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Miriam: Death of a Reality Star
HMO
Posts: 42,429 Forum Member
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Channel 4 this week. Anyone else been watching?
It's one of those TV shows that leaves you wondering "what were they thinking?".
It's one of those TV shows that leaves you wondering "what were they thinking?".
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Yep been watching all three episodes. Like the poster above I don't actually recall this show or the furore about it in the press even though I had Sky at the time.
The 2000s, that's what they were thinking as you could get away with those shows 20 years ago as indicated by the press coverage at the time.
Also they'll always be people willing to go on shows for whatever reason who won't really be reading small print in the contracts. Same with the X factor scandals towards the end of the 2000s and there's still some exploitation now.
Basically group of Lads and now 20 years on they have far more perspective as we see with the interviews with Toby Green and Aron Lane.
But the uproar was completely about how it was unfair to the men involved and Miriam was called every name under the sun.
I kind of agreed with The Guardian's review of the documentary, that it was trying to have its cake and eat it.
Oh yeah, definitely, and it was and still would be today, but bear in mind transgenderism (is that a word?) was so little understood back then, even far, far less so than it still is today. The word 'transgender' did not even exist back then (or at least wasn't in common mainstream usage). It was 'transsexual' and most people associated it with the Thai Ladyboys that were a regular on the theatre tour circuit. They - and Miriam - were promoted precisely as an 'oddity'. Whilst abuse for any reason is un-acceptable, she at least knew the deceit she was involved in and willingly (presumably) went along with it. The men (supposedly) had no idea what they were getting into (I don't know if it's subsequently come out if they really did or not). The point of the show was purely to exploit them. These days, of course, the idea of using a trans-woman in this way - even willingly - would never, ever fly, but back then, no-one knew there was anything to object to on her behalf.
Shocking but not shocking if that makes sense
Nearly all the broadcasters dumped traditional type tv entertainment for these reality crap around this time period
Itv2/be e4 & few others its their bread & butter
Now bbc/itv/ch4 say people watch their channels less because of netflix
They wont accept people turned to netflix because of making rubbish like this & Big Brother
Yet they go & revive a show dumped by ch4 & ch5 broadcast it on 2 channels at the same time!
As it proved with this show
All they cared about was ratings/money
Same with more recent offerings like Love Island
Soon realised it was a bad mistake
Sadly that poor girl ended up dead
The negative is the obvious exploitation of a trans woman and presented her as a 'freak' just for the shock value of the show.
However, the important point it did raise is that if someone looks like something that someone else is sexually attracted to, then they can be sexually attracted.
This, of course, is a place that some straight men just don't want to go or address. In their black and white macho rule book, they could never be attracted to someone that they class as not 100% female. The shocking truth t is, that is just not the case.
There are obviously two negatives in that the men were equally exploited.
Binge watched it
I'm sorry but Miriam knew exactly what the playbook was before the show began. They knew they were deceiving the boys. Its them I felt sorry for. Their reaction on finding out they'd be kissing a biological man is understandable in my opinion
In reality I hope that trans women are honest with potential partners from the start
The fact Miriam then went into self destruct mode wasnt the shows fault Clearly a troubled soul from the off
Out of curiousity, aside from the two of the contestants in the documentary, I wondered what happened to the rest of them. This is a link to a DM article on them.
She seems a type that would dupe her own mother if it meant bringing in the ratings.
agree - she was clearly taking no responsibility whatsoever
That Jo Juson person as the worst even now she sees nothing wrong with the show.
I didn't really like the lads they were very childish but good to see that 2 of them now have a better perspective on it. Interesting that Toby guessed she was trans and was removed.
She was beautiful, what a sad life she had after the show.
I didn't watch the original programme myself as the set up was beyond distasteful.
However, the show garnered high ratings in the final episode (970,000 viewers—large viewership for Sky One),and Rivera went on to become a guest on Big Brother Australia 2004.
The thing with Nadia (as much as the overall response was positive) is that she was presented as a freak at the start. Unless I've remembered incorrectly, the eviction interviews early on in the series ended with Davina revealing to the evictee that Nadia was a transsexual, obviously entirely for the shock value.
Luckily we're living in a different world now, but it felt a bit distasteful at the time for me, never mind 20 years later.
