Ah, The Real World. A shameless drunken social experiment that lost its lust sometime between season 400 and 1,287, it still lives in order to reheat the comfort food of the new Internet Generation. Popularized for incessant censoring bleeps, nights on the town with way too much booze, endless hook-ups (in the now traditional hot tub), and always-changing sexual orientations. It's possible that Real World will never die, making it either MTV's golden child or very clear after many deplorable seasons of drunken twenty-somethings, that its psychological brainteaser masked as a reality show on acid is actually a right of passage (or both). You can't grow up without first having an obsession with a season of The Real World. Which is okay, because even after all these years, the show still is a delightful - if stale - guilty pleasure.
The formula is simplistic to follow, because it never had an in-depth one to begin with (look back at season one, I dare you). Here it is (Real World veterans skip to the next paragraph): seven "strangers" (this term is used very loosely), all from different backgrounds (education, race, families, sexual identities), come together in an over-priced loft in a metropolitan area (this time around Denver, CO) and live together. What they turn into is truly a sinister cabal.
Meet Colie (22, New Jersey), with a fiery, tongue-in-cheek personality, and a "hobby" like making out, she's a pure-bred Real World-er. From the very beginning she explains that she wants be all over the youngest housemate, crooner Alex (21, Arizona). Alex is the resident macho man (there's always at least one). And as happens every season, things get complicated from day one. Let's just say Colie's new Oakland Raiderette "friend," Jenn (22, California), gets "cozy" with Colie's new beau.
Also a trend (and an annoying one): the instant stars and the late bloomers. We won't learn much about Tyrie (23, Nebraska), Stephen (22, Washington D.C.), and Brooke (24, Tennessee) besides that they're, witty, conservative, and cloyingly blithe. Then there's Davis (22, Florida), who represents the redundant gay-man-coming-to-terms-with-his-own-sexuality set that continually fuels arguments with the highly conservative housemate, in this case, Stephen. The only interesting thing left here is the irony: Davis was also born into a conservative, religious family. Yet, his wish to be openly gay has left him and his family estranged. It's not entirely tear-inducing, but it's progress for the "character" Davis is inhabiting.
Article comments
1 - MM Agency
I work with the cast as their agent for appearances after the show and its tough to disagree with a lot of what was written here.
I can say later in this Real World Denver season that it will bring back some of the substance of issues not seen since the earlier seasons.
To get more information on the Real World and its cast, sometimes by the cast members themselves. Check out the MM Agency's Real World Blog.
,MM Agency
2 - Ty
Once, the typical cliches surface (gay man, homophobe, sluts).
AND it is almost always decent - > attractive looking people. How is the REAL world when nobody is ugly?
I know that 13 years old only want to see beautiful people, which is why MTV goes that route, but if they want people older than 13 to watch, they should mix it up.
I still watch it, just because I am sucker for crap, but I still know it is pure crap (that could be something special).