There’s no shortage of reality TV to watch, across networks and streaming platforms. From housewives to cooking shows and talent competitions, there’s something for everyone, even if people don’t want to admit that they watch it.
One of my favorite sub-genres of reality TV is a little unconventional. I’m obsessed with TV mediums. Namely, Theresa Caputo (Long Island Medium on TLC) and Tyler Henry (Hollywood Medium on E! Network).
The major critiques of TV mediums (and mediums in general), is that it’s all a scam. Because how can someone connect with a dead person? Where’s the proof? But for me, I don’t care. It makes me happy to see people find so much relief after making a good connection with a loved one. I don’t believe it’s a scam but that is my personal belief system. I am not here to say that everything on these shows is completely authentic and these mediums change the lives of everyone they meet. Of course, the networks only show the clips that are best for TV. But overall, if it makes people happy and isn’t harmful, who cares? With that in mind, here’s why you should watch TV mediums:
They bring people indescribable joy and closure.
If you’ve watched even one episode of either show, you’ve seen the raw emotion that people emit from talking with the medium. The mediums bring a sense of healing to clients who so badly want to connect with family members and friends who have died. Whether the death was expected or not, many people feel a lack of closure and have so many questions for their loved one(s) who have passed. These mediums bringing healing and closure to their clients.
They are entertaining to watch.
On a purely superficial level, these shows are extremely entertaining to watch. Theresa Caputo mostly reads private clients or small groups of regular people (for lack of a better term), whereas Tyler Henry reads celebrities, but they are both interesting in their own way. Both mediums also employ different processes to read their clients and have different skill-sets with their “gifts” (that’s what they call their ability to connect with the dead). So if nothing else, they are just fun to watch.
They make you self-reflective.
These shows impact me in a way that other forms of reality TV have not. Watching them has made me question and reflect on my own set of beliefs when it comes to life, death, and the afterlife. But neither of these shows force beliefs down viewers’ throats. Obviously, since the mediums connect people with loved ones after they die, they are endorsing the idea that there is some sort of afterlife. So if you are strictly against that kind of belief system, neither show will be for you, and that’s okay! But overall they do not force any specific religion/spirituality, which I like. It just invites you to think about your own beliefs, and even sometimes even question what is real and what isn’t. Not to be grim, but I think it also reminds viewers of their own mortality, which can take on a positive spin by reminding us to live each day to the fullest. And any show that makes me reflect on and evaluate my own life and the choices I make, is a show I want to be watching. And who would have thought that one of those shows would come from E! Network…
