Unless you’ve been living under a rock in the Himalayas the past few weeks you will have probably been one of the millions of fans glued to their screens watching ‘The Hill’s finale on MTV on Sunday. Yes MTV’s most popular show The Hills has finally ended after six seasons of bitch fights, broken hearts and fabulous fun in La La Land.
As the curtain closed on the final ever episode we were greeted in the final moments by the bitch-we-all-love-to-hate Kristin Cavallari about to drive away on a busy LA street to “find herself” in Europe leaving behind her ex flame Brody Jenner. But as the cameras panned out we saw that the Hollywood sign behind Jenner was just that, a back drop, and as it moved away we saw that they were in fact in a filming lot surrounded by cameras and crew made scenery.
Was this how all of The Hills had been filmed or were the shows producers cleverly lifting the lid in a tongue-in-cheek way by confirming what we had all know all along: the show was less real than Speidi loosing their marbles and as scripted as any daytime soap opera. Even the ‘stars’ of the show themselves have admitted that it is up to the fans to decide what is real and what is not.
Some of the show must not have been fake (anyone who can cry that often – Lauren - should be rewarded with their own primetime show) but it was definitely dramatised. The show managed to keep going for six seasons which is rather impressive seeing as the target audience of teenage and twenty-something women tend to get bored very easily when shows tailored to their age (loud sounds, bright colours and zany presenters) are swiftly sidelined.
The Hills mass appeal was that as well as being culturally relevant, we were able to follow the stars through their lives and as many of the fans were also leaving home, getting their first jobs and starting/ending relationships. The show seemed real.
However, despite us wanting to believe that the stars lives were real, how many student 18-year-olds in ‘reality’ drive expensive 4x4’s, live in amazing ocean fronted homes and mingle with the rich and famous? Probably not that many of us. But somehow Lauren and co managed this without us ever seeing them in the beginning with jobs.
Later we learned that some of them actually did have 9-5 jobs, but were these just roles they were playing for the cameras when the companies involved would have been seduced by promises of airtime and free publicity? How many suburban teenage girls living in the UK would have heard of the designer Diane Von Furstenburg (or DVF if you are a fashionista) before Lauren started working for her? What exactly does Kristin do apart from her Hills fame to warrant such a fabulous house and car?
The more the show progressed and as the years rolled by, the less innocent and naïve the stars seemed. Their lives packed with parties, boys and wardrobes bursting with designer clothes us mere mortals could only dream of had us hooked. Each episode told a story and kept viewers on the edge of our seat until the next week, unlike the mishmash of other such reality shows (Big Brother and The Real World, to name two.) This could not have been done with out a little scripting and a few scene set ups here and there.
Would the millions of fans have kept watching if an episode showed a normal week in their possibly mundane lives away from the cameras, paparazzi and celebrity stardom? A real life where everyone gets on famously, goes to their jobs for a normal working day in the office and leaves on public transport to return home to their modest rented flat to catch some television and an early night?
Do we really mind if the show was scripted? It kept us entertained and it has propelled the stars to celebrity stardom for their 15 minutes of fame. And if we ever feel a loss at them disappearing from our screens I’m sure it won’t be long before the rest of the cast are given their own spin off shows. We won’t be rid of them that easily.
Image © MTV