RW: Chicago (2002)

[choclatechip45]

3 minutes ago, Asp Burger said:

David was charming and intentionally funny in his. He did sing a little bit in it, but otherwise he was nothing like he was in RWNO itself. You'd never have watched his casting tape and expected him to be standoffish, aloof, argumentative, and only interested in hooking up with women from outside the house and going to the gym. Melissa (who had even more friction with him than the others did) said that if she had seen that casting special beforehand, she'd have asked him where that guy was.  

Kelley gave a lot of dish about her past boyfriends and sexual experiences, mocked the sexual technique of one boyfriend in particular, and in general seemed to be trying to get cast by being "wilder" than she was. On the actual shows, she was cautious and controlled and avoided drama. In fact, she started evading the cameras a lot once she met Peter, although her friendship with Danny was a memorable element of the season.

Thanks! I've seen the season just not the casting special (I'm currently rewatching right now). Wow, they both sound totally different! I remember Leah being somewhat different in her casting tape. 

[Asp Burger]

8 hours ago, Bastet said:

I'd forgotten how homophobic Theo and Tonya were; I guess it makes a sad sort of sense given how insular the environments whence they c ame, so it will be interesting to re-visit how they do or do not evolve over the course of their time here.

Oh, Cara.  At least she freely owns up to being "that girl" who has never been without a boyfriend and gets her validation from men wanting her sexually and acknowledges that's not healthy, and I do remember resenting how the show chose to focus on her sex life, but she's hard to take.

Theo surprised me over the course of the season. I liked him much better by the end than I thought I was going to, because he said some things in the early episodes that made me think "They still make you in 2002?"

I think he changes in a realistic way, a matter of degrees. He did seem genuine, I'll give him that. Considering he came in with the whole "playa" thing going on besides being from a very religious background, I give him credit for broadening his horizons a little.  

Cara, though...ugh. She struck me as one of those people who are always "confessing" and "analyzing" and never actually doing anything to improve themselves, but expecting gold stars for their "insight." It wears thin quickly.

[Bastet]

I understand why Aneesa winds up pissed off and hanging up in every phone conversation with her mom, but I also just cracked the hell up at Aneesa's mom when Aneesa called her to ask for more money in order to get the locks replaced on the car the roommates all share, because she lost the keys when she set them on top of her friend's car in order to pop a squat and pee in the gutter, and then the friend drove off with the keys on top: Aneesa's mom tells her to act like an adult (and solve this problem herself), Aneesa tells her that's what she's trying to do, and Aneesa's mom comes back with, "I don't think so, if you're out peeing at 5:00 in the morning next to someone's car."

(Thankfully her brother is smarter than all the roommates put together and says she can just get a new key, she doesn't have to have each individual lock changed.)

I hate Kyle; he is such a jerk.  I mean, I remembered that, but I had forgotten just how massive a jerk he is.  Keri has embarrassed herself on her own a few times, but he's a lying, manipulative, gaslighting asshole.

Also, Cara is an odd dichotomy - she's a kind, caring friend/roommate sometimes, and then she's a two-faced phony sometimes.  It's mostly male attention/the prospect attention of male attention that brings out the latter in her.  She's pretty pathetic in general when it comes to men, and I really work to feel sorry for her given some of the reasons for that (and, holy shit, the ignorant stereotyping foisted on her for needing anti-depressants!), but sometimes I cannot stop the eye roll.  I wonder what she's like now, as a full-fledged adult.

Edited May 26, 2021 by Bastet

[Bastet]

Now I'm cracking up at cutting back and forth between Tonya at home on the phone with Justin (of course; that's apparently all she did) talking shit about her roommates and all the roommates (except Chris, who had to go home for a funeral) in the car on their way to St. Louis talking shit about Tonya.  I particularly love the juxtaposition of Cara and Keri countering Aneesa's narrative, showing a much more balanced take on Tonya, with Tonya calling Keri a stuck-up bitch and Cara a screwed-up slut.  And then Tonya saying, "Listen to the way I talk; I deserve anything anyone will ever say about me."  Nice job, editors.

I thought that would be the episode with the "Walla Walla kidney stones" song, but I guess not (then again, these uploads tend to be missing the end of most episodes).

A-ha, it's at the beginning of the next episode.  A classic.

Edited May 26, 2021 by Bastet

[ljenkins782]

22 hours ago, choclatechip45 said:

Thanks! I've seen the season just not the casting special (I'm currently rewatching right now). Wow, they both sound totally different! I remember Leah being somewhat different in her casting tape. 

I remember that too, she was brash but endearing in her tape and then her worst qualities took over in Paris and she became toxic and mean. Audition tape Leah seemed like a lot of fun, roommate Leah definitely was not.

David's tape had a really funny segment on his father, who David described as a bit of a bullshitter even though he was a minister. So he'd be in front of his congregation rhapsodizing but really just quoting the theme song to the Jeffersons and nobody noticed. It was very funny. 

Quote

Also, Cara is an odd dichotomy - she's a kind, caring friend/roommate sometimes, and then she's a two-faced phony sometimes.  It's mostly male attention/the prospect attention of male attention that brings out the latter in her.  She's pretty pathetic in general when it comes to men, and I really work to feel sorry for her given some of the reasons for that, but sometimes I cannot stop the eye roll.  I wonder what she's like now, as a full-fledged adult.

That was what bothered me most about Cara. She went out of her way to be a caring friend and then would turn around and talk massive amounts of shit about said "friend" and I hate that. If you're gonna be a bitch, then just be one so I can see it coming. It's way more hurtful to think someone is your friend or is being there for you and then to hear all the hurtful things they said later. 

And yes, her need for male attention was a huge part of it. For example, the way she encouraged Kyle to distance himself from Keri under the guise of "hey, you're my friend and I can see you're not happy" when the real reason was that she felt slighted by the fact that Kyle was attracted to Keri rather than her.

This season had an unusually high ratio of very attractive women and I suspect Cara thought she was going to be the babe of the house only to show up and find a house full of hot girls.

Her lowest point when it comes to men was when her ex-boyfriend came to town. I mean, fine if you want to sleep with your ex when they roll through town, but her bullshit speechifying about how "empowering" it was and how she felt in control was hard to take. IIRC, the guy smirked his way through their encounter, basically "negged" her and made her work for the "opportunity" to have sex with him. The whole thing felt very manipulative and it seemed obvious that he didn't have an ounce of respect for her, but she didn't see it.

A close second would be her one-night stand with Kyle's friend, who only called her because Kyle put pressure on him, and the call sent Cara over the moon about what a great guy he was. THAT must have been mortifying to watch.

[Bastet]

Tonya has a lot of annoying qualities (and, oh my gods, this fool legitimately declared with a straight face that all the women in the house are jealous of her) and I have no idea why she did this show when all she wanted to do was sit around exchanging insipid "I love you" talk with Justin, but she's also been through more shit than anyone should have to deal with, and I like the roommates who acknowledged the simple fact both those things are true.  I think Kyle's only good moment in the whole show was when he reflected on the fact that if he was hospitalized, he'd have a room full of family there supporting him, and if the roommates don't step up, Tonya has no one, so they need to rotate their asses in and out of that hospital.

