TV Review: Real World Austin 10/12/05

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

My rating:

Yawn! That's what this episode of the Real World: Austin made me do. This has turned into one of the most boring seasons to me. I think the constant focus on the romance between Danny and Melinda has really hurt this show. There are seven people in the house, but many of the episodes have focused on two - Danny and Melinda. Now that the season is almost over, it is kind of hard to put the focus on others of the house.

On tonight's episode of the Real World, we kept up with South by Southwest festival. The house mates are still hard at work filming their assigned documentary. The episode opens with them working on filming one of the bands, Halifax. Lacey has no love at all for the band, but it seems that Wes is finally getting his assignment here a little. A bit of a turnaround from last week's episode. We also see Rachel hanging out with the band a bit. She is having fun and flirting a little with one of the guys in the band.

The members of Halifax even show up at the house. Mike, the lead singer of the group, even shows her some interest. In order to impress the guy, Rachel jumps into the basketball machine, breaking it. Nehemiah chastises her for the act, and we see Rachel once again let him get under her skin. She is in tears in the bathroom, but Melinda, Johanna and Mike try to cheer her up.

The next morning, Rachel and the rest of the blue team - consisting of Danny and Wes - have an alarm clock malfunction and are late to meet up with Hello Good-bye at campgrounds outside the city. They end up not finding them and returning home. The band calls the house, and they set up a meeting for that night and camping the next day.

That night we jump to the red team - consisting of Johanna, Nehemiah and Lacey. We see Johanna and Nehemiah hard at work filming, but what is Lacey doing? Nothing. A good part of this episode actually focuses on Lacey and her manipulative ways. Turns out she is quite the trash talker. Behind your back, she will say one thing, but to you she will say another. Rachel even catches Lacey trash talking her on film. This was probably the highlight of the thirty minute show, but it was nothing all that shocking. We had been tuned in to Lacey's behavior in previous episodes.

The talking behind people's backs isn't the only thing bothering the house mates about Lacey though. What really gets them is how she isn't doing all that much of a job with the festival. Melinda even mentions how she had wanted the position Lacey had been assigned, and how she would have done things differently. Seems Lacey isn't one to do a whole lot of work here. This would bother me too if I was in the house mates position.

The next morning arrives and Rachel drives off once again to the camp grounds. This time with Danny and Melinda in tow. They find the band, and they shoot some good footage of the band singing out in the middle of nowhere. They hang out by the side of a watering hole on the grounds. Danny wants to jump off a cliff into the water with Melinda. At first she wants no part of it due to her fear of heights, but by the end of the episode we see her jump off. Danny placed special importance in this action. It showed that she trusted him.

As I said when this review began, this episode was really boring. There was not much that stood out during the episode. Showing Lacey's behavior is something good, but it seems showing this now is an after thought. This has been shown weeks ago, and instead of showing this behavior throughout the episodes, they mention it then and now. They focused their attentions elsewhere. I had such hopes for this season when it began, but I see it slowly falling apart with each week that passes.

What did you think of this episode of the Real World? Did it cause you to yawn like it did me? Or did you find yourself on the edge of your seat? Let me know what you think.