Thoughts on the Real World: Back to New Orleans Reunion Recap

The reunion for the Real World: Back to New Orleans aired a full week ago, and even now I'm not sure what to think about it. At times, I was compelled by the arguments and Ryan's typically abnormal behavior. At other times, I was bored just hoping for a fight. In the end, I was left with only one absolute truth: All of these people except for Knight and Jemmye are crappy people. It shocked me to come away from a great season with this feeling. How could I go from such a high to such a low? Well, I think I finally may have answers.

The main point is the entire season, Ryan carried the show, playing the huge psychotic asshole while everybody else reacted to that. Plus, the producers edited the show so the others came across as good folks who weren't that interesting. However, during the reunion, there was no hiding a lot of people's true nature. McKenzie, in particular, grew some major cajones. You never would have thought she had a real issue with anyone in the house during the season, but it turns out she absolutely detested Ryan and was only slightly more cordial with everyone else. I mean, she really tried to instigate. My theory is she wasn't prominently featured on the show during the season, and this was her last attempt to milk some fame out of the show and get on the Challenge. The funny part about McKenzie yelling at Ryan was Ryan still somehow owned her in their fight. You don't mess with Ryan, he is unstable.

Speaking of Ryan, even he frustrated me. On the show, he was insane in a great way. He spoke his unbalanced mind and caused some awesome drama. But on the reunion, he chose to play it coy and frustrate the host (Maria Menoulous, wtf happened to your career?). That is NOT the Ryan I signed up to the fan club for. I guess Ryan really just checked out of the show after he left. He doesn't seem to want to be a part of the show anymore, which is a crying shame because he could've been an all time great, dare I say CT-esque minus the steroids?

Knight was his usual great self, particularly the awfully timed joke kiss with Ashley. Immediately after, everyone was saying "why would you do that then?" To me, the thought was "Why wouldn't you do that? Perfect timing!!" I can relate as I always go for the funny line in awkward moments, usually to my detriment. But the one time it works, it makes it all worth while.

I still don't understand the awkwardness between Knight and Jemmye. From what I can guess, he still wouldn't commit to saying he loves Jemmye, or that they are even together. Jemmye didn't like this at all and it was very uncomfortable. Cue Knight's smooth kiss.

There were some other decent moments. I liked how everyone called Ashley out on her butting into everyone else's business. And I enjoyed Knight wondering if Eric was even in the show. That's what I thought!! Yay!! But there were other moments that made me just pissed off that i actually enjoyed the cast. For example, everyone ragging on Eric for being a creeper. Hey, I like the guy! Also, I really didn't like how much everyone was killing Knight over the prescription drug issue. The dude has some real problems, and you berate him because Ryan said he took some drugs? How about turning your anger to Ryan for falsely accusing Knight. By the way, was Ryan telling the truth or not? I never fully understood that part. Someone let me know. I can understand the rest of the cast not understanding why Knight wasn't more pissed about Ryan making things up. But I also thought Knight was just taking a zen approach to the whole thing. You can't let yourself get dragged into Ryan's bullshit. And as a result, Knight gets ripped apart. Now, Knight may have taken the pills, but no one knows for sure. But his roommates, except for Jemmye, came down hard on him. So for that, a big fuck you to Ashley, McKenzie, Sahar, Preston, and Ryan on behalf of Knight. I left out Eric because I'm pretty sure he wasn't around when this all went down.

Which brings me to Sahar. Now, during the show, I disliked her a bit. But she was a strong female who gave it as good as she got it so she got points. However, watching her on the reunion just made me want to beat her over the head with Ashley. She just bitched out everyone, making sure to give a healthy dose of judgmental bitch. And then, we got to her relationship with Pablo. Amazingly (saying this sarcastically), she is still with him. You see, folks, we don't really know how they are together, how great Pablo treats her when they are together. Sahar is just really enlightened about relationships and while she can pass judgment on Jemmye for allowing Knight to verbally abuse, to criticize her for her choices is just blasphemy. Because your 7 roommates who think he's a dick can be wrong, as are the million of people who watch the show. You go, Sahar! You really deserve Pablo.

