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If you didn't see Catfish the movie, here's quick breakdown: An immediately hateable photographer "falls in love" with a person he meets over the Internet and drives across the country to see her, only to find that instead of the gorgeous young lady she claimed to be, she was an older woman with a far less perfect... well, everything. There was controversy surrounding whether or not the truly douche-y Nev Schulman and the filmmakers were falsifying parts of the story to make for a better movie -- and in my opinion, they probably were -- but honestly, none of that really mattered when it came to why Catfish was so fascinating. They never explicitly talked about it in the film, nor do they touch on it in the new MTV docuseries, but this quest to unmask people hiding behind social media -- or as the show puts it, "help couples who have never met in real life" -- reveals something about that Twitter hashtags and YouTube videos can't quite communicate: Society has seriously fucked us all up.
RuPaul's Drag Race: Four Reasons Why the Reunion was Disappointing
First of all, we're thrilled that our dark horse Sharon Needles took the crown last night on RuPaul's Drag Race's reunion special. Though her victory means that darling Chad Michaels didn't win, it also means that Phi Phi O'Hara was a loser -- and we'll take that, for sure. Drag Race and Untucked have done an excellent job this season of creating the three finalists as the past, present and future of drag. We were also happy to see Latrice Royale take her much-deserved Miss Congeniality award, as we converted of the Church of Jesus Is a Biscuit after her amazing pregnancy Lip Sync for Your Life to "Natural Woman." With the exception of last night's finale, this was one of the best seasons of reality TV we've seen all year... but the travesties of last night cannot be ignored. Here are our biggest complaints:
It seems like the entire world is focused on the upcoming wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, but we don't see what all the fuss is about. Sure, the British royals are occasionally great entertainment when they're being all majestic or scandalous, but they've got nothing on the royal families of Westeros. HBO's racy new fantasy series Game of Thrones will see your royal wedding and raise you an arranged marriage, an incestuous dalliance and a murder plot, and that's all in the first two episodes. Here are some traditions that the Windsors might want to consider adapting from Game of Thrones:
Does this season of Survivor feel familiar? Well, it may be because cast member Russell Hantz has already appeared in two of the last three seasons of the show, and "Boston Rob" Mariano is currently enjoying a record fourth season, having first appeared back in Season 4. And while we understand the show's desire to capitalize on their popularity (as well have some sort of continuity on a show that changes its cast every season), we're actually getting a little tired of their antics -- in this context, at least. Why not put these two on other reality shows, where they can put their skills and abilities to use achieving goals other than social gameplaying? We've got some suggestions for "R&R."
It's that time of year again, when a comedian we like gambles their reputation on hosting a big, lavish gala in front of millions of viewers. Will Jimmy Fallon fall flat with his Tweet-based comedy? You be the judge, as we also be the judge in this, our Emmys liveblog! Zach Oat is starting things off, with Mindy Monez taking over at the halfway point, and it all starts at 8 pm, after the jump!
At this stage in the game, after Tamra Barney's been thoroughly vilified, Kim Zolciak's been mocked to within an inch of her life, Danielle Staub and Kelly Bensimon have been nationally named both crazy and stupid, and Teresa Giudice has been crowned the queen of vapid new money trash, I cannot understand why anyone would agree to participate in a Real Housewives show. It irreversibly turns you into a joke and it reportedly doesn't even pay that great -- there has to be something very wrong with you to want to do this. But here we go again, with five new women desperate enough to be famous that they'd agree to act like this on television.
There may be nobody more polite and friendly on television than Tim Gunn. As the mentor to the contestants on each season of Project Runway, Gunn is a paradigm of class, even when the designers aren't, so we were excited to get to talk to him in a conference call promoting this week's season premiere. And when he revealed that the new, 90-minute-long run time would feature more footage of his critiques, as well as one-on-one interviews with Mr. Gunn himself, we couldn't have been happier. Read on to find out which is his favorite season, what the new contestants are like, and why you may think some of them are too out-there to be real.
Ah, Orange County. Land of so-bad-it's-good televised opportunities, exemplified by shows like The O.C., Laguna Beach, Newport Harbor and Real Housewives of Orange County, where the average household income consists of too many digits for the shows' stars to add up (without the help of a calculator-toting assistant). What those shows fail to acknowledge is the existence of lower-class families in their neighborhoods, living paycheck-to-paycheck to reside in a single filthy motel room they can barely afford, which is the focus of Alexandra Pelosi's new documentary series on HBO, Homeless: The Motel Kids of Orange County.
On a network that mostly encompasses fake tans (Jersey Shore, Teen Mom's Amber), fake boobs (and everything else on Heidi Montag), and fake reality storylines, MTV has come up with its most raw and real show yet. And if you didn't shed a tear from MTV's new docu-series If You Really Knew Me, then you just may be Ann Coulter.
For a while now, we've been scheming for ways to get Dr. Drew Pinsky off the air for good. Besides being generally annoying, Dr. Drew is one of the biggest famewhores on TV, only doing series that involve celebrities and/or make him the star of the show. We feared that his reign would last until someone forced him to check into rehab for being addicted to power, but thankfully, VH1 has stepped in and put an end to their obsession with making crappy Dr. Drew shows by giving a few new docs a chance. We love Dad Camp's Dr. Jeff Gardere and The OCD Project's Dr. David Tolin, and are forever indebted to them for showing the world a few reasons why Dr. Drew's services are no longer needed. Here's what makes them so different.
MOST RECENT POSTS
Catfish: The TV Show: Not Exactly Punk'd
RuPaul's Drag Race: Four Reasons Why the Reunion was Disappointing
What the Royal Wedding Could Learn From Game of Thrones
Reality Shows We'd Rather see Boston Rob and Russell on Than Survivor
Emmys 2010: The Liveblog
The Real Housewives of D.C.: Why Do They Do It?
Project Runway: Tim Gunn Talks Season 8, Says There's More Gunn in Every Episode
The Real Motel Kids of Orange County
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