The Real World: D.C.

Well...I really don't know what to make of this. After the mediocrity of The Real World's Cancun season, I mentioned that I was actually excited for to see the show go to Washington DC, as it might allow for the cast to engage in some intelligent conversions in between all the boozing and drama. That's kinda what I got, but what I didn't expect was for all of it to be so boring. This may have more to do the fact that the cast itself was pretty dull. Almost all of them were either musicians, artists, or trying to get into the political scene. Now this wouldn't have so bad if there had been a bit more diversity among the cast's interests, but to have 2 to 3 cast members sharing the same goals, made for some pretty repetitive storylines. Its not even worth going into detail on each cast member except for Andrew, who was just weird and quirky and always kept things from getting boring. Mike's coming out to his family story was kinda sweet and some of the strives he takes to become more accepting of his bi-sexuality is pretty engaging. And I guess Ty is worth a mention...for being the most unlikeable twat to appear on the show in a while.

While the political angle of the show was a lot less appealing than I assumed it would be, it was even more disappointing to see that the drama that the show survives on wasn't that appealing. There was a war between "wound too tight" Emily and dumbass Ty that pretty much owned the show for the first couple of episodes, but that didn't really go anywhere and most of the conflict in that war came from Ty's blatant retardation. Even the season's most advertised moment, where Andrew suffers major injury (at the hands of Ty's retardation), went no where and the fact that nothing resulted from it after the episode wasn't much help either. Oh well the season was kinda watchable, at least it was better than the Cancun season, but it still can't measure up to the wonders of the Brooklyn season. I guess I'll never see a recent season as good that one again.

Best Shows Of 2009

Its that time of the year where people talk about what their favorite shows, movies, etc were this past year. I decided to do the same. I don't watch a lot of the most popular television series because they don't interest me, so most of my picks are based more on my own personal interests than what everyone else is watching. Shows qualify by having a season that ended during the year of 2009 and at least one of my picks are of a show I haven't talked about yet. But first...

Notable Exception

Futurama (Comedy Central/Direct to DVD)

The direct to dvd features of Futurama are officially considered the fifth season of the show. Each movie is divided up into four parts and aired on Comedy Central which ran from roughly mid 2008 to late this year (the dvds were released late 2007 to early this year). As a whole the movies never reached the peak of excellent that the series did, but they're still at least 3 times better than most of what's on TV now-a-days. Their exclusion from this list is largely do to the fact that despite airing on television, these films count more as dvd releases then television premieres (if that makes sense).

Best Television Shows of 2009

5. The Real World: Brooklyn (MTV)

Yeah...you know I haven't watched a lot of television shows when The Real World manages to make it on a best of list. The Brooklyn season managed to do everything that the series has failed to do in the past decade: Interesting cast members with interesting stories to tell and people who could make valid arguments without being intoxicated. There were still a lot of those trivial fights over dumb crap but it was actually really entertaining. The show proved that reality shows can still have conflict but have enough brains to respect each other and remain great television...it's a shame that the Cancun season couldn't follow suit.

4. Glee (FOX)

The season's not over due to Fox extending the season, but it's clear that what has already aired was supposed to be a contained season. I'm not as big of a fan of the show as the self proclaimed "Gleeks", but it's still a very good comedy/drama with a great cast, music, and production values. I can't tell where the story is going to go when the season concludes in April, but as far as being a well put together program, it succeeds.

3. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FX)

As I stated before, Sunny's fifth season didn't reach the peak of genius that's come before, but the show is still pretty funny every week. I guess they're just running out of sensitive topics to make fun of, but I'm glad that the writers have at least been trying to come up with new ideas for the cast the work with. Despite all that, this show still made me laugh out loud.

2. The Whitest Kids U'Know (IFC)

Much like Sunny, the Whitest Kids 09 season wasn't as fresh as the previous years, but it was still a lot of fun to watch. The new shorter running time of the episodes allowed the show to run the same amount of content in a longer time period. Something I love about the show that other skecth comedy shows don't do very well is the ending of the skits. The cast often find a good punchline to end things on, and when they don't they're not afraid to just let a bit end or completely turn it on its head to finish it. A fourth season is coming and I can't wait.

1. Dexter (Showtime)

I haven't talked about Dexter on this site yet and I haven't talked about it's newest season because I wanted to talk about the first three beforehand. Just know that the fourth season of Dexter is extremely strong and the storyline reaches an extremely tense conclusion. The cast really up their game, Julie Carpenter in particular, and there are moments in the season that rank among the most emotionally affecting things I've seen on television in a long time. The season seems to indicate the series is finally setting things up for the show's grand finale and I eagerly await more greatness.

The Real World: Cancun (Review)

MTV didn’t give anyone time to recuperate after the end of Real World: Brooklyn, giving us a new season only two months later. The Brooklyn season sort of returned to the more respectful Real World of old with legitimately interesting people learning from each other even when they were fighting about something stupid. I expressed concerns that Real World: Cancun would undo all of that and go right back to the sleazy, moron-fest it’s been for the last decade and, for the most part, I was right. None of the cast members this season had any interesting stories to tell or even showed something resembling common sense and every episode showed them going to clubs getting drunk, hooking up and getting into arguments.

