"People aren't looking at this with some kind of cold heart;they're also thinking,'What would I do in that situation?'"she says."They're asking questions of their own behaviour and other people's behaviour;they're debating the ethics of what people do."
Far from celebrating or emulating such behaviour,there's a voyeuristic appeal to the show,peeking in on bad behaviour thought to be far removed from what's acceptable in our day-to-day lives.
"I don’t even know if it is that far removed,"counters Lumby."This is what I find interesting and challenging:if you think about it,how many people would stop to look at a car crash? Pretty much everyone.
"When people write high-minded things like reality TV is trash,and anyone who watches it is trash,I question that. In real-life,we're all a bit gossip-y and we don't like that part of ourselves. But we also often debate how to be better people. And I think reality TV is a mixture of those things. It's voyeuristic,yes,but it's also a lesson in what does good and bad behaviour look like under pressure?
"I think reality TV can be quite deep if you think about it properly."
Dr Jennifer Wilkinson,senior lecturer in sociology at University of Sydney,suggests the show – with its contestants chasing public notoriety,and its recurring cheating scandals – reflects key trends of our time,namely our attention-seeking culture and changing attitudes towards marriage.
"There's all this kind of intense,fevered debate and argument about an institution that was once seen to be so central to what we did... And on this show,it seems no one is getting married happily ever after,"she laughs.
Lumby says offhanded critiques of the show are essentially"class-based".
"There's a very middlebrow thing that happens in our society... This idea that a good person goes to the opera or ballet,and a bad person watches reality television. Personally,I read books on political philosophy and then I watch reality TV – so tell me,am I a good or a bad person?"
Dr Liz Giuffre,a senior lecturer in communications at the University of Technology Sydney,said people having an argument and throwing shiraz is"by no means the most dramatic thing"to happen on TV.
"Highbrow stuff,whatever that means,can be much more violent,much more sensationalist,"she said."Look atGame of Thrones.Look atThe Sopranos. What are we actually upset about?"
MAFS screens on Nine,which also owns this newspaper.