Why The Hills Makes Me Love My Wife a Little Bit Less
As far as wives go, I definitely landed a good one. She's smart, pretty, loves the Red Sox, tolerates my Beavis-grade humor, and only gets mad at me when I really deserve it. But for the first time in our decade-plus relationship, I recently told her that something she was doing caused me to love her a little bit less. Unmoved, she shrugged her shoulders and continued watching The Hills.
For those unaware, The Hills is an unfathomably popular "reality" show that happens to be the highest rated program on MTV. It follows the mundane activities of a bunch of trust fund princesses from Southern California. Sometimes they shop, sometimes they talk on the phone, and sometimes they work at cushy, product placement-heavy internships until it's time to go shopping again.
My wife claims she watches the show strictly for professional reasons (full disclosure: she works at the Hills-happy Us Weekly), but that's nonsense. When the show comes on, she's like a toddler transfixed by a Disney movie she's seen 87 times. I could rev up three chainsaws, light them on fire and juggle them by her side, and she'd simply turn up the volume so as not to miss one monosyllabic bite of anti-wisdom from Lauren Conrad and the other future real housewives of Orange County.
And worst of all are the guys -- or should I say, "bros" -- of The Hills. In most girl-friendly TV shows and romantic comedies, the female character starts off with a scumbag, discovers the folly of her ways, and eventually ends up with the lovably intellectual anti-hero. My biggest problem with The Hills is that even though it's scripted, (or at the very least, prodded), it's still a reality show. And the reality is that these girls have no interest in the Lloyd Doblers and Seth Cohens of the world. They want the club-hopping himbo with a table at Les Deux and an Uncle in casting at New Line.
How on earth my normally smart wife and her normally smart friends are obsessed with this program is beyond me. These are girls that grew up in the John Hughes era, and champion subversively feminist chick-programming like My So-Called Life and Gilmore Girls. Now they're glued to the couch every Monday night to find out if tone-deaf chanteuse Heidi Montag and lunkhead loser Spencer Pratt's on/off relationship is like, um, on, or like, um, off. (Hint: until it's no longer commercially viable, there'll be no resolution).
See, The Hills is a world where The Karate Kid loses. Where Jake Ryan never notices Samantha Baker, and the only thing Seth Rogen hits is his bong. It's a superficial land of cute clothes, silver spoons, and girls who become celebrities for doing little more than fawning and fighting over the biggest sacks of douchebaggery since Fred Durst commanded his minions to "Break Stuff."
The Hills is a frighteningly addictive rock of girl-crack that's stranger than any fiction my wife and her pals usually go ga-ga over. And the scariest part is: it's reality.
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... I'm a girly-girl type woman, and you COULDN'T pay me enough to watch this estrogen-laced drivel, or it's ilk - vapid, status obsessed 'ladies', blithely drifting from mall to malaise, waving credit cards in their wake..PATH
Leave it to the TV generation to buy into that sick show. Its the saddest reminder of how materialistic, fake and disposable people in America are trained to be. Its sad to learn its the number 1 show on mtv.
Wonderful.
As it is, I turned to my fiance the other night as she stared, rapt, into the Hills box, and addressed the real drama, the real potentially tragic aspect of the show. As Lauren put-putted along on the back of 'mysterious french guy's' euro-cycle through Paris, I expressed aloud the core of my own sympathy for these characters: "What if they get into a terrible accident before she's ever able to grow her own personality?"
I can't speak for the hills, but I think w/ sex and the city for most females it's the fantasy part that they love. Just like a show like Entourage is for young men. The difference is that women all off ages watches sex in the city and Entourage is more catered to youger guys.
I like Entourage, but maybe I'm just an immature 48.
Entourage is great. Total male fantasy.
The best part is that nothing bad ever happens.
Life is all delicious lemonade.
I was surprised that I would actually like a show like that.
Also the characters are good.
The Hills - I have Zero knowledge of. I did watch the Kardashian show once.
Ugh. Off to invent a reality-TV
Interesting that you know so much about this show for not watching it. Hmmmm.
"The Hills" and "Sex and the City" are completely two different shows, one actually had substance while the latter is just mind numbing but I watch it anyway. What can I say "I love my MTV"!!!
You can't seriously be suggesting Sex and the City had substance. I could respect you if you confessed it was a guilty pleasure or mindless entertainment, but if that's your idea of substance.
I'm not entirely sure if "substance" is the right word...but there is something to be said for "Sex and the City." The lifestyles and materialism of the women on the show may not not have been completely realistic or relatable to Sally Smith in Kansas. However, the notion of friendships between women, the problems faced in many relationships, the conflicts amongst friends, lovers, etc. were universal to women. "Sex and the City" was a show that celebrated women. 'The Hills" makes women and girls look stupid. And this article only proves the point that it can make women and girls outside the show look stupid just for watching it. It is a rediculous show. It is mindless crap. But hence the need for a show like "Sex and the City," that takes pride in women.
I agree. My wife, who is getting her Masters degree so she's intelligent, loves this stupid show (as well as Sex and the City, as popmanifesto mentioned). Every time she watches it, I die a little inside.
I hear ya. I've always felt the same way about any woman who is a big fan of "Sex and the City." My theory is that there's just no way you could love a show so overwhelmingly vapid and superficial without possessing those qualities yourself. It's unproven, but I'll err on the side of caution.
I don't watch the "The Hills" but your observations are very funny. "biggest sacks of douchebaggery ", that is way too funny.
I can totally sympathize with you disillusionment, I get the exact same reaction from my husband every time I turn on America's Next Top Model. I pride myself on never having watched "The Hills", but this is probably only because we don't have cable....
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