The First Season

MTV's Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County was a successful venture in reality television. The series focused on a group of absurdly wealthy high school kids and all of the drama that surrounded their lives. The series was quite a hit. In the show's first season, a great deal of the drama focused on one of the cast members, Lauren Conrad. In the show's second season, her role was much smaller as she had graduated high school and moved on to bigger and better things. Lauren's adventures are continued in this spin-off series The Hills.

Set in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, CA, Lauren and her good friend Heidi Montag leave Laguna to experience life in the fullest. They go with the intent to attend school at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising. Lauren also has an interview lined up with Teen Vogue for a prestigious internship that she (surprise, surprise) gets. Joining Lauren and Heidi, are a few new faces to the world of Laguna Beach: Audrina Patridge is the beautiful next door neighbor who wants to be an actress, Whitney Port is Lauren's newest best friend and fellow intern at Teen Vogue, Jordan Eubanks is Heidi's boyfriend, and Brian Drolet is Jordan's best friend. Also joining the cast is a familiar face, Jason Wahler. The heart breaker from Laguna Beach's second season comes to L.A. and rekindles the romance with Lauren. Together, they join Lauren and Heidi on a variety of life adventures, filled to the brink with over-the-top drama.

For the first season of The Hills, there are ten half-hour episodes. The first episode introduces the new cast and sets up the general premise, which is two beautiful, rich young girls on their own. They are forced to go through the "pains" of life and learn what it means to have responsibilities. They learn what it means to attend college, have a job, maintain relationships, and still have fun. This is pretty much the entire scope of the first season. For instance, Heidi turns out to be a bundle of drama as she has no idea what it means to be responsible. Early in the show, she quits school when offered a job she thinks is her dream. But she finds out that she has to work, it is tough for her to deal with. Similarly, Lauren tries to juggle her relationship with Jason, her internship, and school. She finds it tough to manage all three.

In the end, The Hills follows a similar tone that was set in Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County. However, unlike its parent series, The Hills does focus slightly more on the "real world" and learning responsibility, as well as the "drama" that follows when several extremely rich girls give it a shot. As an overall series, The Hills works and it has enough solid content that makes it perfect for young audiences.

Episode Guide

1. New City, New Drama: 19-year-old Lauren has the opportunity of a lifetime: to move to L.A. with her best friend, Heidi, so they both can attend The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising. Lauren also has an opportunity to interview for a killer internship at Teen Vogue. It all seems like a Fashionista's dream when Lauren gets the internship, they are both admitted to FIDM and one of Lauren's first assignments is to work a high-profile celebrity party. The only problem is that Heidi's immaturity makes Lauren think this move may have been a big mistake.
2. A Change of Plans: Lauren gets scolded by her boss for Heidi's poor judgment at the Teen Vogue party, which she crashed and brought three friends, putting Lauren's fragile position in jeopardy. Heidi is already bored with everything and ditching classes after her first day of school. When she meets someone who offers her a chance at her dream job, she starts to consider ditching school all together. Heidi gets the job and her fashion school days are suddenly a memory.
3. An Unexpected Call: Lauren's seemingly glamorous position at Teen Vogue puts her on a plane to New York City to Deliver a dress for Fashion Week. Heidi is going nowhere fast in L.A. when she realizes that he dream job requires that she actually has to work. Lauren's exciting trip to New York is cut terribly short.
4. Lauren and Jason, Take Two: After her anti-climatic trip to New York City, Lauren comes home to an unexpected phone call that adds to her confusion about balancing school and her chaotic job. Heidi further laments about the monotony of licking envelopes and getting the boss' lunch. Lauren accepts a date with her old boyfriend, Jason, who has just unexpectedly moved to L.A. Cautiously, Lauren goes to dinner with Jason, hopeful and scared that sparks may fly...
5. Jason's Birthday: Lauren gets her first assignment to work a photo shoot...only problem is that it is on Jason's birthday. Priorities are blurred as Lauren tries to please Jason and Meet the needs of her demanding job at Teen Vogue. After Lauren purchases an expensive birthday gift for Jason and arranges a large dinner celebration, Jason shocks Lauren with the thanks that she gets.