Tonya's story also illustrated how infuriating the healthcare system is in this country.  Her best option is that creepy relationship with the photographer, because she cannot accumulate enough of what she needs to pay - not anywhere close to the whole outstanding bill, mind you, just the part the hospital demands in order to go ahead with her scheduled surgery - and be able to keep going to school on the money she makes from her two jobs. 

As common as it is, these folks' unwillingness to put themselves in someone else's shoes is aggravating.  Theo never acknowledges the role sexism plays in the form his disagreements with Tonya take, Tonya sure as hell never admits the racism that exacerbates her reactions to Theo, Theo and Kyle, in patting themselves on the back for going to a gay bar or party with Chris despite their discomfort, never think about how Chris is supposed to be comfortable as the only gay guy in numerous everyday situations, etc.

I just have the final episode to go, but I'm too tired to finish it tonight.

But I have to reiterate just how much I hate Kyle; he's disturbingly effective as a gaslighter, but then he shows himself like a neon sign when he absolutely loses his shit the two times Keri calls out that everything he does is projecting an image to further some future career.  He's awful, and people like him succeeding really pisses me off.

Edited May 26, 2021 by Bastet

[Asp Burger]

Aneesa said in the book for that season that she had no idea why Tonya did the show. Then she speculated on her own question, "Yeah, 'exposure'...for God knows what." It is a bit of a mystery. The Challenge was going on then, but it was smaller and lower-key than it would become, so I don't think anyone was yet doing Real World or Road Rules just to get into the contestant pool. They hadn't adopted the Survivor-influenced format yet.

Maybe she thought she would like and connect with her roommates more than she did, but honestly, I think if you had put her in any of Hawaii, New Orleans, or Back to New York, she'd have been exactly the same: complaining about other people in the cast being exhibitionistic and crass, complaining that the black guy made her feel scared, using a fake-sounding sick voice to get out of work assignments, wanting to go home, and constantly talking on the phone with her boyfriend, How did she watch any of the then-recent seasons and think this would go well?

I couldn't stand Kyle, but he reminded me occasionally that he wasn't dumb. In one of the earliest episodes, one of the women was going down the list of their new roommates with him and they were comparing notes. I can't remember whether it was Keri, Aneesa, or Cara, but when she mentioned Tonya, Kyle said he thought she was going to be wrapped up in her boyfriend the whole time they were there.

[choclatechip45]

1 hour ago, Asp Burger said:

Aneesa said in the book for that season that she had no idea why Tonya did the show. Then she speculated on her own question, "Yeah, 'exposure'...for God knows what." It is a bit of a mystery. The Challenge was going on then, but it was smaller and lower-key than it would become, so I don't think anyone was yet doing Real World or Road Rules just to get into the contestant pool. They hadn't adopted the Survivor-influenced format yet.

Maybe she thought she would like and connect with her roommates more than she did, but honestly, I think if you had put her in any of Hawaii, New Orleans, or Back to New York, she'd have been exactly the same: complaining about other people in the cast being exhibitionistic and crass, complaining that the black guy made her feel scared, using a fake-sounding sick voice to get out of work assignments, wanting to go home, and constantly talking on the phone with her boyfriend, How did she watch any of the then-recent seasons and think this would go well?

I couldn't stand Kyle, but he reminded me occasionally that he wasn't dumb. In one of the earliest episodes, one of the women was going down the list of their new roommates with him and they were comparing notes. I can't remember whether it was Keri, Aneesa, or Cara, but when she mentioned Tonya, Kyle said he thought she was going to be wrapped up in her boyfriend the whole time they were there.

It wouldn't surprise me if Tonya did the show to get famous. Didn't New Orleans get a lot of publicity? I know Danny was a special case, but he did guest star on Dawson's Creek. They were filming Chicago when Back to New York was airing. Besides Tonya you had Cara and Kyle who also wanted to be famous. 

Did it ever come out what Kyle's political sutff was a code word for?

Edited May 26, 2021 by choclatechip45

[ljenkins782]

7 hours ago, Asp Burger said:

Aneesa said in the book for that season that she had no idea why Tonya did the show. Then she speculated on her own question, "Yeah, 'exposure'...for God knows what." It is a bit of a mystery. The Challenge was going on then, but it was smaller and lower-key than it would become, so I don't think anyone was yet doing Real World or Road Rules just to get into the contestant pool. They hadn't adopted the Survivor-influenced format yet.

Maybe she thought she would like and connect with her roommates more than she did, but honestly, I think if you had put her in any of Hawaii, New Orleans, or Back to New York, she'd have been exactly the same: complaining about other people in the cast being exhibitionistic and crass, complaining that the black guy made her feel scared, using a fake-sounding sick voice to get out of work assignments, wanting to go home, and constantly talking on the phone with her boyfriend, How did she watch any of the then-recent seasons and think this would go well?

Based entirely on myself and possibly entirely off base, but Tonya's time on this show reminded me of my first year of college. I was dating this guy at home that I didn't have long-term plans for and honestly, I'd more or less assumed that I'd dump him when I got to school and met a whole new group of people. 

That was my plan. What ended up happening is that I showed up to my dorm room to find that my roommate had already made like 6 new BFFs in the 3 hours it took me to get there and I felt terribly out of my depth. I'd expected people to be a little less sure of themselves on Day 1, but everyone I met seemed completely at ease with this very first day of being on their own. So, all of the sudden, the boyfriend I'd expected to leave behind became my security blanket. I LOATHE talking on the phone, but I talked so much to him on the phone that my phone would literally get cut off until I paid the $150 or so in long distance charges (remember those days?? lol!) 

Watching Tonya curl back into herself upon meeting the roommates reminded me so much of my own experience that I can't help but think she went there genuinely expecting a positive, new experience that would get her out of her small town and then she just got intimidated or felt awkward once she was there. You can see it in that first episode, she's extremely awkward compared to everyone else. She's clearly not great at meeting new people and fell victim to the fantasy that a new place was going to make her a new person.

That's my long-winded theory on why she did the show. She may have been seeking some sort of fame, but in terms of Aneesa's question, I don't believe she went into it thinking she'd isolate herself from the group, it just happened.

Quote

I couldn't stand Kyle, but he reminded me occasionally that he wasn't dumb. In one of the earliest episodes, one of the women was going down the list of their new roommates with him and they were comparing notes. I can't remember whether it was Keri, Aneesa, or Cara, but when she mentioned Tonya, Kyle said he thought she was going to be wrapped up in her boyfriend the whole time they were there.

To be fair, I think Tonya had already commandeered the phone multiple times by the time Kyle made this observation. It was in an early episode, but it might have been said several days in.

