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Originally Posted by amberdosh
This.
The movie I haven't even seen and don't really care to see because after like five minutes of reading stuff about it I became convinced it was fake.
However that stuff definitely happens and if tons of people are emailing that dude and MTV saying it happened to them and they pick the very best (in their opinion) cases to put on TV, research them well beforehand and ya probably do a fair amount of scripting, it could and does make for some good TV.
I'm not sure we actually disagree that much. I think I may just have a different definition of "fake."
I am not saying that the basic plot didn't happen - you are right that there are plenty of morons that get tricked on the internet that MTV can find plenty of real stories. I just think that most of the shots we are shown are scripted as opposed to real and the details of the relationships exaggerated. At least on the two episodes I've seen, the big reveal didn't seem real - in the sense that it seemed like the victim knew in advance. For instance, as I discussed I would have expected the jock to be much more upset with the gay dude. Perhaps he didn't know before he contacted MTV, but it seemed like he know before the confrontation/reveal. Another reason why I think he knew in advance is the fear of anotehr Jenny Jones incident - i.e. the victim goes crazy and beats/kills his fake internet crush. Unless MTV is traveling with a big team of security, I can't see them taking that risk.
Similarly, when they were talking to all his friends in advance of the meeting, that seemed scripted to me in that were talking up the relationship to be more important than it was.
Quote:
Originally Posted by amberdosh
I think it's more likely there is a hole in your house of assumptions than that these people aren't actually this stupid. One hole: all of their reality shows are not 'largely fake' - I have several friends who went on one and none of them described it that way.
One part of the show is obviously semi-fake though. The research they are doing on camera in a hotel room has obviously already been done by them and MTV producers etc in the process of vetting them for the show. That is almost certainly just for dramatic effect.
Out of curiosity, which MTV shows are you saying aren't scripted? I had some friends that have been on the dating shows (Next, etc). and they said even those were almost completely scripted - they were given lines, strongly encouraged who to pick, etc.. The "dates" themselves were real, but pretty much everything else was directed by the producers.