This is a hilarious graphic novel about reality TV. Definitely one of the funniest graphic novels I have read recently.

In a Nutshell: A semi-satirical graphic novel, focussing on the history and behind-the-scenes of reality TV shows. Might work better for reality show fans. To me, it was as appealing as a reality TV show. 👀

Story Synopsis:
Yasmina, the youngest of four kids, is the black sheep in her family of academic overachievers. Though she is a psychologist, she feels compelled to prove her worth on a grander scale to merit a place on her family’s photo wall of achievements. And what better way to do so than by participating on a reality TV show? She loves reality TV, and getting into one of the multitude of programmes has to be a cakewalk, right?
Through Yasmina’s experience, we get to see the history of reality television and what happens behind the scenes of a contemporary reality programme.

This graphic novel was originally published in French earlier this year under the title “Éloge de la surface: dans les profondeurs de la téléréalité.” This English translation by Anna Howell was released in October 2023.

I am not a fan of reality TV shows, though I have watched a few episodes of various shows years ago with my mom who enjoys these type of programmes. The only reason I grabbed this novel was to try and understand what is it about reality shows that causes so many viewers to be obsessed by them, despite knowing that most (all?) of them are scripted. The endeavour proved a mixed bag.

Almost all people, myself included, are judgemental about fans of reality TV shows. But the fact also is that many of these fans are closeted. They never accept in public that they love such shows, for fear of being ridiculed. Which is why I found the author’s profile very interesting. A psychologist by profession, just like her lead character Yasmina, the author is passionate about reality TV and finds the programmes cathartic. This book reveals her enthusiasm for these productions. Though I didn’t enjoy the book, I still respect how she gave such a frivolous topic her best shot, mixing up the voyeuristic elements with a psychological perspective on the content and its impact.

The book does offer some interesting insights about how show producers and directors manipulate the programme in order to grab maximum viewership and also to keep viewers addicted. The various disparities are also underscored, with a clear light being shone upon how women participants are subject to a different scale of critique than male participants, how many shows pick candidates based on their looks and melodramatic capabilities, and how the manipulators are always more successful than the naïve and straightforward contestants.

Ironically, the maximum insights in this book came from one of the “ditz” contestants. I liked her character as she was unapologetic about her life choices and brave enough to stand by them.

Other than the above, the book didn’t work the way I thought it would. The reality show that Yasmina was a part of was on the lines of ‘Big Brother’, so I felt like I was watching that ridiculous show and the eyeball-grabbing shenanigans of its inmates. It was quite annoying!

The author’s attempt at explaining how psychology has a role to play in whatever happens on such shows didn’t do anything for me because the elaborations were too technical, and my head refused to cooperate in understanding a technical psychoanalysis for something so base.

The frame story of Yasmina’s joining the show just to prove her worth to her family didn’t make much sense to me. As a psychologist, Yasmina would surely have known that reality show accolades won’t impress her highbrow academic parents! I liked how one of her sisters kept supporting her, but on the whole, the frame story could have done much better.

What further reduced my enjoyment were the graphics. Just like the shows, the illustrations are much exaggerated. (What is seen on the cover art is actually quite good. The inside graphics aren't in the same style at all.) The over-the-top expressions and comic-style physiques possibly poke a satirical jab at the theme of the book. However, I found the hyperbolic drawings very distracting. The artwork is as loud as the contestants of the show, and this, added to the cluttered page layout, made the reading experience a pain. (It is quite possible that the messy look isn’t as prominent in the physical copy.)

While I wasn’t aware of a few of the shows mentioned in this book (partly due to theirs being European programmes that aren’t franchised here), I didn’t have trouble keeping up with the book. I don’t think you need to have watched these programmes to understand how they function. The book also delivers on that same assumption. At the same time, it is clear that the story focusses only on one kind of show, though it mentions the other types in the introductory segment. The level of scripting, psychological manoeuvres, and inquisitive tendencies would surely be different between, say, ‘MasterChef’ and ‘Amazing Race’ and ‘Survivor’. I wish the book had highlighted these differences.

