Should You Head for The Hills?: How Does the Laguna Beach Spin-off Fair?
The reality-based 30 minute show follows Lauren “LC” Conrad as she moves to Los Angeles to begin her college career as well as an internship at the wildly popular magazine “Teen Vogue.” The show opens with Lauren driving to her apartment with cleverly staged luggage in her black BMW convertible. Looked more like the beginning of an Amanda Bynes movie than a TV Show based on real people in real settings.
Lauren meets up with her roommate, Heidi, who is first seen laying out by the pool in their apartment complex, which is incredibly luxurious by college aged kids standards (meaning they probably don’t have top ramen in their cupboards or a spool as a coffee table. They then go inside, where Heidi shows Lauren their new place. Lauren is in the middle of being “taken aback,” when (surprise!)
Teen Vogue calls to tell her they need her to come in for her interview in 20 minutes instead of the 5pm start time originally plan. Lauren then has to rush to make the interview, pulling out desperate attempts of emulating Jessica Simpson as she goes (we see her ironing her skirt with her flat iron saying “it works for my hair, right?). Despite the rush, she somehow arrives on time and looking perfect.
Next, we see Lauren and her roommate, Heidi, at registration day for their college campus. The director of admissions comes out to meet them and we see her interviewing Lauren, raving how excited they are to have her at their institution. Next, Heidi goes in. She answers all the questions with a blonde and ditsy “I just want to party” response, even telling the admissions director that she just hung out and didn’t go to class much in high school. Funny, she has the same haircut as Lauren’s arch-rival on Laguna Beach, Kristin. Its clear that she is supposed to play opposite to Lauren’s conservative attitude and brains, there to only cause trouble. Next set up, guys (Didn’t I see that in an Amanda Bynes movie?)
Relaxing poolside again (apparently the best hangout in the super luxurious college apartment), we meet Adriana. When LC comes back from her interview, Heidi introduces her to “her first friend in LA,” Adriana. This scene seemed staged and the robotic “oh, I just met her” routine clearly reeked of producer influence and quasi-scripts.
Lauren ultimately finds out that she gets the internship at Teen Vogue, although it doesn’t jump out as a overly climatic event. They probably could have cut the scenes out entirely. The suspense of whether she gets the job or not is hardly a nail-biting situation. MTV’s previews for the show have been plastered on the network for several weeks now and show scenes of LC working for the mag.
Not to mention, this month’s issue of Teen Vogue includes an interview with LC about her internship there. Seriously – does anyone believe that MTV is not going to hook her up with this opportunity? We think not.
On her first day, she is introduced to another of the four main girls on the show, Whitney. Their first assignment is to address 500 invitations to the “Teen Vogue Young Hollywood” Party. They are also told they are to attend the event, but are warned profusely not to party, but to work. Certainly some sort of shenanigans will ensueâÂ?¦
At the party, Lauren is instructed to guard a VIP area and make sure no one sits down. Sounds simple enough, but then her phones rings. It’s Heidi. A-ha! Little Miss Troublemaker – what will occur? What crazy plot lines will she take the viewers down next? “Can you get us in?” Heidi asks and LC makes a deal with Whitney let her friends in. Of course, the first thing they do is come and sit in (another surprise!) the section she is to be guarding with her life! LC tells Heidi to not sit there and what does she do?
She sits there, filling her role of irresponsible, selfish, party girl quite well. After repeating again and again “I’m going to get in trouble! Get Up!” things start to seem under control. Next, several scenes of Heidi and her boyfriend fighting (what about, I’m not entirely sure. Something about her talking to another guy – again with the originality). Lauren’s boss comes over disapprovingly saying “we’ll talk about this on Monday.”
We’ve left to see Lauren staring into the pool as some sappy song plays. Are we to be left comtemplating the meaning of life? How a Teen Vogue internship can go horribly awry? What Lauren should do with her life at the ripe old age of 19? It was a little too “Dawson’s Creek,” but given their target audience, I’m sure it was right on track.
Where “The Hills” fails is with keeping true to that same drama ridden 30 minutes formula that made Laguna Beach so popular. Everything seems so staged – like a bad play being acted out on screen. Certainly there had to be a lot of staging on Laguna Beach, but with “The Hills,” it just seems much more awkward. Everyone seems to be struggling to make every scene interesting. However, with that said, the show will probably fair well, as LC has created a huge following for herself on Laguna. That audience mostly consisted of tweens and teens – and a few horny guys – will be thoroughly intrigued by and excited about her every move.
Plus, the pre-teens and teens that watch the show are probably glued to the TV thinking that when they leave for college their lives will be as glamorous and top ramen-free as LC’s. Overall, not a smash hit, but with the following from Laguna and the editors’ talents at putting together clips promising an insane amount of “OMG” moments to come this season, it should keep its audience in for the long run.
