For those who have checked out my articles page, you can probably tell I love reality TV. I have written reviews for The Hills, The City and The Bachelorette. There’s just something about reality TV that fills me with excitement. Perhaps because it is unscripted and everything is unexpected. Sometimes the season is killer and sometimes it’s just dead, but I’m always willing to give it a try. Which is why I tuned in to MTV’s House of Jazmin, a show following a 20-year-old L.A.-based designer. The first episode was kind of boring, but it’s too early to judge.
House of Jazmin
During the school year, I am (unfortunately) sans television. Therefore, I rely on the internet. Thus, I have become hooked on MTV’s The Real World. Drama, drama, drama! But now that MTV has added early episodes of The Real World series (San Fransico, New York, Los Angeles) to their website, I found myself disgruntled with the latest installment, Cancun. The original Real World was just that, the real world. They had jobs, lives, friends… They really were just seven strangers picked to live in a house; they weren’t seven strangers picked to live in a completely different country with no friends, TV or life apart from their roomies. I want a “real world” Real World, none of this “I hate Joey”/”I love Pat”/”I drink all of the time” crap. Okay, maybe I made the last one up, but someone might as well of said it.
The Real World San Francisco
The change in The Real World series is starting to make me think that MTV’s gone to crap. What a waste of time watching My Super Sweet Sixteen and Cribs is. Sure, they now have 16 & Pregnant, but really, how diverse are those stories? They are all low-income, unemployed, high school drop-outs. With the exception of one, who was from a high-income family. Those girls are up for a struggle, but documenting one or two stories pretty much speaks for the rest. And where’s a new episode of True Life? To me, True Life is MTV’s redemption for spoiled, rich kid garbage. Each episode of True Life tells the story of a few people who have one thing in common. Episodes range from I stutter to I have autism to I have embarrassing parents to I work in the porn industry. And yes, they even had an episode on young moms, so there 16 & Pregnant, True Life’s been there, done that! But where are the new episodes? Documenting normal young adults for one episode can’t be that expensive, but renting a big mansion for one month on the other hand… I’m just saying…
Even TLC is following in MTV’s shadow, thanks to Jon Gosselin. What started off as a sweet documentary of a family with eight children, has now become tabloid fodder. I adore the early episodes of Jon & Kate Plus 8. Watching Kate struggle to manage a home with sextuplets and twins was interesting, and the kids are so gosh darn cute! I love Aidan and his little glasses and Alexis being silly. Plus, who didn’t love Kate’s pushy comments to Jon? Well, apparently Jon didn’t love them. The divorce aspect of the new episodes of Jon & Kate Plus 8 isn’t what gets my goat, it’s Jon prancing around with various women at clubs flaunting his Ed Hardy gear that gets me going. Why isn’t he helping with the kids? Why is he going on vaca with “home wrecking Hailey”? I don’t get it, and viewers don’t seem to either. I feel for Kate Gosselin, but it’s hard to watch a show that still features Jon as a #1 Dad because, frankly, he isn’t. When your twins call your ex-wife to come over when you’re being touchy-feely with the babysitter and your ex-wife calls the cops on you, you just aren’t a good dad. When you spend more time talking to the paparazzi and tabloid reporters (ahem, Kate 2.0) than your own kids, then you’re not a good dad. Not to be black and white, but I’m sick of this man saying how much he cares about his children when his actions say otherwise. TLC needs to revamp this show ASAP before they lose their ratings. Or, I don’t know, here’s a crazy thought, maybe the Gosselins should rethink being on a reality show, seeing as their lives are falling apart and their children are dealing with a parental divorce. Nah, that stuff is ratings gold.
Jon & Kate Plus 8
But don’t get me wrong TLC hasn’t gone to hell. With shows like Cake Boss to Ace of Cakes, The Little Couple and Little People, Big World, TLC is reigning supreme in family-oriented reality shows. They show viewers what it’s like to walk in someone else’s shoes, and to me, that’s a great message to convey through TV.
I still love reality television, but I think that reality TV needs a splash of actual reality. No more “unscripted-drama,” how about just real drama. What if The Hills showed the Pratts real-life (Playboy photoshoots and all), or The City showed the press interviews Whitney Port endured? I’d kinda want to see that, but then again, House of Jazmin showed mom yelling at brother to get out of the bathroom. And I labelled that kinda boring. Reality TV needs a splash of reality and a splash of glamour. Perhaps as the House of Jazmin series progresses, it’ll take my interest, seeing as it has bathroom fights and runway shows. In its one episode House of Jazmin had more reality than all of L.C.’s Hills relationships combined, so maybe House of Jazmin will be a hit. Or maybe not…because who wants to see real reality shows anyway?