MTV Mix – Volume 16

Features, Shows

We are back to having shows on every day of the week. That would be Monday-Thursday. We get two debuts this week along with a season finale. That includes the RETURN of the NEW Real World/Road Rules Challenge! Another “must-see” MIX!!

SHOW REVIEWS

MONDAY

We are back in business! We have a show to review now. It’s the return of Made on MTV. I’m glad they put this back in the “10 Spot” instead of at 3:30 in the afternoon like they did earlier this year. If you don’t know, Made is about ordinary kids with extraordinary abilities. Wait, wrong show! Sorry, Made is about ordinary kids who want to be something they aren’t. For example, nerds want to be “ladies men”. Goth chicks want to be “prom queens”. Jocks want to be ballet dancers. Preppy girls want to become skateboarders or BMX riders. That sort of thing. Basically the show breaks down stereotypes, so to speak. MTV gives each kid a coach, who is an “expert” in the thing they are trying to become. Sometimes they succeed, while other times they fail. But either way, they learn something along the way. Isn’t that want life is all about?

The first episode of this season is about Morgan, a girl who has strict parents. She has to be in bed by 10 p.m. at the latest. She can only go out with her boyfriend, Sam, one night a week. Morgan loves Sam and Sam loves Morgan. They are in a group at school called the “Emo Kids”. That means they are emotional and anti-social. She lives the “alternative” lifestyle. You know, wearing black with skulls and such. She doesn’t want to be a rebel at all, though. She just wants to be herself and gain self-confidence. She wants to be accepted by others. There is only way to do that and that’s why Morgan wants to be made into a cheerleader at her high school!

Morgan has the support of one person at school and that’s her friend, E.B. She used to run around in the “Emo Group” as well, until she became a preppy cheerleader. They are still friends, though. Morgan’s friends and boyfriend don’t want her to be a cheerleader at all. Her parents are shocked about this change. They support her as long as her grades don’t slip, though.

Time to meet her coach! His name is Julian and he is the captain of the Miami, Ohio University cheerleading squad. He’s a little peppy! He sits down and talks to Morgan and tells her to practice this cheer. Morgan calls in E.B. to help and when Julian comes back to see how she is doing, it doesn’t go well. She needs a lot of work as you might expect.

Over the next 40 days, Morgan gets sent through hell at the gym to learn all kinds of gymnastics to be a cheerleader. During all of this, her parents force Morgan to stop seeing Sam. They think she spends too much time with him or talking to him, which is crazy since they have so many rules on that anyways. Morgan eventually makes all kinds of “cheery” friends and she seems to fit right in.

After all of the hard work and training, the day finally comes. It’s try-out time. Julian looks on and says she nailed everything. She did a great job. And, surprise, Morgan makes the JV Cheerleading team. That’s like the “B Team”, but at least she made a team! Count this as a successful transformation.

TUESDAY

True Life: I Have Tourette’s Syndrome

This next episode is about 3 young people who have Tourette’s syndrome. This syndrome prevents sufferers from doing basic daily activities and it’s uncureable. People with this often twitch without any control and sometimes say things beyond their control. We are presented with three different kinds of people with this disorder.

Lou is 20 and he lives in New Jersey with his parents. He got the syndrome when he was 7. He’s a comedian, though, and he is able to laugh about his disorder and this allows him to deal with it. He can’t drive and depends on his parents for a lot. He did take medication for his Tourette’s, but it made him fat so he stopped to be healthier. He has never really dated either because of his disorder. Lou eventually tries to move out of his parent’s house. But it’s too much for him and he has to move back. He is now considering getting back on medication.

Alyssa is 16 and she lives in California. Her Tourette’s is a lot worse than Lou’s. She got it when she was 3. She lives with her grandparents. She has to have help from her grandparents to do a lot of things and she is in constant pain from the disorder. She has more vocal outburts and gets anger at friends and family for no reason. She eventually got brain surgery to install electrodes in her brain. After two months, nothing changed. The doctors keep saying that it’s a slow process and change can come gradually.

