Not so real TV

One of the most intriguing new reality shows I've been watching recently is "The Hills," a spin off of MTV's "Laguna Beach" in which LC moves to Los Angeles to take classes at an art school and intern at Teen Vogue. \nBut what's intriguing about the show isn't LC's internship, her absurdly nice apartment or her idiotic roommate Heidi -- well actually it's a little of all of it (except for Heidi, she's just dumb). The most intriguing part of the show is the fact that MTV has blurred the lines of reality TV so much that it seems many of the events on "The Hills" are staged or written.\nMTV has headed in this direction for a while. They started the genre with "The Real World," where everything seems real enough other than the beautiful house and the jobs given to the cast members. The aforementioned "Laguna Beach," which is seemingly realistic (minus the fact that it focuses on one of the wealthiest areas in the country), for the first time spurred debate about how much of the show was actually real. Rumors arose about Kristin Cavallari actually being from Chicago (her parents are divorced so this is half true). The fact that people on the show often seem to randomly cross each other's paths seems questionable as well, considering they're being followed around by camera crews. Yet, at the beginning of each episode was a disclaimer stating that all the events were real, and I for one believe everything MTV tells me, so case closed on "Laguna."\nWhich brings us to "The Hills." There is no disclaimer saying the show is real. I'll let the amazing LA apartment with the spiral staircase slide, since MTV's done that before with "Real World." But the internship at Teen Vogue? When MTV gives jobs to the Real World cast members, they're real jobs -- but they really only affect people within the bubble of the show, which is basically the city it is being filmed in. In short, they're local jobs.\nBut Teen Vogue is a national magazine. Not to put down LC's credentials, but I'd be interested to know what kind of strings MTV pulled to set that up. And why would Teen Vogue refuse? They get publicity on a hit show and a new intern to boss around.\nAnd have you seen the clips of LC's job? They made her and her co-worker change clothes their first day to look "more Teen Vogue." Then on her first job assignment, LC was responsible for guarding a VIP area. Not only did she allow people to sit in the restricted area, the people she let through were her friends who weren't even on the list to the party but she snuck in anyway. Are you kidding me?!? Then to top it off, the next day at work LC was scolded not for doing the exact opposite of what she was supposed to, but because her friends were drunk and caused a minor disturbance. If this is happening in reality, I need to move to LA immediately.\nThen there's LC's roommate Heidi. This is a girl who went into a job interview and said she doesn't like to go to school, has had few, if any jobs, and that she wants to be a party planner, but isn't willing to put in the effort at the ground level and work her way up. What happens next? She gets a job! Once again, there seems to be a certain aspect of 'reality' missing from the show.\nFinally, on this week's episode LC randomly gets a message from her old Laguna boyfriend Jason. Convenient timing, J-Wal, telling your girlfriend you miss her and want to meet up during the fourth episode leaves a whole season of possible guest appearances for you. The kid's got timing.\nNevertheless, many people (myself included) love to watch "The Hills." It's a fantasy played out in the real world. As a regular TV show, why would anyone care about some girl who's an intern at some crappy magazine and hangs out with her stupid friends? But in the real world, the belief that all of this is going on as you and I live today adds a bit of excitement.\nWith enough success, "The Hills" could change the reality TV genre the way people thought Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" was going to change non-fiction writing. No more producer brain trusts sitting in a room thinking of ridiculous contrived situations and games for people to participate in (which seems like the easiest job on earth) -- but instead there could be a movement back towards the basics of television, the writing.