Because, like, why read Cue the Sun!? Did it put anything into grand perspective? Did it change the way I felt about any big moments in TV programming? Did it make me more or less likely to watch reality TV going forward?  Not really, no. It’s just sort of an interesting way to spend your time. The author is talented, with fun sentences like, “Every time a free AOL disc frisbeed into someone’s mailbox, it felt like an invitation to dial in, then confess, anonymously, to strangers. Mixing the internet with reality TV was the speedball of pop culture.” I am not implying the book is mindless junkfood in a simple parallel to the frequent label that is tritely applied to reality programming. Just that the book is structured in a comprehensive and clear way—it does not have a “twist” or “reveal” like it would if it were aping its subject matter, for which I was probably subconsciously braced.

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