Like it or not, reality TV shows will always find an audience. And with the advent of social media and influencers who are ready to share every single bit of their life online, voyeurism is here to stay. So just in case you want a glimpse behind the scenes of such shows and you are tolerant of the somewhat zealous approach towards establishing the psychological merit of reality programmes, you might like to give this a go.

Will you like it better if you love reality TV? Quite possible, but can’t say for sure. Depends on how you feel about the heavy psychological content.

Will it make you a fan of reality shows if you aren’t one? Not at all.

2 stars.

My thanks to Europe Comics and NetGalley for the DRC of “Praising the Surface: Behind the Scenes of Reality TV”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

A satirical look at reality TV using a graphic novel as the vehicle. It will make you think about how we got to this stage where there are opportunities to be voyeuristic viewers around the clock. Even if you were limited to network channels, you could find a show to watch every night -- and more than one per channel at times. Just tonight, we could have watched Hell's Kitchen followed by the Lego Competition show. Survivor was on last night followed by The Amazing Race. See what I mean? It's exhausting. This book got a bit into the weeds, but I get the gist of it. Was not a huge fan of the overblown illustrations and some of the pages were VERY busy.

Thank you to Europe Comics and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.

A very funny and surprisingly touching look behind the scenes at the making of trashy reality television, and the many ways that people suppress or push forward their personalities and desires to get what they want out of life.

If you are a fan of reality TV, then this graphic novel is for you! Go behind the scenes as a counselor who is invited to write scenes about what is going on throughout the day. Her job is to see what the cameras are getting and write what the episodes should be about. She also begins to have a friendship with the main character, and you can see how they make her come out of her shell. The illustrations are fantastic and very much stick with the outrageousness of what the tv shows are all about.

What a heartwarming story!
As a curious person who's inclined to want to know how certain things or phenomena are wired, this book just ticked that box off and truly surpassed my expectations.
Not only did it accomplish what it set out to do, but it also remained authentic to its promise of having a story and narrative that's accessible to people regardless of education or background. I truly feel like the book didn't dumb its readers down, nor did it try to use terms or language that are harder to understand to the average reader.
I cannot wait to be able to own a copy of this marvelous book, and I know for a fact that I'll be encouraging my friends to have a look at this title.

I enjoy seeing Reality TV, and reading about it was extraordinary.
I loved the characters, their energies and personalities.
It was a book that I couldn't put down, it was really invested in the story, and the illustrations are beautiful. They really bring the story to life with the colors, personality and expressions of the characters.

It's really a book that I recommend, you will have a lot of fun and learn about something that we all enjoy seeing even if it's just a little tiny bit.

I received this book from Netgalley/publisher in exchange of an honest review.

Well, this one was a hard read. I mean, there was a lot of good as well, but a lot, no too much of psychobabble. I was struggling SO hard to read this one when it went in psychological mode. And there is a lot of it. Some parts were OK, but at times I was just, GOSH stop. NO. I don't care. Bye. And that comes from a girl who is OK-ish interesting in psychology. And I so disliked most of the family of Yasmina. How they were in the beginning, and how unchanged in the end. Fuck them.
I really loved the parts with Lenina and seeing her become friends with our MC, Yasmina. I loved seeing Yasmina get more confident and start with the book. I loved the reality show parts, the drama, the scripts, and see Yasmina hidden in places to get all the good bits. I loved the art so much. I loved the escape with Lenina/Yasmina.

But yeah, the psychological stuff and all the explanation just killed it, and not in a good way.

I wanted to like this graphic novel based on the description and what it's attempting to achieve with the story, but unfortunately it missed the mark for me.

Praising the Surface tells the story of Yasmina, a psychologist who is perpetually underappreciated in her family of accomplished intellectuals. Her guilty pleasure is reality TV, and she becomes a part of one as a "journalist" and script writer. She uses her psychology training to uncover biases and put a spotlight on why people behave as they do, and then writes a book about the experience - presumably the one we're reading right now. It's all very meta by the end!

What I loved was the psychoanalysis of the reality show phenomenon and social media interactions between celebrities and fans, as well as Yasmina's relationship with the show stars. This was interesting, well-explained and honestly could have made for an extremely good book if this was the only topic. I laughed out loud at some points where a rebellious Yasmina writes a hilarious tongue-in-cheek script for the show that includes all of the ways in which it portrays people superficially or unfairly!

