I made a mistake, but I’m only half-willing to take the
blame. As far as I’m concerned, the other half goes to
UCLA’s on-campus cable television setup.
This column should be specifically about the first few episodes
of “The Real World: San Diego,” the most recent of
which aired Tuesday night at 10 p.m. However, for a reason unknown
to me at the current moment, MTV in the dorms seems to be on East
Coast time, meaning that my precious time with seven clinically
insane roommates in my home town of San Diego aired at 7:00 p.m.
instead.
If I was on the show, I’d be throwing a cursing, screaming
temper tantrum right now and end up insulting one of my roommates
with an inappropriate ethnic slur, but as it is, I’ll have to
settle for one of the 437 reruns MTV will air between now and next
Tuesday night (at 7 p.m.).
But two burning questions still remain. First, what’d I
miss? And second, what is UCLA doing airing MTV three hours early
when every other available channel has successfully been adjusted
to Pacific Standard Time?
I’ll tackle the second question first, because the answer
is shorter. I have no idea. But I’ll be tuning in earlier
from here on out.
The question of what I missed is a trickier one. In a sense, I
already know what happens this season, because I remember reading
local news stories at home last summer describing key events as the
filming took place: more than one cast member gets arrested, and
there’s an alleged rape to deal with that takes place in the
house (but doesn’t necessarily include any cast members).
But did that happen in Tuesday’s episode? Asking a friend
about what happened in last night’s episode only revealed how
silly it was to wonder.
“The girl with the really short hair, I don’t know
her name, got pissed at the black guy in a club or restaurant or
something for calling her a bitch,” she said.
And apparently that lasted a full half-hour.
I’m not as much bothered by this being a feasible plotline
for a “Real World” cast as I am by this being a
feasible plotline for an entire episode of “The Real
World.” What used to be television’s first reality show
now edits to feature one roommate insulting another, and
here’s the scary part: “The Real World” is better
now than it has ever been.
By simplifying the material and selecting the oddest assortment
of cast members the show has had to date, “The Real World:
San Diego” is primed to be one of the best of the
series’ many seasons. And MTV accomplished such an ordeal by
pairing a girl from South Carolina who claims not to like people
north of the Mason-Dixon line (she calls them
“Yankees”) with a guy from Illinois who needs a
definition for the word “vindictive.”
It’s all very funny, and then very sad when you think
about it, and then very funny again when you realize you’re
actually thinking about “The Real World.” That may be
the desired effect.
If good television is anything that makes you feel like you
can’t turn away even for a moment, “The Real World: San
Diego” is brilliant, and it’s still just beginning. Or
at least, it is to me until I figure out when exactly the show is
on.
If you know why UCLA’s on-campus television gets MTV
in Eastern Standard Time, please e-mail Tracer at
jtracer@media.ucla.edu.