6. Boyfriends & Work Don't Mix: Heidi finally gets the chance that she was waiting for at her job... problem is, it falls on the night of her and Jordan's 6-month anniversary. Trying to serve the demands of her job and her boyfriend, she realizes that boyfriends and work just don't mix. Lauren is stressing out at her first major fashion show assignment, but she finally gets the recognition that she was hoping for...
7. Somebody Always Has To Cry: Lauren sees that Jason has serious issues, and she doesn't know what to do about them. Lauren and Heidi are busy preparing for their first "real" New Year's Eve celebration and the chance to experience the ultimate New Year's midnight kiss. The hours leading up to midnight make the possibility of the midnight kiss doubtful.
8. You Can't Just Be With Me?: The Hills are alive with Hollywood glamour when Lauren is put in charge of a casting for a male bathing suit calendar and Heidi is assigned to work an all-star Grammy Party. Lauren's all-male casting doesn't go over well with Jason, and despite the impressively romantic attempt that he made for her birthday, the sparks that they both expected are drowned out by silence.
9. Love Is Not a Maybe Thing: Heidi is coming to her own conclusions about what she really wants. Audriana, Heidi, Brian, Jordan, Jason and Lauren are start to realize that there is so much more to "being in love" than just saying it. Everyone is confused...except for Heidi, who takes a surprisingly new lease on life.
10. Timing Is Everything: Lauren and Jason have decided to take a big step and "do their own thing." Lauren's perseverance at work finally lands her a mind-boggling opportunity at Teen Vogue that could leave Jason alone at the beach.

The DVD

Video:
The video is given in anamorphic widescreen color with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. The picture quality is pretty good. There are minimal distortions in the video, with some traces of edge enhancement. Colors look good, especially brighter ones.

Audio:
The audio track included is in English Dolby digital stereo sound. The audio track is dialogue driven, but is supplemented with plenty of music from various musical artists. The music came off rich. For the dialogue, I noticed that the sound levels would sometimes jump around. But it did not occur often enough to be a real problem. However, some portions include subtitles. These are not optional.

Extras:
The Hills: The Complete First Season is a 3-disc set. The first two discs contain the season episodes. The third disc is special features disc. Like Laguna Beach season sets, the disc is packed with additional content fans will get a kick out of. The extras range from featurettes to interviews to deleted scenes.

• Deleted Scenes (36:07): There are nineteen deleted scenes. The deleted scenes have additional footage of the cast in a variety of situations and dialogue, from walking down the street to being in the classroom.
• Cast Interviews (01:01:52): There are a total of seven interview featurettes, which can be watched individually or all at once via a play all option. The interviews are with the season one cast: Lauren, Heidi, Jordan, Brian, Audrina, Whitney, and Jason. The discussions about their backgrounds and the culture shock (if at all) of living in L.A., amongst other things. The interviews are a little on the dull side, but should appeal if you really like the characters and want to learn more about their backgrounds.
• The Hills: The After Show (55:47): This extra is a segment of webisodes (shorts from the Internet). These clips were provided after the airing of each season one episode. The intent was to provide more content for viewers to enjoy "after the show" via the Internet. It offers an insider look into the cast.
• Previews: This extra is a collection of trailers that can be viewed individually or all at once via a play all option. The trailers cover Laguna Beach: Season 3, Laguna Beach: Season 2, Save the Last Dance 2, and Run's House: Seasons 1 & 2.
• The Hills Premiere Party (2:45): This short featurette is a short clip of The Hills premiere party. It has the cast providing short dialogues about the event, excitement, their clothes, facing the cameras, etc.
• MTV Movie Awards (5:10): This last extra is a featurette of the girls preparing for the MTV Movie Awards. Cameras follow the girls to pick out clothes, get their hair done, and nothing really exciting happens.

Final Thoughts:
The Hills follows Laguna Beach alumni Lauren Conrad in her new fabulous life in the Hollywood Hills. There, she joins her good friend Heidi and a few new friends to experience life. The drama focuses on the troubles the girls must face as they learn to balance life from several different angles: school, work, and relationships. The end result is an intriguing drama that you will either love or hate. It is overly melodramatic, but it works. Lauren was a great pick for a spin-off series.