If Love Island did not exist, it would have been necessary to invent it. Well, originally Voltaire reserved that expression for the existence of God, but for the purposes of this article I might as well appropriate and modify it to apply to this latest TV sensation that has set the population arguing about the merits and demerits of its existence.

Thanks to Love Island, we have discovered a surprising interest and devotion towards ‘culture’ in a large chunk of the Maltese population, one that we were not aware even existed. So far, all statistics had told us otherwise.

A few years ago, following the appalling statistics published by Eurobarometer on cultural participation across Europe – where Malta placed second from last – someone called this country “a cultural desert”.

Perhaps that was a bit much, but until the uproar generated by the prospect of a local version of ITV’s Love Island to be aired on TVM, the apparent consensus was that Malta wasn’t really at the forefront of cultural engagement.

Oh, how wrong we were!

The Maltese expect ‘quality’ broadcasting from state television, and that certainly doesn’t include examples of gratuitous voyeurism. They want ‘culture’, and by culture they seem to understand ‘elevated’ material, though to what height such elevation must reach they seem to be quite uncertain.

If we were to look at the audience survey of June 2022, published by the Broadcasting Authority, neither documentaries, and even less so, programmes labelled as “cultural” or “educational”, rate high on the grid of favourite programmes watched by Maltese audiences on TV.

Most watched was the news, followed by drama. Reality shows came in fourth, after current affairs programmes (and that’s only because the older generations still seem to cherish spending their time in front of their TV pretending it is the good old radio set in the living room).

But you might ask, if those are the trends, why all the fuss about another reality show? Is Love Island any different from other reality shows?

Some people seem to have taken umbrage at the fact that it aired on state television. Now, comparing TVM to RAI or BBC, as many are wont to do, is a big fallacy. Malta does not have a commercially strong independent television channel. The private stations of some stature are both politically owned, and that scares some producers away from associating with them. The remaining channels are not adequate for someone who wants to reach wide audiences with a considerably ‘big’ production.

After all, private producers require funding, and advertisers would hardly be interested in funding a programme that airs on a channel that caters only for a niche audience.

So TVM is what remains. Even though broadcasting a programme like Love Island might elicit criticism, it must be said that for independent producers, TVM is the only opportunity they have.

However – and this is quite telling – it seems that TVM has placed its bets quite intelligently, with the first episode of Love Island attracting an audience of around 160,000.

Does that mean that we have 160,000 ‘uncultured’ Maltese, or that at least half of those who first decried the horror that is Love Island then sat before their TV a quarter of an hour before the programme started to ensure they would not lose a second of it?

Why do we pretend to be so uptight, so ‘cultured’ and ‘elevated’, when in reality we are drooling for scandal and lust just like anyone else?

Perhaps it is just part of the show, part of how we project ourselves on social media, wearing masks that hide our real selves, with social media replacing the ‘pjazza’ of old, where we held hands playing happy families wearing masks to hide what in reality were dysfunctional homes.

Leave the couch and support the artists, performers and producers who are already doing something out there- Aleks Farrugia

If you are really interested in qua­lity culture (mind you: it’s not ‘high’ culture, it’s quality culture – whether technical or artistic), then there’s a lot going on.

Spazju Kreattiv, to take an example, has an excellent movie-showing programme. These past few years, local theatre has also seen a resurgence; great plays, well performed, with established and upcoming talent that bodes well for the future.

Dance? Concerts? Some might argue that there’s too much going on. Note also the many interesting and engaging events Heritage Malta organises to foster more appreciation for history and our heritage.

There is choice out there, at different levels of ‘elevation’ and entertainment, if only one would make the effort to look around and participate.

The reality, however, is that audiences tend to be made up of the same people, with more foreigners in attendance than locals (unless it is some farce reminiscent of ‘it-teatrin tal-kappillan’).

Some may be afraid to venture out to these performances and events because they have been given the wrong impression: that it’s not for them. Others simply don’t care, perhaps because they’ve never been told there’s something of relevance for them too.

There is no rigid margin that determines what makes culture.

Today we study Ancient Roman pornography as much as we study Virgil and the Roman poets to understand that culture.

It doesn’t mean that they were on the same level or that they fulfilled the same purpose, but both are important to understand how the Romans went about their lives.

The voyeurism of 160,000 who watch Love Island tells as much about us as does our theatre, our literature, our festa, our kitchen and our self-flagellating obsession with Eurovision.

The self-righteousness of those who spent their energies getting indignant about a TV show that perhaps in the end they ended up watching (and silently hating themselves for getting absorbed by it) isn’t a tribute to how cultured we are but a perpetuation of the old myth that there is a high and a low culture propagated by those who want to appropriate culture for themselves.

Rather than pointlessly wasting energy in inane debates, I would suggest to these people that they leave their couch and support the artists, performers and producers who are already doing something out there.