I always wanted to be friends with at least a few smart, snarky, savvy media-critic types. Hipsters that bathe regularly, really. Now that Geoff and Noah (and their friends/roommates in Brooklyn, El and Tom) have their blog “MTV Reality” up and running, it seems I do. Their topic of choice is the ultimate in post-modern expressive media: the MTV reality show slate. I know pretty much nothing about any of the shows they talk about, except for an insomnia-induced acquaintance with “Rob & Big,” but as usual when you get a bunch of smart guys talking about something they’re quite familiar with you end up with some great analysis. They just started, and they’re obviously just developing their respective voices, but I take this entry by el on Rob & Big, and this entry on the new series twentyfourseven to be a sign of good things to come. (I’d bet at least a buck that Geoff wrote the latter entry, but since the posts are generallyun-bylined , it’s hard to know.)
I admit, I was was initially sort of horrified that these dudes would be wasting their talents on a vile television genre that was emblematic of the race-to-the-bottom-common-denominator that pervades the bulk of what’s available of the tube these days. But it seems that this crew’s best moments thus far capture and critique both the allure and the absurdity of the MTV-brand reality shows. Not bad work in the least.
Sidenote: Rob & Big is boring in a novel, eerie way. It’s so uneventful and dull that it seems, well, normal. I feel guilty watching it, like I’m peering in on someone’s life à la The Truman Show. This is a qualitatively different feeling from the one I used to get when I watched the old, watchable, clever, eventful seasons of The Real World. On those shows, contrived or not, things happened. They lived in unrealistically, progressively more awesome houses every year. They were rock stars and race car drivers (I loved the London season). They went on the odd trip out of their city of residence from time to time. With Rob & Big, when I watch them do things like tool around Southern California, play with their smelly dog or put up decorations, it’s just different. They’re more notable for being less notable. I’m not sure if this is a strength of the show or not, and, indeed, the only times I’ve watched it have been between perhaps 3 and 5 in the morning, so my impressions may be artificially exaggerated. Still, it’s a strange show. Go ahead. Watch it. See if it doesn’t seem just… well… weird. As Geoff et al’s blog states in its Philip K. Dick-esque tagline: ” Once upon a time, MTV challenged Reality to a fight. The line between what was Real and what was Fake began to blur. This is what happens when people stop being polite and start freaking the **** out.”
0 Responses to “MTV Reality”