With last night’s “reunion special,” the San Diego season of “The Real World” officially wrapped up, and like Sports Guy I was underwhelmed- but apparently we’re in the minority, as (for the third or fourth year in a row) the season was the highest-rated in the show’s history.
I think I know why. Somewhere along the way, the show’s producers abandoned its original, years-ahead-of-its-time premise- the fascinating experience of watching interesting people from varying backgrounds interacting before omnipresent cameras- in order to become just another outrageous reality show, full of drama, drinking, and “hooking up.”
Not that I have any problem, of course, with drama, drinking or hooking up. And judging by the ratings, neither do most people. But once upon a time, in a good year “Real World” could get beyond the clichés so brilliantly mocked by “The Joe Schmo Show,” and actually present fasinating stories involving cast members who were three-dimensional. I think the last truly great “Real World” series was the Chicago season of 2002, in which I actually cared what happened to the cast members from week to week. Yes, all of them, not just Cara Nussbaum/Kahn.
But after that came the drug-and-orgy-filled Las Vegas season, and the two installments since have been just more of the same- the tiresome, one-dimensional cast members whining and getting into stupid fights, while drinking virtually non-stop. And worst of all, the chosen castmembers are either certifiable lunatics (Frankie, Robin), one-note bimbos (Cameran), vacuous lunkheads (Brad, Randy), and people so normal and likable that they get next to no screen time at all (Jacqueese, Jamie).
The rising ratings may cause them to ignore my advice, but I don’t care: I’d really like to see the “Real World” producers try to actually recruit interesting, multidimensional people. Because this year, the only thing that made the shows watchable was the merciless, morning-after mocking by Josh Wolk of EW.com.
Posted by Stephen Silver at July 8, 2004 01:39 AMdude, the philly season is gonna be off the sheezy.
Posted by: LilB at July 9, 2004 01:29 AM