Jeremy is 24 and he lives in California. He is a professional freestyle motorcross rider. He has a mild case of Tourette’s as he only twitches his head mostly. He also has a hott wife and a 5-year-old daughter. So he pretty much leads a normal life, except for his twitches. He Tourette’s doesn’t interfer with his motorcycle riding, though, which surprised me. He controls it for the most part. He got it when he was 5. He is also able to drive. Near the end of this show, Jeremy gets injured on a trick and breaks his legs. Not because of his Tourette’s, though. He is expected to make a full recovery eventually.

The main lesson to learn here is that all of the friends of the above people were all supportive of them. They are different, but they are still people. They like them for who they are on the inside and not how they act on the outside.

WEDNESDAY

Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County

We have a couple of things going on in this episode and it all revolves around dates. Tessa is going on a first date with a guy name Derek. But first she talks to Chase about it and Chase approves of Derek. Tessa is glad of that. Chase is too, since some of the guys Tessa has gone out with have been total losers. Chase is the king of making up new words I found out. He tells Tessa to be “mello” on her date tonight. And really I don’t know how he can like Tessa going out with other guys. Yes, they are “friends”, but he must a bigger man than me to sit and discuss it with her. We’ll see, I suppose.

Jessica is back from Europe and she is upset over Cameron’s actions while she was gone. You know, he hooked up with Kyndra and is lying to her about it. Cameron and Jessica set up a date later as well. This will probably be their last date as Jessica has some words to say to Cameron. Cameron even tells his friend Nick that he is pretty much done with Jessica, so we can see it coming.

Tessa gets ready at Raquel’s house and here comes Derek. They go to a sushi restaurant. Derek is Cameron’s friend. He is also friends with Kyndra and Cami. We get an interesting conversation of why Tessa doesn’t hang out with them anymore. Basically, Tessa got sick and was in the hospital. She was there 3 weeks and Kyndra and Cami just stopped calling her, which is odd but these are teenage girls so it probably makes sense in their minds.

Meanwhile, Cameron and Jessica chat on their date. Jessica wonders if Cameron is going to tell her about Kyndra. He doesn’t know what she is talking about and they spend most of their dinner arguing about nothing at all! Cameron basically tells her to start seeing other people as well.

Time for the aftermath of the dates. Tessa tells Raquel that she likes Derek. They even hung out at his house after dinner. Meanwhile, Kyndra and Cami talk smack about that. They can’t believe Derek is hanging out with Tessa and all of that. They must be jealous. As for Cameron and Jessica, they break up! They are “donzo”!

Now Derek, Cameron, and Nick all get together and chat about their women. Cameron keeps telling them that he was “never going out with” Jessica. Derek laughs at that. Cameron says he likes spending time with her, but he doesn’t have as strong of feelings for her as she does for him. Derek is not sure about Tessa being his “girlfriend”, but he likes her. Time for Raquel and Tessa to discuss this now as well. They say that Kyndra and Cami “get pleasure from seeing other people fall”.

Time for Derek’s BBQ and Kyndra and Cami talk smack about Tessa BEFORE Tessa arrives. As soon as Tessa gets there, they decide to leave. Kyndra and Cami only left so they can talk about Tessa behind her back. Cameron and the rest of the guys talk about this as well and call them “hoodlums”. Oh, Raquel finally arrives and she slips in our “random” for this episode. Of course, this one makes no sense. She was talking about the “mean girls” coming, eating, and then leaving. That’s not that “random” at all in my opinion, for them at least. Raquel basically tells Tessa to not worry about what they have to say about her and Derek. I finally figured out who Raquel reminds me of, and I actually like this person who reminds me of Raquel, which is odd since I don’t like Raquel that much. Just something extra to chew on! You have to love breakups, though. More to come, I’m sure.

Two-a-Days

It’s time for the State Finals baby! It’s all or nothing! This is also coming off of last episode, where Alex broke up with Kristin over the phone. So let the drama begin! We pick right up with Alex, of course. He likes Kristin as a friend, but not as a girlfriend anymore. The next day Alex tries to talk to Kristin about the breakup, but she doesn’t want to talk to him. Apparently everyone is saying that Alex cheated on her with Keagan and other girls, which Alex says is not true. But Kristin seems to believe it so she sits as far away from him as she can get. Max thinks it is weird that they broke up anyways.

