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I Love New York: The Complete Unrated First Season (TV)
R1 - America - Paramount Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: James Teitelbaum (10th November 2007). |
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The Show
 You may choose to believe this or not, but I have never, ever, watched a so-called reality television show, never, at all. I'm just not interested. So when this series, the first season of "I Love New York" for review, I figured it was time to see what all the hubbub is about. If "I Love New York" is typical of reality television, it is a genre that I have been wise to avoid. There are eleven episodes and a 'reunion' show on three discs, and getting through it all was torture. "I Love New York" is garbage through and through, a series that has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. The production company that made this disaster is called 'Mindless Entertainment', and I'm tempted to call that an apt name for them, except for that what they have produced isn't at all entertaining. The premise here is that a shallow and narcissistic girl named Tiffany Pollard, better known as 'New York', is looking for love. In the past, she was a contestant on a reality show starring rapper Flavor Flav, who was second banana in the legendary rap crew Public Enemy. On that show, called "Flavor of Love" (2006), the rapper was looking for true love. He found New York among twenty contestants, but dumped her during the final round of elimination. During the second season of "Flavor of Love", Flav and New York get together again, but apparently things didn't work out. I know, I know, it is hard to believe that a couple who were set up for a television series didn't succeed in finding true and everlasting love in real life. So, now New York is back in her own show, Flav-less and looking for real love (again) among twenty new losers, I mean charming young men. Nah, I actually really don't mean 'charming young men'. I do mean losers. Watching the first episode, my impression was that I wouldn't want to hang out with any of these guys. But I guess that New York is actually no prize either. She is loud, abrasive, vain, chain smokes, and doesn't appear to have any particular interests, ambitions, opinions, or talents. All twenty of the boys are on the show to win her affection, but she doesn't appear to have anything interesting or unique to offer them in return. By the end of the third episode, ten of the freaks have been eliminated. Over the next nine shows, the rest drop off one by one. It is painfully obvious that the token bad boy, the token nerd, the token sensitive guy, the token pretty boy, etc., are being kept around for entertainment value. For example, we know that the nerdy blonde kid from Boston hasn't got a prayer of getting anywhere with New York, but he is the one with the closest thing to a personality. So he gets a lot of camera time. However, the guys that New York actually likes are featured more prominently from the beginning, and by the end, we discover that the few guys who are almost likable and decent are... eliminated. In the end, New York makes her choice, and it isn't particularly surprising. Did they live happily ever after? I dunno, Google it. I've spent more than enough time with these unlikable, angry, shallow, feckless, macho, and dull people already. New York's last words of the last episode are: "This is f*****g boring to me". Indeed. Pressured to find something good to say about this show, I am going with the editing. Boiled down, the few and seldom moments of entertainment to be found on "I Love New York" are directly the result of skilled editors manipulating the words and actions of the participants in ironic or amusing ways.
Video
"I Love New York" was shot on the fly of course, and overall the full-frame (4:3) video it looks fairly decent; the camera people here did a better job than you'd think. Being a recent-vintage television series, the transfer is virtually identical to the original broadcast (I assume). But again, this isn't exactly a disc to use when showing off your home theater.
Audio
Dialogue is clear enough, and when it isn't, there are subtitles. This is not the sort of production that you're going to use to show off a sweet audio system, but there is nothing wrong with the sound which is in English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, English is the only option, although few of the contestants have much of a grasp of it. The only subtitle option is Closed Captioned English.
Extras
Paramount has released this series with a trailer (3:38) that plays automatically at the beginning of the first disc spoils the surprise of finding out who 'won' New York's heart, and then announces a second season. That's the closest thing to an extra on any of the three discs.
Overall
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