I think it was during this segment that I realized something crucial that I didn't see during the season. These guys hate each other. The entire episode was spent with every roommate just berating the other. Where is the camaraderie? Now, alone, hate for each other can fuel some great drama. But it just didn't come through during the season. Clearly, this is because Ryan absorbed all of the negative energy. The reunion was the first real example that there was some good drama that never had a chance to surface. However, the big flaw in the cast was that it was full of judgmental people like Sahar and Ashlee. So the type of arguments wind up aggravating you. I don't know why, but something about people preaching values on others makes them come across poorly in my view. This is why I hate evangelicals and Red Sox fans. Ok, Sox fans don't preach their values. They just suck.

After a season of greatness, I am left with a bitter taste in my mouth. I could let it cloud my view of the season, but I won't let it. Overall this season was great. Maybe it was because of only one or two cast members, but no matter. I had fun and my faith in the Real World has been restored. Now I know I will be watching the show at least into my early 30s. Man, my fiance is going to be pissed.

See you all soon for the Challenge!!!

1,000!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached a 1,000 page views!! I'll be honest, I never thought we'd get this far. It all started with a dream. But with that dream came a lot of work. Well, some work. Well, drunken work. But thank you to everyone who reads this humble little blog and getting us this far. I promise to continue and try to grow this blog. And please, send me your comments! Let me know what you would like me to discuss. I'm open to anything. Thanks again!

Edit: Well, I'm surely a moron. I just noticed thanks to a blog I asked to review this site, I put in this post that I reached 1,000 posts. I should have said 1,000 page views. My bad. I am an idiot and deserve the ridicule.

More Exciting Info on The Challenge: Cutthroat

According to Wikipedia, which is never wrong, the new format for the Challenge will be three teams of ten. They will all face off in a competition, with the winning team's members each receiving $20,000 for their personal back account, and the losing teams having to vote in a male and female for the elimination challenge. This elimination challenge will be called, and I kid you not, THE GULAG!

In case you need brushing up on your world history, the gulag was the term given to Soviet prison camps where many political prisoners and others ultimately met their deaths.

So it makes perfect sense for MTV to name their elimination challenge "the gulag." I mean, because when I think of gulags, my mind immediately goes to horrible oppression at the hands of a brutal regime and steroid and std ravaged twenty somethings playing a game of sudoku while suspended upside down for a chance at some money and more free vodka.

I'm going to wait until the shows airs for the contestants to make the offensive comments about how much this show reminds them of a gulag before I comment on the utter stupidity of calling this thing the "gulag."

Here is the breakdown of the teams. I hope you guys are as fist-pumped as I am!

Cast

Host: T. J. Lavin, BMX rider

RED TEAM[4][3] Player Original season Brad Fiorenza RW: San Diego Brandon Drake Nelson Fresh Meat II Camila Nakagawa Spring Break Challenge Chet Cannon RW: Brooklyn Dunbar Flinn RW: Sydney Mandi Moyer Fresh Meat II Melinda Stolp RW: Austin Paula Meronek RW: Key West Tori Fiorenza RR: Viewers' Revenge Tyler Duckworth RW: Key West

BLUE TEAM[5][3] Player Original Season Derek Chavez RW: Cancun Derrick Kosinski RR: X-Treme Emilee Fitzpatrick RW: Cancun Emily Schromm RW: Washington D.C. Eric Banks Fresh Meat Jenn Grijalva RW: Denver Johnny Devenanzio RW: Key West Katie Doyle RR: The Quest Theresa Gonzalez Fresh Meat II Ty Ruff RW: Washington D.C.

GRAY TEAM[6][3] Player Original Season Abram Boise RR: South Pacific Ayiiia Elizarraras RW: Cancun Cara Maria Sorbello Fresh Meat II Dan Walsh RR: Viewers' Revenge J.D. Ordoñez RW: Brooklyn Laurel Stucky Fresh Meat II Luke Wolfe Fresh Meat II Sarah Rice RW: Brooklyn Shauvon Torres RW: Sydney Vinny Foti Fresh Meat II

Expanded Thoughts on Season Finale

I guess that wasn't fair of me. I write a blog so i should put more up than just "eh." But I stand by it being funny. On that I will not budge. As to the actual episode, it was a classic example of a lot of buildup and little delivery. Ryan was coming back and it was going to be epic...until it wasn't. No one got into it with him and he was gone almost as soon as he got there. The rest of the episode was about how much everyone is going to miss each other. Fairly standard and on most seasons, I wouldn't complain. This is generally how season finale's go. But this season was so entertaining that I half-expected an over the top season finale with fights and drunken hook ups. And it didn't quite deliver.

