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Hills: Season Three (The)
R1 - America - Paramount Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Pat Pilon (25th August 2008). |
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The Show
 The only thing I hate worse than watching a show about rich, spoiled, brainless airheads is watching a reality show about rich, spoiled, brainless airheads. Now, don't let that first sentence taint what you might think my review would be like. Actually, let that somewhat taint what I think of the show. It's a reflection of some sort of reality (the reality of Los Angeles, I suppose), and so has a strange power over the people that watch it, but by the same token, these people are rich, spoiled and their problems are ultimately quite trivial, especially considering when they don't have to be problems. Depending on your level of voyeurism in your system, you might enjoy this to varying degrees. Just to get it out of the way, the show follows a group of on-again-off-again friends, their loves their non-loves, their lives and their careers. The editors must have had a hell of a time putting the episodes together. That's all I'm going to say about that. I find it funny that this world is so voyeuristic that we have to watch people create drama in their own little world without looking at our own lives. Everybody has friends that magnify problems where there really aren't any problems. Now, imagine there was a camera on these people, and these people knew they would end up on television. If this show were scripted, nobody would ever know the difference. The gossip and talk behind the backs of everybody is more mean-spirited and guilt trips are constant. I'm quite glad I don't know these people, or know people that resemble this, because if I did, I would never be happy. Is there nothing better in life, is existence so dull and listless that, instead of going out and having a conversation with another human being, people stay home and watch other people having conversations, creating drama where there doesn't need to be any? The worst part about this entire season is that everything seems so fake. Nothing seems natural and the interactions between the 'characters' seems forced and stilted. There are some moments – looping and inserts – that look highly scripted. You cannot tell me that at least a few moments in 'Forgive and Forget', for example, aren't staged. If this had been a movie or scripted television show, some of the moments would be cliches, and highly annoying. Having said that, I have to say that I wasn't bored during this show, nor was I enthralled. I had to watch and I did, and it was more interesting that I thought, though I'm a person that likes meeting new people, and likes to hear about other people's stories. However, I did feel the show dragging at times, which made me want to press the fast-forward button. By the same token, I didn't really care whether these girls meet a cute guy at a club, and I don't care if they show up to each other's parties. I'd rather go out to clubs myself and meet people than to spend time watching these people do it. It seems like everybody in this entire world enjoyed being 16 and decided to stay that age. Some of these people are so full of themselves they don't even realise there's a world beyond the tip of their nose. Spencer doesn't like Brody and Lauren hanging out? Why? What is it to him? In the first episode of the season, one of the girls – they're so interchangeable I don't even know who said it – yells 'This is reality. This is reality!' I think this is as real as people who enjoy drama in their lives and know they're in front of a camera as it gets. Everybody has their own lives to live and everybody's lives change. It's just that these girls seem to be on speed when it comes to this. Maybe it's just the editing of the series, or maybe because I don't live in Los Angeles, but these lives seem to be going by much faster than normal. This seems to be a bit much for me to believe. I'm actually a lot more interested in knowing the behind the scenes goings on of this series. In her interview, Lauren Conrad says she has her own clothing line, which isn't at all shown in the series. What else isn't shown? What else is manipulated to make the series the way it is? In this end, I only have this left to say about this show: of all the so-called 'reality' shows that have come out, 'The Hills' is the closest to reality out there, if reality were scripted. Here is a breakdown of the season by disc. I won't describe the episodes because essentially every episode is the same: they meet guys, they break up, they cry, they yell, they do whatever. Disc 1: 'You Know What You Did' (20:54), 'Big Girls Don't Cry' (19:57), 'Truth and Time Tells All' (19:33), 'Meet the Parents' (19:47), 'Rolling with the Enemy’ (19:40), 'Second Chances' (19:36), 'They Meet Again' (19:32), 'For Better or Worse' (19:32) and 'What Happens in Vegas' (19:31) Disc 2: 'What Goes Around' (19:29), 'No More Mr. Nice Guy' (19:39), 'Stress and the City' (19:40), 'Young Hollywood' (19:42), 'Forgive and Forget' (19:38), 'With This Ring...' (19:37), 'A Night at the Opera' (19:43), 'Once a Player...' (19:29) and 'When One Door Closes...' (20:03). Disc 3: 'Paris Changes Everything' (40:51), 'Back to LA' (19:33), 'An Unexpected Friend' (19:28), 'When Spencer Finds Out...' (19:20), 'Just Be Careful...' (19:14), 'Girls Night Out' (19:32), 'A New Roommate' (19:17), 'A Date With the Past' (19:27). Disc 4: 'No Place Like Home' (18:37) and 'The Next Move Is Yours' (21:59).
