so i’m going to admit something that is embarrassing and totally not mature-c-like … but in a transparency exercise i will tell you that i love myself some real housewives of new jersey. i don’t know what it is about reality television (and this series in particular) that makes me want to do my excited dance and then flop down on the couch with beatrice and a bag of chips for hours on end. it’s gross, i know. but. i. just. can’t. help. myself. i think it all started way back in the early ’90s when the cable company messed up and we still got mtv. my sister and i were sneaking “real world” one day and my mom walked in right as a sex educator was teaching mary beth, tami and jon (los angeles cast) how to properly put a condom on a cucumber. from that point on the coutant tv’s only had the major networks and the b channel. so, my reality TV education was on hold for a good 10+ years. now it’s sorta all i watch. with the exception of grey’s, the office and any law and order. i’m so intrigued by watching “real” people in their pseudo “real” situations, which deep in my heart, i know is so totally fake … ingrid and i were waxing intellectual about this particular show over a CPK brunch and i made the point that bravo has become the QUEEN of sublime tongue-in-cheek. the g of teressa asserting that she is SO NOT a stage mom, then a sharp cut to a montage of her over directing her made-up 7 year old in a photoshoot. “hoooney, smile! biiiig smile! more lipgloss! more lipgloss! hands up! pose!!” or voiceover of her telling the world that she considers herself a classy woman, as she flips a dinner table in anger. ingrid, chewed and nodded, then off-handedly says, “well, that’s sorta like life, though … isn’t it? we all like to think we are something, but if a camera were to follow us around, we would quickly find out we aren’t so much of what we think we are”. wow. ingrid. taking it up a notch on a sunday afternoon! and she’s right. perhaps if i really had to think about it, i would admit that the a lot of the pleasure i get out of the show is watching others get exposed and judging.judging, while super super relieved it’s them and not me. i guess it’s my lesson never to sign up for a reality tv show, no matter how cool i think it would be at the moment. i mean, who wouldn’t want to watch ”real m woman of nyc”. provocative! hot! sexy!!! watch us lead a b study! follow us as we go to c! we wake up at 8am and go to bed by 10pm! we buy things ON SALE!!! it’s also a lesson on “reasons why i should cancel cable and read my b more”. xxoo.
