My latest guilty pleasure is the new MTV series Jersey Shore. Less than a minute into the first episode a self proclaimed "Guido," who, by the way owns his own tanning bed, is packing for his summer at "The Shore" when he looks into the camera and says "I'm not going anywhere without my gel," then grabs two armfuls of gel tubes and stuffs them into his bag. It was clear right then: this is totally my show. Jersey Shore is causing lots of controversy - and shedding advertisers - because of the complaints of many Italian American organizations protesting the sterotypical Italian cast. (It didn't help at all when another controversy flared up over a clip of one of the female cast members being punched in the face by a male bar patron aired in a teaser for future episodes. The assualt, entirely caught on camera, quickly became a popular viral video and MTV just as quickly went into damage protection and have subsequently edited the punch out of the episode - which hasn't even aired yet - and have announced they will run an anti-violence PSA following the show.) Ah yes, the show. Jersey Shore focuses on proud "Guidos & Guidettes" - think Growing Up Gotti if it was scripted as a comedy - with casting so incredibly good that it almost feels like it's an eloborate prank because the people living in the beach house are so hilariously over-the-top that they are walking talking parodies of themselves. The above YouTube video not only gives you a good idea of what the cast is like, it also does a pretty decent job of summarizing the two-hour series premiere.
No comments:
Post a Comment