TLC is home to some of the trashiest and most entertaining shows on TV. From "Cake Boss" to "19 Kids and Counting" to "Say Yes to the Dress," it's easy to spend many mindless hours on the couch binge watching and dulling brain cells (in a good way, of course).
How ironic -- considering that TLC stands for "The Learning Channel."
Technically speaking, each episode does have a take home moral. A recent episode of "Say Yes to the Dress" ended with a very important teaching: If you have patience and are willing to keep all of your options open, then you will find the dress of your dreams.
Yes, this is the depth of "learning" that is happening on TLC.
Perhaps a better name for TLC would be "The Lounging Channel."
To be fair, although TLC was originally focused on educational content -- hence the abbreviation TLC -- the network itself admits that its focus nowadays is primarily towards reality series involving lifestyles, personal stories, and family life.
Many of these stories are focused on individuals who have something unusual about them. "Little People, Big World" and all of its spin offs are focused on a family where several members have been diagnosed with dwarfism. "My Giant Life" is on the opposite end of the spectrum, focusing on women who are taller than 6'6.
Then there's"My Big Fat Fabulous Life," which is about a 380-pound woman's desire to lose weight.
If her life really was fabulous, would she still want to make such a radical lifestyle change and lose the weight?
Would the show have the same entertainment value of it was simply called "My Fabulous Life"?
(Note that I have never actually seen the show.)
One might argue that these shows are a way to bring the struggles of the people facing these obstacles into the mainstream.
My issue is that they draw attention to people in a way that highlights their abnormalities. I would much rather see these types of characters integrated into network television series. "Mike and Molly" is a start, and Peter Dinklage has won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his portrayal of a dwarf on "Game of Thrones." But even though "Game of Thrones" doesn't explicitly separate little people from the mainstream the way "Little People, Big World" does, it is still fantasy. Differences are more widely accepted in a fantasy world than it is in reality.
One of TLC's newest series is called "Answered Prayers." The show features real-life stories of people in potentially life-threatening situations who experience divine intervention. The creators of the series hope that it will inspire a "prayer revival."
The show has featured an Indiana family that survived a Category 5 tornado, a Detroit pastor who nearly lost his life after being stabbed 37 times, and a family that survived their car being plunged deep into an icy river. The latter was made all the more miraculous because a trained navy diver was driving in the car behind him and helped with the rescue effort.
Call me cynical, but all I could think about while watching it was how many people end up in similarly frightening situations without making it out alive.
I thought of all of the people who we say Mi Shebairach for who are suffering from terminal illness. We continue to pray for them regardless, but we don't necessarily pray for a miracle. We pray for comfort, we pray for emotional healing, we pray for less pain.
When I was doing Clinical Pastoral Education, I had a patient who asked me if I could pray for a miracle. I told her that I could pray for a miracle, but that my greatest hope was for her to find inner strength, comfort, and peace that would carry her even if a miracle doesn't happen. We can only pray for miracles after we consider the alternatives and understand the possibilities. Otherwise, we are just setting ourselves up for disappointment. But if the small possibility of a miracle can carry us one more day, so be it -- just as long as it doesn't get in the way of reality.
And there you have it -- deep thoughts on reality television. Maybe there is some learning to be had from TLC after all.
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