But we have more important things to think about right now. Hoover plays Daphne for the championship. These two schools have been consistently the best two schools in the state and this year is no expection. Now we get some crying from the cheerleading coach and cheerleaders, which is not needed. This is the final game to cheer for the seniors. “Most of ya’ll will never cheer again!” You have to insert a HEAVY Southern accent there from the cheerleading coach and it’s heavy even for me, a person who lives in the South.

Now we get an interesting moment where Kristin has to deliver food to Alex, as she has done all year. It’s a cheerleader/football player thing. This time, though, she has Goose in the backseat with her. Kristin wants to come inside for some reason. To say hi to Cory, another football player who is hanging out at Alex’s house. Kristin is all mean to Alex. She even gives him a “high-five”, because they are “friends” now. HAHAHA. Alex calls Goose “one of the girls” as he is the “rebound guy” for Kristin.

Meanwhile, Keagan talks to her friends about her and Alex. Alex doesn’t want to talk to Keagan anymore. He doesn’t think it would be a good idea. Keagan informs us that Alex is “hooking up” with a freshman cheerleader named Danielle. Yes, Alex, the senior and a freshman girl. Wow! Keagan feels bad for Danielle as she says Alex HAS cheated on Kristin many times before. They think Alex has to go for the young girls, because they still don’t know about him.

Final preparations are made for the big game. This will be their fourth championship in a row, if they win. Max says it means more to win a championship as a senior than a junior, since that is their last game and they can leave on a winning note. Coach Propst tells them to play perfect and be dominant from start to finish!

Hoover vs. Daphne for the State Championship is underway! And Hoover is dominant to start the game. Repete gets a MONSTER sack on the quarterback to start the game and they end up blocking their punt and recovering it in the endzone to take the early 7-0 lead! Hoover forces a fumble the next series and Max recovers. Ross then runs it in for another touchdown. 14-0. Holy cow! Another blocked punt by Max and they recover the ball in the endzone again. It’s 21-0. Hoover is not stopping. They intercept the next ball and then Ross throws another touchdown to lead 28-0 at Halftime! They don’t stop in the second half. They beak out to a 42-0 lead and they keep going. In the 4th quarter, they lead 49-14. Another interception and this game is about done. The final score is 56-14 for Hoover! They win another state title! Hugs and new T-shirts for everyone! They just created a “Dynasty”. Until next season!

THURSDAY

Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Duel

The new challenge is here. The usual suspects plus some “Key West” people along with Evan, Eric, Kenny, Diem, and Casey from the Fresh Meat Challenge are all here. They all run to see their beautiful house and it’s the same old thing you expect. Here are the people in this season’s challenge, if you didn’t read my column last week:

WOMEN

Beth Stolarczyk – Real World 2: Los Angeles
Aneesa Ferreira – Real World 11: Chicago
Robin Hibbard – Real World 14: San Diego
Tina Barta – Road Rules 12: South Pacific
Kina Dean – Road Rules 13: Xtreme
Jodi Weatherton- Road Rules 13: Xtreme
Paula Meronek – Real World 17: Key West
Svetlana Shusterman – Real World 17: Key West
Casey Cool – RW/RR Challenge: Fresh Meat
Diem Brown – RW/RR Challenge: Fresh Meat

MEN

Chris “CT” Tamburello – Real World 13: Paris
Brad Fiorenza – Real World 14: San Diego
Nehemiah Clark – Real World 16: Austin
Wes Bergmann – Real World 16: Austin
Derrick Kosinski – Road Rules 13: Xtreme
Tyler Duckworth – Real World 17: Key West
John Devenanzio – Real World 17: Key West
Kenny Santucci – RW/RW Challenge: Fresh Meat
Evan – RW/RW Challenge: Fresh Meat
Eric – RW/RW Challenge: Fresh Meat

