Crash and Burn
Caught a bit of the most recent Real World season a little while ago and I have been meaning too comment on it. The 18th season of the original reality series is set in Denver, and it seems to be the most emotionally damaged cast in the history of the series.
Let’s start with the origin of The Real World. It debuted in 1991 in New York, and for the first four seasons (New York, LA, San Fransisco and London) it essentially revolved around seven strangers, usually in between the ages of 19-26, all with different backgrounds and different aspirations living out their lives, it just happened to be in a different venue for six months. By the time the fifth season rolled around, so many jokes had been made along the lines of, “In the ‘Real World’ people work for a living”, that the producers decided to give the fifth season Miami cast the opportunity for a business venture. Meaning, MTV was going too give these seven people a budget to start a business, and the network would foot the bill for startup costs. Well, they did nothing, solidifying the lazy Generation X stereotype. And from then on out, every house had some job/event to do the upkeep on.
Things really started too spiral out of control during the infamous twelfth season set in Las Vegas. They cast seven people, all over the the age of twenty-one (though none older than twenty-four), and asked them too run The Reign Bar atop the Palms Hotel and Casino. They also lived in the same a hotel, put up in a room that is now commonly referred to as “The Real World Suite at The Palms”. As you would expect, it was a decadent, depraved season. Everyone slept with everyone while intoxicated. A young women by the name of Trishelle kind of set the precedent in the season premiere when a male roommate named Frank guy was taking a liking too her, while sitting in a club, she leaned across Frank and made out with Steve, another roommate. So there you go.
Now we are in Denver. And besides not having an intelligent cast member, there isn’t even a level-headed one. The episode I caught featured a guy named Stephen being upset because a guy named Davis left him at a club. Stephen is black, and after being unknowingly abandoned at said club he was confronted by some fellow patrons, who subsequently called him the “N-word”. Stephen, for some reason, was exceptionally upset with Davis. There other roommate who was sort of mediating for Stephen (Davis was sitting in a hot tub, completely oblivious that he had done anything offensive), Tyrie, went to ask Davis too get out of the hot tub, when Davis asked him to just speak his mind, Tyrie proceeded too go absolutely ape shit. Tyrie, who’s enormous, ripped off his shirt and began to scream like a maniac. Davis, on some level probably fearing for his life, got out of the water.
In short, the situation went back and forth with Tyrie threatening to kill Davis to Davis challenging Tyrie to throw a punch (so Tyrie would be thrown out of the house) for a solid twenty minutes. Then out of nowhere, Davis says he is moving out and he starts screaming at everyone, and now he is calling Tyrie the “N-word”. Everyone is absolutely obliterated, the other five roommates are standing around screaming commands such as “stop” or “stop it”, doing absolutely nothing to resolve or quell the situation. And from what I can tell every episode is like this. Just this week, Tyrie and a girl named Jenn almost came too blows before she was dragged off a party bus after spitting on him.
The series has regressed to the point that it consists of nothing other than binge drinking, fighting and fucking (I am sure they eat at some point as well). Whereas old Real World casts would bicker about who used whose shampoo or something else innocuous, they now get in volatile, combative arguments that are so egregious they are moments away from starting riots. The cast has no aspirations, there day-to-day lives give no indication of ambition. And judging by the post-Real World stint of the majority of recent casts, that isn’t far from the truth.
Is it entertaining? Sure, for a while. But it’s redundant, and the characters are devoid of personality so even when they get drunk its kind of dull. Unless, you consider watching five people whoop it up, pissing off an entire overly-resentful city of college aged kids in half hour installments for thirty straight weeks groundbreaking, then this is the reality series you’re looking for. Otherwise, you might as well save your time.
March 23rd, 2007 at 9:22 am
[...] And finally, Real World casting directors have decided to begin seeking out “real people” for upcoming seasons of the aging reality series. I assume their intepretation of “real people” are those who occasionally go see a movie on Tuesday night instead of getting rip-roaring plastered, but the way the series has been for the passed five or six years, I think the producers have made their bed, now must lie in it. Audience members who enjoyed the show in the early-mid 90’s are not coming back, so they might as well cling to the younger viewers who enjoy the continuously inebriated melodrama. Though I think at this point the Bunim/Murray Company is worried about a catastrophic lawsuit of some kind or someone’s untimely demise. As stated before, I think this Denver cast is the most unstable in the history of the series, I am sure that will make Tyrie’s, Brooke’s and Jenn’s parents all proud that their children were members of the cast that forced the producers to say, “Maybe we should look for some ‘real people’ next time”. Now that, my friends, is emotionally crippled. Posted in General Link to this Entry Email This Entry [...]