You know, I actually managed to not watch The Real World for 7 seasons -- was proud of myself for not falling for the ridiculous premise. 7 people, who in the real world would have absolutely nothing to do with each other, are conned into living in a 3 or 4 bedroom house for months at a time, while guys with video cameras film everything they do. Yeah, that happens in real life all the time.
Then I started watching Hawaii -- shame on me. Really, because I honestly don't believe I've seen a group more self-obsessed in my life, short of the film The Breakfast Club. Shall we look at the players? Ruthie -- lesbian, alcoholic, who gets so drunk the first week she's there her new roommates have to haul her to the hospital. Then they all but kick her out of the house until she goes into rehab -- she leaves for a while, but no one ever knows where she goes or what she does. She doesn't drink when she comes back, but they all seem to have tired of partying by then. Justin -- double agent, rumor monger -- he seems to take great pleasure in causing everyone else trouble. Until his own personal troubles call him back to his family and out of the house -- too bad he's already managed to mess things up. Kaia, one of the oldest roommates, and probably the most immature. At the beginning she wants to be Ruthie's friend, she runs around topless like Ruthie does, even gets into a fairly intense make out session in the back of a car with Ruthie (who being Ruthie is too drunk to remember it, even after seeing the pictures and videotape). Then she signs up with Justin, until the other roommates see what he's doing, and she doesn't want to get caught helping. Then she's chummy with Amaya, until that's not popular anymore. Finally, even though she knows he's interested in Ruthie's sister, she starts making major MAJOR moves on roommate Matt (after she slammed Amaya for being involved with roommate Collin). Speaking of Collin, he leads the charge against Ruthie, he's involved with Amaya until Justin begins his evil work, and turns her out cold without any explanation. Then when one of his buds comes to visit, and takes an interest in Amaya, he decides it's time to run her out (he fails, but manages to get the other roommates to make her life miserable, except for Ruthie). Amaya, weepy, overemotional, and slow to get the point (at least as far as Collin was concerned). Still, I suppose I liked her the most of all -- she was perhaps over cautious of Ruthie's return, but when Ruthie was there when the roommates were out to get her, she openly admitted her fears to her, and at the end gave Ruthie more than generous credit for helping her make it through. Matt -- I don't know what to say about him, busybody, know-it-all. I do know that if he was really hoping to get something going with Ruthie's sister he should have told Kaia to get the heck out of his bed. Maybe waffler would be a better description. Then there's Teck, the only one besides Amaya I'd want to be stuck in a house with. Apart from being a bit too interested in the opposite sex, he seemed like the only truly well adjusted person there -- even when he and Ruthie were seeing the same girl. MTV had a Real World reunion special on recently, and it hasn't been that long for the Hawaii group. Matt, Collin, and Teck couldn't (or wouldn't) come -- though Teck found a satellite link so he could be virtually there (and goofy as usual too). Ruthie was there, and seemed pretty much the way she was at the end of the season -- OK, but not answering any questions. Kaia looked as though she was hoping Matt would be there, and that since he wasn't she really wanted to leave. Justin was there, apparently oblivious to the near destruction he caused. And Amaya still retained her inner resolve, even after suffering through a Real World / Road Rules challenge.
Strangely enough, I look at that, and think it could be fun -- even with the personality clashes. But I suppose MTV isn't interested in a 35 year old being in one of their beautiful people shows. Oh to be 21 again. Then I remembered what I was doing at 21 -- Hospital Corps School. Instead of 7 of us there were 25, and we had 4 to a room. But we suffered from personality conflicts, tempted (and tempestuous) relationships, alcoholic excesses, work, road trips, and other fun. We had one roommate who was never there -- he showed up for class and for his duty shifts, but he had his wife or girlfriend in town somewhere. Another roommate had a thing for a cute little redhead -- and she for him, but he already had a fiancée and was trying very hard not to stray. I had one of the few cars, if it wasn't taking me home for the weekend it was off to the mall, up to Wisconsin, out in the northern suburbs, going to Osh Kosh -- usually with at least 4 people in it, sometimes more. We started out kind of wild, but toward the end we tended to just have some mellow evenings at the bowling alley with the people we'd bonded with the most. It wasn't all that different I guess, and just as genuine.
Really,