Kids Today: College Life

Greetings friends! I come here often with tales of "reality" television, but it seems as if MTV's newest reality show, College Life, is actually giving us a glimpse of what non-scripted television once was. Remember the early seasons of The Real World? It's kinda like that. Only even grittier, because the subjects are filming themselves (and then of course leaving what they've shot in the hands of skilled editors and producers). At least, the footage seems somewhat edited and produced (though not in the way that The City does...this is still pretty raw). However, MTV claims that this series is not manipulated by directors or producers. It's hard to tell how true that is, but the network is definitely trying to draw a distinction between this and their other "reality" shows. And so far it does feel almost like watching some home movies--if your home movies consisted of you getting drunk at a party and then slur-crying to your friend about boys.

MTV equipped four college freshman with hand held cameras and asked them to shoot their college experiences. There's no crew, and though it's certainly edited, it's much less heavily prompted (if prompted at all) by MTV producers. You can definitely tell the difference between this series and, say, the Hills or The City. For one thing, it's much more dialog driven, and there are fewer stunning shots of glamorous streets and beautiful people. There isn't a constant stream of music overpowering the dialog, either. One might ask: without the music, how do I know what I should be feeling?It was tricky at first, but I soon got the hang of it. And, luckily, there were frequent cuts to a black screen with giant white words letting me know what's going on in a given scene, such as: THE PARTY IS OVER FOR ALEX (when one character, Alex, has a drunk fight with her boyfriend).
The first words to appear on a black screen, before any of the action began, was "this program is not endorsed by the University of Wisconsin, Madison." You know what that means, viewers! It means we're gonna get to see some PAR-TAYSSS! For the first time in MTV's history, they are really showing some blatant underage drinking (unlike the implied underage drinking that so often takes place on the Real World and The Hills). In this series the binge drinking doesn't seem to lead to sexy nights in the jaccuzzi with model-like men and women. The drinking leads to sloppy crying and puking in a community bathroom. Not that MTV seems to be making a bold statement against binge drinking...the're just showing it like it is!

While I admire (yes, I'm using that word to describe my feelings about an MTV program aimed at 17 year old audiences) what College Life is attempting with its return to reality's roots, I'm still going to enjoy watching (and reading about) Whitney Port more than I'll come to care about some average looking college student whose social life consists of beer pong in his dorm room. I guess it all comes down to what you want from your "reality" TV, and I tend to crave a glittery escape into the untouchable world of fashion. However, the first episode did make me a little bit nostaligic for my carefree college years...and glad that no one caught it on tape. I'm thinking that while this will be a good late-night I've only got a half hour before I should be in bed but I need to destress from my day viewing choice, I'll still turn to my old favorites and really relish those shows much more. Sort of like how at the end of a long day you can appreciate some boxed wine, and you smile about all the memories that come with it, but now that you're a grown up, you'd prefer something out of a glass bottle.

This entry was posted by Brigitte, on Thursday, April 16, 2009. You can leave your response.