Typically, I seek out artsy and dramatic forms of entertainment, but there are two women who remind me that ridiculousness is sometimes necessary.
I’m referring to Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton.
In season five of The Simple Life, the girls crash the party at Ed Bellante’s Camp Shawnee by masquerading as camp counselors. The show has the elements of a good story: love, conflict, emotion, and happy endings. However, it’s the girls' juvenile shenanigans that drive the show.
Nicole Richie, in all her sexiness, is a bourgeois Beavis and Butthead all rolled into one. Her irreverent attitude is responsible for her sexiness and the show’s longevity. She teaches a group of aspiring beauty pageant contestants to flip off their trainer, much to the chagrin of their over-protective mothers.
The first week of their stay at Camp Shawnee, the girls encounter Susan Powter, the over-the-top fitness guru, who comes to “start a revolution” of physical fitness. The girls partake in giving high colonics to the overweight campers, complete with photos of Nicole inserting a tube you know where. However, it’s Nicole, so it’s somehow still sexy. By the end of the episode, despite having destroyed Ed’s refrigerator and shed, the girls encourage and actually help (in their own way) the campers to lose weight.
Each episode, which include the aforementioned aspiring beauty queens, Oscar-nominated acting coach Sally Kirkland (who’s loveable but scarily emotionally disturbed), survivalist Myke Hawke, and Dr. Diana, a couples expert, follows the same pattern of silliness at first, and then comes to a feel-good resolution. Of course, there’s the love interest angle. One of the “hunky” camp counselors, Hunter, really digs Paris, but she’s not attracted to him. That is, until she finds out he kissed another woman. Hunter comes across as pretty pathetic as the passive, sensitive guy, thus causing the love interest angle to get pretty annoying. I rolled my eyes several times during these portions of the episodes. Of all the shenanigans they pull, the girls go overboard when they “get lost” in the woods during the Myke Hawke episode and call a rescue team to pick them up by helicopter. It was a needless waste of taxpayer’s money, if you ask me.
There are no special features, but this doesn’t detract from the DVD in that I’m not sure Paris and Nicole could handle a season-length commentary. Overall, the show is a pleasure to watch if you’re in the mood for mindless comedy. The girls get into enough trouble and create enough heartwarming moments with the campers and hosts to keep you interested.
Article comments