July 9, 2008
Ah, a horribly notorious yet necessary episode for every “Real World” season…the finale. Why do I use words like “horribly” and “notorious”? Namely because it has minimal drama and fighting amidst the roommates and the overall intention of the episode is to be hopeful and uplifting for the future of these individuals. And why shouldn’t it be? We’ve seen these people at their worst. We’ve seen these people at their best. We’ve seen these people in pursuit of their Hollywood dreams, and this season has just been about them getting their feet wet, and now that “The Real World” is over for them, it’s time for the real world to begin for them (try and follow that for me, I’m trying to be a little deep here).
Enough of my lengthy introduction, let’s get into what actually happened. First and foremost, Dave took a bit of a beating at a club, which turned out to unite the roommates while everyone sprang to his defense (it’s worth pointing out that Bri had his back and started punching a guy). I believe it was Dave who pointed out that it was sort of amazing that despite all the differences within the house, that as soon as someone started anything with someone in the house, all the roommates united. Such an important message for the final episode.
Some other crap happened, like when Nick, Sarah, and Kim got in some more practice with hosting when they went to check things out at Entertainment Weekly. Honestly, it wasn’t that interesting, and I don’t feel like talking about it, so I’m going to move on to Joey’s visit…
Joey came out to see the gang’s last show with the IOWest, and he seemed to be doing well. That was good. Greg didn’t come out to visit the gang for their last show. That was good too. Wow, less to say about that than I thought. Told you “Real World” finales weren’t so cool.
And so, we reached our goodbyes. One by one the casts’ respective rides pulled up and each of them tearfully departed, heading off on their respective paths waiting for their dreams to come true. I’d prefer to reflect on the season as a whole and the cast members individually in a final post to sort of wrap things up, but I’ll leave off with one thought I really need to put out there in the world:
Dave once mentioned before getting drunk prior to doing an improv show that he had to drink with Ace from “The Real World: Key West”…if I ran into Dave, I would feel exactly the same way no matter what was going on. Like, this guy knows how to party and could potentially be one of the most fun “Real World” cast members ever, and if I were to run into this guy, I would have some choice words for him: “You. Me. Irish Car Bombs. Now.” Yup, so all said and done, I’m definitely a Dave fan. Check back with me soon for my thoughts on the overall “Real World: Hollywood” experience.
July 8, 2008
This was one of those rare, heart-warming episodes of “The Real World” as we got to see things really start falling into place for the gang. We’ve seen success for some, such as Will and Dave, but now we saw Bri lay down some tracks with her pipes, and Nick, Kim, and Sarah got hooked up with internships for Movies.com to get them started with some entertainment hosting. Oh yeah, and Sarah got a little more than that…
The girls went out to celebrate their successes and it would appear that Sarah had a little to much to drink. Evidence of this: Kim trying to carry her home, Brittini straddling her face while she puked on the street, Kim helping her get to bed and holding a bucket for her, Her calling Nick “Charles Barkley,” and her calling her boyfriend in tears about how drunk she is. Yup, I’d say she was a little drunk.
Drama and tension unfolded when Nick attempted to snap a photo of Sarah puking in bed, and both Sarah and Kim flipped on him. Dumb move on Nick’s part, but Sarah and Kim haven’t exactly rolled out the welcome wagon for him, so this little blow up was bound to happen at some point. Whatever though, because I completely agree with the majority of house in the idea that this was Sarah finally getting what was coming to her. Everyone has had their bad drunken experiences, everyone has gotten a little sloppy, and all season Sarah has been 100% looking down at them for partying. This was it! Dave found proof that Sarah was human, and therefore fallible like everyone else. Bri appropriately referred to this as karma. No doubt. I don’t even live with her and I was psyched to see Sarah look a bit flawed and vulnerable. I don’t feel guilty about it either, because if I actually met Sarah, after 11 episodes of watching her on “The Real World,” I’m pretty damn sure she would judge the hell out of me. Granted, while it seems as if I’m currently judging her, I think I would try and give her the benefit of the doubt that MTV is just trying to make good TV, and therefore through hours of editing, has made her out to be much more stuck up and judgmental than she actually is. At least, I certainly hope that’s the case.
Other than that we just saw the group continue succeeding on their respective paths, doing well, getting hooked up, and making things happen. Honestly, the rest of the episode sort of gets lost in the shadow of the epic night where Sarah got hammered drunk for all eyes to see. Welcome to 2008. Welcome to what we call entertainment. Kind of pathetic, isn’t it?
July 7, 2008
Both Greg and Joey’s respective tenures on “The Real World” has ended, and so a couple of n00bs have entered the house to round out the cast for the last few episodes of the Hollywood season. But before we were introduced to them, Dave backed himself into a bit of a corner when Will’s girl, former “Real World”-er Janelle, invited Will and Dave out for drinks with a large gathering of former “Real World” cast members. Drinks? Why not? I’ll tell you why not. Because the cast had to perform an improv show that night and Dave got drank and bombed out on stage, showering his bosses and fellow cast members with apologies afterwards.
That’s all that really needs to be said about that, so moving on to the main event: new housemates! We meet Nick, an aspiring entertainment host who most of the cast describe as “down to earth” (if one phrase has been whored around and misused all over the place this season, it’s definitely “down to earth,” because Dave is probably the only one who’s remotely “down to earth” but he is strangely enough probably the only person who has never been described as “down to earth”) and Brittini, a model who everybody seemed to agree was hot. Actually, one person was a bit critical of Nick, but it backfired and made me and most of American MTV viewers critical of her. She commented on Nick’s shirt that said, “Sorry, I only date blondes,” stating that she hates guys who wear shirts like that and generalized that all of them are all “d-bags” (the ever mature and totally non-judgmental Sarah couldn’t actually say “douchebag”). In any case, new blood in the house called for a night out.
Basically, the night peaked when Nick brought some biddies back to the house…the very same biddies that Greg was always bringing back to the house. Fascinating! Dave and Will made fast work of getting rid of them, making sure Nick was not working the same girls Greg worked. I wouldn’t want to either. In any case, the focus quickly shifted away from Nick as there seemed to be some flirtation between Will and Brittini, which after a few flirtatious nights out, lead to arguing about how they could not have this flirtatious relationship so that Will could remain faithful to Janelle. This part of the episode irritated me because it was one of the most annoying conversations…no, I can’t say it’s the most annoying conversation I’ve ever heard, that’d be far too bold, but it was pretty damn annoying to listen to.
Lastly, things went well for Dave as he got his foot in the door hosting not only at the IO West but then at another comedy club where he turned out to be a hit. Many props to him for that.
To recap: Dave got drunk before an improv show, Sarah based her entire judgment on Nick on a T-shirt, Will and Brittini flirted and then argued about flirting, and Dave started getting into hosting comedy events. All in all, a pretty complete episode of “The Real World”