The Missing Link

March 01, 2006

The Real World: 17 Years Later

Troy Patterson has written an amusing essay in Slate about the 17th season of MTV's The Real World.

We are thus entering a critical new phase of a program that's been increasing in self-awareness since its second season: The youngest of these seven people having their "lives" taped have known of the show for perhaps longer than they've known how to spell television. Reality TV isn't just a trend or a genre but an option. Spending a few months on The Real World is simply a thing that an elite corps of young adults does, like studying on a Marshall Scholarship or enlisting in Teach for America. They've been waiting 14 years for these 15 minutes, and getting them must feel like destiny.

Unlike most American journalists I'm unwilling to cast aspersions at reality television--I don't find it a particularly degrading form of television, and every time I hear someone talk about how awful reality tv is I wonder whether or not they've tried to sit through the prime time sitcom lineup any night of the week on UPN. Some reality shows are better than others--I'd go so far as to call The Apprentice, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and Project Runway good shows.

By "good shows" I mean one can watch them credulously and enjoy them. By that definition The Real World certainly isn't a good show. The question is whether it's a watchable show. I'm sure there are those out there who watch it regularly and take everything at face value.

My own The Real World viewings almost invariably come that one weekend a year when I'm on the couch sick, and MTV replays all the episodes back to back, and it's either that or the first day of an LPGA tournament, and I spend the whole time sort of meta-watching the show--trying to spot misleading editing, picking up on clues as to what the editors are setting up to happen with the scenes they choose to show, wondering what motivates these people to do these things on camera knowing that their parents will one day be watching... it's sort of fascinating on many levels, and while it's much less fun than going surfing on a Saturday afternoon I can't say I regret those couple dozen episodes of The Real World I've seen over the years.

In this Slate piece, the author's interesting insight is that as past meta-viewers of The Real World, today's cast members are in effect meta-cast members:

During the cast's inaugural night out on Duval Street—a chance to unwind over a few Jell-O shots—Paula listens as John tries to engage Jose in some speculative conversation: "Would you mind seeing her with about 10, 15 more pounds on her?" This touches off what promises to be the first of a record number of crying jags. "When I drink, I just turn into a sobbing mess," Paula later says. "Unfortunately, right now I'm with six other people who have probably never seen a girl act like this." No, dear; of course they have—they've seen this show before. If they pause before trying to console you or control you, they are either waiting to make sure the camera's got a good angle or thinking up a way to vary this theme.

It is probably the former. Most of The Real World's tropes are just about played out. Consider the traditional scene in which the housemates take their wide-eyed tour of their deluxe dormitory. There are only so many ways to say "enormous" and "sweet" and "Oh. My. God." Perhaps next season seven jaded strangers will prance into their fishbowl only to scoff at the art in the poolroom, to whine that the hot tub suffers in comparison to the previous Real World Jacuzzis, to sneer at the fridge for not being a Sub-Zero.

But these kids know their duties.

If there are cast member duties, and these kids know them, is it possible that an avante garde will develop?

Posted by Conor at March 1, 2006 01:37 PM