"Death ends a life, not a relationship."
Robert Benchley said it, now Mozart demonstrates it. Not the musical Mozart, of course, but the furry one, with whiskers, an overbite and long, dirty fingernails.
The news arrived Monday, strictly embargoed until today:
"First, Flower ... now her daughter Mozart." Animal Planet sent word that Season 3 of "Meerkat Manor," the riveting documentary soap opera, is about to suffer another loss.
The heartbreak just never quits.
Having mourned the tragic loss of Flower on Sept. 28, viewers must brace for tonight's episode, at 9:30 on Animal Planet, in which the late matriarch's bright-eyed young dependent Mozart, a caring female on the verge of happiness, loses her life as well.
Flower, leader of the clan for four years, gave her life protecting her cubs, felled by a cobra bite. Now, less than a month later, Mozart meets her maker.
She wasn't a virgin but she was newly in love.
Animal Planet is promoting the episode as "straight from the pen of Shakespeare." It's poetic reality TV, all right - ricocheting between the possibilities of sex and death. Humans are hooked.
"This episode begins with a budding romance between fair Mozart and the charming Wilson," Animal Planet's press release advises.
"With her hopes for a life in the Kalahari rising, Mozart's dreams are dashed when their brief courtship comes to a sudden end. Left alone once again, the lovestruck Mozart embraces her final moments in the Kalahari."
An outpouring of grief has met the oddly popular series at every turn.
"Poor Mozart," wrote a fan using the handle brightrubies, "She just wants to be loved."
"This season has been brutal. I really hope that some good things happen for Mozart," wrote another, known as ninjalilly. "We've been watching her suffer for three seasons now ... it's just too much! No more tragedy for Mozart, please!"
"Meerkat Manor" isn't just the most honest of TV reality shows, set amid a lower branch on the family tree, yet dealing in familiar power struggles. It's a touchstone, revealing the power of a cult TV favorite to move people.
The fact that a niche cable series could stir such heartfelt response suggests the audience for honest emotion is ready and willing, if fragmented. When's the last time a primetime network series moved you to mourn or memorialize?
Various YouTube montages in memory of Flower express the depth of human devotion to this screen star, a critter in a GPS collar.
"What if you lost forever the one you loved the most ... ?" the announcer beckons.
What if you had so much time on your hands, you could design a music video tribute to Flower and post it online?
Animal Planet has compiled a scrapbook with messages from viewers, taken from chat boards, and established an "in memoriam" section on its website. "People were saddened by her death but inspired by her life," a spokeswoman declared.
People magazine included Flower in its "Passings" column.
A feature film, "Queen of the Kalahari," starring Flower, continues in production. Intended as a prequel to "Meerkat Manor," it was begun before Flower's passing and traces her rise to dominance of the Whiskers clan.
Although some viewers have expressed anger that nothing was done by human onlookers to save Flower, the filmmakers rightly note that they honored the primary rule of nature documentary filmmaking not to intercede. They merely documented events as they unfolded.
And now Mozart - who is "as sweet, kind and unselfish as it gets in meerkat society," according to the fan site's description - moves on.
Next up on Animal Planet is "Orangutan Island," premiering Nov. 2, following a group of orphaned orangutans in Borneo. "Now a loner, a lover, a bully, a prankster and a hero must overcome personal differences, battle invaders from a nearby island and survive the fury of Mother Nature to form a model community for future generations of orphans to follow." It's "Survivor," with more hair.
8 comments:
Here's one man's theory:
Watching the meerkat show fulfills the viewers' craving for honest experience that can no longer be derived from other humans. Reality TV has turned out to be anything but, as "real-life" characters are constantly self-aware of being on TV. Think of it as the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle of the media. By being on camera, it's impossible to act naturally. Our voyeuristic impulse is spoiled by our knowledge that we're still watching a performance. We still feel manipulated.
Even in real life, away from the TV set, we're still unsure of what's real, as we've all become receptors and actors of marketing campaigns, media saturation and political spin. Our lives have become highly processed in the media and advertising grinder, a jumbled mess of external stimuli and implanted desires. We are no longer our natural, organic selves.
So here come the meerkats promising us simple, honest experiences. We're projecting what it means to be truly human in the lives of rodents (or whatever meerkats are), an anthropomorphic nostalgia of less ironic, cynical times.
Perhaps the most disturbing facet of this Meerkat phenom is the advertising; is it cleverly leveraging the audience's anthropic projections, or insidiously fomenting them?
I've found myself unable to tolerate more than a few minutes of any of the string of "reality" TV shows, from MTV's "The Real World" on (that is when this whole mess began, isn't it?), much less "enjoy" them.
And, on the periphery of this subject, I find that many shows that could otherwise be informative or educational - e.g., Mythbusters, Monster Garage, Queer Eye, etc. - have formats that tap into that same sorry vibe; they offer little in the way of useful information, choosing to instead flesh out the time slot with affected (and undoubtedly scripted) hijinks and whatnot. In the end, these shows are really but celebrations of their "Personalities", i.e., the host or hosts.
Because these kinds of shows are wildly popular, and I can't stand them, I have to wonder: Is it misanthropy that prevents me from enjoying this swill? Or just my good taste?
Wait a minute -- meerkats are real?
From "Meerkat" entry in Wikipedia:
"They are very social, living in colonies of up to about 30. Animals in the same group regularly groom each other to strengthen social bonds. The alpha pair often scent-mark subordinates of the group to express their authority, and this is usually followed by the subordinates grooming the alphas and licking their faces. This behavior is also usually practiced when group members are reunited after a short period apart. Most meerkats in a group are all siblings and offspring of the alpha pair.
Meerkats demonstrate altruistic behavior within their colonies; one or more meerkats stand sentry (lookout) while others are foraging or playing, to warn them of approaching dangers. When a predator is spotted, the meerkat performing as sentry gives a warning bark, and other members of the gang will run and hide in one of the many bolt holes they have spread across their territory. The sentry meerkat is the first to reappear from the burrow and search for predators, constantly barking to keep the others underground. If there is no threat, the sentry meerkat stops signaling and the others feel safe to emerge.
Meerkats also babysit the young in the group. Females that have never produced offspring of their own often lactate to feed the alpha pair's young, while the alpha female is away with the rest of the group. They also protect the young from threats, often endangering their own lives. On warning of danger, the babysitter takes the young underground to safety and is prepared to defend them if the danger follows. If retreating underground is not possible, she collects all young together and lies on top of them.
Meerkats are also known to share their burrow with the yellow mongoose and ground squirrel, species with which they do not compete for resources. If they are unlucky, sometimes they share their burrow with snakes.
Meerkats are the first non-human mammal species seen actively teaching their young. Young of most species learn solely by observing adults. For example, meerkat adults teach their pups how to eat a venomous scorpion: they will remove the stinger and help the pup learn how to handle the creature. [2]
Despite this altruistic behaviour, meerkats sometimes kill young members of their group. Subordinate meerkats have been seen killing the offspring of more senior members in order to advance their own offspring's' positions."
Altrustic yet social climbers. Sounds like the best and worst of human behavior.
I'm looking forward to the "Meerkat Noir" anthology. There could be a good story about the double-dealing sentry in cahoots with a meerkat predator.
I'm looking forward to the VH1 channel "The Making Of Meerkat Manor", with anecdotes from the living cast members: "Flower was in her off-set trailer, snorting lines of blow, emboldening herself for her big scene with the cobra..."
Feral Boy,
Though you are feral, you are smart.
Your wolf-mother raised you right.
But why do you suckle on the teat of cynicism now?
Wait a minute -- Feral Boy is real?
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