Video
1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. The show is shot on digital video and it looks that way. The colours are okay without being too bright or too dull. Bright and dark scenes look slightly digitised, and regular scenes are a bit soft. It's a nice transfer, but won't stand up to big displays. The authoring is nice enough, showing not compression problems or edge enhancement. Overall, it’s a nice transfer but limited because of its source.
Audio
The show comes with and English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track. It's functional, with all the dialogue being clear and audible. The music comes through very clearly, as well, though without any subwoofer use. There's really not much else to add, as the show doesn’t really push the boundaries of audio mixing. There are no subtitles.
Extras
Paramount and MTV were pretty nice, providing a nice assortment of extras. These are especially nice if you enjoy the show. First up are 2 start-up trailers, 'American Mall' on disc one and 'Matt Hoffman's Tribute to Evel Knievel' on disc three. All the other extras are on disc four. First up are 24 Deleted Scenes. They're about as important and intersting as anything else in the series and looking at the episodes' running times they seem to have been cut simply to allow for more ad time during television airings. The only thing that should have been kept is the cat shaving thing. It's pretty funny. The cut scenes are: 'How to Play the Game' (1:50), 'How Not to Date' (1:01), 'Whitney's Graduation' (1:35), 'Whitney Broke Up' (1:43), 'First Morning New Apartment' (1:16), 'Mattress Shopping' (1:18), 'Water Service' (1:58), 'Summer Love' (1:17), 'Back to Bolthouse' (2:18), 'Arcade Game Shopping' (2:08), 'Allergic to Cats' (2:34), 'Cat Shaving' (1:10), 'You Shaved My Cat' (1:54), 'Double Date' (1:48), 'Horses Eat Hay' (2:00), 'Why Do You Love Him' (1:45), 'Lunch with Trey' (1:45), 'Justin Argument' (1:23), 'Rock N Roll Gig' (2:24), 'Crying Over Justin' (1:33), 'Pumpkin Shopping' (1:24), 'Shopping for Paris' (2:10), 'Paris Waltz' (1:48) and 'Bye to Lisa' (1:00) Four Interviews are next. Lauren (12:43), Heidi (11:05), Audrina (7:15) and Whitney (7:25) reflect on the season and talk about their lives at the end of season two. They recount the bigger events in their lives throughout the season. A few of them talk about moments that were cut from the episodes (like Audrina shaving Lauren's cat), but that are found in the deleted scenes section. If you enjoyed the show, it's nice to hear what these four feel about their lives during the season. As a complement to this, there's a Commentary by a few pwople. This is not an episode commentary, but it instead edits together a bunch of scenes from throughout the season, on which various ladies comment. Lauren, Audrina, Whitney comment on The Letter, Justin Bobby, Ketchup, Who Did I, Brody's Phone, Night of the Ball, Lauren’s Birthday and Heidi's Stuff (26:44), while Heidi talks solo about Frankie's Birthday Party, The Proposal, Vegas Wedding and Getting Her Whole Life Back (11:35). It's nice to hear what these ladies have to say about these specific sceens, though I'd like to know at what point these commentaries were recorded, as Lauren and Audrina seem to still be friends. A cheap Virtual Hills featurette (2:06) is next. This is a bad ad for the 'Virtual Hills' game on MTV's website. It's a cheesy ad and I think I'll skip this. The last thing is Fashion: The Life (Presented by Pepsi Life) (46:17). There are eight clips showing you something completely unrelated to the show. It's about Magic, in Las Vegas, the biggest fashion show in the world. Presented by Pepsi Life, this follows 3 designers, and their successes and failures. It's an okay extra, but it's basically 'The Hills', but with fashion people.
Overall
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