We only have one more week of the latest installment of the Real World/Road Rules challenge and this year's contest, labeled the Inferno, and i must admit that MTV has to do a little work to shake up this franchise. The challenge is always interesting because viewers will tune in, if for nothing else than to see if all of our favorite retread stars will really come back for another season. Some of these people have been around so long, you begin to wonder why they don't have their own network. Think about it: "Hannity and Coral", "Trading Spaces with the Miz" or even "Hardball with Veronica". Now that NBC has bought Universal, Viacom just might be desperate enough to do it.
But back to the show. For the last several seasons, MTV has created a little fantasy challenge to make things a little more interesting. On the surface this is a great idea, because you have plenty of people who will enjoy playing. The car you win by being first is so ugly, you know that people must be doing it for the love of the game. Unfortunately, I have had same team(Coral, Mike, Katie, Veronica, David and Christena) since I started, and nobody has been voted off. Even after I took a one month hiatus from even checking my team, I came back and everybody was there. I wasn't even doing that badly. Alas, David was sent home, but more on that later.
Now, we all know that we tune in not for the challenges and the competitive spirit displayed by the two teams. We are all in it for the fights, the crying and the hookups. There have been plenty of good fights, going all the way back to the high in the sky antics of Julie and Veronica, and culminating with the open hate machine that is Veronica vs. Katie. This week featured the biggest flare up to date, with Katie, fresh from another successful round in the Inferno, nearly went to blows with Veronica. Katie had one of the nicer profanity laced tirades we have seen in recent memory and Veronica was very nonchalant and topless, taking all the abuse, but giving enough back to rile up Katie. It reminded of some lyrics in a song by the Boo Yaa Tribe. They go "I ain't got a problem with nobody right? But I got a problem with you."
Let's be completely honest: both of these girls are quite bananas. I would put neither one in a room I planned on inhabiting for any length of time. However, I do not think Veronica really should have anything to say about which teammate is a better competitor than the other. Through both the Inferno and the Gauntlet, she has come through unscathed. To her credit, she has come through and been a clutch performer when she needed to save her ass, but her status throughout the game is determined by her popularity, plain and simple. Katie, meanwhile, has the pressure of having to perform at the top in her challenges because she knows the rest of Road Rules is looking for excuses to kick her off the team. [Reader's note: I saw Veronica in a drugstore in West Hollywood, and she was yelling at somebody on her cell phone in the next aisle, disturbing me as I was purchasing some face wash. You obviously understand why I am biased]
Season after season, everybody goes into these challenges thinking s/he sticks around because s/he is a great player. What the viewer doesn't see is that many of these people are good friends throughout the year, live in the same buildings, or are even roommates. I have to laugh when I see all of them embracing each other whenever they get to the next exotic location. All that running around and hugging seemingly to say "Hey, remember when I saw you at LAX like 4 hours ago!" or "Try real hard so we can get enough money for that plasma screen we always wanted in the living room!"
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Comments (1)
I would certainly tune in if there were some sort of Bunim/Murray - MSNBC hybrid channel.
And here's a little factoid. One of the hosts of ESPN's Cold Pizza is Kit from the very first Road Rules.
1 of 1 | Posted by bendelker | Posted on May 17, 2004 11:59 PM