The Real World: Back to New Orleans, Episode 01
“Boom! Let’s pose!” - Preston
In the months before and during the filming of this season, I made a pretty big stink about MTV coming back to the Crescent City. Not since Real World: Seattle has a season of the show made the host city look like anything more than an hedonistic enabler for a group of bilzer-brained chuckleheads’ desire to drink alcohol in a manner that most people outgrow by the time they graduate high school. While I quickly discovered that New Orleans nightlife has more to offer than over sized beers and cheesy cover bands on Bourbon Street, it would be disingenuous to act like these things do not exist or that some people do not like that type of stuff. But after a noteworthy season of Treme gave America a glimpse of the magnificent splendor that is found on some of the other sides of New Orleans, I will be disappointed if MTV spends 13 weeks chronicling the adventures of shitfaced attention whores as they pass out in a dark corner of Razoo.
Only time will tell how the Big Easy is portrayed during this go’round, but thankfully nothing came of my bigger, more pragmatic fear about a reality TV production crew descending on the city: I assumed it was only a matter of time before these clowns started showing up at my favorite bars and completely ruined my social life. I only crossed paths with the cast on one occasion, and while it was plenty annoying, my world did not come crashing down upon itself. So I guess that is something to build on, right?
