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This week was a more or less lack luster episode of the “Real World,” I guess maybe that’s because there was no drunken drama. Just a couple of Devyn’s boyfriends and some rodents thrown in the mix…courtesy of the bros in the house.

After dealing with a severe rat problem in the house, JD approaches the bros about a plan to get the girls…they buy a mouse and put it in the girls bed. JD went to the right guys, because nobody in the house likes a good prank more than Chet and Ryan, and with Scott around to round things out, all the bros are on board. Targets: Devyn and Sarah.

Meanwhile, Devyn’s semi-fiance David comes to visit. It’s pathetic how tightly wound this guy is around her finger. Chet has constantly pointed out that this is wrong, and furthermore the fact that Devyn has been talking to this other guy Jim is just cruel. Another point that no one brought up is that Devyn has spent most of her time in the house obsessing over Scott, so the fact that she has a fiance, semi or full or whatever, yeah, let’s just say she’s untrustworthy. That said, the guys feel bad for David during his stay and even debate telling him that he’s being played, you know, because of guy code. Instead, they start calling her “sugarbutt” because Chet caught that little nickname in an e-mail from Jim.

Once David left, it was high time for prank time. Chet shouldered the responsibility of the mouse delivery to Devyn’s bed, and sure enough the plan went off without a hitch! After that, Ryan was still unsatisfied so the following night, he dropped the mouse in Sarah’s bed. Yet again (more…)

Broskis and biddies collide on in and out of the Brooklyn house, when the gang takes a road trip to Ryan’s hometown of Gettysburg. The bros start to bond over their collective irritation with the girls on the whole, as well as their overall curiosity with regards to Katelynn. Curiosity and discomfort could actually be synonymous in this particular case, because quite frankly, no one’s all that comfortable with some of Katelynn’s behavior in and out of the house. Between walking around in her panties on a regular basis and her insistence on treating anything as her own personal stripper pole, she’s sort of asking for a confrontation. To make things more tense, the guys were determined to figure out the truth about her, and while they pretty much knew what the truth was, they still attempted to sleuth this out by listening in on her confession.

Central to the episode is JD, Sarah, and Katelynn taking a trip down to the local Gay, Lesbian, Transgender Community Center, hoping to get involved. They decide to show their support by attending the opening ceremonies for a bike trip from Gettysburg to Manhattan to raise AIDS awareness. Of course, at first I thought they actually intended to take part in the bike trip…seems sensible, but no, they just went down for the opening ceremonies with the added bonus of checking out Ryan’s roots. That said, road trip! The guys pile into one car while the girls pile into the other, planning to convoy down. Unfortunately, the girls get irritated following the guys and decide to break off and find their own way to Gettysburg, minus directions.

Obviously, the guys made it there, just in time for their tour bus but the girls didn’t have the same luck and pretty much missed the tour entirely. Trying to make it sound cool, they decided “hey, we’ll take our own tour of Gettysburg.” This allowed the bros to spend more time bonding before everyone went out to dinner with Ryan’s family. After that, everyone walked the whopping ten feet to the other side of the restaurant, which was conveniently a bar. Katelynn was insulted by this idea, as if every town should have their own version of Angels & Kings (more…)

As always, some new and exciting things are afoot for the Brooklyn house. While Scott dips his feet back into the dating world (making Devyn blatantly jealous), Chet dives right into the hosting world, interviewing a new band and even Pete Wentz of Fallout Boy. Meanwhile, we see a different side of Ryan as September 11 rolls around, and he meets up with a friend to go down a take part in the ceremonies by the towers.

Well, Scott mentioning he had a girlfriend is pretty much irrelevant, because after some significant lack in communication, they finally split. Scott’s in luck though, because it happened just before Fashion Week (which apparently exists), meaning the whole house headed out to this bizarre artsy fashion show, and Scott managed to scoop up a few phone numbers along the way. On back to back nights, Scott entertains not one but two models, respectively, at the house, causing the gang to do a fair amount of back talking about Scott’s “womanizing.”  Devyn spearheads most of the conversations about Scott hanging out with these girls, mainly because she is obsessed with Scott and obsessed with the fact that he absolutely must be trying to make her jealous and will soon recognize that he has a crush on her. Devyn, listen up…breathe…maybe, just maybe, he’s just not that into you…

Granted, Devyn wasn’t the only one openly discussing Scott’s dating life. Chet drew up a list of things, dating according to Scott, which mostly entailed bringing girls home and looking at his modeling pictures with them. Scott saw this and was pretty irritated by everyone’s input on who he’s dating, which was fair…but some of Chet’s points were pretty fair…back to back nights Scott spent time with each girl looking at his modeling pictures. Fact.

