Available at Amazon.com
Running Time: 266 minutes
Unrated
DVD Release date: July 10, 2007
The MTV docu-series My Super Sweet 16 is pretty much mini-Bridezillas. Comparatively, the chicks are younger and the stories are truncated. The party budgets, on the other hand, seem to be significantly larger. All in all, if you enjoy Bridezillas, and can stand the assault on the senses that is the MTV style of film-making, this show will fall firmly into the “guilty pleasure” selection.
Here is how the typical episode plays out:
1. The teenager begins party planning for their (sweet 16/quince/18th birthday). This party will be remembered for (a month/all year/ forever).
2. She says something along the lines of “Money means nothing to me” or “There is no budget.” Usually a quarter million is spent.
3. With a small group of friends, she decides the guest list. It is going to be a very exclusive party of 100-500 people. They also set up a VIP section for their 50 closest friends.
4. The girl and her friends hand out the invitations in the silliest possible way. Strangers and “losers” beg for invitations which the power-mad girls happily deny.
5. The girl flies on a private jet to (Vegas/Paris/New York) to find the perfect dress. She doesn’t get one to spite her (crazy/drunkard/attention whore) mom.
6. The girl has a photo shoot so that giant pictures of herself can be hung up at her party.
7. The girl declares “If I don’t get a (Rangerover/BMW/other new expensive car) for my party, I’m never talking to my dad again!”
8. Strippers and or exotic dancers are hired.
9. The girl is uncertain about one aspect of the party until she sees how jealous a friend is. After that, everything is better.
10. A friend does something that knocks her off the VIP list. She cries.
11. The party happens with maximum drama for minimal problems.
12. The party features multiple shots of teenagers vertically dry-humping, and a dancing midget.
13. A party-goer describes the party with some positive variation of the word “sick.”
14. Power-tripping, the girl sics security on party crashers and delights in seeing her enemies kicked out of her party.
15. The girl is too busy worrying about minutiae and changing her outfit to actually enjoy her own party.
16. The girl is invited to go outside and receive her gift: a car she usually isn’t capable of driving. Upon receiving expensive gift, the girl declares her party as the greatest thing ever.
17. I pity the man that marries one of these girls.
At it’s worst, the series is fairly formulaic and suffers from MTV’s short attention span editing. It also falls victim to the incontrovertible fact that teenagers are the least interesting people on Earth. Penn Jillette once hypothesized that the personality of the teenage girl is her natural defense against sexual predators.
At it’s best, the episodes are Goethe-like. The Faustian teen gets her heart’s desire at the expense of her soul, and is thus incapable of enjoying that which she previously wanted.
It is Schadenfreude at its best!
The DVD
Audio and Visual
Looks, sounds and runs fine.
The Extras
There are two bonus episodes of My Super Sweet 16 from season 3, a preview of some MTV stuff including season 5 of this show, and a two minute long sneak peak of My Super Sweet 16: The Movie