My recollection of that series is that she was given a disproportionately large amount of airtime and was clearly the producers choice to win.
I remember watching Big Brother and during every interview Davina would ask the evicted contestant if they'd guessed about Nadia. I think almost every contestant said they had guessed and obviously hadn't considered it something worth making a big deal about.
I also only remember the show thanks to Harry Hill's TV Burp jokes and sketches. In fact I've recently been watching some US reactor watching TV Burp and about a month or so ago they watched one of the episodes with Harry's Jokes. Some of the jokes were (in retrospect) in very bad taste. The only saving grace for Harry Hill and the TV Burp team was that this was during the first 2 years of TV Burp when it was an adult show on at either 10pm or 10.30pm on a Friday night and not when it became the more childish/family friendly version that it went on to become.
Haven't watch the documentary yet, I wonder if they show any of TV Burp's or HIGNFY jokes/reactions from the time?
I also thought it was either made clear to at least the audience that she was transgender or that it was just obvious anyway. Perhaps Endermol learnt their lesson from their earlier TSAM production.
Yes which is why the poster mentioned it
The whole series was determined to downplay the impact the show had on the lads who took part in it, who were the only real victims because they weren't given the opportunity to give informed consent. All this while everyone else does everything possible to dance around the fact Miriam was a biological male, using ridiculous lines like "she wasn't a man, she was a woman with masculine genitals" and repeatedly trying to browbeat the audience to accept that she was a real woman. Even India Willoughby got involved in the final episode, which is stupid since India transitioned 12 years after the show aired and was only known as a local newsreader before transitioning.
Jo Juson was clearly included in this series to be "the baddie" but other than the contestants Toby and Aron, she was the most honest person in the whole thing.
It was so annoying hearing the way the producers talked about the contestants and how they reacted, as though they were somehow wrong to react the way they did when some of them had been allowed to get intimate with her - Tom in particular. It's worth considering that it would have always been potentially illegal to film such a show in the UK, because we have laws regarding sex by deception. It's interesting that the only 2 contestants who took part in the show weren't actually significant characters in it - I would like to have heard from all of them, Tom and Scott especially since they were the finalists. We can only assume they chose not to take part but considering the angle Channel 4 took with the series I do wonder if they did actually contribute in some way but were cut for not fitting the narrative.
Miriam was a model and a porn actress before There's Something About Miriam happened and continued to do sex work and escorting her whole life. The things people did to her throughout her life were horrific but the sex "industry" is notorious for leading people to drugs and suicide.
Channel 4 seemed determined to push the false narrative that trans women have to get involved in sex work to survive but its just not true - I know a few trans women and none have ever considered sex work, they all work normal jobs.
Anyway, we obviously saw 3 of the guys on the doc, not much of the others. But I see that the winner Tom, really had distanced himself from the entire thing. He actually has been on a few things i have seen, and has a fairly good social media following. But nothing (not even his IMDB page) says anything about TSAM. I had to make sure it was actually him, i was unsure at first but the articles on newspaper articles did link his social media pages when talking about the doc. So he has at least made a career on TV/Film, whereas the other guys must have just gone back to their usual jobs.
In terms of the media when it was airing, i guess it's "of its day", Harry Hill, even saw a bit of Scott Mills online about his comments too. Stuff you obviously couldn't say in this day and age. But i am trying to remember, this aired a few months before BB5 where Nadia won the show. In retrospect it is amazing how different the media portrayed Miriam and Nadia. I can't remember if any shows slated and took the mick out of Nadia (i remember So Graham Norton being very bad against Jade on BB3), but can't remember the media's reaction during BB5 but IIRC it was very favorable compared to Miriam. Odd considering this was just months apart, what happened in those months ? Perhaps as both were created by Endemol, after the legal issues of TSAM, Maybe Endemol had a contract with the media to not be distasteful against Nadia?
Anyways, that woman on the doc seemed very unlikeable, and obviously the main man, Remy, just wanted the ratings. You could tell that the others were a bit uncomfortable working for the show. But presenter, Tim Vincent? I wonder what his stance is.
At least with Playing It Straight, everyone was in the know of what the show was about, and all the participants were happy to take part in the format, knowing what the outcome could be.