Reality television is the basest, most banal form of entertainment. It is the least costly to produce and rakes in piles of advertising money focused on products appealing to the peasant wretched refuse and huddling masses who consume and value such programming as if it were worth something. The vast majority of reality television is anything but, being cynically contrived by producers who think even less than I of the population they are appealing to.
Having said that, every once in a while one of these shows accidentally produces a story that rises far above the common tripe populating such programs. I cite the Welsh cellphone salesman, Paul Potts, a most unlikely talent who does with music for what that art form was intended: to conceive pathos, turning it into raw emotion.
This video from Britain Has Talent is nothing short of an Arkansas ass-kicking, foot-stomping, Bombay Sapphire Martini pleasure to see three limey culture capacitors overwhelmed and humbled by the art and talent. This is the triumph of the Spirit.
© Copyright, C. Michael Bailey, 2007
