Remember that one post where I mentioned how Wom never let me watch the MTV Challenges? Well, I learned tonight that now, I'm apparently not even allowed to watch The Hills. It's ironic, since The Hills is probably the only show left on MTV where most of its' stars don't fall asleep covered in their own puke at least 3 times a week.
But tonight, I got suckered into watching some old episodes, as the network is showing a marathon to commemorate the show's season finale this Tuesday. The episode I was watching included the cast traveling down to Costa Rica, where Kristin hooked up with a bartender to make Brody jealous. While I was watching, Wom, who was in the other room, exclaimed:
"I forbid you to watch this on my television! This is narcissistic trash." She then commented on how the cast should be doing volunteer work, rather than, I assume she meant, traveling to exotic locales where all they do is drink and gossip on the beach- which is pretty much what they do every day back in LA.
Now, I'm assuming Wom wasn't serious in these restrictions she set for me, since I continued to watch the show. I even endured a "Hills: Revealed" behind-the-scenes episode, as well as part of a special that summarized each season.
I don't think Wom understands why The Hills is so fun to watch. Unlike Real Housewives, where I really get sucked into the drama, or The Challenges, where I have become oddly attached to the cast members over the years, I watch The Hills with a sense of disbelief and curiosity. While Laguna Beach and the first few seasons of The Hills felt authentic in how they portrayed the lives of the cast members, the show now feels like it it's giving you an inch of perspective into the ocean that is each of these people's worlds.
The people on The Hills (I want to call them actors, but I'll refrain) don't acknowledge that they are followed by cameras, or written about in tabloids. On the behind-the-scenes episode I watched tonight, the producers mentioned how the "Speidi" wedding was flooded with paparazzi, yet there was nary a mention of it in the episode, as far as I remember. Or how about in Season 3 when Lauren and Heidi's friendship ended? Lauren mentioned to Whitney how "rumors" about her had ended up on the "Internet"-failing to mention how Perez Hilton, among other websites, were covering the scandal. This wasn't just some nasty status that a classmate put up on their Facebook.
Now, Kristin is reportedly seeing a member of the production team, while Brody is with Avril Lavigne, which indicates that the stars of The Hills don't just magically find their lovers at Les Deux, or Area, or whatever the club du jour is- who they are dating is significantly influenced by the fact that they are not just normal people living in LA. Kristen first starred on Laguna Beach when she was a junior in high school. She has been famous for a good portion of her life. Brody's been on several other reality shows, and his extended family has a very popular show. The Hills still tries to sell itself as reality and its cast members as regular young adults, when you are much more likely to get a true sense of who these people are by picking up a new Us Weekly. Even the cast members realize this, with Lo Bosworth referring to the show as a "docu-soap", as if The Hills has turned into an almost unclassifiable genre where importance is placed on romance and drama over reality and truth. On the behind-the-scenes special, the producers kept referring to the cast members as "characters" and talked about their "stories," as if their lives are just plot points for The Next Great American TV Show.
So, Wom, yes, I know The Hills is narcissistic trash. But even if the cast members did spend their time doing volunteer work, I doubt we'd see it. It would probably be written off as a boring story line.
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