Amazon has found a way to take its trademark mix of pure evil and mundane banality and turn it into television content, according to Deadline. The outlet reports that Wanda Sykes will be hosting a new reality TV program called Ring Nation, which will feature clips from people’s camera-equipped Ring doorbells.
First off, that sounds incredibly boring. “The series will feature clips such as neighbors saving neighbors, marriage proposals, military reunions and silly animals,” writes Deadline. I like a 30-second clip of naughty racoons or unruly bears as much as anyone but this is presumably going to be a standard 30 minute (or longer) show and that just sounds awful.
More important, though, are the totally transparent and sinister implications of what Amazon is doing with this series. Amazon owns MGM, which will be producing the show, along with Ring (which Amazon also owns) and Big Fish Entertainment, best known for the exceptionally popular copaganda show Live PD. Amazon’s acquisition of Ring was troubling enough on its own as it, along with other recent purchases like Roomba, gives the corporate behemoth huge amounts of data regarding our lives and habits. This TV show is pretty obviously not about entertainment, but about creating more Ring customers, to give Amazon even more of a stronghold on our personal data.
At a time when Ring and Amazon have been under fire for partnering with law enforcement and reportedly turning over security footage without permission or even a warrant, this kind of show is clearly designed to soften and sanitize Amazon’s constant dystopian annihilation of our privacy.
(image: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
