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Marc Mandisoul and Miss V Candy — hosts for ‘Club E Show’

Silver Screen with Tafadzwa Zimoyo

US pop sensation Jojo once sang; “Can somebody explain to me why everybody is trying to be, living life like celebrities, doing what they see on MTV”. With that in mind, you can tell the power of television influence, especially on teenagers. Fashion on television provides a comprehensive critical examination of the intersection between fashion, television and celebrity culture.

Some of the shows and programmes on television are more focused on celebrities and fashion, and influence viewers especially women.

For example, shows like “Gossip Girl”, “Ugly Betty”, “Club E” and “Mad Men” have made style icons out of leading actresses and fashion-conscious consumers out of audiences.

In short, fashion on television is essential reading for those seeking to understand the cultural function of costumes in a television context.

With that in mind, many locals are trying to copy what they see on television from fashion to food but one thing they seem to forget is that sometimes what we watch on television is staged.

This week, I focus on some of the shows setting the trends on fashion and lifestyle.

For DSTV, we take a look at E-Hollywood — E!’s “Hollywood Cycle”, while in Zimbabwe the catch is on “Club E”.

“Hollywood Cycle”, a new series about a popular Los Angeles spin studio called “Cycle House”, is a mutant beast of a reality show.

E! Entertainment clips in to the popular, highly competitive world of indoor cycling with the première of its newest reality series, “Hollywood Cycle”.

The sexy, cut-throat series dives deep into the world of Los Angeles’ famed studio, “Cycle House”, and introduces viewers to their top instructors, and devoted trainees, who keep riders tapping it back on cue.

Through six-hour-long episodes, viewers will get a prized front row seat in the dark, rhythm-filled studio as well as an inside look at their high drama, and always complicated, personal lives.

“Hollywood Cycle” is on DStv Channel 124.

It explores the ride-or-die mentality of powerhouse instructors, Nichelle Hines, Aaron Hines, and Nick Hounslow, and the trainees who attempt to ride their way to the top as they learn from the best in the business.

From clashing opinions with “Cycle House” owners Lara and Adam Gillman over the best way to get booties in the saddles, to blurred lines in the instructors’ personal and professional lives, fans will get a first-hand look at the obsessive, glamorous world of indoor cycling in Los Angeles.

The show is part of America’s next Top Model–style competition, part small-biz drama (the goal is to open a new location), part hookup show (everyone is single and trying to get laid), and part spectacle designed to exploit the intensity of our most cultish fitness fad yet: spinning.

In recent years, spinning — otherwise known as indoor cycling — has become shorthand for a specific and rarefied sort of playfulness.

On “Hollywood Cycle”, Nishelle Hines is the (Chief Ride Officer) CRO and high priestess of “Cycle House”; she has little patience for the shenanigans of her underlings.

There’s Aaron, the resident hunk whose class “is like the front row of a Drake concert” and Nick, his sensible Australian counterpart who models on the side (of course) and designs the “Cycle House” clothing line.

Here and there, the instructors are shown in personal training sessions with C-list celebrities.

Nick and Aaron bro down off-duty, mostly while concocting smoothies in Nick’s kitchen or discussing armpit botox injections while hiking up Runyon Canyon. “This is LA,” Aaron reminds Nick. “We don’t eat.”

And then there are the trainees, the hungry Los Angeles who view a gig teaching spin classes as a gateway to a certain kind of celebrity.

Sarafina is a one-time exotic dancer prone to breaking rules and pissing off Nishelle; Chad is the most devoted to “Cycle House” despite his tendency to drink and flirt too much.

The triumphs and travails of these people on the road to instructor status are beside the point — it becomes instantly clear that they’ve been cast primarily as pot-stirrers and fame-seekers.

Any conversation related to the studio or its classes is relegated to the sidelines, and what initially seems like a pretty novel concept for a reality show is quickly exposed as a very obvious one.

I am pretty sure if you are a fan of fitness and fashion this is a go for game.

Back home, we have our news show “Club E” hosted by two radio and television personalities, Marc Mandisoul and V-Candy.

The show, which we have featured before, is also improving by day with news bits on trendy lifestyle and upcoming hottest spot.

We won’t dwell much on the review. According to the producers of the show, what we watch today could have been recorded weeks back and that is one major problem the show is facing.

That means we need to set standards well. News break every second and we need to stay abreast.

However, the shows’ presenters Marc and Miss V Candy now look old for the E! Style version. They are good at what they do, but it would be wiser if we got a young fresh and vibrant youth hosting it.

Check how the MTV BASE or VUZU capture the young, trendy and stylish classic audience because of their presenters.

Well let us leave the cake in their oven but we definitely need to move with time.

Till next week, happy viewing.