MTV’s “Engaged and Underage” is like a terrible car accident you can’t look away from.
I watched two hours of it tonight and I’m still trying to figure out how that happened.
Season 2 of the show tracks couples between the ages of 18 and 22 during the weeks before the Big Day.
The first season followed 21-year-old Christian virgins, an interracial couple and a pair that broke up multiple times in the few weeks they were on the show before the wedding.
The first episode I watched tonight followed 19-year-olds Cassie and Emmelie (pictured above) who are trying to deal with wedding stress and earn the acceptance of their families, who are reluctant about their daughters’ relationship and unconventional marriage. The show makes a big deal of the fact that there will be two brides, but the parents’ hesitation is probably also because the girls met just six weeks before the engagement.
It’s clear that Cassie and Emmelie care about each other, but they act, well — like teenagers. They fight with their parents over wedding preparations and swear at them under their breath, and have a shouting match when they get lost going to a dinner where their parents will meet for the first time. Oh yeah — and they met on MySpace.
The second episode didn’t give me much more hope about young love. Erica and Josh (pictured, right), both 21, meet opposition from Erica’s two aunts, who tell her to pursue her modeling career and not get married so young. Erica is hot. Josh is, well — not as hot. He’s a nice, straight-laced guy who’s concerned about her partying and drinking. She is used to a luxury lifestyle. He wears tight pants. They, too, met on MySpace.
It’s great stuff for TV. Here are these people who are very young, but who believe they are in love and are running up against all kinds of opposition to their marriage because of their age. Will they walk down the aisle? Is it really love? Or, are they — as almost everyone tells them — just too young?
My gut reaction was that, yes, these people were too young for marriage. At 19, and even at 21, you haven’t really gone through some of the most important stages of your existence in which you learn more about who you really are, your likes and dislikes, and sort out what you want to do with your life. It’s about maturity. I think that suddenly bringing another person into the mix with whom you will have to make some significant decisions can make that uncertain period of “finding yourself” more difficult. Plus, you may find that you’re not as compatible as you thought you were. And that’s not saying anything about finances.
But then I thought — has society set an appropriate age window for getting married? And then I thought — am I in it??
Marriage ceases to be some far-off, intangible thing when you’re in your mid-twenties and your high school and college classmates start tying the knot. So far, I feel like the people in those marriages are still considered young — some maybe even too young. But in a few years, I’m sure an influx of save the dates will bring on the uneasiness.
I’m ashamed to say that two hours of watching MTV made me think semi-seriously about the topic of marriage — but it did. I had to watch almost 20 minutes of “My Super Sweet Sixteen” to make myself feel better.
I like watching The Hills, but sometimes I find aspects of the MTV reality show difficult to relate to: the Hollywood lifestyle, the high fashion, the excess of blonde…
That’s why I was excited to watch MTV’s newest reality series, The Paper, about the student staff of The Circuit, the award-winning student newspaper of Cypress Bay High School in Weston, Fla. It’s got just the right combination of drama, comedy, touching moments and dorkiness.
The first episode opens with: “Journalists are the most important part of world. They really are,” a surely indisputable truth spoken by the show’s best character, a power-tripping egomaniac named Amanda who also happens to be editor-in-chief. Naturally, just about everyone on her staff wants to do her in. They exclude her from all social activities, gossip about her behind her back and plot at every chance they get to undermine her power.
Fittingly, Amanda has been afforded space to write on The Paper’s web site. To give a taste of her character, here’s what she wrote after watching Episode 2, where she has just won the editor-in-chief position and her staff is still stewing about it:
After watching the episode, I noticed a glaring familiarity between the situation between my peers and me and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama during the most recent democratic debate. I watched the screen and noticed the consuming glimmer of passion that seized our eyes, the exchange of heated glances, and the putrid stink of unrelenting competition.
It’s this air of self-importance — every reporter has it — added to the deliciousness of high school drama that make the show worth watching.
The Paper airs on Mondays at 10:30 p.m. HST. I’d say it’s the best thing to hit MTV in a long time — but I guess I might be a little biased.
(I’m posting this in part to claim this blog on my Technorati Profile. Technorati is an internet search engine for blogs that helps you organize your own blog(s) and keep track of content on your other favorite blogs. The site has indexed 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media.)
So that this post wasn’t worthless to you:
In 1964, cartoonist Al Jaffee created his longest-running and perhaps best-known feature in Mad Magazine: the “Mad Fold-In.” Jaffee’s fold-ins appeared on the back covers of issues of Mad, each posing a question. Readers could then fold the full-page illustration vertically into thirds to reveal a hidden cartoon and answer to the question.
Check out this New York Times interactive feature of Jaffee’s Mad fold-ins from the 1960s to 2008, from Vietnam to Jamie Lynn Spears, and a March 30 article about Jaffee. At 87, he is currently working on a fold-in that is a take-off on the new Indiana Jones movie.