I won't stand for anyone giving the ol' Squarehead any credit. Not on my watch. ;p 

[Asp Burger]

5 hours ago, choclatechip45 said:

Did it ever come out what Kyle's political sutff was a code word for?

Here's a quote from Keri: 

By the end of the season, I just didn't want to worry about my relationship with him anymore. I accused him of being phony and it was a disaster. I should have said stuff in a more sugarcoated way. The truth was, I'd been meaning to talk to him for a while. I wanted to know if he thought we'd be friends after the fact. And I wanted to find out if he'd done stuff for the cameras. I was absolutely wasted and ended up blurting out accusations and being tactless. Everything I wanted to say came out in five minutes of insults. Tonya said that Kyle told her he'd invited his little brother over so the cameras could see the brotherly side of Kyle. I'd also heard he applied to be a substitute teacher so it could get on camera. I ended up telling Kyle that he was fake. There's definitely an element of politician in him. I think Kyle was working on his political career the whole time he was in the house. Anyway, it ended up being a crazy conversation. I fumbled everything I'd thought about saying. I ended up hurting Kyle's feelings very badly, then feeling really guilty. It was just awful. 

So I think "political career" was partly meant at face value (maybe he'd mentioned that running for office was one of the things he might do someday) and partly just meaning he tried to control his image on the show with the intention of using it as a stepping stone for other things.

He definitely is in the right lane now as a sports media bro. Surely a better fit than acting. 

[Asp Burger]

26 minutes ago, ljenkins782 said:

To be fair, I think Tonya had already commandeered the phone multiple times by the time Kyle made this observation. It was in an early episode, but it might have been said several days in.

It might have been, but I don't think several days in, one of Kyle's new roommates would have been saying, "And then there's Chris. What do you think of him?" and so on, going down the list. It sounded like a first- or second-day powwow. 

Maybe Tonya was on the phone a lot from the jump and also dropping Justin's name all the time. Those behaviors would fit what we saw. And Kyle seemed pretty familiar with the show and its standard types. It does seem there's always at least one person whose preexisting relationship becomes a big story. Joe and Nic. Montana and Vaj. Nathan and Stephanie. Danny and Paul. Kyle himself and Nicole were a topic I heard much more about than I needed to. 

Edited May 26, 2021 by Asp Burger

[choclatechip45]

59 minutes ago, Asp Burger said:

Here's a quote from Keri: 

By the end of the season, I just didn't want to worry about my relationship with him anymore. I accused him of being phony and it was a disaster. I should have said stuff in a more sugarcoated way. The truth was, I'd been meaning to talk to him for a while. I wanted to know if he thought we'd be friends after the fact. And I wanted to find out if he'd done stuff for the cameras. I was absolutely wasted and ended up blurting out accusations and being tactless. Everything I wanted to say came out in five minutes of insults. Tonya said that Kyle told her he'd invited his little brother over so the cameras could see the brotherly side of Kyle. I'd also heard he applied to be a substitute teacher so it could get on camera. I ended up telling Kyle that he was fake. There's definitely an element of politician in him. I think Kyle was working on his political career the whole time he was in the house. Anyway, it ended up being a crazy conversation. I fumbled everything I'd thought about saying. I ended up hurting Kyle's feelings very badly, then feeling really guilty. It was just awful. 

So I think "political career" was partly meant at face value (maybe he'd mentioned that running for office was one of the things he might do someday) and partly just meaning he tried to control his image on the show with the intention of using it as a stepping stone for other things.

He definitely is in the right lane now as a sports media bro. Surely a better fit than acting. 

Thanks! That makes sense a lot of sense. Yes I agree I don't mind Kyle on Good Morning Football. I only slightly dislike him because I didn't like him on The Real World.

Also is Chris the most boring person that has ever appeared on The Real World?

Edited May 26, 2021 by choclatechip45

[ljenkins782]

56 minutes ago, Asp Burger said:

Here's a quote from Keri: 

By the end of the season, I just didn't want to worry about my relationship with him anymore. I accused him of being phony and it was a disaster. I should have said stuff in a more sugarcoated way. The truth was, I'd been meaning to talk to him for a while. I wanted to know if he thought we'd be friends after the fact. And I wanted to find out if he'd done stuff for the cameras. I was absolutely wasted and ended up blurting out accusations and being tactless. Everything I wanted to say came out in five minutes of insults. Tonya said that Kyle told her he'd invited his little brother over so the cameras could see the brotherly side of Kyle. I'd also heard he applied to be a substitute teacher so it could get on camera. I ended up telling Kyle that he was fake. There's definitely an element of politician in him. I think Kyle was working on his political career the whole time he was in the house. Anyway, it ended up being a crazy conversation. I fumbled everything I'd thought about saying. I ended up hurting Kyle's feelings very badly, then feeling really guilty. It was just awful. 

So I think "political career" was partly meant at face value (maybe he'd mentioned that running for office was one of the things he might do someday) and partly just meaning he tried to control his image on the show with the intention of using it as a stepping stone for other things.

He definitely is in the right lane now as a sports media bro. Surely a better fit than acting. 

He's certainly the type that ends up in politics, wealthy, privileged white guy who played football, etc.

That's interesting about Keri. She was fairly self-contained so it doesn't surprise me that when alcohol lifted that filter, it came all the way off. I actually don't think she's necessarily *wrong* about any of the things she said, they were just maybe not delivered in the best way. And he was certainly never going to own up to any of that fakeness, so it was ultimately probably not a conversation worth having.

[Asp Burger]

19 minutes ago, choclatechip45 said:

Also is Chris the most boring person that has ever appeared on The Real World?

Oh, I liked Chris and found him interesting enough, just laid-back and big on the "recovery-speak," I just thought he was that calm, levelheaded person who occasionally ends up on the show and isn't going to be involved in the shit-stirring, so has sounding-board scenes. Pam in San Francisco was another one. 

Not sure who my most-boring-person candidate would be for the seasons I saw. If they went beyond a certain level of forgettable, I probably forgot them! 

[choclatechip45]

17 minutes ago, Asp Burger said:

Oh, I liked Chris and found him interesting enough, just laid-back and big on the "recovery-speak," I just thought he was that calm, levelheaded person who occasionally ends up on the show and isn't going to be involved in the shit-stirring, so has sounding-board scenes. Pam in San Francisco was another one. 

Not sure who my most-boring-person candidate would be for the seasons I saw. If they went beyond a certain level of forgettable, I probably forgot them! 

Fair about Chris. Maybe it is the recovery-speak that bores me. I remember during Tonya Challenge days circa Battle of the sexes 2, Chris was the only one she talked too. 

A few years ago Aneesa said she only talked to Cara due to the fact they actually ran into each other in Philly and reconnected. 

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, choclatechip45 said:

Also is Chris the most boring person that has ever appeared on The Real World?

A contender, definitely (along with Mike and Jay from London), but I think his voice made whatever he said sound boring, even if it was actually interesting or insightful.

