Can a reality show thrive without the drama?

 

The fabulous ladies of 'The Mommy Club: Sugar & Spice ' have proven you can have the sweetness and the sass. Image source: X (@NowInSa)

It can be said that the ultimate ingredient to every reality show is drama but is The Mommy Club: Sugar and Spice proving that wrong?

In a perfect world when asked ‘Why do you watch reality television shows’ we might be quick to say we watch those shows because of the insights into the different lives and cultures of the cast members and so forth but if we are honest, it is the ongoing drama and conflict that has us tuning in to every episode of that specific shows.

The reality show that is changing it all

These reality shows such as The Real Housewives franchises, The Mommy Club franchise, Big Brother etc. are what we call our guilty pleasures. There is a new debate of whether reality tv can educate without the mess of drama, which was brought forward by one of these shows, The Mommy Club: Sugar & Spice which is a spinoff from the original The Mommy Club which was Johannesburg-based and focused on the lives of a group of successful women who are balancing their careers and motherhood. 

The show introduced a Durban based spinoff which features a variety of successful women including fabulous twins Resh and Losh Naidoo, Lenore Goss-Matjie, Kim Jones, Devina Kowlas, Asharia Parsad and Abigail Nepaul is a far cry from the original.

Is 'The Mommy Club: Sugar & Spice ' different after all

When you analyze the few episodes that the first season of ‘Sugar and Spice’ has given us, they place a heavy emphasis on family where we see the different family dynamics that exist amongst the women and each episode puts a spotlight on the business ventures of each of the women who are entrepreneurs in their own right. This is well applauded on social media by viewers of the show who actually have commented that such a show does not need unnecessary drama amongst women to survive.

When you look closely at each week’s commentary after a certain new episode, you cannot help but notice that there will be still be commentary on the drama that was caused by the show’s current villain Christina Devraj who always has a way of rattling the feathers of her co-stars and ends up being the talking point of each episode.

Christina is the ultimate villain on The mommy Club: Sugar & Spice'
Image Source: X (@dailysunsa)

This has had me as a loyal viewer of reality television wondering in the instance of this show, is Christina just merely carrying the show with the drama that she brings to the show or are her antics just a way of ensuring that viewers will still tune in to the show even if the majority of every episode has positivity and no arguments?

This is a point that Christina mentions in an interview with The South African where she states that "if it was all sugar, the show would not be that interesting"

Drama and peace can co-exist in a perfect reality show

I would conclude that even though the show has deeply educated us as the viewers about the lives of the cast members and some aspects of Indian culture, but it is those last few minutes of every episode when Christina comes on screen and causes havoc that have us going “what is going on here”.

The producers of the show have formulated a perfect balance of drama and informative programming. It can be said that many of our other reality shows could learn a lot from it because at the end of the day as much as we love a show that opens our minds we do love good drama thrown in.