The unusual Sundance hit about a guy who goes out with a camera to finally meet the woman with whom he was smitten, only to be surprised what he finds, was called “Catfish.” That’’s also the name of the TV version of the process, from the same filmmakers, that starts Monday on MTV.
The name comes from a story told in the original film, about how catfish were imported to Asia after cod was, to keep the cod active. In the same way, those who pull elaborate ruses on the internet are meant to keep people — usually romantics — active as well.
Anyway, “Catfish” is not another fishing show, or at least one that involves real fish.
In some kind of symmetry, Nev Schulman, who was attracted to a woman who didn’t exist quite the way he thought she did in the original movie, lends his moviemaking and curiousity skills to help other people finally confront face-to-face the phantom objects of romance over the internet.
The first case is a smiley woman named Sunny who is smitten with a guy she met on Facebook who is a model, involved in TV and whose sisters were all killed.
She’s anxious to meet this guy, and Nev’s the first one to enable it, armed with all manner of cameras. As in the movie, there is a suprise reveal.
And though the name of another MTV series is invoked when a woman says “Am I being ‘Punk’d’?” the makers of “Catfish” insist they are trying their best to be humane in a process that can be jolting and humiliating.
Chris Linn, Executive Vice President of Programming and Head of Production at MTV describes the show as “a weekly roller coaster ride that brings romantic couples, whose relationships to date have only been virtual, face to face together for the first time” noting that “their emotional journeys are filled with mystery, surprises, and sometimes shocking revelation.”
Linn cautions, “This is not a ‘gotcha’ show. This is an incredibly prevalent issue. It’s a very relatable issue, and it happens far more than, I think, anyone understands, and so it’s important to us that we treat it properly.”
So Schulman and his pal Max Joseph take a lot of time to talk to people — who have often contacted them for help — and cultivate both sides before the meeting, although when the meeting occurs, the two filmmakers are not sure what’s going to happen, much like the subject.
“We actually learn everything in the same chronological order at the same time that she does,” Joseph says.
“The same way, in the film, the viewer goes on the story with us as we discover what’s going on,” Schulman adds. “We are sort of the viewer because we are discovering as it’s happening to us and telling a documentary story in a narrative sort of form.”
The big question, when they came to the TV Critics Association press tour in August, was why these romantic seekers don’t use Skype to see who they’re dealing with on a real time basis.
Well many people outside of the coasts don’t have very good internet connections to support Skyping, Schulman says. Besides they want to keep up the illusion as long as they can.
“They are so excited about this relationship. They are so happy that someone has taken such an interest in them,” he says, “ that they are willing to forego what would seem to be totally obvious things that one would want, you know, in communicating with someone that often. Because the fear of [losing] that crush, that person that is constantly texting you and emailing you and Facebook posting on your page.
“ So part of it is overcoming the fear of possibly losing something that you are so happy about having,” he says.
The result can have the same kind of visceral impact that the original film had, and is at least a step up from the punk’d mentality or dating shows that count on humiliation that are usually the basis of MTV.
But outdoorsmen seeking a catfishing show still may feel just as misled.
“Catfish” runs Mondays at 11 p.m. on MTV.