Reality TV doesn’t get much more real than this, said Sharon Waxman and Tim Molloy in Reuters.com. Russell Armstrong, a participant on Bravo’s Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, committed suicide last week, just two weeks before the show’s second season was due to air. Armstrong’s troubled relationship with his wife, Taylor, was a major story line on the show. She recently accused him of assault, and he was grappling with a $1.5 million lawsuit for allegedly duping investors. Armstrong, 47, told his mother that he was terrified about how Real Housewives would portray him now that he and his wife were headed for divorce. “‘They’re just going to crucify me this season,’” she claims he told her. “‘I’ll never survive it.’” Now that Armstrong has hung himself, many are questioning whether he’s the latest “victim of reality TV.” In recent years, “countless people have joined reality shows in the hopes that fame will fulfill their dreams,” only to find themselves exposed and humiliated for the public’s titillation.
Get real, said Richard Huff in the New York Daily News. Reality TV shows have been around for at least a decade, and if participants don’t realize by now that they may not like what ends up on screen, they only have themselves to blame. Armstrong had plenty of stressors in his life, and no one can really say why he chose to kill himself. Those who blame reality TV are simply “looking for a logical way to explain an illogical act.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
