Catfish: The TV Show

catfish (n.) - a person who creates fake profile online and pretends to be someone they are not by using someone else's pictures and information.

Have you ever wondered if the people you speak to online are really who they say they are? For any of you who have seen Catfish the movie, you'll get the jist of what the TV show is about. But let me summarise for those who may not be so familiar. 

Nev is a photographer who lives with his brother Ariel in New York. An eight year old girl, Abby, sends him  a painting she did of one of his photographs, which leads them to becoming Facebook friends, thus exposing Nev to Abby's whole family, including her attractive older sister Megan. Before they know it, Nev and Megan are involved in an intense online relationship, with Ariel and his film-making partner Henry film their progress for a documentary. Perhaps not your regular fairy tail, but it worked for them, until Nev found out that everything wasn't what it seemed. In actual fact, who Nev thought was 'Megan' was actually Abby's mother Angela, posing as her estranged daughter - who does actually exist - using photos taken from someone else's Facebook profile. Not only that, but Abby's paintings were actually done by Angela.

Crazy, right? Well, it gets crazier. After the film became a huge success, Nev started receiving messages from hundreds and thousands of people in the same situation - they are in love with someone that they met online and they want his help to find out if they are the real deal. So Nev and his film-maker friend Max joined forces with MTV to create Catfish: the TV Show, bringing people in online relationships together... with varying consequences. Nev picks one of the many people who message him daily, reads their story, then Skypes them to see if they're up for him helping them connect them to their online lover. He and Max then fly out to wherever they live, do their research in attempts to uncover the truth, and arrange the meet up. It's like Miss Marple and Blind Date all in one, with a modern twenty-first century twist.

Two episodes in and I'm hooked. It's series-linked on the Sky box and I'm inching for more after each hour. In fact, I'm so anxious for more that I think I may have to search for the episodes online. It's like I'm fueling some sort of docudrama crack addiction - I just can't get enough. Watching it brings about so many emotions, I feel like I'm properly involved in these people's lives. I'm just as nervous as they are as they are on the Big Day when they drive out to meet their elusive other half. And I'm just as disappointed when the person they fell in love with online aren't who they really said they were.

As addicting as it is, it brings about so many questions: How can you fall in love with someone you've never met face to face? How can one not get even a little bit suspicious when their significant other refuses to Skype with them? Why would anyone want to lie about their identity and lead someone on like that? And the big one - is this all 100% real and genuine? Catfish the film had its skeptics, Super Size Me's Morgan Spurlock called it "the best fake documentary I have ever seen," and others have questioned its authenticity by pointing out how convenient it was that Ariel and Henry just 'happened' to catch all the pivotal moments in Nev's journey on film, and why they would even begin to document it in the first place.

Personally, I like to think the film was real. And as involved I now am with the TV show, I too question its authenticity at times. Like when the person is faced with their "catfish", how do they stay so calm knowing that they've been lied to for however long they've been involved? And how do they go from being so hurt and upset, to understanding and eventually becoming friends with their catfish? It's all very up in the air, but I think that's what I love about it, it keeps me guessing.

As someone who has had online friendships pretty much since first being introduced to the internet, it's quite unsettling thinking that the people I'm speaking to online and forming bonds with may not be the real deal. Admittedly, we all have an online persona. Not to mean that we're all fakes, but we choose what aspects of our personality we expose to the world wide web. We want to show off the best version of ourselves, but some people take it a step further and showcase someone else entirely. Whether it is to explore different options or decisions they could have made in their life or simply because they think being themselves just isn't good enough. That's the saddest part of it all.

Though it's not all doom and gloom, executive producer of Catfish: the TV Show insists that it's not all about the deception aspect of online courtship, "We've stumbled into some love stories. We found people who are exactly who they say they are. We are putting those on television, too. We find people who are willing to get past an initial deception and really do make a connection at the end - in person and in real life. That's been really heartwarming." And I for one can't wait to watch those episodes.