"Being Reuben"

I don't watch much reality TV but I'm pretty starved for new content at this point.  Enter the CW, rebroadcasting a British TV series "Being Reuben".  In very easy-to-take 30 minute episodes we follow 14 year-old Reuben de Maid, a Welsh boy who is working hard to become a Social Media influencer.  He is a surprising figure.  A boy who does an amazing job applying makeup, a young man who holds his own when meeting with adults from major marketing firms.  But he is also just a kid, one who fights his mom on doing homework, doesn't clean up after himself and who refuses to eat healthy.  It's an interesting mix.  The show follows his professional career as well as his typical 14 year old rebellions (along with two younger siblings).  Reuben's extended family is engaging as well.  There is his imperfect mom trying to balance her own job with motherhood and his adorable Bampa (grandfather) who is not a modernist but is warm and loving even when Reuben's world seems mystifying to him.  The father makes a brief appearance, and, like Bampa, is a tad overwhelmed by it all.  The agent enters in now and then to keep things on track and the older brother is only seen in a photo and rarely mentioned.  And there lies the challenge of so-called "reality" TV.  There is no such thing, of course.  Situations are manipulated, heavy editing allows us, the viewers, to see what the producers want us to see, giving a skewed outlook to a life, or lives, which are most likely pretty complicated.  It's entertaining and revealing, but only to a point.  And no, I won't go so far to say that it is "reality", but it was worth the time.