Hi, everyone and welcome back to Britain under the microscope. 歡迎回來(lái)【閑話英倫】. Hi, 安瀾.

Hi, Lulu. Hi, everyone.

So 安瀾 you just got back from the UK, what you’ve been doing apart from binge eating and binge drinking?

Well, same as everyone during Christmas, watching TV, being with family.

I didn't even know you watch TV. I thought you just watch really old movies.

I do sometimes watch TV, I do sometimes.

So what kind of TV do you watch, soap opera?

No. My mom does. I don't.

What else?

Well. I would say the things that we really just can't escape from in the UK, which are reality shows.

真人秀. That's exactly the same as in China.

I think that's pretty much exactly the same anywhere in the world at the moment.

People are so fascinated with reality shows and those of you who are listening to this episode, I'm pretty sure you have watched reality shows, sometimes maybe not even realizing it's a reality show.

Yeah.

Reality show I think by definition is just any show without a script.

Yeah, but I would say reality shows have become so specific now.

I know some really bad reality shows.

I know some terrible ones which are exactly the ones that we’re gonna talk about.

So I know a lot of you watch like綜藝節(jié)目, actually they say variety show like綜藝節(jié)目, but they're not variety shows.

No.

There are more reality shows.

Yeah.

And today we're going to talk about popular, trashy, bad, good reality shows in the UK and you can compare to some of the reality shows that you watch in China.

Some of these you might have already watched.

Emm. Okay. And the whole trend started at least 20 years ago.

Well, yeah. Around the early 2000s, you had shows like Big Brother and Survivor that came from the US.

Yeah. I was gonna say Survivor is from the US. Big Brother is just like the bunch of people living in the same house?

Yeah. With cameras everywhere.

Oh. Hence big brother, they’re being watched, monitored the entire time.

Yeah. But I would say that influence so many types of reality show, where you have that confessional idea, that people go into a separate room and they speak directly to the camera.

The confessional. 我不知道大家看過(guò)沒(méi)有, confessional就是一個(gè)相當(dāng)于坦白屋的那種感覺(jué), 我不看綜藝, 所以我不太知道那個(gè)大家在中文里看到綜藝?yán)锩娼惺裁? 就是有一個(gè)小屋子里面有個(gè)camera, 然后你就可以進(jìn)去說(shuō), I really don't like 安瀾. 安瀾really pisses me off. I wish 安瀾 gets kicked off the show, that sort of thing.

It doesn't work if I'm actually sitting in front of you.

No, I mean I would go into the confessional room with the camera alone. But I will be letting all the audience know I hate you. Right?

Thank you.

Yeah. But that's what happens? I mean for instance.

That example is very, very quick.

It has been brewing.

Yeah, you can imagine.

All right, so let's talk about some of the popular reality shows in the UK.

Well, let's start, first of all, with the one that everybody is talking about in the UK right now. It's called the traitors.

Doesn't the word traitor mean someone who betrays his or her own country?

Yeah.

Or just betrays whatever this 叛徒.

Yeah.

Isn't that just called historical channel?

No. this is a really, really quite simple idea, but it's very well done. It's based on the game werewolf.

Yeah. 哦, 狼人殺.

Yeah. Or wink murder.

You actually call it wink murder?

I do.

Because you have to close your eyes. 就是天黑請(qǐng)閉眼的那個(gè)感覺(jué).

Yeah.

Oh, wink murder, first time I heard about it.

So it's 20 contestants in a Scottish castle, they are called the faithfuls.

It's actually set in a real castle?

In a real Scottish castle.

Woo~ that's very atmospheric.

It is. And among the faithfuls are traitors.

Oh, I see. So everyone is presumed to be faithful, not a traitor, but then they're traitors hidden.

They are.

Mhm.

And the faithfuls need to work together to win a shared prize of￡125,000.

Woo~

And they get that by finding the traitors.

Traitors as in plural, more than one.

There are more than one. But by the end of the game, if there is one traitor left who hasn't been kicked out, the traitor takes the entire price.

Takes the entire price. Yeah, I can see where this is going.

It's a simple idea, but it became really popular, because it focused on people's relationships. And it was always a little bit kind of manipulative as well. So you could see the traitors that they were trying to manipulate the faithfuls.

It's all about mind game.

It is. Yeah.

Have you ever actually played werewolf with people?

I have. Years ago.

You always the first one to go.

Normally, yeah.

So the traitors is actually... I've never watched it, so this is something that is popular right at the moment.

Right now. That's because they're bringing out the second series, because the first series in I think November was so popular that they brought it back straight away.

So what about these contestants? Are they celebrities or just amateurs, normal people?

Just normal people.

But they sometimes do like a celebrity edition.

Well. Not for traitors, not just yet. I'm sure they will do very soon.

So normal people.

Yeah.

Ok. Sounds like fun. Maybe you should sign up.

I'll die very quickly.

You'll be thrown out.

I'll be thrown out or just die.

Yeah. And what else?

Let's go now to trashy TV.

It's really really rubbish TV.

Really rubbish TV.

I think I know which one, don't you have something called Love Island?

We do. That is terrible.

For those of you, who have never watched or never heard of Love Island. It is like really the pinnacle of trashy TV.

It is.

You take one look and you know it's trashy, but it's so trashy that people still watch it and it's still very, very popular.

Yes.

你一聽這個(gè)名字就知道是戀綜類的, 中文叫戀綜, 戀愛綜藝類.

Yeah.

Let me guess, it is about a bunch of people stranded on islands. For example, a few women, a few guys, and then they just get on top of each other.

Well. They say they have to find love with each other.

Yeah. They are all wearing bikinis and low-cut showing muscles and stuff.

Yeah. And they're normally just not very kind of educated. This is very attractive.

The smugness. That's the snob. That's the intellectual snob in you.

And I think that's the intellectual snob in most people that they would watch this because they feel like ok.

They are better than these people.

I, even though they're really good looking, I am more intelligent than they are.

Come on, they probably get paid a lot doing this.

Exactly.

So who is the stupid one?

Well. Yeah. And they're also going to get quite a lot of money, the winning couple win￡500,000.

Define winning. So it's like if you find the love of your life on this villa.

Oh, if you find “l(fā)ove”, then you get￡50,000. Now after the show, you might end up hating each other, but it doesn't matter.

But potentially we can just go on the show, apply to be on the show, provided that we are more attracted than we actually are.

That mean we can just apply to go on this show and just pretend to be in love and just take the money. No?

We could do, but it has to be voted by …

Oh, there's one of those by... voting thing.

Yeah.

And the winning couple will win fifty thousand, ￡50,000.

Yeah. But this show is actually quite controversial.

Okay.

Because a number of contestants actually committed suicide shortly after appearing on the show, because it became so popular. And lots of these people very active on social media, their presence increase and also the number of cyber-bully, the number of trolls.

Wow~ They get bullyed probably. Yeah, I think I should stop making fun of it, because now it gets pretty dark and serious.

Well, yeah.

I think when you open yourself to ridicule like that and when you like really put yourself on that kind of show, people expect you to be really really thick skinned. They think it's really okay to just make you to... a joke.

Well.

As I said before, you said about intellectual snobbery, probably a lot of these people they are acting in that way.

Exactly.

To get attention.

Yeah.

And when that tension becomes overwhelmingly negative, it's a lot for someone to take.

Exactly, I think reality shows are definitely reality shows or being part of a reality show would definitely take a toll on your mental health.

Yes, but this one will probably take more of a toll on your mental health.

Okay.

And also possibly your physical health. It's called Naked Attraction.