Work we did in our 'Writing for the multimedia' seminar:
Love, Virtually.
When I sat down to watch a show about online dating I thought it might open my eyes a little, oh how wrong I was. Love, Virtually a 30-minute dramatised documentary aired on Friday July 23rd 2010 at 7 O’clock in the evening on channel 4.
Actress, Claire Wood plays Marie Claire blogger and 30 year old singleton, Lucy Robinson. The documentary follows Lucy on her journey of meeting potential partners through the exciting world of online dating. Lucy’s regular updates about her progress, setbacks and embarrassing dates set the plot, in which I’m sure you are expecting something quirky, comical and trashy TV like that we all love.
The show begins with the struggle of a task of setting up your online dating profile. Knowing what to write is difficult, you don’t want to lie but you don’t want to sound boring and undesirable do you? Lucy then waits for me to “drop in to her inbox.”
Lucy goes on several dates, some unsuccessful and some ending in heartache. Through Claire Wood, the real life blog documenting Lucy’s dating life is re lived. Showing the truth about online dating, the men that lie, the fact that is most men remain single on their online profile even after starting a relationship. Something that they probably don’t think twice about but for women we all know, it’s the little things that matter. Lucy owns up to Facebook stalking, probably reflecting actions of half the Facebook population – lets not lie now.
Although the truth that can be pulled from a lot of what Lucy discusses, Claire Wood makes a poor attempt at portraying a real life blog successfully. Her bad acting makes the whole 30 minutes look un – realistic, staged and a bit of a cringe. We know she isn’t the woman that wrote the blog but isn’t that what an actress is supposed to do? Get in character.
Initially the documentary grabbed my attention and I started to learn about that world of online dating and how real men and women can actually find love through the cyber world. According to channel 4, in 2010, 7 million people signed up for online dating and between them had 12 million dates, which shows that there is an increasing market for online dating.
However after 10 minutes in, the poor acting soon caused a loss in interest and I ceased to learn anything more. At this point I could have easily switched off and never thought about Lucy Robinson and her blog again. As for Claire Wood, choosing to watch anything with her in would be a huge mistake.
I strongly believe the blog itself is a compelling and inspiring read but with the acting throughout this show ruins these this and in no way helps to sell the blog. Claire Wood has done Lucy Robinson no favours at all. Channel 4 should be ashamed to air something of little intellect and disappointing acting when their documentary’s more commonly have such value and worth.
Love, Virtually may inform you of the ins and outs of the world of online dating but through a poor and disappointing display that is a waste of any ones time and effort, what a complete fail.
Here is the link - you might not agree with my thoughts - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnikXEonqlg
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