In Netflix’s America’s Next Top Model Doc, A Harrowing Story Reveals the Ethical Fog of Reality TV

I didn’t expect a Netflix documentary series about America’s Next Top Model to make me think about warfare, but in retrospect the connection isn’t so surprising. Reality TV production and military operations have plenty in common; in both cases, authority figures formulate a strategy and pass orders down a chain of command to be enacted by underlings who will each, in turn, be forced to make high-stakes decisions as dangerous, unpredictable situations unfold. Human behavior and any number of environmental...