Ryan pulled a little prank on everyone by reversing the shoelaces on everyone’s sneakers, tying the knot at the bottom of the sneaker and (more…)

Things start off pretty well for the Brooklyn house when Scott gets the gang into a private party, meaning everyone has to dress up…including Ryan, who winds up sporting a suit, tie, and fake mustache. At the party, Chet bumps into Alex, Scott’s totally platonic lady friend, and while he’s standoffish at first, he eventually starts dancing and spitting some game. Afterward, Chet was dead set on scoring a date with her, believing “this could blossom into something very special.”

The levity didn’t last for long though, when the following day JD received a weird phonecall from a strange man.  Ironically, Chet and Sarah are out and get into a heavy debate about domestic violence where Chet argues that forgiveness is important, but Sarah actually comes from a history of sexual abuse and therefore actually knows what she’s talking about. Point Sarah. It doesn’t take long before Sarah’s dad finally reaches her and plays dumb about why she refuses to speak to him, trying to open up a “dialogue” and explain that there’s “really no issue here.” Needless to say, Sarah has a bit of a breakdown after the conversation.

On another night out, JD met up with the gang at a club, piss drunk and with a (more…)

Between Kat’s boyfriend not keeping in touch with her, things kind-of-sort-of-but-not-really heating up for Devyn and Scott, Ryan telling Baya repeatedly about his girlfriend, and Chet’s crush on Scott’s (female) best friend, there’s plenty of awkwardness brewing in the Brooklyn house.

Things kick off with Ryan, Chet, and Baya going to Crush Management after having met a producer who can help navigate them into respective fields. Ryan’s pursuing music, Chet is interested in hosting, and Baya is apparently now very interested in “spinning” (DJing for those non-hipsters). While Baya gets a shot at “spinning” at a club one night, things don’t seem to pan out for Ryan after sitting down with a producer, who suggests he work more on his own for awhile and develop a following before considering recording.

Devyn and Scott have done a fair amount of flirting since their arrival…it gets kind of weird when Devyn draws up the BFF-ometer to chart Scott and her level of closeness…it’s even weirder that she actually shows this to him. When one of Scott’s friend pays a visit, who happens to be a (more…)

Chet and JD didn’t seem to waste anytime getting in each others’ faces in the Brooklyn house. Somewhere between Chet’s preoccupation with condoms and JD’s drunken racism, they just didn’t seem to see eye to eye. Sure, things started out well enough with Chet just poking fun at JD for being able to fill out jumbo condoms, but when a banana wrapped in a condom is found mysteriously floating in the fish tank, a house meeting is called about Chet’s disrespect for other people’s property. Sarah is the big winner who gets to actually confront Chet, but Chet totally blows her off and confronts JD himself, where he explains that it was not JD’s condom, but it was instead a condom handed out at a club.

As for Kat, she came out to Baya, leading to a deep and touching conversation between Baya and Sarah. That’s all that happened there really.

JD decides to round up the majority of the house for a night out in Chelsea…that’s right, Chelsea. Despite Chet and Ryan’s discomfort with gay culture, they decide to go along and see what it’s all about. Chet gets all dressed up, sporting eye-liner and a scarf because apparently chicks totally dig it…this guy’s really supposed to be an ultra-straight conservative Republican? I bet…yeah…

At the club, Ryan gets more than he bargained for in going along to the club (more…)

And so begins a new season of “The Real World,” and this season our seven…I mean eight (!!!) strangers are taking on Brooklyn. I gotta say, this season they definitely pulled out all the stops on putting together a diverse house…ummm…very much so. Granted, in the premiere everyone seems to get along great, but once everyone loosens up a bit we’re bound to see some serious fireworks. With that said, the Brooklyn house consists of…

Ryan, an Iraq War vet and definitely the season’s big party guy. Katelynn, a post-op transgender person. Chet, a punk rock-type hardcore Mormon, despite his bizarre choice in attire (he dresses like a flaming homosexual, but is in fact a conservative Republican who views homosexuality as a sin). Devyn, a Miss Teen America pageant winner (definitely the best looking girl in the house). Baya, a kind of cute girl who aspires to be a hip-hop dancer. Sarah, a friendly and cool punk chick who apparently used to date girls but is now very contently in a relationship with a dude (right now I actually like her a lot because she seems like one of the more genuine people in the house). JD, a gay dolphin trainer who comes from a rough past. Lastly, there’s Scott, a gym trainer who it seems spends most of his time eating and working out…nice guy but kind of a jokebag from what I can tell right now.

Once everyone meets, everyone seems to click and get along pretty well, but Ryan and JD are suspicious right off the bat about Katelynn, who has not divulged her secret to anyone in the house. The whole gang heads out to hit the bars and Ryan gets absolutely hammered drunk…JD is sort of Buzz Killington though, acting overbearing about making sure everyone leaves together and that Ryan doesn’t get too out of control. Things turned out fine though…Ryan drank some water and they called it a night.

The next morning, Ryan and Sarah… (more…)

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.

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?

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”