myspacetv.com
From the folks over at myspacetv.com comes word of the social-networking site’s “first co-developed original web series.” (Whatever exactly that means, it involves a sponsorship by the Ford Focus.) Roommates follows four young women, recent college grads, as they get an apartment together in Los Angeles and embark on adult life. (Four other friends send in video blogs, while “our friend Jason” gets the whole thing down on camera.)
“Adult life,” in the first episode, involves mostly hanging out in the apartment, dressing up the dog and talking about what it’s like being on a Web reality show. “[It’s] going to be wild, sexy, crazy and dramatic at times, I’m sure,” says “resident fashionista” Violet. “I guess I’m the cooler one out of the group,” says not-quite-law-student Heather.
Yes, the show seems totally contrived, as reality TV tends to be: Violet just “happens” to be caught on camera changing clothes. But it’s contrived in a different way from big-budget reality TV. The whole thing has the endearing, playing-dress-up feel of one of those amateur Jedi-light-saber battles on YouTube. Except that instead of playing Star Wars, they decided to get together and play The Hills. I mean, look at the font they use for the screen titles. It’s as if the new version of iMovie added an “O.C. Effect” button to go along with the “Ken Burns Effect.” It’s intriguing, to me anyway, not as a glimpse into the real lives of four young women in the big city today, but as a glimpse into the real MTV-media fantasies of four young women in the big city today.
Or not. Laugh all you want. When the writers’ strike hits, this is what you’re probably going to be watching in January instead of 24: