I like to think I have very particular but eclectic taste in television. In any given year I will only commit to three or four television shows that I will consistently watch. I normally abhor reality television. I cannot watch more than thirty seconds of American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, Survivor or any of the million semi reality shows on MTV. However, MTV has in my opinion given birth to the reality TV phenomenon by giving us the Real World. Now I know people who tell me that the Real World is slightly scripted and slightly produced but I think the show still stands up. After about twenty years and countless cities, the formula works for the most part. Some seasons are better than others but they always provide you with some kind of interesting observation of the sociological experiment of putting seven or eight people into a house and forcing them to interact. And its that simple, the interaction, no games, no challenges, just simple interaction amongst seven strangers. I used to watch Real World all the time and then I unintentionally took a slight hiatus from the show because of law school and the lack of time, until Bill Simmons and his repeat podcast guest Dave Jacoby began to consistently discuss the show and its offspring the Real World-Road Rules Challenge. Not to mention how much time Chuck Klosterman spent discussing the show in some of his work and with Bill Simmons. It also helps to add DVR to your life so that you are not subject to the arbitrary schedule of televsion. I think the simplicity of the Real World makes it stand the test of time. These guys confirmed that watching these shows is a source of entertainment in a totally different way then watching a normal drama like Mad Men. These people are essentially a sociological experiment being broadcast on television. I am not watching a story, in actuality I am just observing people interact and the story is secondary to the actual characters. I also love to see how willing these kids are to go on television and completely forget the ramifications of having a camera on you and whatever you do being broadcast nationally.
Now of course more recently the Jersey Shore has taken that Real World concept and narrowed the scope to the North East "guido" cultural phenomenon. And I call it phenomenon because it has made the rest of the country aware of something that I have known (and most of the east coast has known) for the past thirty years. The "Jersey Shore" culture has evolved over the past thirty years. But essentially it has always existed and it wasn't until now that national forum was created to expose this culture. The odd part it, unlike with the Paris Hilton phenomenon where young people began to believe that showing off your money is normal and the cool thing to do, the Jersey Shore concept has sort of isolated these people in that they are now a stereotype. No one likes to labeled something. Its okay when you label yourself but when you painted with a broad brush by a group of eight people who collectively do not show a great deal of intelligence. But what the producers of this show did find, are a group of people who are willing to portray the extreme of this culture without any regard to any kind of embarrassment or regret. That is difficult because anyone can act a certain way when the cameras are off but when they are on, most people would hesitate to give you the absolute truth. That is what makes these people so endearing and entertaining. There is a raw honesty when you see people willing to say and do things that you never thought were possible. Thats why Pauly D and the Situation et al, are like family now. And they may have a permanent spot in our pop-culture because of that raw honesty. Now of course as time goes by the reality of who they are will change. But what has been captured these first couple of seasons, will never change. The Jersey Shore will now be a permanent part of our pop culture. Its somewhat frightening but also highly entertaining.
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