Catfish: The TV Show - TV series created for MTV

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Highly entertaining and thought provoking for a generation brought up online. Each episode follows a new person who is struggling to meet the person they are in love with despite only ever having communicated online, some have never even heard the other person's voice. It always surprises you because the big reveals of who the people are can be bizarre but also showing the person as truthful.

Firstly the two hosts, Nev and Max, are very nice people and seem to be very adept at communicating with people. They help all the people who ask the too with everything and seemingly care about the outcome greatly. Without such caring and present hosts the show would be poorer.

The programme itself can obviously be belittled because it is entertainment caused by the troubles in other people's lives. You can argue that it is not overly respectfully done as the camera never seems to be off the people involved, even when they step away into a different room they remain miked and there seem to be cameras everywhere.

Doing a little research on the show reveals obvious problems with all reality based programmes and that is that there is very little that is actually real. This is at once disappointing but also somewhat relieving because, as I said before, the personal nature of this stories makes them seem intrusive. You can complain about inauthenticity as much as you like but firstly everyone being shown have obviously signed contracts to allow themselves to appear and also you should never believe everything you see on TV.

I feel that Catfish's strength is in quick entertainment, causing shock and tears for some who watch, but is also a strong cautionary tale. It reaffirms ideas of the dangers online and explains some tell-tale signs to aid people who may be in a similar situation.