I have a theory about those fly-on-the-wall home invasion documentary-type shows, such as the one screened on Rose Porteous Hancock last month (Rose, Channel Nine, October 23). They make us feel good about ourselves.

Well, not good, necessarily, but certainly better. “Aah,” we think, as we look into Rose’s obscenely extravagant wardrobe, “I’m not that bad! The $200 Country Road jacket/$40 t-shirt I bought the other day is no crime.”

This is regardless of comparative incomes (yours and Rose’s) or your other pressing expenses. (It’s wonderful how selective the brain can be.)

Comparing ourselves with Rose or The Osbournes, that other famously mad TV family (sometimes its hard to believe the Os-bournes are a real family), can only make us feel more ‘normal’, more pleased with our sensible decisions and good relationships.

But is it a false sense of security? Putting aside the fact that no family is really ‘normal’, especially when there are cameras in the house all day (witness the poor blighters in the original home-style documentary, Sylvania Waters), is it really comforting to measure ourselves against people who are so eccentric, rich or flamboyant that they have a television show devoted to their very lives? If they were anything but absolutely crazy, they’d be beavering away in obscurity like the rest of us.

Imagine, instead, if there was a television show that documented the lives of the truly great among us. The saints who pray ceaselessly for the good news to be heard, the heroes who go out on dark nights to feed the hungry, the people who stand up for peace and justice in little and big ways every day. Sure, we’d see some flaws as well, but we’d also see people who are worth emulating.

But would we watch? TV audiences like reassurance – to feel good about themselves. Stories that challenge our self-righteousness aren’t usually high in the popularity stakes. Just ask Jesus.