The Real World Paris

Rating:
Summary: Good Book
Review: If you were a fan of this season & followed it all the way out you will enjoy this book! I watched each and evry episode and I also enjoyed reading the book! I think you should get the book even if you didn't watch this season but are a complete fan of the real world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: An embarrassment in Paris
Review: In case you are unfamiliar with the concept, every year MTV selects seven late-teens/early-20s viewers to live together in a house for about four months. Their lives are taped and then aired on a show called "The Real World." The location changes each year. The first season was in New York, with following seasons being in San Francisco, Seattle, London, and, this past year, Paris. This was once a highly interesting concept. Seeing an unscripted group of people have their lives filmed, seeing how they really felt and interacted with one another, was fascinating. Now, however, we are a bit more sophisticated, and the market is saturated. There are currently dozens of reality TV shows, and we have learned that this is not reality. Where is the "reality" in having seven strangers live together, rent-free, in a foreign city, and have their lives filmed to be seen by millions of other strangers? When does this ever happen in real life? It never happens to me. Has it ever happened to you? This is not reality. This is television.

"Real World: Paris" is perhaps the worst season of this show. The pretense of reality is gone, and the lives and upsets of the participants are pettier than the average soap opera. It's obvious that many of the "upsets" on the show were in fact scripted, or at least strongly encouraged, by the producers. And the cast has never been more cookie-cutter, looking as though all participants stepped out of an Abercrombie and Fitch magazine. And the overly-politically correct casting is obnoxious. I can just see the producers with their checklist:

Asian participant - "check"
Gay participant - "check"
Southern hick - "check"
Sexy, sassy girl - "check"
Bad boy, social misfit - "check"
Non-threatening black man - "check"
Plain and quiet nice girl - "check"

This formulaic process has now given us THE REAL WORLD PARIS, a behind-the-scenes and candid look at the lives of the carefully selected participants of a multi-million dollar MTV franchise. Actually, there is nothing candid about this book. All photos are highly polished, the format and layout is teenybopper and patronizing, the graphics are garish, the font alienating. Only devoted fans of the show will enjoy this tedious, inauthentic, strange, book. But if you must have it, I suggest waiting a while and then searching through the discount rack of your local bookstore. THE REAL WORLD PARIS is sure to be there soon!

Andrew Parodi