It made me take another look at the entirety of the season, about what really made the season great. If we take out all of Ryan's drama, what do we have? Knight was hilarious and had some moments, but his prescription drug issue never became a whole episode arc. Jemmye had her moments, but I think her hooking up with Knight early on kind of ruined her potential for Snookie-like hilarity. And the rest of the cast, to be honest, kind of blew. Eric and Ashley were awful, and Preston really faded into the background after his blowup with Ryan. Sahar was somewhat interesting, but not as much as other minor characters in other seasons.

In the end, I think the major reason why the season was a bit of a dud if you remove Ryan is that the rest of the housemates really got along. There was no friction since they could also rally around hating Ryan. It's a bit like when you have a team who comes together because they all hate the coach. Magic can happen, but when the coach leaves, you lose the catalyst. That's what happened here. The show ended on a boring note after it began on the highest plateau. Which brings me to the main conclusion to be drawn from this season:

Ryan had a Hall of Fame season. I could go into his highlights, but you all know how awesome he was. But when he left the show, it dropped dramatically. It was clear that he was not only the glue keeping the season interesting, but he actually transcended the show. The guy needs his own sitcom or something. At the very least, he needs to be on a Challenge with CT and Kenny. I just hope this isn't the last we hear from Ryan.

I was going to do a final thought ala Jerry Springer, but I want to wait until the reunion show before I do that. Until next time.....

Initial Thoughts After Season Finale

Eh.

Real World: Back to New Orleans Season Finale Tonight!!

Tonight is the season finale of one of the best seasons of the Real World in recent memory, Back to New Orleans. I find it quite coincidental that the best season in years occurred at the same time I started this blog. Sometimes I wonder if this was good or bad for me. I think it would have been a different blog, not better or worse, but just different. Making fun of a season for sucking bad can be fun and funny, but it would get old quick. A good season like this sort of writes itself, which is great because it is easier but it also lends itself to simple recaps of plots. I hope I did a good job of keeping it fresh and entertaining for you guys.

So based on the previews, we find out that Ryan is coming back for the season finale!! This is awesome news, indeed! That isn't to say that the rest of the cast weren't interesting for the time they were without Ryan (Knight and Jemmye are MVP's on any other season), but it has to be noted that MTV only showed one episode from that time period. Obviously Ryan was away for more time than what was reflected on the last episode, yet they could only get one hour of quality material out of it. This speaks to how incredibly important Ryan has been for the show. Look at it this way: The producers had two amazing cast members in Knight and Jemmye. Still, they only had one episode of film before they decided to get Ryan back, Ladies and gentleman, I give you a Hall of Famer. I cannot for the life of me remember when the Real World featured another Hall of Fame season like Ryans'.

And now, after a seemingly short season, we arrive at the season finale. Although, the reunion show is really the season finale. That's when all of the best information comes out, especially since they've had a chance to watch the show and see how it was edited. But for posterity, we have to treat tonight's episode as the last. Well, fine. Be that way. I'm very excited since Ryan is coming back for god knows what reason. I wonder how they are going to play this. Will Ryan call the house and ask back or will he just show up? I'm practically giddy with anticipation. In fact, to type more would be exciting rambling and nothing more. So I will have to end it on that note. How many other bloggers would do that? Admit they are just going to be rambling if they continue? How awesome am I? No? Ok then....

Two Promo Clips Online for the Challenge:Cutthroat

All I can say is............CT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Challenge: Cutthroat Preview Part 2

The Female Side:

While the male side has some serious weaknesses both physically and personality-wise, I believe this may be one of the strongest female sides in Challenge history. First, let's get my one main gripe out of the way. After last season's emergence of uber-cocky Laurel, this would have been a fantastic opportunity to have Laurel on the show with another big personality athletic girl like Evelyn or Rachel. While there are definitely some girls who can hold their own, physically no girl comes close to Laurel. Also, at the Fresh Meat 2 reunion show, there was some bad blood between Laurel and Carly. I wish they had them both on this show to continue that rivalry. However...

