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MTV's latest teen-angst driven reality series seems to be squandering a unique opportunity to deal with actual issues.
Jacob Kriss
Issue date: 4/17/08 Section: Opinion
I have to preface this with an admission: I don't watch a lot of MTV. Ever since the network played its last music video circa 1998 and switched to the inane-reality-show-aimed-at-teen-girl genre, it hasn't been up there on my TV priorities.
But when I heard that MTV was producing a reality show based around the inner workings of a student newspaper, for some fairly obvious reasons my interests were piqued. Wait - there's a catch. It's a high-school newspaper. OK, so I shouldn't have thought the producers would move beyond the realm of the demographic they're very obviously aiming for. But I did have reason to hope it might venture outside of breakups and blondes and into, dare I say it, brains. The show is being produced by the network's News and Documentary unit, not the folks responsible for such winners as Laguna Beach and The Hills. "It's not hot tubs and Jacuzzis," Dave Kolko, one of the show's producer-directors, told the Miami Herald. "It's real kids. It's a professionally done newspaper."
I made a point to watch the first episode, which aired Monday night. The show centers on The Circuit, the award-winning student newspaper at Cypress Bay High School in Weston, Fla., and the first episode dealt with the question of which teenager would ascend to the coveted position of editor-in-chief. There's Amanda, the bespectacled, bossy copy editor who professes that attaining the position would be, "the highlight of my life, pretty much." (Spoiler: she gets the job). Alex, the sports editor, also vies for the top spot, but ends up as the managing editor (second in command). Giana, the bitchy clubs editor, loses out on editor-in-chief and gets news editor. Meanwhile, the dramatic and flamboyant business manager, Adam, is devastated to find he's relegated to advertising manager, basically the same position he held the year before.
The problem Amanda faces, particularly after she's named editor-in-chief, is that the staff doesn't respect her or think she'll do a good job, and they flaunt their disdain openly. It is high school, after all.
But when I heard that MTV was producing a reality show based around the inner workings of a student newspaper, for some fairly obvious reasons my interests were piqued. Wait - there's a catch. It's a high-school newspaper. OK, so I shouldn't have thought the producers would move beyond the realm of the demographic they're very obviously aiming for. But I did have reason to hope it might venture outside of breakups and blondes and into, dare I say it, brains. The show is being produced by the network's News and Documentary unit, not the folks responsible for such winners as Laguna Beach and The Hills. "It's not hot tubs and Jacuzzis," Dave Kolko, one of the show's producer-directors, told the Miami Herald. "It's real kids. It's a professionally done newspaper."
I made a point to watch the first episode, which aired Monday night. The show centers on The Circuit, the award-winning student newspaper at Cypress Bay High School in Weston, Fla., and the first episode dealt with the question of which teenager would ascend to the coveted position of editor-in-chief. There's Amanda, the bespectacled, bossy copy editor who professes that attaining the position would be, "the highlight of my life, pretty much." (Spoiler: she gets the job). Alex, the sports editor, also vies for the top spot, but ends up as the managing editor (second in command). Giana, the bitchy clubs editor, loses out on editor-in-chief and gets news editor. Meanwhile, the dramatic and flamboyant business manager, Adam, is devastated to find he's relegated to advertising manager, basically the same position he held the year before.
The problem Amanda faces, particularly after she's named editor-in-chief, is that the staff doesn't respect her or think she'll do a good job, and they flaunt their disdain openly. It is high school, after all.
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