[choclatechip45]

17 minutes ago, Bastet said:

A contender, definitely (along with Mike and Jay from London), but I think his voice made whatever he said sound boring, even if it was actually interesting or insightful.

You are right it is definitely the voice. I started London and I can't believe that season aired it is so boring!

[Asp Burger]

Chris says in the book that when he watched the Hawaii season, the Ruthie intervention episodes really hit home for him, because he had been through the same thing with his family and friends intervening. I tended to believe him; he didn't seem prone to exaggeration. I always wondered if his problem was exclusively alcohol or more, because he had some scars on his arms.  

It's possible if he'd been on the show a couple years earlier, he'd have been very different, if not as healthy. I think Bunim-Murray caught him at a certain time, and "recovery guy" was his main thing, besides being an artist. When he passed the swimming test to be a lifeguard, he was even voice-overing about his recovery in connection with that. It was implied that he was exercising all the time after getting sober, which is pretty common. (Although some people go in the opposite direction and start eating all the time.) 

All I didn't like were his cheesy moments, like giving Cara a pep talk and asking her to repeat self-affirming statements. That was full-on Stuart Smalley.

[Hiyo]

Quote

I started London and I can't believe that season aired it is so boring!

I liked London. Yeah it wasn't the most exciting but it was nice and chill, had lots of nice London location porn. Probably the last time you had a majority of the cast doing their own thing, before the set-up of them all working together contrivance started.

[Hiyo]

I didn't care for this season overall, I haven't rewatched it much, and I don't watch The Challange all that much either, but thank you Youtube algorithms for giving me this little beauty.

Aneesa and her elbow handled Trishelle in the funniest way possible.

Edited May 27, 2021 by Hiyo

[Bastet]

The reunion wasn't posted when I looked for it yesterday, but now it is (albeit in very poor quality, but beggars can't be choosers).  It is so odd the things that stick in our minds - I remember a promo for it showing the clip where Cara asks, "Did I really say 'land the deal'?" and then saying in VO, "Yeah, you did, Cara.  Twice."

I'm going to watch it tomorrow.

[Asp Burger]

I haven't seen that reunion since it first aired, but I remember it was super-uncomfortable. The host was awful even for a Real World or Challenge reunion host. He didn't know when to follow up or how to manage questioning seven people. Keri was in the worst possible place after seeing the last several episodes and hearing what Cara and Kyle had been saying behind her back. (Totally understandable.) She really let them have it. And everyone ganged up on Tonya, who was in tears. Theo, Aneesa, and Chris were just kind of "present."

33 minutes ago, Hiyo said:

I liked London. Yeah it wasn't the most exciting but it was nice and chill, had lots of nice London location porn. Probably the last time you had a majority of the cast doing their own thing, before the set-up of them all working together contrivance started.

I think the mandated group job was a direct response to the aimlessness of London.

My feeling about London is that it's okay in small doses. They were mostly likable people, some of whom would never have been cast just a few years later.

It's just one that, when MTV would have marathons, I couldn't handle watching in a big block of episodes.

[ljenkins782]

10 hours ago, Asp Burger said:

All I didn't like were his cheesy moments, like giving Cara a pep talk and asking her to repeat self-affirming statements. That was full-on Stuart Smalley.

That was really cheesy. 

That was an interesting episode. On the one hand, I felt bad for Chris that he set off such a chain reaction...however, I don't actually think his "pinch" was as innocent as he made it out to be after it set off WWIII. Cara did have specific issues with body image and maybe he didn't know how deep they ran, but I tend to think a lot of women would take it personally if someone pinched* their midsection like that. it's really NOT a sign of affection like he made it out to be, after the fact, especially coming from the guy who absolutely lives at the gym and is clearly more than a little obsessed with hard bodies.

*Cara and I are roughly the same age and those old Cheryl Tiegs "you can't pinch an inch on me" commercials do stick in the brain, lol.

Thoughts on Aneesa's constant nudity and pooping with the door open? I have to agree with Tonya here, that's just rude and the bathroom thing is rude AND disgusting. I understand that she walks around naked at home, but she's not at home and she's living with strangers. There's making yourself at home and then there's being inconsiderate of other people.

That seemed to be a pattern with her anyway, like not doing her part of the chores and then flying off the handle if anyone dared mention it to her. 

 

[Bastet]

I don't think nudity is rude (and find it very troubling to hear Tonya call it "disgusting"), but once Tonya straight up told her she was uncomfortable with it, Aneesa needed to compromise and put on a robe around her since it's Tonya's home, too.  If it was solely that she'd been raised to feel comfortable with nudity, it shouldn't have been a problem to cover up around one person who was uncomfortable.  So clearly there was also an attention-seeking element, not specifically of "look at my body", but of "I'm edgy and do what I'm gonna do".

Pooping with the door open is not something anyone should have to bring to your attention as uncool in a shared bathroom.

[choclatechip45]

The Theo/Aneesa shower scenes made me uncomfortable. 

[Bastet]

I just watched the reunion and wonder if it might have been better if more time had passed between them seeing the show as it aired and getting back together (but, of course, MTV would want the drama of fresh feelings), but it was okay.  I like that they banded together in defense of the edit Cara and Tonya got - not that it wasn't true, as they did do those things, but that it was very one-sided and it made it seem like that's all they did.

Tonya seemed genuinely upset at seeing herself and realizing she was not really the person she thought she was and needed to change some things about herself.  I appreciate that Theo is the one she wishes she'd gotten to know better.  But I don't know if Tonya ever did change those things about herself.  I think she'd have been better off getting back to the real real world and leaving this one behind, but I'm sure the Challenge money was hard to resist.

And I like when Tonya said Aneesa didn't deserve what Tonya said about her, and Aneesa said, "Yes, I did - I am a spoiled brat and I was very selfish at times."

Kyle is still an entire box of tools.

Having just talked about how Aneesa needed to accommodate Tonya's discomfort with nudity - which it sounded like she ultimately did do - it was interesting to learn that Cara is really uncomfortable with bodily functions (her own or someone else's) being heard, so Tonya made the sacrifice of not being able to burp or fart in her own room at night since they were sharing.  And, yeah, that's what you do - it's temporary, and living together depends on compromise.  She said it felt weird, but was the nice thing to do, and Cara thanked her.  Simple.

[Asp Burger]

2 hours ago, Bastet said:

Tonya seemed genuinely upset at seeing herself and realizing she was not really the person she thought she was and needed to change some things about herself. I think she'd have been better off getting back to the real real world and leaving this one behind, but I'm sure the Challenge money was hard to resist.

It's sad to watch that today with awareness of the ways she did change on her numerous Challenge appearances. The only through line connecting all the different Tonyas on screen over the years was deep neediness. I don't think money was the sole draw on the Challenge, although there was that too. It was also the attention and low-level celebrity. Certain regulars really began to consider themselves stars of an ongoing series. Because they were "good drama," they'd always have first refusal rights when a new season's cast was being put together, unless they had physically assaulted someone or otherwise disqualified themselves from consideration.  

