remapping viewer sympathies: Meerkat Manor
 
first, let me apologize for the timing of this article.  i’ve been planning this entry for a few weeks and didn’t get to it till now.  only upon finding the above image did i learn that Flower, the matriarch of the family, died following a cobra strike.  my sympathy to the Whiskers clan.
 
for anyone who hasn’t seen this show, Meerkat Manor’s cameras follow the struggles and successes of a family of meerkats in the Kalahari Desert.  these creatures are the most researched mammals on the planet, and have been studied for some 13 years now (and recorded for television for a fraction of that time).  
    listen, i grew up watching syndicated nature shows like (Mutual of Omaha’s) Wild Kingdom where the rules were quite different.  each episode would introduce a range of animals, the climax of which would focus on the hunting habits of large predatory cats (or other fearsome stand-ins).  the final sequence would follow a pattern:
  1. • meet the herd, paying special attention to the young, old, sick, and lame (aka: the menu).
  2. • meet the cat, who slinks through the grass or laps dirty water from a small pool.
  3. • the cat hasn’t eaten in a long time.  neither have her pups(!).
  4. • the cat surveys the menu and puts itself downwind.
  5. • the cat runs, the herd runs, chaos.
  6. • we see the shadow cast by the helicopter on the ground, which momentarily breaks the illusion.
  7. • more running.  
  8. • the camera catches up and we see the cat shake the carcass by the neck.
  9. • ah.  the cat wins.  its a happymeal for the pups, who scramble for the choice cuts.  
Meerkat Manor is different.  think of a show like Survivor or Big Brother or any of a host of programing where young drunk people plot, fuck, undress, fight, cuss, and behave strangely for the camera.  these “reality” programs have something in common:  they expose subjects to less-than perfect conditions and the audience (oh yes, that’s us!) gets to pick favorites.  on these anthrocentric programs, editing and narration guide us through the shifting sands of alliances and challenging situations to an understanding about who we should root for and against.  sometimes, our individual favorites are taken from the shows, removed from the game by injury (emotional or physical), decree/vote/conspiracy, competitive weakness/disadvantage, or the caprices of game-fate.
    Meerkat Manor works in a similar way, except the stakes are higher and the consequences more dire for the meerkats.  removal from the game is often fatal in the Kalahari, where temperature, aridity, predation, poison, starvation, and rival populations constitute a constant cocktail of life-abbreviation.  watching the meerkats draws us into the world of the creatures in a way that Wild Kingdom could never do, and we are witness to the consequences of action and inaction on an episodic basis with a familiar cast.  we come to root for the creatures, especially the brave Whiskers clan and their matriarch Flower.  Flower has pups, the pups grow up, they challenge Flower for supremacy, they get kicked out.  even the pregnant ones.  but there’s always death nearby.  pups die all the time, and each time we feel our hearts skip for a moment.  
    imagine a show like Survivor or Big Brother where contestants are carried off by birds of prey or where the weakest tribe members are killed by rivals at tribal council.  thrilling television?  yes.  disturbing? absolutely.  redrawing audience sympathy?  oh my.  at one time, back with Wild Kingdom, we were rooting for the predator and against the prey which were just so much food standing around  we hadn’t made friends with dinner, yet.  
    the meerkats are prey, but they also have captured our sympathy and our adoration.  we identify with them thanks to the humanizing narratives that come with social meerkat society (and come with the encampment of dedicated researchers, camera teams, editors, and writers who focus thereupon).  we root for the little guy.  the punctuated drama of the hunt and kill is still there, but the grand loud televised drama of the Great Cat has largely been replaced by the minutiae and family drama of an anthropomorphic Kalahari soap opera.  
Friday, October 12, 2007