Flavor of Love (2006-)iSStarring: Flavor Flav, Dion Graham, etc.Airing On: VH1Created By: Chris Abrego, Mark CroninRating: B-
Summary: Flavor Flav needs to find his dream girl and on this reality tv show, he's going to do exactly that.
My Thoughts: Behind the sexist dialogue, it's messy editing and unlikable cast, we have a show that is unapologetically...itself. Both a guilty pleasure that is quite entertaining while also cringe worthy, what we're presented is a show that is wholly a mixture of something along the lines of Jerry Springer and The Bachelor. There are heart jerking moments, there are moments where you need to pick up a dictionary to prove if something one of the ladies has said is actually a word and there are moments where you'll be on the floor laughing and that's what this show is supposed to do. It's so bad, it's good and it doesn't try to be anything else except that. But what makes this show so good?
Is it the wonderfully edited fight scenes that get us every angle of the on-screen action? Is it the quippy dialog between the women involving obscene swears and drink throwing? Or is the the wonderfully chosen sound effects that sound like they've been ripped from Windows Movie Maker? In my opinion, it's the cast, but how do they choose this wonderful cast to be on this show? This, in itself, is an artistic decision. This is a creative decision. Reminiscent to the kinds of cast mates we'd see on other reality shows like America's Next Top Model, we essentially get bunches of trouble makers; women who will stir up trouble in any given situation and this is for ratings. Obviously. But place yourself in the producer's head as he pulls out headshots upon headshots of women who want to be with this man, Flavor Flav. We get a list of personality quirks, likes/dislikes and etc and a photo and that's it. These women have to be perfect, not just for Flav, but for people to keep watching with the thought in their head being: "What will....do next?" And in my opinion, they keep me wondering about what is going to happen next? And so I tune in to find out, but as for a producer, he's thinking about these things in a long-term scenario because he's got to keep people watching in order to keep the show on the air. And this is where the article diverges from the kind of thoughts that not only roam through this producer's head, but many others in the world of television. #10 states: "Success is fickle: "Don't aim at success." While movies either rank or tank in a theater, on television, success determines cancellation of not. Success determines whether or not your final product of a 12-episode sitcom, or reality show will unfold or not while as in film, it's out regardless.
However, where this show stands with the article involves is the fact that there is call for change every once in a while say things change. "Make room for the process of excitement and despair, What happens if so-and-so decide to play nice? Will they still be voted off in the same manner as they would? What if this places the order out of whack? What happens if so-and-so do this? In a world like this, things get crazy in a matter of seconds and it is up to the producer to think about said things and react accordingly even if they we're originally apart of their plan.
However this is all my own speculation and interpretation if the show isn't scripted like Flavor Flav says is isn't, but with the way things go, who knows? What I do know is that Flavor of Love is a national treasure. It's going to make you laugh, cry, scream and do everything The Bachelor or The Bachelorette can't do on their own networks in a way that was both fresh and fun in 2006. It's obscenely offensive and sort of puts women in the light as sexual objects more than people, but again, it doesn't take itself so seriously, so neither should you.
