(image courtesy of: http://thepreppyprincess.files.wordpress.com)Confession. I love Bravo reality shows. The Real Housewives of Orange County. Top Chef. Project Runway (it just won't be the same on Lifetime this season). I waited, with baited breath and anticipation for NYC Prep. I assumed that it would be my new summertime guilty pleasure while the rest of my television viewing schedule includes Gossip Girl repeats and 16 & Pregnant on MTV (classy, I know).
Well, we know what assuming does...
I watched the full hour-long premiere episode of NYC Prep last night and, I can't lie. Part of me felt nauseous. Part of me wanted to gauge my eyes and plug my ears. Let me give you the rundown.
Quite possibly the worst part of the show. Overachieving Camille. Overachieving Camille who is nothing like fictional (yet fabulous) overachieving Blair Waldorf on Gossip Girl. Blair Waldorf would never check her SAT scores via Blackberry herself (she would have her devout minions do it for her). She also would never think that at 40 she would be "married with two children, after taking on the business side of a genetics firm." While I know that there are legacies to follow and family footsteps to fill, this girl is what? 17? Why does she have everything so planned out to the spaces and commas? Doesn't she see that this only leads to disappointment and? On top of this fact, petty, but true, why does she wear her hair like she does?
Also horrible? Sebastian, who hooks up with "between 2 and 16 girls a month." I have nothing else to say.
Aside from the obnoxious, overindulgent, ignorant kids (and I say this as a former overindulgent, ignorant kid), the perception that this show casts not only on the students' respective schools, but over private schools as a whole is unflattering and unattractive. Prep school, as a whole, was like any other high school experience. I'd never go back. The reasons for that, however, are not due to the fact that children had unlimited funds, Upper East Side penthouses and considered a $300 Alice + Olivia dress "cheap." However, looking at students now, I'd be inclined to not bring my future children into a private school atmosphere, for fear that either they would resent everyone around them, or, even worse, become one. Call me lame and adult, but I side with the school administrators on this one. Ugh. Back to a summer filled of DVD box sets and CW reruns.
-M
