Now Starring Ryan Jenkins — As Himself
Ryan Jenkins was a famous reality TV star. He had appeared on the VH-1 series Megan Wants a Millionaire, winning the $1 million prize. He was selected for the third season of the VH-1 reality show “I Love Money,” and reportedly won the $250,000 prize on that show, too (which apparently will not air).
What Ryan Jenkins really was in reality (as in, real life) was a violent man who had been sentenced to 15 months probation and ordered to complete domestic violence counseling after assaulting his girlfriend during 2007. He also was apparently capable of killing his ex-wife Jasmine Fiore and then removing the tips of her fingers and her teeth, in an attempt to prevent police from identifying her (which they ultimately did, ironically, by tracking the serial numbers on her breast implants). He then fled and hung himself from a coat rack in a motel room in Canada.
The underlying character of a man asserts itself eventually, no matter how many scripts he is handed or how well-honed his acting skills.
The truth is that most reality television shows have nothing to do with real life or with real emotions or with real people. Most showcase situations that never occur in our genuine day-to-day existences and run the risk of attracting participants who are on the run from their feelings, not at one with them. These “stars” are often quite different from actors like DeNiro or Pacino or Streep. They aren’t practitioners of any particular art form and don’t know the first thing about getting into and out of character. And they might not need to because they are always acting. They may be particularly good at what they do because they lack a core self and can adapt to the unreal, real-life predicaments into which they are written. Their narcissistic needs for approval and applause and fame and their lack of a desire for privacy may, in fact, be intense enough to qualify as psychopathology. They run to fake dramas because they have been running their whole lives—from core sadness and rage and shame.
Ryan Jenkins was gifted as a reality TV star because he was a tortured human being.
Just think about Jon and Kate Plus 8 “playing” parents to sextuplets by putting them before the lens of a camera that can’t help but distort their developing emotions and perspectives. Great parenting there, huh? They qualify as reality TV stars because they aren’t real parents, not because they are.
The real, real Ryan Jenkins was a person full of rage and self-hatred who terrorized more than one woman, killed his ex-wife, then hung himself. If he had managed to live longer without taking any lives, he probably would have won some more prize money and gotten more famous.
Tags: character, Dr. Keith Ablow, Jasmine Fiore, Megan Wants a Millionaire, psychopathology, reality TV stars, Ryan Jenkins, sadness, serial number, suicide, VH-1
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My wife forced me to watch an episode of John and Kate recently and I found it disturbing. Her pantomime of parenting and his visible disgust with everything is frightening in that it may represent the state of zillions of relationships that result in damaged children. God Help Us All.
I concur.
The world of “reality televsion” is so far removed from the world in which I live. And thank God! I feel sorry for people who think the way to get noticed and ahead in this world is to “let it all hang out.” Ugh! This Ryan Jenkins story and his ex-wife is terrible. But I wonder how their families are coping with the fact that their family members exploited everything, including their lives to get noticed. Free will is a beautiful gift. But to wallow in the muck of deviant behavior and then try to package it for public consumption as “normal.” How insulting to the essence of life. The Jon and Kate thing – DISGUSTING! What selfish behavior. Viewers ought to put them in “time out.” But then I suppose in a twisted way, if someone watches the show they aren’t any better off. What are people using as a moral compass these days? I would like to see public shame be brought back. Males should be ashamed that it is cool to wear pants down to the knees, showing off buttocks and underwear. Females should be ashamed to show cleavage and buttocks and then try to pawn themselves off as “credible.” Whatever happened to mystery and humility? I believe our society has been dumbed down that the facts are irrelevant if you can manipulate the environment using sexuality. What’s up with all the tattoos? body piercing? fake breasts? Ugh. Get real!
I find it incredibly sad that there is such a large audience watching “reality” TV shows.
The first (and only) one I was ever exposed to was the 1st season of “Survivor”, and that was because my roommate watched it. I listened to what all the different characters were saying about each other (behind their backs, pretty much, but who knows how Real & honest the show was…), and was immediately repulsed.
That was a pretty mild show, with an ultimate goal and some kind of point (no matter how mean that point was–”Hey! Let’s put people in a very competitive situation, and watch how they stab each other in the back in order to win, but even more, so that they won’t get voted off the show! Wheeeee!”). I only listened to a couple of episodes before I started wearing earplugs (my gag-response had reached its limit).
The fact that there are so very many “reality” shows out there now is truly disturbing. Not only does it mean that there are MANY folks wanting to play an unreal role in life center-stage, under the guise of “reality” (for attention, for money, for all the things Dr. Ablow talked about, no matter how much it might harm others, or themselves), it also means that there is an exponentially greater number of folks out there willing and eager to eat it all up.
Why?
I think the Good Doctor summed it up very well: “They run to fake dramas because they have been running their whole lives—from core sadness and rage and shame.”
I think he’s onto something there.