Time for the rules of this whole challenge and the twist. There are no teams as I said. It’s every man or woman for himself. They will alternate between the women and men and their “Duel days”. “The Duel” is how they will be eliminated. In order to get there, here is where things get interesting. The top man or woman will be safe from elimination that week, of course. But whoever is top player will then pick a member of the opposite sex to stick around. That person will pick a member of the opposite sex to stay and they keep doing this until one member of the same sex as the top player is left. That person goes into “The Duel” and then that person picks someone of the same sex to compete against them. I just confused you, I know, so here it goes again. If it’s a “Male Duel Day”, whoever is the best man that day will pick a female. That female will pick a man to stay and then that man will pick a female, who will pick another man to stay until one man is left. The man not picked to stay will pick another man, except the top man that week, to compete against them. Loser goes home. That should help a little. There will be 4 finalists at the end, and two winners, which is one man and one woman. They each win $150,000!

We get started with the first challenge. It was called “Reachin’ Out”. There was a man’s heat and a woman’s heat. It’s a “Male Duel Day”. All of the women are locked together and they have to pull against each other to grab a key first before anyone else does. The thing is that they have to work together somewhat to get closer to the key. Beth is being retarded and being by herself, which screws up everything. It ends up with Robin getting the key first and the prize of flying anywhere she wants. The men went next. And it’s more of the same. Eric eventually wins.

Time to pick now! No time to think about this or talk about it. Eric picks Robin first. Robin picks Brad. Brad has Jodi. Jodi gets Derrick. Derrick goes with Kina. Kina picks CT. CT goes with Aneesa, etc. Old friends pick old friends first as you might expect. It ends up being “Key West” and “Fresh Meat” at the end. Tina picks Nehemiah at this point, which pisses Kenny off! We are down to five left. It’s Casey and the “Key Westers” of Svetlana, Paula, John, and Tyler. Kenny makes Svetlana choose who goes into “The Duel”, which Svetlana doesn’t like at all. She picks John, which puts Tyler into “The Duel”. That’s funny since earlier he was the ONLY one we saw on camera who said he would be picked first and be safe. So this looks to be predictable like last challenge. Tyler ends up picking John to surprise everyone! That’s pretty retarded really. But Tyler does make some sense since he knows they are targets anyways.

TJ brings out a deck of cards and each card represents a different elimination game. Tyler picks “I Can”. There are piles of watermelons everywhere. Basically, it’s like “I can lift this many more watermelons than you”. If the opposite person thinks they can life more, they will say it until one person tells the other to prove it. If that person lifts the watermelons, they win and stay. If they can’t, they lose and go home! Tyler says it can lift 31 watermelons, which John thinks is too much for him. He would be wrong. Tyler lifts them and holds them there for 5 seconds. John is going home!

Time for the next challenge and it’s a “Female Duel Day” this time! This one is called “Ring Toss”. EVeryone gets into a mud pit, which is waist deep. There is a male and female heat. Each person will grab a ring and they will try to toss their rings onto their OPPONENT’S stick. The last person’s stick to not be full of rings is the winner. The plan is to go after Wes and Tyler first since they are the best swimmers. It works with Wes as he is out first. But they don’t get Tyler. They confuse his stick with Nehemiah or something. It does work in the end, though, as Kenny wins this challenge barely beating Tyler.

Girls go next and the big thing here is that Diem has just finished with her cancer therapy and that means Diem lost all of her hair. It’s a big thing for her to take off her wig and show her head to everyone. In the end, Diem defeats Kina to win this challenge. But her inspirational victory quickly gets overshadowed by Beth and Tina arguing. You know what happens next. Two loud-mouthed women yell at each other and Tina punches Beth. Yay! Actually, that was pretty weak. I don’t think she is going home because of that. We will have to see next episode, though. We are done for now.

And that ends the 16th volume of the “MTV Mix”! If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or feedback of any kind..send them my way!!

I’ll see you next week when we mix things up a bit!

Sir Linksalot: Reality Television

I'm not embarrassed to say that my favorite television show of all-time is The O.C. I live by the motto "you can't fight fate!" More importantly, I watch WAY too much television, but I do so for the benefit of everyone reading this now. So to my mom and my wife, I say thanks for reading! To everyone else that might stumble across this, remember TiVo should be your best friend!