East Coast Musings 03.22.09: The Real World...Back to Dealing With Real Issues
Posted by James Craig on 03.22.2009
A look back at the the season so far on The Real World: Brooklyn and how it has gone back to the roots of THe Real World and is dealing with real issues once again.
In this column, I will explore various facets of the film and television worlds and offer my views on why things are they way they are and where I feel the subject of each topic in heading in the future by weighing both the pros and the cons each is facing. Nothing is safe and no one is safe as from my focus.
Welcome back gang. This has been a slow-ish week news-wise in film and television.Perhaps the biggest event was that Battlestar Galactica had its' series finale this week, closing up it's critically and fan acclaimed run. I'm not going to talk about the finale of BSG, because frankly, it either has been or will be ad-nauseum and I'm not nearly well versed enough in the series to provide any sort of insight. That being said, I want to pick up on something I talked about earlier this year and expand on it. I'm talking about what has been a very good season of The Real World on MTV.
The Real World: Brooklyn is the series 21st season, and the 3rd to visit the New York region. There are some differences with this season then from recent seasons or even in the history of the series. Most notably, this is the first season to feature 8 roommates as opposed to seven that has been the case since the very beginning of the series. Also, this marks for the first time since the 5th season that the cast members aren't given a job by the show that they need to take on. This season the cast members are free to go on what ever path they feel like as they branch out into the New York community. For me, however, the biggest change occurring this season is what I feel is helping to push the show back into the realm of being at the very least semi credible, which is a focus on going back to basics and trying to focus on real issues facing the roommates and having them discuss these things in very "real" ways. This is a welcome move for me and I give kudos to the producers for making the decision to try and get away from having The Real World be a booze fueled fight club/vacation for the roommates. Far to often MTV gets bashed, and rightfully so, for slapping together reality program after reality program that offer nothing at all to any sort of social conversation. No, correction, adds nothing to any sort of intelligent social conversation (ie: A Double Shot at Love).
When I first mentioned this season of The Real World I was encouraged by the direction that the producers were bringing the series as they had introduced roommates from backgrounds that were perfect to create a conversation about issues that are important in our society. Of course critics of any reality series will say that the producers will always put an effort to cherry pick a cast with the best possibility for conflict, but this time around, I think that while the cherry picking was done, there was a focus on much more than putting together a cast that was only going to fight and/or hook up. At first glance, one may see a cast that seems so disjointed in terms of where they came from, one might surmise that putting a mormon, a transgendered individual, one gay guy as well as one bi girl into the house will be a non stop preaching and bickering event. Once you dig deeper however, and get to see the interaction of all eight roommates, you can see that the producers picked the right people to engage in mature conversations regarding each of their own personal histories. This isn't to say that there is always civil and grown up conversations, there is still a fair bit of fighting and screaming and immature actions, but I think that could be expected of most any situation where you have 8 strangers thrown together to live with each other for 3 months.
This season, there have been two main focal points as far as "serious" topics are concerned. The first is the issues born from gender roles as well as the place of the individual in our society when they are homosexual. I think by having more than one roommate who is homosexual or living an "altenrative" lifestyle presented the producers with the opportunity to open up a dialogue within the group of roommates and by extention the viewers into more varied directions then we have seen since perhaps the 3rd season. In what seems to be a natural extention of the dialogue opened on the topic of homosexuality, there has been quite a bit of time devoted to looking at how AIDS affects those who are infected as well as those around them. This may have the feel of "been there, done that", and to be honest, it isn't anything new, especially with this series, but there just seems to be so much focus on other things affecting our society, that the discussion involving the threat that the HIV virus and AIDS presents seems to have melted into the background while we worry about other things. This season and its' cast have at least brought this topic back into the public eye as a reminder that this is still a problem that isn't getting better and it affects everyone, regardless of sexual orientation. This also provided the opportunity to get word of mouth out for their biopic of Pedro Zamora, the cast member from the 3rd season, The Real Word: San francisco, highlighting his life as he became an advocate within the gay community for persons with HIV/AIDS. If this is one of the soap boxes that the producers want to climb up on this season, I'm all for it as it promotes awareness of an issue, again, that seems to have slipped from the public eye.
The second focal point of the season has been placed squarely on Ryan. He is the veteran of the War in Iraq and we are witness to him having to sort out his own issues resulting for his experiences, but also how he has to deal with the fallout of friends of his coming back home after having served in Iraq. For some, who may know someone who has served in either Iraq or Afghanistan but haven't had to deal directly with them, this may help to put into perspective how a person feels when confronted with the overwhelming issues they have to deal with upon arriving safely at home. For these people, Ryan may out a face on the vets who suffer form PTSD or those who live their lives knowing that as the can be recalled to active duty at anytime and how it effects not only the soldier, but everyone around them. Again, this helps to open up a conversation and we get to see inside the issue as opposed to be told about the issue from an outside source like on a news program. Even for me, it is hard to really get a grasp on what it is that I have seen. I just know that I've been watching a young man overcome with emotion as he is confronted with friend's suicides as well as trying to come to terms with the things he has seen while serving as well as coming to grips with what he brought back. I have never put a lot of thought into this and that is to my own fault, and I'm embarrassed that it took The Real World to engage me enough to finally put some serious thought into how I need to look at the bigger issues coming from the war other than if I am for it or against it and when I think the troops should come home.
It's hard to really put into words just how this season has opened my eyes and made me realize some things that I hadn't put a lot of thought and consideration into. It is refreshing to have been engaged the way I have been and made to think about these issues beyond that of how i react to news reports. It is refreshing to see a show that for years has been void of any real focus, coming back and tackling important issues. This season isn't completed yet, and I'm certain that there is going to be more to think about as this season moves towards its' finale. When it is finished and when I have had some time to fully digest what I've seen I'll revisit this, but for now I can only applaud what I have seen and think that while to some reality television is a vapid genre of entertainment, that this 21st installment of The Real World has at least brought back some of the luster to a series long thought dead. For this season at least, The Real World is important again.
