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God help us if all that is left after humanity leaves
the face of the Earth are reality series. If aliens were
to judge us on these sociological treasures, they would
see the worst of humanity on display and assume that we
were, indeed, a very vapid culture that rarely rose above
monkeys on the evolutionary scale. Reality series are cheap
entertainment. As long as people keep flocking to them,
we'll never get a return to drama or comedy as we did before.
It's a way to fill the airwaves. That said, "Girlfriends"
tracks the lives of four African American women living in
L.A. and pursuing their professional dreams. Issues run
from weight loss to their love lives. The four women act
as a support group for their larger issues such as disastrous
romances and other assorted unimportant issues that face
the world. ***
Although this might not be the right series to do it,
"Girlfriends" is a notch above most reality shows such as
"The Hills" and "Laguna Beach" because African American
women rarely get their due on TV (unless you're Oprah).
That said, the show doesn't deal with the challenges and
issues that might face contestants on, say, "Survivor" (the
gold standard for reality TV today). While I'm not a fan
of the whole genre since it tends to trivialize people in
pursuit of the goal of cheap TV entertainment, "Girlfriends"
achieves what it sets out to do and makes no bones what
it is about. ---
Image & Sound:
The show looks quite good considering that it was shot
on digital video and we have a considerable amount of inconsistency
in lighting and setting. Audio sounds fine with dialogue
coming across with a bit of inconsistency depending on the
situation.
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