Because for the majority of my week I can pretty much tell what my day to day activities will consist of, I find myself yearning for the exact opposite of my (pretty) stable life from time to time. As I imagine it would get pretty expensive to get caught up in a coke habit and spend weeks in fancy rehab centers, and my chances of having Tom Cruise’s next alien baby are pretty slim, I have to fulfill my craving for Us Weekly-worthy drama in some other way…
Enter in reality TV — God bless The Real World. The latest season has just started, and save for fake reality TV (which arguably is better than real reality TV) and enthralling episodes of Lost, there is nothing more exciting. This season features your six run of the mill Real Worldians — 3 attractive ladies and 3 attractive boys.
In the first episode, as I’m familiarizing myself with the baggage and troubled childhoods of each of the newly-minted stars, I am thrilled — the attractive men are perhaps the most cocky, overly confident guys ever seen on this show and with washboard stomachs and biceps as big as my head to match! And the women are even better — one has a warrant out for her arrest!! Could the producers have done a better job than this? I don’t think so.
On top of all this, this season is special. The creators have a plot twist treat in store for its dear viewers — and he goes by the name of PretyBoy. The first Real World housemate to be chosen by viewers, he is impossibly witty, referring to people around him as peasants and “friends” as associates.
The producers had the precious foresight to see that not only would PretyBoy’s sense of humor provide the much needed source for many a house or bar fight but also that the fact that he was chosen by the masses would give him an edge, would give him a card to hold over everyone else.
PretyBoy is truly, as he likes to remind everyone, “The Chosen One.” It’s already clear that his presence will create massive tension and be an even greater source for more outrageous house and bar fights. Brilliant! Finally, something to supplement the nightly hookups and drunken shouting matches we’ve grown so accustomed to and come to expect from the MTV long-running favorite.