Sorry about this, but for various reasons, I'm a bit off my game this week….

I think I'm finally over The Real World. The cast is lame, the setup way too unbelievable, and the obviousness of the manipulation too grating. But that's not the main reason why I'm putting down the pipe.

Tuesday nights are my favorite night of TV viewing. Even more so than Sunday. Got Buffy at 8 and The Real World at 10. Just enough time to watch both shows and still have enough time on both boards to see what's going on in fan-land (and yes, I do need a life). In a way, both shows are pop-culture at it's finest. Buffy is pop-culture at it's almost artful best, a show consisting of so many layers, themes and philosophical questionings that they're having academic conferences just to make sense of it all. The Real World, on the other hand, is pop-culture at it's trashiest, junkiest best. It's nothing but watching a train-wreck happen over and over again, a show that makes you spend most of the time making snarky comments at whatever your witnessing and wishing some horrific accident would come and strike down all the cast members just to keep them from spawning. And feeling alright that you're wishing evil things to happen to real people.

But that was then.

Last night's Buffy rocked the house. It was one of the most jaw-dropping, mind-blowing TV episodes I've ever seen and it's not just the half a bottle of wine talking. It was powerful and heartbreaking and funny and tripped out and creepy as all hell- often all at the same time. Recurring characters returned (maybe), others referenced, and one was brutally murdered by his friend. And it was all done so well, art-film style. The writers basically took four seemingly disparate stories, all with completely different tones and plots, then meshed them together like "Godfather" but done by Clive Barker for it's finale. The ending left me stunned, blown away and awed all at the same time. It was fucking amazing.

And then came the epiphany. I had just seen pop-culture at it's best, when it's well done and well-intentioned and makes you feel about three or four things all at the same time. This is what art/pop-culture should be. (and I phrase it like that because when you say "art," people think of high art, which is completely untrue. Pop-culture can be just as artful as high-art, maybe more so. Shakespeare, after all, was basically pop-culture, just really, really good pop-culture. That is, of course, if Shakespeare really wrote the stuff, but I digress). It's when the creators, the writers, and actors put their heart and soul into it, not caring about anything else, in hopes someone else joins in for the ride.

Then there's The Real World. It's everything Buffy isn't. It's about the constant whinings of seven dysfunctional attention-whores who see nothing wrong with having threesomes in a hot tub despite the presence of their roomates, the camera crew, and the millions of people who'll eventually see it. It's three women cast members all with eating disorders and major family issues. It's a bunch of people who think that by appearing on a reality show, they'll become rich and famous and so spend most of their time like they're auditioning for something. And it's a bunch of producers and editors who do whatever it takes to manipulate everything so that drama comes out of stuff that either doesn't really exist or is overblown to begin with. It, like all the other "reality shows" is nothing more than Bread & Circuses for a jaded, cynical audience.

How can I watch something so bad after reveling in something that was so good?

The line must be drawn somewhere, so The Real World, I bid you adieu.

By the way, did I mention I went to see Jackass: the Movie yesterday too? Pretty fucking funny. Basically, Guys in Giant Panda Suits + knocking things over + Japanese people = comedy gold.