Laurel represents a great bridge to the new era. She clearly is dominant as a female competitor, yet is still very new to the series. I look at her like Kevin Durant, a hugely talented yet young NBA player. Like Durant, Laurel clearly has immense talent, yet has not won a Challenge yet. There are a slew of veterans who are still in their prime that she has to knock out of the way on her road to greatness (much like Durant has Dwayne Wayde and Kobe Bryant, who have won championships. Ok, enough with the sports analogies). I think this is the Challenge where Laurel truly arrives.

The other females offer very intriguing dynamics. Cara from Fresh Meat 2 really stuck out for her inability to understand that people might vote her into the exile. That naiveness and stupidity makes for many unintentionally funny moments. Let's hope she stays around longer this time. Tori is back and hopefully she is as bitchy as ever. I only wish Frank was around to curse her out again. In fact, and not to be sexist here, but the best female casts for Challenges are made up of bitchy/psychotic/slutty women. And we have them in spades here!

Bitchy: Tori, Ayiiiiiiiiiiiiiiia, Jenn, Katie, Laurel, Melinda

Psychotic: Katie, Cara, Ayiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiia, Paula (big psycho points for Paula) Mandi

Slutty: Shauvon, Ayiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiia, Emily, Theresa, Laurel, Emilee

Add in the fact that Shauvon is the funniest cast member ever and we are golden. Only Sarah doesn't fall into any category.

My predictions for this Challenge:

Well, it all depends on the format. We know it won't be male/female teams (they did that last year). I think it will be one male and one female as the victors at the end. But I don't know how it will come about. Let's assume three guys and three girls vie for the top prize in the final Challenge. I know they did this before, and I kind of liked the basic premise of that.

Male: Female:

1.Brad 1.Sarah

2. Derrick 2. Laurel

3. Johnny 3. Emily

Will get into fight:

Abram Katie

Most popped boobs:

Eric Shauvon

Most Weed Smoked

Luke Luke

Other predictions:

This season will set the record for most gay/lesbian hook ups (If you do a rundown of the cast, there are a lot of gay guys and girls with daddy issues.

Tyler, Derek, JD, Chett (?) Laurel, Sarah, Emilee, Ayiiia, Emily, Jenn. Yep. Awesome.

Actually, that is all I can conceive of right now. There you have it. Another exciting season ahead of us. What are your thoughts, folks? What are you all looking forward to? Let me know.

The Challenge:Cutthroat Preview Part 1

I am intrigued. I think that’s the best word to use for how I feel about the upcoming season of the Challenge. It’s a testament to the creative people at MTV for creating a trailer that includes a lot of unbleeped cursing and naming the season “Cutthroat.” Immediately, questions start running through my brain. Why did the first trailer released contain lots of profanity, and why wasn’t it bleeped? Why is the show called Cutthroat and not simply a sequel of other Challenges, such as The Gauntlet 4? Why have there now been two clips with no actual footage shown? And why is this taking place in Prague, a populated tourist city, instead of some remote tropical location?

Are you intrigued yet?

No one knows the format, which could be awesome or awful. It seems they are going back to the Male/Female formula, which I love. Two winners, one male and one female. At least I think that’s how they are doing it. I could be way off. If it is so, I love it because you really have to earn the win on this one. It won’t be one of these final challenges where 10 people wind up winning. That format has single handedly skewed some research I am doing. The format could wind up being awful, however. Remember the Island? They kept changing the rules of the game to inject some drama in the season. If I was a contestant, I would have been supremely pissed.

