Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew

Unlike many reality shows on TV these days, Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew (on VH1) is based around helping its contestants. The show is taped at Pasadena Recovery Center in California and recruits nine celebrities a season that they want to help stay sober, or sober up. The only reoccurring cast are Dr. Drew Pinsky and his staff. The casting for this show is difficult because Dr. Drew and the producers must contact representatives of celebrities who have been arrested or have a lot of publicity about their addiction(s).

Although the shows concept is quite simple, I think this show is very hectic. I think what Dr. Drew is trying to do is very helpful for the contestants on the show, but having all of the people staying in one place is very rough. All of these celebrities are there for different reasons, and having a bunch of drug and alcohol addicts or former addicts together seems strange to me. Many times the contestants try and revolt against Dr. Drew and his staff which seems quite easy to me because they all have the same thing on their mind and when they all work together, I don't think the staff has all the control over them that they need to make actual progress with their problems. I personally think a better approach to the problem that Dr. Drew is trying to combat would be to do the same thing he is doing but individually help all of the celebrities. Besides that, I think this show is quite entertaining and pretty emotional even at times.

Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory

Another one of MTV's Hit shows is Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory, which is a continuation of his old show Rob and Big but in a new setting. This Show is filmed in a factory warehouse that Rob (a professional skateboarder) has turned into a "fantasy factory." Inside of this factory there is a full skate park, basketball courts, a foam pit, a recording studio, and a lot of offices. On the show he plays around with his friends and workers. Some of the main characters on this show are his cousin "Drama," his secretary Chanel, "Drama"'s brother "Big Cat," his manager, lawyer, graphic designer, along with many of his other friends and workers. He created this factory so he could merge his pleasure time (skateboarding and fooling around) with his business time.

I really enjoy watching this show because it has no story line, so whenever I get a chance to watch it I don't feel like I need to catch up with what has been happening, I can just pick up and watch it whenever. I also like it because it is extremely funny, Rob has a really good sense of humor and loves to play jokes on all of his workers which is really entertaining to watch. Overall I feel like this is one of the best shows MTV has to offer.

Jersey Shore

Reality Television was taken by storm when MTV introduced another of its reality tv shows Jersey Shore in mid 2009. During its hour running times, cameras follow eight housemates that are spending their summer together in the Jersey Shore. During this nine episode season, the world got introduced to the "Guidos" and "Guidettes" of Jersey Shore, which is the american portrayal of the Italian stereotype. Many of the episodes showed the eight young adults drinking, partying, "working," and living in their summer home. By the end of the season America was introduced to many new "Guido"-like activities such as "fist pumping," "guido" hairstyles, and many other strange activities.

I think this show was entertaining, but very "MTV like" making it pretty dull. The drama on these shows are always the same and the heavy drinking is always the social lubricant that makes it interesting to watch. The thing I wonder about this show is how it has affected the surrounding Jersey Shore area. How do the other Italian young adults feel about being portrayed in this light since they are from Jersey Shore, and the housemates on the show are not?

In late January of this year, MTV announced that there will be another season of this show with the same people but in another city. As a result of not being filmed in Jersey Shore, the show will have another name which has yet to be announced.