Kids Today!: Spin-off of a Spin-off

So, I have to admit, I’ve completely been neglecting my MTV programs this season. And now, with The Hills already near its end, I feel guilty (I have a twisted sense of duty after all) for missing this year’s drama between my old friends LC and Heidi. Really, the show has become about everyone BUT Lauren Conrad. In fact, the way the show evolved, it’s easy to forget that the premise began as a spin-off of MTV’s Laguna Beach when former Laguna Beacher Lauren Conrad moved to Los Angeles (The Hills!) to pursue her fashion career. As it turns out, LC isn’t very interesting, and most people (myself included) would rather watch Heidi, Spencer, Audrina...even Whitney? Really?In the tradition of making everyone around her seem way more dynamic and interesting than they actually are (because she actually does not have a personality), Whitney, LC’s former Teen Vogue coworker and perhaps the (second!) most boring person on the show, who never offered any drama at all, will have her own spin off. This weekend I caught the 2-hour (OK, it was only an hour and a half with about 45 minutes of commercials, but it felt so much longer...) special Whitney: From the Hills to the City, which gave us some sneak peeks into her new show airing (??), called simply, The City.

The special served as a sort of “remember when” clip show from the past four seasons (four freaking seasons?!!?) of The Hills. Really, this let the viewers remember that Whitney was actually a cast member of The Hills and that she was there when things happened to LC. There were many “oh yeah, I remember when that happened…huh, looks like Whitney was there, too.”They even aired some never before seen scenes (never previously aired because they were boring) between Whitney and LC. The best “brand new” scene featured a plot line (and I use that term very loosely) that only LC was involved in which we all remembered from The Hills. Emily, the intern from New York who actually knew how to do her job, showed up at Teen Vogue and made LC look bad. In the never before aired scene, LC goes to Whitney’s house to complain about Emily, where Whitney is recovering from having her wisdom teeth removed. Really, MTV? Why even use this scene in your special? You couldn’t come up with enough to fill the time slot, so you decided to use a scene of Whitney recovering from oral surgery? While LC bitches to her about their new competent coworker? Really?

During the commercial intros and outros we got sneak peaks at Whitney’s upcoming series The City to see just how she would transition from one show to the next. The entire thing screamed “hey, this is a totally legitimate idea for a spin-off, look at what good friends LC, our main character, and Whitney used to be! And now Whitney will take on her own challenges and dramatic moments in her new series because LC is a total non-person and we need something, anything new to keep our viewers! Please watch it!”

The more I watched the more excited I became about a show without LC. But how long can it last? I remember when The Hills began and I was excited to see the most intelligent and tolerable person from Laguna Beach get her own show. Is it just a matter of time before MTV producers find more interesting and likeable characters in Whitney’s life and she becomes obsolete (though, I sort of thought she was already obsolete, but MTV proved me wrong)?

I have to say, despite my initial shock that Whitney was getting her own show, this is already better than The Hills has been for the last couple seasons (or at least better than what I’ve seen from clips on The Soup). If nothing else, this will be a wonderful thing to watch while I read Vogue, paint my nails, and pretend that I, too, “work” in the fashion industry.
P.S. The term Bromance just got a lot more annoying, since it's the name of former Hills star Brody Jenner's new series...bring it on, MTV!

This entry was posted by Brigitte, on Wednesday, December 17, 2008. You can leave your response.