What’s the Story?

No matter which city is home to each new season of MTV's iconic reality series THE REAL WORLD -- be it San Francisco, New York, Austin, London, Seattle, Key West, or Denver -- the setup is always the same: Seven strangers are picked to live in a lavish house for six months and be filmed for viewers' enjoyment. Their close quarters always create the kind of drama that reality TV thrives on. Each season's cast is assigned to a specific job and works with a local organization, although considering how hard they party in the evenings, they often treat the responsibility of a job like a nuisance. In early seasons, jobs were community driven -- like helping build a playground for at-risk youths or serving as mentors -- but later seasons have featured the cast doing things like building, running, and marketing a MysticTan salon.

Is It Any Good?

In this very formulaic show, each housemate seems expected to conform to one of the following broad personality traits/backgrounds: naïve, small town/small minded, homosexual, bisexual, sexually confused, angry/bitter, drunken frat boy/sorority girl, loose, heavy drinker, or racist. In fact, so carefully are these boxes checked off every season that if you don't fit the bill, you probably won't make it to The Real World.

For the most part, conversations among the roommates are sexual in nature or center on their self-doubt. Occasionally, someone declares their sexual preference or their need to get some action. Housemates can often be found in the indoor Jacuzzi (a staple of every season) and drinking runs rampant. There are no televisions in the houses, but the Internet and phone are readily available. (Drunken phone calls back home to a loved one have become commonplace in the series.)

Have you seen it?

TV Show Details

TV Rating

TV-PG

Network

MTV

Genre

Reality TV

Where to watch

MTV, Online

For Your Family