Re: Aneesa's crudeness in Chicago. I think it was 75 percent really who she was and 25 percent needling once she saw that Tonya was uncomfortable with it. I generally liked her, but she could be that way.  

Something very "period" about that reunion, on brand for 2002, is the way the host got into the topic of Cara's hook-ups. She was single and 22, and she was right to bristle that the guy even went there with the "s" word. He didn't take the same approach when he moved on to Theo, and he wouldn't have if he'd been interviewing any other male "playa" from Real World past. (How many women did Teck in Hawaii or David in New Orleans bring around?) I mean, Cara's dating was a topic with interesting things to explore (like her claims to be able to have casual sex with no strings, and her occasional inability to stick to the "no strings" part), but she didn't deserve to be chided just for having multiple partners. 

Kyle gets roasted in the book's section on the Keri/Kyle relationship. Nobody, not Keri, the other cast members, or production, supports his version of events. Producer Anthony Dominici says Kyle was very much into it at first, but then started trying to do damage control to preserve his relationship with Nicole, to the point of passing notes to other cast members to influence what they said on camera.

[Bastet]

3 minutes ago, Asp Burger said:

Something very "period" about that reunion, on brand for 2002, is the way the host got into the topic of Cara's hook-ups. She was single and 22, and she was right to bristle that the guy even went there with the "s" word. He didn't take the same approach when he moved on to Theo, and he wouldn't have if he'd been interviewing any other male "playa" from Real World past. (How many women did Teck in Hawaii or David in New Orleans bring around?)

It seems from what was said that Theo actually kept his sex life not just out of the house but off camera, not just that they chose not to show his the way they did Cara's, but, yeah, I don't remember any of the RW men who did parade a stream of women through the house being treated the way Cara was. 

[Asp Burger]

Theo did change after the hot tub/shower incident. He was defiant when Chris talked to him about it, saying he was going to keep bringing women over (even listing all the days of the week Chris could expect to see his hook-ups), but then we didn't see any more of it.  

Something in the reunion that wasn't surprising to me is the revelation of Tonya's abusiveness to crew members/production. We saw a little of it when she was dramatically leaving the house to fly home to Walla Walla, and she snarled at someone off-camera that she wasn't supposed to be lifting (which was the cue for the crew members to ignore that this was a pseudo-documentary and run to wait on her). She did make it hard to feel sorry for her sometimes. Treating the crew badly is always going to get you an unflattering edit, even when you don't give them as much to work with as she did.

[ljenkins782]

18 hours ago, Bastet said:

I don't think nudity is rude (and find it very troubling to hear Tonya call it "disgusting"), but once Tonya straight up told her she was uncomfortable with it, Aneesa needed to compromise and put on a robe around her since it's Tonya's home, too.  If it was solely that she'd been raised to feel comfortable with nudity, it shouldn't have been a problem to cover up around one person who was uncomfortable.  So clearly there was also an attention-seeking element, not specifically of "look at my body", but of "I'm edgy and do what I'm gonna do".

Pooping with the door open is not something anyone should have to bring to your attention as uncool in a shared bathroom.

If her reasoning for calling it disgusting was because she was referring to Aneesa's body in particular, I agree that's wrong. But the extent of Aneesa's nakedness in a house full of people who are not her family and not even close friends (at first) is extreme. It's one thing if she was walking from the shower to her room or something, but she hung around the house that way regularly. For someone like Tonya, who didn't have a great relationship with Aneesa (and they'd only met shortly before), I can totally understand feeling uncomfortable.

I think there was something in the RW You Never Saw for this season about Aneesa using nudity as an excuse for not getting miked, so they starting taping mikes to her body.

Quote

Something in the reunion that wasn't surprising to me is the revelation of Tonya's abusiveness to crew members/production. We saw a little of it when she was dramatically leaving the house to fly home to Walla Walla, and she snarled at someone off-camera that she wasn't supposed to be lifting (which was the cue for the crew members to ignore that this was a pseudo-documentary and run to wait on her). She did make it hard to feel sorry for her sometimes. Treating the crew badly is always going to get you an unflattering edit, even when you don't give them as much to work with as she did.

Yeah, that scene of her dragging her suitcase while berating the crew for not helping her was probably a good example of how she behaved toward them in general. I've heard other cast members say the crew will do things like shoot people from underneath at an unflattering angle if they don't like them. The editing room had a lot of fun with Tonya with their split screens of her fake sick voice followed by a clip of her vigorously working out at the gym or something, not to mention the infamous Walla Walla kidney stones montage.

Quote

Something very "period" about that reunion, on brand for 2002, is the way the host got into the topic of Cara's hook-ups. She was single and 22, and she was right to bristle that the guy even went there with the "s" word. He didn't take the same approach when he moved on to Theo, and he wouldn't have if he'd been interviewing any other male "playa" from Real World past. (How many women did Teck in Hawaii or David in New Orleans bring around?) I mean, Cara's dating was a topic with interesting things to explore (like her claims to be able to have casual sex with no strings, and her occasional inability to stick to the "no strings" part), but she didn't deserve to be chided just for having multiple partners. 

The host kinda sneered at her through this segment and she backed down from saying that there was nothing wrong with a single person having a few hook ups. And if it's true that she didn't realize the cameras were there when the camera crew wasn't physically in the room, then that's wrong  and it means she wasn't being quite the exhibitionist she ended up looking like. But I'm not sure it's entirely true that they had no idea. Unless those cameras were hidden really well, but even then, I feel like somewhere in the contract, they had to tell them. It's possible that she kinda knew there were cameras, but didn't think they'd feature the details quite the way they did.

[heatherchandler]

On 5/10/2021 at 1:04 PM, ljenkins782 said:

 

The "I made out with a rock star..." clip was definitely the center of their marketing campaign that season. I also remember the promos set to music, I wonder if anyone ever taped those from this season? 

I remember the song to the promos - Daft Punk "Digital Love."  I loved that song (at the time) and I found it on Napster to download!  😲

 

On 5/24/2021 at 3:01 PM, Bastet said:

This season this was recently uploaded to YouTube (it seems to be complete); I've watched the preview special (in which Coral hilariously translates Mike's rules for being a good roommate, e.g. "social gatherings should be a quiet affair, organized, with the consent of all roommates" becomes "leave your friends at home; nobody likes them") and the first several episodes.

 

I am very excited to do a re-watch!  I hope the episodes are not removed before I get a chance.

 

 

On 5/24/2021 at 10:18 PM, choclatechip45 said:

Todd Park Mohr.

 

I still can't believe she hooked up with Big Head Todd.

 

On 5/25/2021 at 7:17 PM, Bastet said:

 

I thought that would be the episode with the "Walla Walla kidney stones" song, but I guess not (then again, these uploads tend to be missing the end of most episodes).

