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Real World: Las Vegas (Complete Season), The
Paramount // Unrated // May 20, 2003
List Price: $49.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
I came to a realization before sitting down to write this review. I've realized that "Seinfeld" is the greatest reality show that ever was. Despite the occasional silly and unrealistic plot, the show was largely about the "nothings" of everyday life. You went to work today. What happened on the way to work? The genius of Seinfeld and co-creator Larry David was to take those everyday occurances and build comedy around them that was still grounded in familiar reality.
The original season of "The Real World" was a compelling experiment - throw seven strangers in a house together, see what happens. That season, there were debates about issues and the occasional flirtation. But, those people also had ambitions (wanted to be musicians, artists, writers, whatever) and occasionally, like the rest of us, just sat around. This was carried on through at least the first handful of seasons, as the "Real World" skipped from San Francisco to London and elsewhere. Somewhere in the past few years, the show has changed - largely moving away from the "revolutionary" (in 1992) experiment of moving people into a house and heading into soap opera territory. Not all of the people looked like TV stars.
Admittedly, this does provide some entertaining moments, but people in the real world have other things to worry about other than constantly hooking up. In "Vegas", we find in the first episode that all of the cast members have jumped into the hot tub together nude. Unfortunately, life for most people doesn't resemble Cinemax. There's also quite a bit of drinking this season, which isn't exactly good to encourage. The season's tag line on the ads could be, "I didn't think I was that intoxicated."
"World" creators Jonathan Murray and Mary-Ellis Bunim tried to take the style and subject to theaters with the reality film "The Real Cancun", which didn't make half its $8m budget back. Despite the lack of depth that becomes more and more evident with "The Real World", people still tune in because it shows a stretch of time, where friendships and relationships happen and people can change from it all. Despite the fact that the show's creators edit together what they think'll get ratings more and more with each passing season, these people still display emotions, concerns and have the occasional issue that doesn't have to do with who's gossiping about who and why.
And what happened to the houses? Previous cast houses such as the New York and Boston places were admittedly very nice, but not ridiculous - the Vegas cast is staying in nothing less than a 28th floor penthouse in a casino. Thus sets the stage for much hooking up and the occasional drama. Gone is the graininess and documentary-style filming in favor of slick, high-quality video and MTV-style edits. I suppose there's still positives for the show - it serves as mindless, if inconsistent entertainment; nobody gets voted off, nobody really gets hurt (the only way these people would get hurt is if they fell out of bed) and there's the occasional field trip. Those are always amusing.
Let me say something: there's room for hooking up in a reality show like this. When you throw several people in a house, chances are, some relationships are going to occur. However, making "Real World" about something more would boost it back above the ranks of all the other reality shows out there.
All 28 episodes of the "Las Vegas" season are presented here, on 4 discs.
The DVD
VIDEO: All 28 episodes of "Real World: Las Vegas" are presented in 1.33:1 full-frame. The picture quality is generally quite good, especially considering the show seems to have been shot with video and not film. Sharpness and detail are usually pretty consistent - the picture looks crisp and clear, aside from a few dimly-lit scenes here and there. Only a few minor compression artifacts are seen here and there, only briefly noticable and only in some of the darker moments. No edge enhancement or other issues were noticed. Colors, while not reproduced entirely cleanly, looked quite nice - it's Vegas, so it's certainly colorful.
SOUND: The 2.0 soundtracks are generally nice, if nothing outstanding. Dialogue-driven for the most part, the audio does open up a tad for ambience in outdoor scenes and the occasional bit of score on the track, although I wish they'd drop music entirely from this show. Dialogue remains crisp and clear throughout, as do the songs.
EXTRAS: Surprisingly, there's really not that much included here. A few minutes of bonus footage, audition tapes and house tour footage can be found on disc four. Episode summaries are also included throughout. Co-creator Jonathan Murray provided a wonderful audio interview on the set for the complete first season, so it would have been nice to have something similar here. If cast or crew here wouldn't have provided a track, it would have been fun for various castmates from the prior seasons to comment on what goes on here (former cast member Puck provided a very funny commentary for the "Real World You Never Saw: Hawaii" DVD). These supplements are okay, but given the documentary/reality-style of the show, it seems like there's got to be more footage/supplements possible.
Final Thoughts: Fans should certainly seek out the set. Although the supplemental section could use more - some additional additional footage would have been nice, along with possibly cast or crew commentaries. Audio/video quality is nice, though and the price is reasonable, as well.