But ultimately, this will come down to the talent the producers have assembled, and that is where I am getting worried. I don’t think the talent was that great on the last Challenge, Fresh Meat 2. It was pretty much the Kenny and Wes show. On the male side, the only two real alpha male rabble rousers are Abram and Johnny. And Abram is really just Wes-light. Surprisingly, the female side may have the real drama starters with Tori, Laurel, Katie, Jenn, Melinda, and newcomer Ayiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiia. But enough generalities, let’s get into some specifics here:

The Male Side:

This may go down as the least athletic male Challenge season ever. We have Abram, Derrick, Brad, Johnny, and Vinny has proven beasts in the Challenge. Ty is a rookie but physically seems to be imposing. Plus, get him drunk and he might hit a woman. Should he and Johnny “Domestic Violence” be on the same show together? Hopefully, the women will be separated by a fence or something.

Then there is a huge drop off from Ty onwards. Dunbar is awful at the Challenges, and Dan is a drunk. Brandon is not strong, just husky. And then it really gets bad. Tyler is a good swimmer and runner, which is helpful. But he does not do well in these Challenges and physically is nowhere near as strong as the other top tier male competitors. Eric “Big Easy” is a fat mess and is only a threat because he’s too fat to push out of a circle or drag across the sand. So he probably won’t be called into a man to man elimination challenge. Unless it’s running or breathing comfortably. J.D. is an iffy one. He could be athletic like Tyler or a complete dud like the rest of the guys. Ah, the rest of the guys. Has there been a worse bottom 3 in the history of the show? Derek from Cancun is a very little guy who doesn’t seem to have an athletic bone in his body. Chet from Brooklyn was on a Challenge before, and was about as good as you’d expect a purple shirt and Buddy-Holly glasses wearing, Mormon who weighs 120 pounds soaking wet. And then there is Luke, the little engine that doesn’t really care so long as there is weed. This is just awful. You should not have more than 1 guy who could legitimate get beat on a Challenge by a female, let alone potentially 5. To further illustrate how bad this male lineup is, here is the male competitors on The Gauntlet 3 stacked up against the upcoming cast (order based on how good I think they are.

Cutthroat: Gauntlet 3:

Derrick (RR: X-Treme) Evan (Fresh Meat)

Abram (South Pacific) Frank (Las Vegas)

Johnny (Key West) CT (Paris)

Brad (RW: San Diego) Kenny (Fresh Meat)

Vinny (Fresh Meat 2) Johnny (Key West)

Ty (DC) Brad (San Diego)

Dunbar (Sydney) MJ (Philadelphia)

Tyler (Key West) Nehemiah (Austin)

Eric (Fresh Meat) Derek (Viewer’s Revenge)

Dan (Viewer’s Revenge) Danny (Austin)

Brandon (Fresh Meat 2) Tyler (Key West)

J.D. (Brooklyn) Eric (Fresh Meat)

Luke (Fresh Meat 2) Ryan (Fresh Meat)

Derek (Cancun) Zach (Key West)

Chett (Brooklyn) Adam (Paris)

Alex (Denver)

It’s not even close here. Top to bottom the Gauntlet 3 had better competitors. I mean, Evan, Frank, CT, Kenny, Johnny, and Brad?!!! Good lord that’s a good lineup.

The only chance we have of this season being redeemable is if the personalities of the male competitors come into play. We know Johnny and Abram will cause some drama as they vie for Alpha Dog status. And anytime Dunbar enters the mix, you know he has the chance to act really psychotic. Tyler loves to stir up drama, as long as he can stay in the game long enough. But again, I think the problem is there are not enough big personalities on the male side. Vinnie, Eric, Dan, Brandon, JD, and especially Luke are not likely to stir up trouble for the Alpha Dogs (although, if you remember my gripes about alliance building in Fresh Meat 2, all of those guys should form an alliance right away).

Now, all this could wind up being moot because of the ever present X-factor: alcohol. Alcohol has been proven to bring out the animal in a lot of people on this season’s show. So while Chett and JD seem like cool mellow guys, adding alcohol could end up with one of them in the hospital. You just never know.

Coming up later today…The Female Side. This could be the headliner.

Well, that schedule was definitely NOT followed

Sorry for not following the schedule I posted. Labor Day weekend was way to busy to write I guess. That or I got a little too drunk to write. I'll have the post up about the upcoming Challenge season by tomorrow. That is a promise. So stay tuned.