A-ha, it's at the beginning of the next episode.  A classic.

I sometimes sing "kidney stones and kidney stones" to myself!  

Edited May 28, 2021 by heatherchandler

[Bastet]

2 hours ago, ljenkins782 said:

And if it's true that she didn't realize the cameras were there when the camera crew wasn't physically in the room, then that's wrong  and it means she wasn't being quite the exhibitionist she ended up looking like. But I'm not sure it's entirely true that they had no idea. Unless those cameras were hidden really well, but even then, I feel like somewhere in the contract, they had to tell them. It's possible that she kinda knew there were cameras, but didn't think they'd feature the details quite the way they did.

Maybe they didn't know they were night vision cameras.  Because I tend to think they knew cameras were there due to how everyone pulled the covers entirely over themselves and their partners at an early point in the action - it wasn't just to shield themselves from other roommates, because Tonya did it when Justin came to visit while everyone else was gone.

[Teriyaki Terror]

On 5/27/2021 at 4:52 PM, Bastet said:

I don't think nudity is rude (and find it very troubling to hear Tonya call it "disgusting"), but once Tonya straight up told her she was uncomfortable with it, Aneesa needed to compromise and put on a robe around her since it's Tonya's home, too.  If it was solely that she'd been raised to feel comfortable with nudity, it shouldn't have been a problem to cover up around one person who was uncomfortable.  So clearly there was also an attention-seeking element, not specifically of "look at my body", but of "I'm edgy and do what I'm gonna do".

Pooping with the door open is not something anyone should have to bring to your attention as uncool in a shared bathroom.

If it were one of the guys walking around naked it would have been a completely different story. 

[Asp Burger]

I've been watching some episodes today, with my interest rekindled. Fun. It seems so long ago, and things keep jumping out that date it, like Kyle out somewhere on on a pay phone next to posters for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Cast Away. 

The Dr. Pepper product placement is embarrassing. They were sponsors that season, and I remember that because the commercials with the Garth Brooks jingle were running in every break ("Be you, do what you do!"). But a five-year-old would watch this and know they must have been sponsors. Dr. Pepper and Diet Dr. Pepper cans are everywhere. It isn't just in the RW house, either. Even the little kids painting the murals are sucking down the Dr. Pepper. Kyle has one of his college friends visiting at one point (not Djordje, another one), and they're looking in the refrigerator, and the friend says, "I'll have a Jim Beam and Coke...I mean, Jim Beam and Dr. Pepper." LOL.

[Asp Burger]

The Real World You Never Saw for this season is also on YouTube, in much better quality than the episodes. It looks like a rip from a DVD, whereas the episodes were from someone's VHS copies (decent picture but lo-fi muddy sound).  

I'd never seen the RWYNS for this season. I was never much of a fan of RWYNS, having seen the Hawaii and New Orleans ones. I'm not big on bathroom humor and pratfalls, which tend to make up a lot of the content. But sometimes the cast members are more likable and at ease in them. 

This one is fairly entertaining if you liked this season/cast. I guess they filmed it close to the end of their time in Chicago, and as usual, the cast members are reminiscing and setting up the clips in 3/2/2 groups. Kyle is seated with both of his "love interests," Keri and Cara. Aneesa and Theo are predictably put together. That leaves Chris (who probably did the least arguing in this cast, and so could be with anyone) on Tonya duty. No one has seen completed episodes, so he has to tactfully break the news to her about the kidney-stones song, of which we get an unaired beginning.  

There's some stuff very reminiscent of famous moments on earlier seasons. A bird gets into the house and they're trying to catch it, which is something that actually was a B-plot of an episode in Seattle. At the end of the season, the Chicago cast searches for and invades the control room, which was the finale of the original New York season. 

Cara had a crush on a handsome Asian-American director, which went unreciprocated. That director says that he cared about all the kids, but even now that the season has ended, he would never act on anything with Cara. No New York Becky hijinks for him! 

Lots of bathroom humor and pratfalls, of course. A segment on Aneesa's vibrator. 

There's a cruel but funny segment on the dumbness (or "sheltered" quality, if you want to be nice about it) of Tonya. She thinks the production company is "Bill Murray Productions." She got more phone messages than anyone -- mostly from Justin -- but she never learned how to access them in all the time they were there, even though Chris reminds her that the code is simply "1-2-3-4." She didn't know where Chicago was on a United States map, and she believed Kyle when he pointed to Southwest Texas. She said they were so close to Mexico that they should walk there. 

Keri lied to some guy in a bar that she was the daughter of the actress who played J.R.'s wife on Dynasty, and then was embarrassed when she later learned she was mixing up Dallas and Dynasty.

Theo and Aneesa each had a lot more women than made it into the show. Cara wishes she had kept her own hook-ups offscreen. There was also a six-person gay-and-lesbian shower scene we never saw (Aneesa, Veronica, Chris and three male friends I don't think we ever saw on the show), which I now remember seeing in a preseason teaser, so there's an old mystery cleared up. 

Kyle dressed in Chris-like clothes and sunglasses and imitated all his mannerisms, and Chris didn't even realize he was being imitated. He just complimented Kyle on his new style and said he should keep it, because he looked great. 

Lots more, but I'll leave people some discoveries. It's not a bad way to spend 45 minutes. 

Edited June 3, 2021 by Asp Burger

[ljenkins782]

Quote

This one is fairly entertaining if you liked this season/cast. I guess they filmed it close to the end of their time in Chicago, and as usual, the cast members are reminiscing and setting up the clips in 3/2/2 groups. Kyle is seated with both of his "love interests," Keri and Cara. Aneesa and Theo are predictably put together. That leaves Chris (who probably did the least arguing in this cast, and so would have been worked with anyone) on Tonya duty. No one has seen completed episodes, so he has to tactfully break the news to her about the kidney-stones song, of which we get an unaired beginning.  

I watched this one the other night, the arrangements are a little awkward, Cara/Keri/Kyle doesn't work as well as it would have in the earlier days of the season. It's clear that Kyle and Keri aren't on great terms and Cara is clearly taking Kyle's side, to the point of actually physically lifting herself up and moving toward him at times. Keri isn't inclined to laugh at Kyle's stories and both Kyle and Cara are pretty lukewarm to Keri's stories. 

Also, Chris gets paired with Tonya because he's the nicest, but they have zero chemistry so the stories and fake laughing fall so flat. Aneesa and Theo are the only pairing who are genuinely having fun and reminiscing.

[Asp Burger]

On 5/31/2021 at 12:09 AM, ljenkins782 said:

I watched this one the other night, the arrangements are a little awkward, Cara/Keri/Kyle doesn't work as well as it would have in the earlier days of the season. It's clear that Kyle and Keri aren't on great terms and Cara is clearly taking Kyle's side, to the point of actually physically lifting herself up and moving toward him at times. Keri isn't inclined to laugh at Kyle's stories and both Kyle and Cara are pretty lukewarm to Keri's stories. 