I came to a realization before sitting down to write this review. I've realized that "Seinfeld" is the greatest reality show that ever was. Despite the occasional silly and unrealistic plot, the show was largely about the "nothings" of everyday life. You went to work today. What happened on the way to work? The genius of Seinfeld and co-creator Larry David was to take those everyday occurances and build comedy around them that was still grounded in familiar reality.
The original season of "The Real World" was a compelling experiment - throw seven strangers in a house together, see what happens. That season, there were debates about issues and the occasional flirtation. But, those people also had ambitions (wanted to be musicians, artists, writers, whatever) and occasionally, like the rest of us, just sat around. This was carried on through at least the first handful of seasons, as the "Real World" skipped from San Francisco to London and elsewhere. Somewhere in the past few years, the show has changed - largely moving away from the "revolutionary" (in 1992) experiment of moving people into a house and heading into soap opera territory. Not all of the people looked like TV stars.
Admittedly, this does provide some entertaining moments, but people in the real world have other things to worry about other than constantly hooking up. In "Vegas", we find in the first episode that all of the cast members have jumped into the hot tub together nude. Unfortunately, life for most people doesn't resemble Cinemax. There's also quite a bit of drinking this season, which isn't exactly good to encourage. The season's tag line on the ads could be, "I didn't think I was that intoxicated."
"World" creators Jonathan Murray and Mary-Ellis Bunim tried to take the style and subject to theaters with the reality film "The Real Cancun", which didn't make half its $8m budget back. Despite the lack of depth that becomes more and more evident with "The Real World", people still tune in because it shows a stretch of time, where friendships and relationships happen and people can change from it all. Despite the fact that the show's creators edit together what they think'll get ratings more and more with each passing season, these people still display emotions, concerns and have the occasional issue that doesn't have to do with who's gossiping about who and why.
And what happened to the houses? Previous cast houses such as the New York and Boston places were admittedly very nice, but not ridiculous - the Vegas cast is staying in nothing less than a 28th floor penthouse in a casino. Thus sets the stage for much hooking up and the occasional drama. Gone is the graininess and documentary-style filming in favor of slick, high-quality video and MTV-style edits. I suppose there's still positives for the show - it serves as mindless, if inconsistent entertainment; nobody gets voted off, nobody really gets hurt (the only way these people would get hurt is if they fell out of bed) and there's the occasional field trip. Those are always amusing.
Let me say something: there's room for hooking up in a reality show like this. When you throw several people in a house, chances are, some relationships are going to occur. However, making "Real World" about something more would boost it back above the ranks of all the other reality shows out there.
All 28 episodes of the "Las Vegas" season are presented here, on 4 discs.
The DVD
VIDEO: All 28 episodes of "Real World: Las Vegas" are presented in 1.33:1 full-frame. The picture quality is generally quite good, especially considering the show seems to have been shot with video and not film. Sharpness and detail are usually pretty consistent - the picture looks crisp and clear, aside from a few dimly-lit scenes here and there. Only a few minor compression artifacts are seen here and there, only briefly noticable and only in some of the darker moments. No edge enhancement or other issues were noticed. Colors, while not reproduced entirely cleanly, looked quite nice - it's Vegas, so it's certainly colorful.
SOUND: The 2.0 soundtracks are generally nice, if nothing outstanding. Dialogue-driven for the most part, the audio does open up a tad for ambience in outdoor scenes and the occasional bit of score on the track, although I wish they'd drop music entirely from this show. Dialogue remains crisp and clear throughout, as do the songs.
EXTRAS: Surprisingly, there's really not that much included here. A few minutes of bonus footage, audition tapes and house tour footage can be found on disc four. Episode summaries are also included throughout. Co-creator Jonathan Murray provided a wonderful audio interview on the set for the complete first season, so it would have been nice to have something similar here. If cast or crew here wouldn't have provided a track, it would have been fun for various castmates from the prior seasons to comment on what goes on here (former cast member Puck provided a very funny commentary for the "Real World You Never Saw: Hawaii" DVD). These supplements are okay, but given the documentary/reality-style of the show, it seems like there's got to be more footage/supplements possible.
Final Thoughts: Fans should certainly seek out the set. Although the supplemental section could use more - some additional additional footage would have been nice, along with possibly cast or crew commentaries. Audio/video quality is nice, though and the price is reasonable, as well.
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