When Jaffee turned 85 in 2006, he was invited on The Colbert Report and presented with a cake by host and one-time presidential contender Stephen Colbert. The cake featured the message: “Al, you have repeatedly shown artistry & care of great credit to your field.”
When the center section of the cake was removed, the message read: “Al, you are old.”
Have you heard of “The Game“? It’s like the Bible for the male and socially awkward.
“The Game,” written by former New York Times reporter and critic Neil Strauss, is an autobiographical work that tells of Strauss’ exploration into the world of pick up artists — men skilled in the art of meeting women, who he collectively calls, “the seduction community.”
Upon its publication in 2005, the book was on the NYT Bestseller List for two months and skyrocketed almost immediately to the #1 seller list on Amazon.com.
In 2004, Strauss wrote an article about his experiences in the NYT. “The Game” also inspired a 2007 reality show on VH1, called “The Pick Up Artist” (contestants/protegees pictured above), as well as a set of pick up artist jargon and methods:
PUA -Pick Up Artist. A man skilled in the art of picking up women.
AFC - Average Frustrated Chump. A guy who has historically had issues with meeting and talking to women. May or may not be a virgin.
The “Neg” - a playful insult, the purpose of which is to “momentarily lower a woman’s self-esteem and to suggest an intriguing disinterest. (’Nice nails. Are they real? No? Oh, they look nice anyway.’)”
Peacocking - standing out in a room, often by donning louder clothing. May or may not include fuzzy hats, platform boots and black nail polish.
What gives? Do men suddenly need a new vocabulary, a book, a TV show and kohl eyeliner to get women to talk to them? Whatever happened to “Hi. What’s your name?”
At first, as a female, after doing some research about the “seduction community,” it was hard not to feel partially amused, partially enraged. Enraged, because — let’s face it — the strategies used by men described in “The Game” and on “The Pick Up Artist” objectify women. Girls in social situations, just waiting to be picked up by men skilled at the trade, might as well be bottlecaps, or some other shiny object to be collected. There is also a heavy emphasis on how to be not only a Pick Up Artist, but a seduction artist, which suggests that men aren’t exactly embarking on the experiment to find a perfect mate, but to see how many women they can sleep with.
But the amusement came from the realization that, hey, men do kind of have it rough when it comes to interacting with the opposite sex. Of course most females nowadays like to think of ourselves as The Independent Woman, but our society still relies on men to make the first move. And part of the reason why I watched the characters on VH1’s “The Pick Up Artist” with amusement and even a twang of sympathy is because I see my own guy friends in all their hesitance and adorable awkwardness trying to talk to beautiful, confident and successful women in social situations. And I gotta tell you, I feel for them.
And yeah — boy, do I feel lucky to be female.
For some men of course, “The Game” will always be about impressing your friends and seeing how many women you can sleep with. On the other hand, I suspect (I hope, at least) that there are men out there who employ the techniques because they want to meet their perfect match, who still see”The Game” as about “meeting” and “getting to know,” and not “scoring.” Call me romantic. Or at least just female.
I can say this for certain: I’d hate to see any of my sweet, slightly-awkward guy pals turn into Master PUA’s. Heck, they might start stealing my eyeliner.
NBC debuted its new series “Quarterlife” last night.
The series, dreamed up by “My So-Called Life” and “thirtysomething” creators Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, follows the life of twenty somethings dealing with various twenty-something-related issues: relationships, break-ups, roommates, rent, work, office politics … posting information about your friends on the Internet…
The story focuses on quarter lifer Dylan Krieger, played by Bitsie Tulloch, 27, who works as an associate editor at a magazine and keeps a video blog.
The interesting thing about the show is that it started as an online video series and social networking site and was featured on MySpace. It was actually first rejected as a TV show by ABC, produced for the Internet and then purchased by NBC. The 32 online segments were much shorter — only about eight minutes long, as internet videos made for people with short attention spans probably should be.
I was working and didn’t get to watch last night, but caught a web clip here. You can watch the full episodes online here.
Critics gave the debut hour-long TV episode so-so reviews.
It seemed almost like there was TOO much drama and self-introspection. I appreciated the show’s effort to focus on issues affecting twenty somethings, but on an average day, I’m not sure if my friends and I are ever that bothered or pensive. Plus, all the characters look like they came straight out of a 90s Calvin Klein ad.
C’mon - being in your 20s isn’t THAT much of a struggle!
Anyway, I’m not giving up on the show. I’ll probably tune in next week.
Although the show’s debut was on a Tuesday, “Quarterlife” will appear on NBC on Sundays at 9 p.m. with episodes available online afterwards.
MTV’s “Engaged and Underage” is like a terrible car accident you can’t look away from.
The second episode didn’t give me much more hope about young love. Erica and Josh (pictured, right), both 21, meet opposition from Erica’s two aunts, who tell her to pursue her modeling career and not get married so young. Erica is hot. Josh is, well — not as hot. He’s a nice, straight-laced guy who’s concerned about her partying and drinking. She is used to a luxury lifestyle. He wears tight pants. They, too, met on MySpace.
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