There are a lot of things in this world that shape it. All kinds of music, film, and even television. And what's the most decrepit influence on our society right now? Clearly MTV, right? Actually, not so much. I can't lie, I don't mind being an apologist for MTV's campy programming, because it's all terrible in the cognitive sense. They focus on the vapid. Place people on high pedestals that hardly deserve it. But wait, isn't that life's general path anyway? Look around you at the popular kids, the sorority queens, and the frat guys. What have they all achieved? The success of being attractive to a general audience of people with mostly no other redeeming qualities otherwise. That's exactly MTV for you, and yes, this immediately makes it a repellent. And yes, it's the perfect ideology of why people hate MTV. They hate it because it represents the people they equally can't stand and yet are forced to see on a daily basis. They maybe are even friends with "those people" despite their actual apprehension against them.
Of course, this leads to
True Life, which weirdly is not entirely vapid in some instances. The stories tend to be engrossing because there's usually an example of relatibility in at least one of the stories involved. The episode I saw had to do with embarrassing parents with the point being to over-exaggerate the parents, the embarrassment they cause their kids, and the rift between kid and parent that ultimately humanizes the parents at the end.
We are shown a portrait of two girls, one a reserved teen girl who's more or less trying to find normalcy in her life and another who's craving desperately for individualism and to kind of sort of get away from the shadow of her bimbo-esque mother.
The more reserved girl's parents are clowns who work at a circus and have a house with tons of memorabilia. They're also crazy and stunned whenever she decides to go out on a date with a kid nicknamed Squirrel (I kid you not). Of course, they also demand that this date be at the circus and that of course, they watch from a faraway glance. But this brings on a nice bit of idealism. We get the idea that the reserved girl is pretty average, in the good sort of way. She has the friend with the Jack Skellington jacket and the slightly gothy overtones, but they're all normal, and even by the episode's climax of the parents bringing their clown buddies over to "embarrass" the child, you find out that it's all in good fun and that embracing eccentricities over fighting them ultimately is more rewarding.
Yes, such a universal message of unity came from a frickin' MTV show. I'm as amazed as you.
The other story is more vapid, but as similar to a point. It's more of an examination that first digs into the idea of the "cool parent" and why kids are going to be embarrassed regardless by that type of parent, because that's of course the job of a teenager to rebel. But then it digs into something that is more involving and gripping, dealing with the issue of parents who never let their kids truly be themselves by influencing their decisions with an iron fist and taking away their individualism. This reaches its climax over the 14-year-old girl asking her mother for a lip ring. Her mother vehemently rejects the idea at first, but after a series of events including a party in which the mother turns into your typical Los Angeles bimbo in the process of a night, the idea is questioned.
The reason this is gripping to the viewer is not the lip ring at all. For all we know, the war could be over anything such as trying out for the volleyball team or the school production of Hansel and Gretel or whatever. The fact that it's about a lip ring is completely useless to the point. The war itself is just about some sense of individualism. If the mother is allowed to "be herself" by dressing in Pamela Anderson-esque clothes, then why doesn't the kid try to show what she feels she needs to be herself? And yet, she's still a kid who's going to playfully mock her mother after the mother agrees with this decision, because that's normal. That's teenage rebellion.
True Life is not always nearly as engrossing, but there's a lot of intriguing morals to get out of any episode. And for any show on MTV of all things to emphasize the themes of being yourself and having fun with the people you're around and the experiences you get to share, it's an accomplishment.
Not that the other shows on the channel aren't gripping in that "oh, this is ironically awesome" sort of way, of course.
(Writer's Note: I know this has nothing at all to do with music, despite the fact that it involves a show on a channel that has music in the name. I also know that I could make a tired joke about that channel no longer playing music, but that's far too painfully obvious, so I'm not. I also realize that this could read as "In Defense Of...MTV" but it's not really. I don't watch enough of it to defend it successfully, really.
The final edition of In Defense Of shall be up on the weekend. Thank you for reading.)