However, The Real World is nothing without drama and Cancun was actually decent for a little while because there was near constant confrontations. There’s an engaging and intense feud between the house bitch Ayiia and punk rocker Joey that becomes increasingly severe as each episode goes by. Unfortunately, Joey winds up getting kicked out of the house for an unrelated incident and since Joey was one of two people in the house worth watching, most of the entertainment of the show went with him while Ayiia proceeded to do nothing for the rest of the show. After the Joey/Ayiia arc, the season drags on with a love triangle story between token black girl Jasmine, morally weak-minded, two-timer Jonna and co-worker Pat. It was fun to watch for maybe one or two episodes, but it stretched on and on and on for far too many episodes with little to no fireworks exploding. It became redundant and mind-numbing to watch after so long and showed how unlikable most of the women on the show were. With the slight exception of the underused Emilee, the women in this season were without morals. They slipped into bed with anyone, betrayed anyone for no apparent reason and then cried because they got called on it.

The best cast member without a doubt was crazy party boy Bronne. He mostly stayed out of the drama and just did his own thing which was playing jokes and just goofing around. Once again, all good things come to an end when Bronne gets kicked out of the house (he’s was still on the show, he just had to find a new place to stay) and any source of humor the show had leaves with him as he’s barely featured after that. The other two male cast members were CJ and token gay guy Derek, but they don’t do anything of actual intrest…well CJ gets to tryout for the NFL but it’s plays out rather irritatingly. All in all, The Real World: Cancun returned the series to it’s predictable trite. The season started of kinda promisingly and then faltered with stupid plots that lingered into the last couple of shows. If it wasn’t for incredible Bronne, intriguing Joey, and the temporarily interesting drama, Cancun would have been garbage. The next season is set to be in Washington D.C so maybe there’s some hope for it to good, but I wouldn’t hold my breathe.

The Real World: Brooklyn (Review)

I started watching the Real World during their 11th year: the Chicago season. After that came Real World: Las Vegas, the infamous season where the show stopped being about 7 people learning from each other while dealing with personal issues and forever became a show about 7 spoiled brats getting a 3 month vacation to get drunk every night and bitch about nothing. I was about 14 or 15 when Las Vegas aired and even then I knew it was terrible and stopped regularly watching after the following year: the Paris season. Somehow the show has managed to survive for another 10 seasons bringing us to The Real World: Brooklyn, the 21st season. I must say it's the best season in over a decade.

This season was much more like the original 10 seasons, when it wasn't about drinking and partying, it was about the individual people and their stories. It didn't seem like there were as many drunken nights, it was a much more intellectual show than it has been in the past. People said their views sober, which was a refreshing change. The focus on the relationships and individuals' stories were really compelling. Seeing Ryan get called back into service, having Katelynn talk about her struggles as a recently transgendered woman, having Sarah receive a phone call from her abusive dad, those were all spectacular moments. The only thing that I really couldn't stand was the episode that was nothing more than promo for Mtv's Pedro movie.

My favorite 2 cast members were Ryan and Chet (The 2 guys on the far right in the above pic). Ryan seemed like alot of the people I hang out with: goofy, funny and he'll always defend you. I felt so bad for him when he got called back into service. You could tell he's really hurt and upset that he may be going back to Iraq, but without hesitation, Ryan stood up to the plate. and I love him for it. Chet was the closest to my personality (although a lot more metrosexual) and his goals in life were fairly close to my own. I personally don't think Chet is gay--but I do think that he loves Ryan. Not in just a friend way either. He seems to care a lot about him.

My least favorite was Katelynn, who bitched and moaned her way through the series. She started off as this strong willed person who had an engaging story to tell, but instead she acted like a 12 year teenager. Her gambling with the money Scott gave her to pay her bills really annoyed me. She just became a slag as each episode progressed and I'd like to know in her mind how she justifies some of her actions. Scott went from my least favorite person to becoming a really respectable man; giving Katelynn $1500 pretty much proved that. I mean at first he seemed like a your regular model, macho and brain dead, but he quickly showed that he had the most caring and selfless personality out of the whole cast.

Sarah and Devyn weren't that interesting for me to comment on, while J.D was exactly as I pegged him: a nice guy, but a real asshole sometimes. I did really feel for him in the last episode where the girls make him take the blame for a joke even when he started to cry. I was so glad the guys stood up for him. Finally there was Baya, the wannabe dancer that the show didn't give give a crap about. I guess the increase in cast members from 7 to 8 was too much for the producers to handle.

Overall I was truly surprised by the Real World Brooklyn. It managed to be the complete opposite of every horrible thing the show has stood for in the past 10 years. Sure, there were still a lot of those trivial pranks and fights but it wasn't even that mean-spirited and was actually really entertaining. A cast like Brooklyn that can have conflict but still have enough brains to respect each other can still be good television. I wish the producers would keep this kind of quality up, but the next season is set to take place in Cancun, so I don't have my hopes up. But at least The Real World: Brooklyn was a return to the classic.