Why I loved RW: NOLA

A lot of people think that Real World has lost its thunder, and, while I'll admit, my viewing habits the last couple years have been lackluster (I usually watch the first couple episodes and then dwindle off), I don't think the series is dead yet.... it just needed some revamping.

In my opinion, the Las Vegas season changed Real World as we know it. It became less about seven strangers picked to live in a house, work together and have their lives taped, and more about seven strangers who move to a city with a great nightlife so they can go out, get trashed and hook up.

And then Jersey Shore came along and made the Real World partying look like child's play. 

I don't work for MTV, I don't have insider information, but it is my humble opinion that last season's stint in DC was an effort to bring back some of the seriousness of the show. Someone over at MTV was like, "Hey, we can't compete with Jersey Shore by putting out another party show- so let's stick 'em in our nation's capitol and highlight them doing 'real', 'serious' work.... like at Congress or something."It was a good effort, but the cast just didn't work. It seemed like they were still just there to party (and drink and fight and hook up).

This season, MTV threw a bunch of kids (I say that because most of them are younger than me now... whoa) down in New Orleans.... a city known for, among other things, it's partying. Not to mention that fact that MTV already had a season (and a really, really good one at that!) in NOLA.

I thought they were crazy. I thought this season was going to fail. I was wrong. 


NOLA wasn't a great season because they did or didn't party. It wasn't a great season because they did or didn't have a real job. It was a great season because it wasn't about those things.... it was about the people.

Did it show them partying? Yes, of course.
Did it show them working? Sort of. Ashley and Preston supposedly worked for a radio station, even though it was only mentioned twice. A group of them built a house for Habitat for Humanity. The whole house spent time volunteering at a soup kitchen and made an attempt to see what it was like to be homeless in NOLA (shame on you, Ashley and Knight for cheating!). They got to work some Mardi Gras events, too.

But what this season showed, more than any recent season, was the roomies actually rooming together. We got way more of them in the house, hanging out, heck, even cleaning. This season we even saw them shooting the promo photos (!), which, to my knowledge, we had never seen before (I always wondered if they did it in the beginning of the season or then end! Now I know.) You saw what it was really like, what they were really dealing with, living together.... not just what is was like for them hanging out at clubs together.

So, hoorah for RW: NOLA. Well done, my MTV friends, well done.