The Audience

Yesterday evening I settled down to watch I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here where the hilariously wonderfully Alfonso Ribeiro (aka Carlton Banks from the hit 90's sitcom Fresh Prince Of Bel Air) and the powerful yet endearing gold Olympic medalist, Rebecca Adlington were voted out in a mildly shocking double eviction. When this finished I was caught in that horrible period of unrest where I'm not tired enough to fall asleep but I don't want to put on a show that requires any levels of intellect for me to understand. So instead I watched a programme called The Audience the premise of which is basically a group of 30 strangers spend a week following around one individual with a life changing decision they for some reason can't solve by conventional means.

This week focused on 42 year old Jane Mason who suffers from a degenerative condition that effects her skeletal muscles in the head, neck and arms which makes them stiff and unable to move. Her dilemma was whether she should adopt a child. Many obstacles presented themselves, including the physical limitations of her disability and how this would effect her ability to take care of a child, her reasons for waiting so long and also in my opinion ,whether or not this need for a child just stems from being an aunt or if it is actually genuinely something she feels she could undertake. You know what they say, it's alright when you can give the child back when they're crying or you're tired. The most striking thing about Jane from the onset is her fiery personality, which seems to be quite defensive when discussing her condition. She berated one man for using the word 'disabled' and was quite focused on how much she would love the child rather than directly answering weather she felt she would be able to cope the the physical and mental demands. Now I understand this need to put up barriers to shield from questions we find difficult to answer but she chose to come on this show and knew it would be like this, having strangers grilling every aspect of her life in order to give their verdict based on the facts so part of me was a bit annoyed by her evasive attitude.

To be honest, I think the whole premise of the show is totally just trying to be profound but actually ends up being almost comical with a mob of 30 randoms just following this one lady into her tiny flat.  I don't feel like Louise the photographer and Gary the fashion designer are really going to shed any more light on Jane's dilemma, in fact during their little individual interviews throughout the programme, many of the audience felt baffled at what to do. I feel like it is a good idea in theory but I wouldn't like all the conflicting ideas and playing 21 questions with a bunch of strangers. I didn't make it all the way through the programme because I felt frustrated with the way they seemed to be spinning in circles and just asking questions a group of close friends could ask in private and reach the same conclusions. I do hope Jane got the answers she needed but the programme failed to live up my expectations of a life affirming, inspiring experience, in fact it was just annoying. I defiantly do not want an audience with The Audience.

5/10.