Yes. It might have been an improvement if they'd put her in a trio with Chris and Tonya, although they never would have, because Kyle/Keri was such a story that season (like Colin/Amaya...but now with 75 percent more female backbone). Keri tries to put on her game face and get through it, and she does loosen up a little as it progresses, but at the beginning she's icy. Like, "Get me out of here."

[choclatechip45]

For those who watched this when it aired what was the reception to the cast? Where any of them fan favorites? A few episodes in nobody seems all that likable. Every season up to this point seemed to have some likable cast members a few episodes in. I do remember when I started getting into the Real World a fews years later this wasn't a well liked cast. I do remember in 2004 Tonya did an interview and when asked if she kept in touch with anyone and she said something along the lines of "No one besides Chris would you want to keep in touch with everyone from my season."

[Bastet]

On 5/28/2021 at 11:43 PM, Asp Burger said:

There's a cruel but funny segment on the dumbness (or "sheltered" quality, if you want to be nice about it) of Tonya.

I mostly thought that was mean, since I assume she's under-educated due to initially being raised by a neglectful mother and then bounced around the foster care system, but I freely admit to laughing my ass off at her version of north, south, east, and west.

[Giuseppe]

5 hours ago, choclatechip45 said:

For those who watched this when it aired what was the reception to the cast? Where any of them fan favorites? A few episodes in nobody seems all that likable.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I didn't find this cast, nor this season, to be very enjoyable. I think this was the first season that I felt kinda checked out of The Real World. I mean, I still watched every subsequent season without fail (I think Ex-Plosion was the last season I watched), but this Chicago season made me realize that I was losing interest in the show.

[ljenkins782]

4 minutes ago, Bastet said:

I mostly thought that was mean, since I assume she's under-educated due to initially being raised by a neglectful mother and then bounced around the foster care system, but I freely admit to laughing my ass off at her version of north, south, east, and west.

That was really funny, especially since I'm directionally challenged myself. 

Quote

Yes. It might have been an improvement if they'd put her in a trio with Chris and Tonya, although they never would have, because Kyle/Keri was such a story that season (like Colin/Amaya...but now with 75 percent more female backbone). Keri tries to put on her game face and get through it, and she does loosen up a little as it progresses, but at the beginning she's icy. Like, "Get me out of here."

They could have put her with Aneesa and Theo. Something I noticed from that RWYNS is how much time Keri and Aneesa spent together and that they seemed like good friends. That didn't come through on the season, it was always Aneesa and Theo or Aneesa and Cara. It also showed that Theo and Cara seemed to be better friends than it ever seemed like on the show. 

In watching back a few more episodes on Youtube, I realized that I can kinda see the appeal of Kyle when he's being his normal self (in other words, when the camera isn't focused entirely on him). The episode where he walks an extremely drunk Keri home is funny, she is trying SO hard to pretend she's completely fine when she's so completely not and he kinda needles her drunk ass the entire journey home. But every time he's really conscious of the cameras, he puts this weird ass voice on and gets all pompous and irritating. 

I also watched the episode where they go to Kyle's lake house and I have to say, I really think Kyle and Keri had plans to do something while they were there and it got disrupted by the other roommates deciding not to go. Kyle's desperation to get other people to go just had a vibe to it, like it was going to be a crowd and since the lake house wouldn't be wired up with cameras, they had a plot to get some true alone time that they were never going to mention. Once Theo and Aneesa refused to play along, he went up by himself and the rest of them came up later and the moment passed. And then after that point, things started to go south between them and Cara did her best to drive that wedge deeper so she could get some attention from Kyle, which was a really shitty thing to do. 

[Asp Burger]

23 hours ago, choclatechip45 said:

For those who watched this when it aired what was the reception to the cast? Where any of them fan favorites? A few episodes in nobody seems all that likable. Every season up to this point seemed to have some likable cast members a few episodes in.

I was following it on Television Without Pity in 2002. I don't remember at the time many people expressing that the cast was unusually hard to like or watch, and the early episodes were received with relief. The prior season (Back to New York) had been very unpopular at TWoP, with even the recapper expressing that she was bored and struggling to continue long before it was over. The producers seemed to realize that that season had problems, because they kept bringing other people in for variety. They even let each cast member choose a reject from the casting special to come to the Hamptons with them. 

Opinions of the Chicago cast shifted over the course of the season in a typical way. Initially, Theo was the most hated for his hardline homophobia and combativeness. Tonya got a lot of side-eyeing for "He's...black" on first seeing Theo, and then saying something about her anxiety over interracial living. Kyle was well liked at first. 

By the end of the season, Kyle and Cara were getting the most forum hate. Throughout the season, Keri and Chris got the least (Keri was definitely the TWoP "fan favorite"). Aneesa had fans for her humor, drama, and honesty.

To compare to New Orleans, when that season was airing, a lot of people found Melissa grating and over the top in the first several episodes, and she was adored by the end, while Julie's sheltered-ingenue routine was starting to wear thin (a process that continued on the Extreme Challenge, which began just a couple months later). Everyone hated Jamie at the start, because he had had such a "privileged white boy" intro in the casting special and had called Kameelah "Shaka Zulu," but most had mellowed toward him by the end of the NO season. 

Quote

I do remember in 2004 Tonya did an interview and when asked if she kept in touch with anyone and she said something along the lines of "No one besides Chris would you want to keep in touch with everyone from my season."

Yeah, but I'm considering the source. Tonya ran Kyle a close race for my least-favorite roommate, and he'd probably be easier than she was to actually be around, especially if a person were completely not into him romantically or sexually at any point.

I had disliked B2NY, but Vegas was the season that made me feel it had turned into something that just wasn't for me anymore. Chicago was the last one I liked.

Edited June 2, 2021 by Asp Burger

[Hiyo]

Funny enough, I preferred B2NY over Chicago. Chicago was the last season of the show I watched, but even then it was on and off. And definitely the one I think I enjoyed the least from the first 11 seasons.

[Asp Burger]

18 hours ago, ljenkins782 said:

In watching back a few more episodes on Youtube, I realized that I can kinda see the appeal of Kyle when he's being his normal self (in other words, when the camera isn't focused entirely on him). The episode where he walks an extremely drunk Keri home is funny, she is trying SO hard to pretend she's completely fine when she's so completely not and he kinda needles her drunk ass the entire journey home. But every time he's really conscious of the cameras, he puts this weird ass voice on and gets all pompous and irritating.

Kyle made the big mistake (and he wasn't the first or last) of trying to control the narrative and the way he was presented. For his trouble, he came off as the least genuine of the seven. I don't think any of them could ever forget the cameras were there, but I felt I was really seeing who Theo, Aneesa, and Keri were, good points and bad. I felt I was often seeing Kyle's performances of "sincerity" and "sensitivity" and "inner conflict."

