’s probably a reality TV show about it. However, whether by design or accident, there’s a very noticeable Asian trend: Indian Matchmaking, The fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives, What in the Love! Bling Empire… As different as the shows maybe, there’s something that ties them all together: A unique storyline. Each of these reality TV shows attempts to tell a story. Each cast member has a storyline, whether real or contrived and of course, they’re visually appealing.

In Bling Empire, in spite of bling being the obvious focus of the show, its very raison d’etre, there’s still an attempt to humanise the cast. Christine Chiu covered her husband’s shame by not telling anyone it was actually her husband who had a problem. Her mother-in-law thought she was barren and treated her badly until she had her son, Baby G. Gabriel Chiu, her husband had surgery to correct his medical problems. Kim Lee searches for the father she thought had abandoned her and of course, Kevin Taejin Kreider’s storyline revolves around his not being rich even though he is a model. We’re reminded of this almost to an annoying extent. Also, he was adopted and has a moment of trying to decide whether to search for his birth mother. And so on and so forth. What can Nollywood learn from these Netflix reality TV shows?

• Lesson For Nollywood

The way things are going, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Nigerian version of any one of these shows on Netflix Naija. It isn’t that there have been no reality TV shows on Nigerian TV before now. We went through the Jim Iyke and Omotola Jalade Ekeinde reality TV phase. As you’ll see from these Netflix shows, it isn’t really about the subject matter of the show. Someone is obviously conscious of the fact that they’re being produced on TV to hold the attention of the audience.

First, there must be a story, one that’s sustainable and credible. We tend to get carried away with how serious the subject matter is. Or how much of a celebrity someone is. So, because Mr. X is such a big star, no one takes the time to craft a story.  What’s the story? Of all the things we can be watching, why should the viewer focus on your show? And what is it about you don’t we know that a reality TV show is going to tell/show us? Remember, the power is in your hands-you decide what to sell to the viewer. And don’t be too hung up on the so-called “reality.” Whose reality is it anyway? You decide what kind of reality or how much reality you want to show. Whatever it is, please let it be interesting. Biko.

• Indian Matchmaking

As the name suggests, Indian Matchmaking takes us into the matchmaking culture in India. Professional matchmaker Sima Taparia who prefers to call herself a marriage consultant, (or Aunty Sima as some of her clients call her) tries to set up her clients with the perfect match. The show’s eight episodes happen between India and the US. And in the course of the show, we get to see the matchmaking process in India and how it’s very much a part of the culture.

• Bling Empire

This reality TV show focuses on the lives of some LA-based Asian-Americans. Some call them the real-life Crazy Rich Asians. I suppose it’s refreshing to keep up with people other than the Kardashians, or the usual suspects.

• Love Is Blind

Love Is Blind is actually pre-COVID-19: Couples are meant to fall in love, get engaged without seeing each other. The whole objective of this experiment by Netflix is to prove whether love is truly blind and that looks don’t matter. Is it possible for people to connect without the influence of external beauty (or the absence of external beauty) and other factors? A group of men and women of up to 30 contestants were housed but kept separately in the same location and only ‘met’ via pods.

Pods are partitioned cubicle-like enclosures where dates happened between couples. It’s impossible to see through the heavily embossed glass partition. After a few dates, connections were made, ending with proposals, after which the engaged couples exit and see each other for the first time. They then went on a romantic getaway to Mexico. Imagine that you’ve agreed to marry someone you have no idea what they look like, especially in this era of Instagram! After what seemed like a honeymoon before the wedding, the couples moved in together (separate apartments for each couple) where they lived before the wedding. As per the wedding, it was the last chance for any of the contestants to say I do or I don’t. All this happened within 6 weeks and 10 episodes.

I found the pod stage a little otherworldly. After a few blind dates, almost literally, people were professing deep connections they claimed had never felt before; in such a short amount of time? In that same short period, the producers of Love is Blind managed to pack in so much drama: Barnett (27) managed to be confused between 3 women: Jessica, Amber and LC; all but proposing marriage to each of them. 34-year-old Jessica was also conflicted between Barnett and 24-year-old Mark who she would later pick due to Barnett’s indecision. 6 couples made it to Mexico but 5 made it to the living-together stage.

Did Netflix’s experiment succeed? You can check it out watch and tell me. Nonetheless, for an experiment to determine whether love is blind, the contestants don’t appear to have been picked blindly. Someone ‘took their eyes to the market’ as the Nigerianese goes. There’s no fat or obese contestant as all are extremely good looking. No one had crooked teeth or anything like that. Since they couldn’t see each other, why were looks so curated? It would’ve been useful to see what could have happened had one partner not met the other’s physical expectations.

Netflix Spanish Drama To Watch

• Grand Hotel

Grand Hotel (2011-2013), set in the fictional Spanish village of Cantaloa in the years 1905-1907, deals with the dynamics that take place between the owners and staff of a luxurious hotel. This comes out in bold relief in the love story of ‘Espinosa’ Olmedo (Yon Gonzalez), a waiter, and Alicia Alarcon (Amaia Salamanca), whose family owns the Grand Hotel. Be warned that all 3 seasons of this show are literally ‘unputdownable.’ This Spanish version of Grand Hotel should not be mistaken for the Eva Longoria-produced English version for ABC in 2019.

• Toyboy

Hugo Beltran (Jesus Mosquera) is a male stripper who spends 7 years in prison after being wrongfully accused of beheading a wealthy man. He may not have killed the man, but it just so happened he was having an affair with the man’s wife-before the beheading. Hugo gets a retrial (after spending 7 years in prison) and now wants to crack the entire murder mystery. With the nerdy Triana Marin (María Pedraza) his lawyer by his side, things soon get heated.

• House Of Flowers

In House of Flowers (La Casa de las Flores), the de la Mora family owns a high-end floral shop called, La Casa de las Flores (What else?) There is more to this perfect family than meets the eye. Things begin to unravel when Roberta Navarro (Claudette Maillé)          the mistress of the de la Mora family patriarch, hangs herself in the very family shop, on a momentous day. Virginia de la Mora (Verónica Castro) is the matriarch preserves all appearances.

• Money Heist

The show follows a group of criminals on a highly elaborate quest to rob the Royal Mint of Spain. But the criminals are just lackeys of the Professor, a masked mastermind.’

• And there are Cable Girls

Onoshe Nwabuikwu, AIRTIME columnist is a renowned TV/Film critic, and Film scholar. She also has experience in Advertising as a senior Copywriter and Corporate Communications as Communications consultant.