"The Hills"
For the most part, I don't particularly like reality television. First, I don't really believe it is "reality." I think a lot of it is scripted or edited so that there is really little difference between scripted and reality. Even if that were not the case, people's personalities change when they know they are being watched and change dramatically when they know millions are watching. To that, add the fact that I can rarely relate to any characters and the slow pace of most of these shows and you are left with what I think is awful TV.
Worse than reality television is MTV reality television. In truth, MTV probably deserves "credit" for creating modern day reality television with "The Real World", but the problem with MTV's take on reality TV is that they don't even try to create a plot. Take, for instance, "The Real World." The show can be perfectly described as a bunch of people living together. That's it! They film these people for days on end and then rely on some barely interesting interactions between them to capture our attention. But, I don't really care who might be pregnant with whose child (I saw an episode of Real World Las Vegas) and there is no way I can believe that these people are really like that outside of the "fictional" environment MTV created. (How often do random twentysomethings get to live in the penthouse suite of the Palms Hotel?) Recently, MTV/VH1 released the most despicable of shows with the most despicable of characters. I refer to the show "The Flavor of Love" starring Flava Flav. (Will - if you are reading this, I am sorry) I wont elaborate on why the show is despicable but I will say that I am not an alarmist sounding the bell of societal decay at every corner, but that show may be a sign of the coming of the apocalypse.
With that inrotudciton, you can understand my surprise after watching the series premiere of "The Hills" and realizing that I couldn't wait for the next episode. I am still not sure why I like the show but what follows is a brief description of the show. (You may want to read the NYT review.)You may want to TiVo the first 2 episodes tonight at 2 and 2:30 AM and then watch the show on Wednesdays at 10PM. I want to get as many people as possible to watch the show so it wont be canceled.
The shows premise is completely unoriginal. The entire show follows the lives of Lauren and Heidi. Evidently, Lauren was a character on Laguna Beach so I think she brings to the show some "baggage" but luckily she wasn't the main character which would have certainly sunk the show. (Many successful spin-offs, like Frasier, are based on secondary characters) Lauren and Heidi are sharing an apartment and going to fashion school together. Lauren got a job with Teen Vogue and Heidi has ambitions of one day working in PR. In truth, Heidi is a party girl and for her PR is just a proxy for full time partying. There are some other characters on the show but they are incidental.
So, what is the best part of the show? Definitely Heidi! Heidi is one of the most believable characters on television. I get the feeling that she is exactly the same person off screen as she is on the show. She is completely straightforward with what she wants and what she thinks and the scene where her interviewer tells her that her desired job requires years of experience is one of the best scenes I have seen in a while. Also, while the characters may seem dumb, if you pay attention you will realize that neither Heidi not Lauren are dumb. I could go on (and I might elaborate more after this week's episode) but class is ending and I want to post this before tonight so I will end with a great quote from Heidi that also serves as my facebook quote:
"I hate it. You know when you get the feeling your not meant to do something? You just know you're not meant to do it. I just know im not meant to do school right now." Genius.
PS. you will enjoy the show more if you play the "who is better dressed in this scene?" game.
Worse than reality television is MTV reality television. In truth, MTV probably deserves "credit" for creating modern day reality television with "The Real World", but the problem with MTV's take on reality TV is that they don't even try to create a plot. Take, for instance, "The Real World." The show can be perfectly described as a bunch of people living together. That's it! They film these people for days on end and then rely on some barely interesting interactions between them to capture our attention. But, I don't really care who might be pregnant with whose child (I saw an episode of Real World Las Vegas) and there is no way I can believe that these people are really like that outside of the "fictional" environment MTV created. (How often do random twentysomethings get to live in the penthouse suite of the Palms Hotel?) Recently, MTV/VH1 released the most despicable of shows with the most despicable of characters. I refer to the show "The Flavor of Love" starring Flava Flav. (Will - if you are reading this, I am sorry) I wont elaborate on why the show is despicable but I will say that I am not an alarmist sounding the bell of societal decay at every corner, but that show may be a sign of the coming of the apocalypse.
With that inrotudciton, you can understand my surprise after watching the series premiere of "The Hills" and realizing that I couldn't wait for the next episode. I am still not sure why I like the show but what follows is a brief description of the show. (You may want to read the NYT review.)You may want to TiVo the first 2 episodes tonight at 2 and 2:30 AM and then watch the show on Wednesdays at 10PM. I want to get as many people as possible to watch the show so it wont be canceled.
The shows premise is completely unoriginal. The entire show follows the lives of Lauren and Heidi. Evidently, Lauren was a character on Laguna Beach so I think she brings to the show some "baggage" but luckily she wasn't the main character which would have certainly sunk the show. (Many successful spin-offs, like Frasier, are based on secondary characters) Lauren and Heidi are sharing an apartment and going to fashion school together. Lauren got a job with Teen Vogue and Heidi has ambitions of one day working in PR. In truth, Heidi is a party girl and for her PR is just a proxy for full time partying. There are some other characters on the show but they are incidental.
So, what is the best part of the show? Definitely Heidi! Heidi is one of the most believable characters on television. I get the feeling that she is exactly the same person off screen as she is on the show. She is completely straightforward with what she wants and what she thinks and the scene where her interviewer tells her that her desired job requires years of experience is one of the best scenes I have seen in a while. Also, while the characters may seem dumb, if you pay attention you will realize that neither Heidi not Lauren are dumb. I could go on (and I might elaborate more after this week's episode) but class is ending and I want to post this before tonight so I will end with a great quote from Heidi that also serves as my facebook quote:
"I hate it. You know when you get the feeling your not meant to do something? You just know you're not meant to do it. I just know im not meant to do school right now." Genius.
PS. you will enjoy the show more if you play the "who is better dressed in this scene?" game.
posted by jacob at 11:07 AM
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