What I didn't enjoy as much was the frame story, which took around half or more of the book. Yasmina is belittled by her family for not being academic enough, or other measures of "enoughness" they throw at her in comparison with her parents and siblings. I don't know how much of this story is rooted in reality, but I found it very disappointing that in the end, Yasmina goes right back, triumphant, with her book, and that makes her only sort of good enough at last. Is this supposed to be a happy ending?Ironically enough, there's no growth or depth to the main character in this story, it's all one-dimensional and surface level. Maybe that was intentional and I'm missing the point.

Overall there were some really fun parts, but unfortunately not one of my favorites.

✨ Disclaimer ✨ I received a free copy of this book and this is my honest review.

So, this had a lot of potential based on how it was described but, for me, it was a little less than meh. The history lesson was neat but felt very preachy in the way that it kind of dominated the whole book. And yes, I get that the main purpose of this book was to provide an overview of reality TV and some of the psychology behind it. But I guess I also wanted an interesting story and unfortunately this did not give me an interesting story. I didn't really like any of the characters and felt that the story was too rough and really intended to move from lesson to lesson rather than, well, tell a cohesive story.

The way that the whole book wrapped up - we came full circle - also didn't seem to make sense to me. Well, it made sense in context of a story that jumped around, but it came out of left field and had me wondering if I had missed a whole section of the plot. I hadn't.

The artwork was ok. Not my normal preference or style, but it wasn't bad either.

I do love reality TV. I thought that this would be a fun read. Disappointed unfortunately.

Yasmina is educated, with a good (and important) job—but she's not as educated or decorated (or married) as the rest of her family, and between that and her love of reality television, she feels like the black sheep of the family. So what's she to do...? Apply to be on reality TV, of course. And fail—and take a job on set instead, where she can analyze it from up close.

I appreciate the aim here—this is a blend of lighthearted poking fun at the reality TV industry (and the expectations of the participants, especially the women) and something of Yasmina's more academic manifesto about the whys and hows of reality TV—how it came about, why it attracts viewers, and the ways in which contestants (who are often white, heterosexual, thin/fit, etc.) are typecast...and in some cases choose to play to type.

The art style is not for me. The cover hints at the cartoonish art, but in the graphic novel itself it's far more exaggerated. Think Foxtrot (I'm sure there's a better comparison, but that's what I can come up with right now), but without any noses. Still miles better than anything I can draw, of course, but I read graphic novels partly for the story and partly for the art, and this is just one where the style really didn't add to my experience. Recommended for those entertained more by the industry of reality TV than by the reality TV itself, and those who appreciate a more comic-y art style.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Thanks to Netgalley for a copy for an honest review

I found ‘Praising the sun’ really interesting and I enjoyed reading it 😊
I would highly recommend it
Rating 4 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I found this really engaging, which is a pleasant surprise, given that my interest in reality TV is subzero! But Yasmine was a compelling heroine: her enthusiasm in the face of academia-focused family, dynamics with her siblings, a professional skillset she brings into the pursuit of her fannish interest, they were all so genuine. The actual reality TV i still don't care about one bit, but Yasmine (and authors') passion made it an interesting journey. And the art is funny and adorable!

This was an interesting read, definitely would recommend, especially if you have any strong opinions on reality TV (whether positive or negative). The writers had some very interesting things to say about group identities and ego and the role women play for the viewers of reality TV. The art was really pretty and the colour palette was beautiful. Read it in an afternoon, time well spent.

I think this book looks into a lot of behind-the-scenes and shows and reality TV and I think there’s a lot of things personally and experience wise to unpack there, and I think it is educating a lot of the audience as to how things are set up and how people have a role and how none of its real I also would 100% recommend. I think this is fun it’s quirky it has a good relationship between the two female leads, and I just love the friendship that’s gained in troubling situations and it’s just heart wrenching as well as heartwarming at the same time.

I really liked the merge of the main character's storyline with the various philosophical reflections on reality tv. I also loved the art and how it goes so well with the plot!