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Why “The Real World” Needed To Get Real, Again
Back to New York!
Spoilers
When I activated my 7-day trial with Paramount in order to partake in the long overdue reunion fest featuring the OGs of one of the most viable TV franchises of the past two decades, The Real World — I wasn’t quite sure what to expect outside of the sweet nostalgic vibe of reconnecting with cultural pieces that helped define the start of a prolific era.
The older you get, the more you tend to melt in a puddle of emotions when events and people from your past abruptly appear as a reminder of how much time has gone by, and why those scars never heal.
When The Real World: New York made it’s highly-anticipated debut back in 1992, almost 30 years ago (WTF?!), I was a 19-year-old college sophomore, stuck in a similar scenario as the young, bright-eyed cast mates, who were selected to participate in a one-of-a-kind experiment that would require sharing a loft apartment with strangers in a trendy section of the city that never sleeps.
In my situation, I was sent to a two-year, all-girls college in a Midwestern town nobody had heard of, and just as you would imagine, I was one of three Black girls of African descent in a student body that boasted 350.
My first two years in college weren’t the best time of my life, but my adolescent years in boarding school that began at the fragile age of 11, thanks to Nigeria’s homage to the system of British colonizers, definitely prepared me for the regimen of respectfully sharing spaces with people I don’t know.
Perhaps that was the reason for my fascination with the first reality TV show most of us had ever entertained, that documented the raw footage of how a diverse group of young adults from all walks of life, submitted to the priceless experience of demonstrating the relational complexities of our existence.
Like most Gen Xers, I was glued to the old-fashioned TV set, soaking in each new episode of what turned out to be a goldmine for MTV, as it began its gradual expansion into unscripted territory.
