QIt’s the (sad) story of a man who didn’t understand anything and who humbly asks the public for help from home. Just as I was about to find the Netflix password that disappeared from devices not connected to my phone for the umpteenth time, Late in the evening the TV showed me a clip from Temptation Island, a TV phenomenon I know professionally that it’s a success (over 26% share), but what – the horror, the horror! – I had never checked. Since I’m regularly cut off from discussions about Giuseppe and Gabriela, I see a glimmer: I pause, get an idea, and can rejoin the group of my peers. But the reality is harder than expected.
The first thing I understand is that we’re at the point of “confrontational fire,” and—eureka! – That’s why all my colleagues stopped calling the phone calls, the meetings, the arguments with the press offices, the arguments with the press offices. The “campfire of comparison” is now a memesomething from which there is no return. It’s like Gialappa’s Gollonzo or Amadeus’ Doubt. Expressions created from TV formats that enter our everyday lives with stretched legs and stay with us.
I also understand that Giuseppe just saw a video of Gabriela, his fiancé, “making out” – in his words – with another man. It was this other one, as I had already learned from a colleague’s article days ago a “seducer,” which is an actor paid to seduce competitors. In the same way, Giuseppe was also courted by a “seductress”, also she was an actress paid to seduce him and the conductor Filippo Bisciglia, a face I didn’t know, someone to the rest of the world, the Temptation Island Nine years (nine where was I, where?) she pursues them at the pace of a couples therapist. With these fragile bases I manage to interpret the scene: Giuseppe says he loves Gabriela but he is also very angry, Gabriela says she loves Giuseppe but she is also very angry (because, as she explains, he ” cheated”). months before) and at the end of this meeting in front of the campfire that I’ve never seen framed but it could be my hallucination, the two have to say whether to stay together or not.
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In the end they separate, each going their own way in the truest sense of the word. At a certain point along the way he stops to cry and she cries too. He seems to act mostly out of desperation to me, he squirms, hides his face in his hands, reappears to face the camera, collapses, which makes me laugh, which is the opposite of empathy. I realize that the program does not cause disbelief to be lifted in me, I continue to observe it from the real world, which I am very much anchored in, and then the doubts begin: Are we serious? Why would I join a program with a friend to see if I want to be together? Knowing that the “tempters” are paid actors, how can I give in to their false flattery? How can Bisciglia really take that serious tone when people talk about love, intimacy, and their own business in front of the camera? Why do over 26% of TV viewers follow this stuff? Now I have the fire of the campfire inside, and full of all these questions I get back to work, certain that I will have some answers. But the reality disappoints me.
Answer number one: Behind it is the genius of Maria De Filippi. I am advised that “Temptation Island” is actually produced by Maria De Filippi’s Fascino PGT. A woman who undoubtedly built her programs on people’s stomachs, so a guarantee of success. But that’s not enough for me.
Answer number two: “is the metaphor of love”. I didn’t understand it, but whoever told me that adds that he hasn’t seen it yet, although that will be the case soon, because it’s a phenomenon and therefore needs to be studied. Then someone explains to me what it means that the program stages love situations that are universal topoi, from Guinizzelli’s courtly love to men and women (yes, see Maria). In short: love will always return to the gentle heart. Will be.
Answer number three: that of the psychologist, a psychologist On average, the answer is: Temptation Island is liked because it makes us feel better. Knowing that there are more distressed couples than ours gives us a good feeling. In short, we return to glee, the joy of others’ misfortunes. I go home.
“Curled up on the sofa,” to quote Bobo Vieri in a well-known Vanity Fair interview, I worry about this philosophical rebus. Until, lazily scrolling the internet, I come across the message: “Despite what we saw last night, Giuseppe and Gabriela would get back together after the quarrel due to social indiscretions ». Look look. “From Poggiomarino, a small village near Scafati, which the couple often visited, it is said: ‘The two are still together'” The thesis is that they only used the program for advertising purposes. General public outrage. I’m going to sleep. Good night.