The most important piece of advice anyone could get before doing this show was to just be who you are. The directors and editors had more experience at this; it wasn't a good idea to try to outsmart them. Matt in Hawaii is another who tried to beat the system and got burned. 

[choclatechip45]

I just watched the episode where they are taking the lifeguard test and Cara is absolutely hilarious. She is so upset that she will disappoint her Dad and arguing with her bosses. 

[Teriyaki Terror]

8 hours ago, choclatechip45 said:

I just watched the episode where they are taking the lifeguard test and Cara is absolutely hilarious. She is so upset that she will disappoint her Dad and arguing with her bosses. 

She mos def had daddy issues. Always needing to be in a relationship and falling for any guy who looks at her. 20 years later I got second hand embarrassment. I hope she's doing well though.

[ljenkins782]

On 6/3/2021 at 12:37 AM, Teriyaki Terror said:

She mos def had daddy issues. Always needing to be in a relationship and falling for any guy who looks at her. 20 years later I got second hand embarrassment. I hope she's doing well though.

Cara is the poster child for daddy issues, she checks every single box on the daddy issues list.

Re: the lifeguarding test. She actually wasn't wrong to say outright "I'm not comfortable being in charge of someone's life," but she gave up on the test to avoid looking like she failed and then regretted it when others passed, including Keri. I think if just Kyle and Chris had passed, she might have been indifferent to it (Kyle was a collegiate athlete and Chris was a workout fanatic), but Keri accomplishing something difficult seemed to hit her daddy issue button hard. 

But I also want to know whose bright idea it was to make the group job a lifeguarding job. Yes, teenagers can do that job, but it's specifically teenagers who are good swimmers. They chose 7 random people for various reasons, but I doubt any of those reasons included swimming ability. And if by some miracle, someone like Cara happened to try her hardest and pass the test, it still doesn't make her a good choice for a lifeguard on a beach.

Quote

 

Kyle made the big mistake (and he wasn't the first or last) of trying to control the narrative and the way he was presented. For his trouble, he came off as the least genuine of the seven. I don't think any of them could ever forget the cameras were there, but I felt I was really seeing who Theo, Aneesa, and Keri were, good points and bad. I felt I was often seeing Kyle's performances of "sincerity" and "sensitivity" and "inner conflict."

The most important piece of advice anyone could get before doing this show was to just be who you are. The directors and editors had more experience at this; it wasn't a good idea to try to outsmart them. Matt in Hawaii is another who tried to beat the system and got burned. 

 

For sure, you could pick out the moments where Kyle was performing. As we'd later learn from his soap opera career, he just ain't that good an actor. Like his conversation with Chris about sobriety and how he felt about the other roommates drinking etc, his tone of voice was so after school special-y. 

I blame the casting people for Hawaii Matt, somewhere along the very lengthy and involved casting process, it should have been obvious that he was a disingenuous douchebag. Kyle's casting made more sense, he was the type Mary-Ellis Bunim would go for, between his looks and his ingratiating demeanor. 

But I do think we got glimpses of who Kyle really is, most notably in the argument with Keri where she pointed out how fake he was being. That mask fell real fast when someone didn't toe the line.

[Tatum]

On 6/1/2021 at 3:01 PM, choclatechip45 said:

For those who watched this when it aired what was the reception to the cast? Where any of them fan favorites? A few episodes in nobody seems all that likable. Every season up to this point seemed to have some likable cast members a few episodes in. I do remember when I started getting into the Real World a fews years later this wasn't a well liked cast. I do remember in 2004 Tonya did an interview and when asked if she kept in touch with anyone and she said something along the lines of "No one besides Chris would you want to keep in touch with everyone from my season."

I watched it and posted a lot on TWoP. Keri was definitely a fan favorite, especially towards the end. Tonya was ragged on the most during the beginning, and then it was Kyle and Cara (Tonya was still ragged on, but not as much as the other two by the end).

 

I didn't really like Keri. I felt sorry for her towards the end (I think she was really hurt and embarrassed by the way Kyle treated her), but she seemed like one of those women who liked to point out how "not like other women" she is, as though being a woman is somehow bad by design and being more like a man is aspirational for women. I can respect though, that she didn't really talk a lot of shit about people.

 

Kyle deserved every insult he got. What a condescending asshole. Cara, I actually felt pretty sorry for, even though she could be annoying. She clearly had low self esteem and was always looking for attention from men as a temporary pick me up. I think she showed Tonya a lot of kindness and was deeply hurt when it got back to her all the truly nasty things Tonya said about her behind her back.

 

Tonya was pretty reprehensible. I was something of a Tonya apologist back in the day and even I had trouble defending her at times. She clearly was uncomfortable around black men, which, she can't help how she feels, but she always tried to make it seem like Theo was the problem, like he needed to go out of his way to not do anything she might consider intimidating. She was clearly very jealous of Cara and Keri having money and strong family ties. I didn't really blame her for having a problem with Aneesa, who I found very obnoxious. And she did once awesomely tell Keri that Kyle was full of shit and she needed to tell him to fuck off. Those were her exact words, I am pretty sure.

 

I read or heard somewhere that when Tonya was doing the audition process, she had broken up with Justin, and was an entirely different person than when she showed up at the house, having reconciled with him between the audition and the filming.

 

It is very sad to see Tonya decline throughout her show appearances. She showed up at the reunion, admitted she'd been an asshole, and didn't offer up excuses or blame editing. She also said a lot of the shit she said about Cara (having a "raging" eating disorder and sleeping with 9,10 guys since filming started) was completely unfounded, which took some courage. Her next two Challenges were probably her at her peak- physically fit and mentally well. By the mid 2000s she was drinking heavily and taking prescription drugs recreationally, and getting into constant cat fights with the other women. She got worse with every subsequent challenge,

[Teriyaki Terror]

On 5/9/2022 at 4:56 PM, Tatum said:

t is very sad to see Tonya decline throughout her show appearances. She showed up at the reunion, admitted she'd been an asshole, and didn't offer up excuses or blame editing. She also said a lot of the shit she said about Cara (having a "raging" eating disorder and sleeping with 9,10 guys since filming started) was completely unfounded, which took some courage. Her next two Challenges were probably her at her peak- physically fit and mentally well. By the mid 2000s she was drinking heavily and taking prescription drugs recreationally, and getting into constant cat fights with the other women. She got worse with every subsequent challenge,

I would really like to see what she's up to these days. 

[Tatum]

12 hours ago, Teriyaki Terror said:

I would really like to see what she's up to these days. 

Last I heard she was single, living in Walla Walla, and owned a hair salon. I found her private facebook a few years back (well, I guess I can't verify it's run by her, but seemed pretty legit) and she looked really good.

 

She is the queen of re-invention though...who else can say that in their 40 years on earth, they  1. appeared on reality TV on a regular basis for nearly 10 years, , 2. got a masters in nursing, 3. dabbled in soft core porn, 4. owned and operated (well family business) a rural Nebraska grocery store, and 5. own a hair salon?