Well This I Just Had To Write

And just like that, he was gone. Much like Nixon before him, Ryan left the Real World house disgraced and shamed, but defiant as ever that he did no wrong during his time in New Orleans. Ironically, for those of us who live in reality, the entire episode was quite surreal. It seemed as though all of a sudden, every single member of the house had serious issues with him, which ultimately culminated in his booting.

Immediately, the comparisons go towards Puck, who until now held the title of most obnoxious roommate in Real World history. But the key difference is Puck’s shenanigans were just that; shenanigans. Sure, he was a huge pain to live with and was offensive much of time, but a lot of the roommates’ issues with him stemmed from standard roommate conflicts, like being messy and inconsiderate. With Ryan, it’s like Puck on steroids. He was a homophobe, either because he was ignorant or in the closet. He was a bit racist (see his conversation with Sahar about Islam). He was weird as all hell. He was also inconsiderate in the normal ways, such as not cleaning and not forgetting plans he had with roommates. But he also took his selfishness and insensitivity to great new heights. A perfect example is from last night’s episode where he took the car to downtown New Orleans, left it there, forgot where he parked it, and then made Eric and Preston go search for it.

At some point, every guy in the house nearly fought him, sometimes twice (By the way, did anyone else find it funny that when both Eric and Knight wanted to fight him, Ryan tried to defuse the situation, but when he was yelling with Preston, then he took off his shirt and was itching to brawl). Ryan also was a blatant and compulsive liar, and took no extra thought to blaming something on someone else (see the prescription drug drama and lying about wiping his ass with Preston’s cigarettes).

There is a deep psychosis that exists with Ryan that borders on sociopathic tendencies. Sure, the lying and throwing others under the bus is troubling. But what about him squashing his beef with other roommates and then saying not soon after that it is all a front and he still hates his roommates? The bottom line is this was a very disturbed individual who luckily didn’t do something really bad during his time in New Orleans. So it was awesome to watch and made for a fantastic season, but it could have easily turned very real.

Throughout the entire season, I have been championing Ryan as the best thing to happen to the franchise. He was my MVP, and I never thought he should go home and turn the show into another Real World: DC. But his meltdown and dismissal oddly seems right and well timed. Perhaps it was just so sudden and over the top that there was nowhere else we could possibly take Ryan. I mean, what else could he do to top his behavior up until that point? Eventually, there had to be some resolution between him and the rest of the cast prior to the season finale. And this seemed to fit perfectly. We have a bunch of episodes left in the season, but the timing of Ryan’s departure was appropriate. Maybe now Eric and Sahar can start to shine. Eric was fantastic in this episode, which followed a strong performance last week.

There are, of course, a few lingering questions. For one, why did MTV show a promo clip of Sahar and Ryan possibly hooking up? Well, I assume they showed that hugely misleading clip because they’re dicks. More importantly, what happens to Ryan? Will he appear on a Challenge? I really hope the answer is yes because I don’t think Evan and Johnny “Domestic Violence” will let his antics slide like the New Orleans cast did ( Actually, I am PRAYING that Ryan does a Challenge that C.T. also appears on. Seriously, CT will go to jail for murder if that happens).

I would be doing a great disservice if I failed to mention what I thought was the funniest and craziest moment of the season; Ryan going to a drug awareness meeting with a beer! I mean, talk about not caring. That scene was just so insane yet there was something familiar about it. Turns out the ridiculously funny show “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia,” did a bit on this exact thing. One of the main characters was ordered to attend Alcoholics Anonymous and showed up drinking a beer. Classic Charlie. And now I can say Classic Ryan. Just a surreal moment in reality television.

Overall, I am completely satisfied with how this season has transpired up until this point. Ryan was a breath of fresh, blow dried air to the Real World franchise. He was destined to self destruct and turn everyone against him. But he gave up some awesome moments before that happened. The other characters clearly seem to be able to handle to weight now that Ryan is gone; while he could have carried this season by himself, Ryan didn’t need to because Jemmye and Knight were also such great personalities. Good bye Ryan, I hope we cross paths in the future…by that I mean with you on another show. I really don’t want to meet you in real life, you psycho.

Real World: Back to New Orleans Episode 9 Power Rankings

Real World: Back to New Orleans Episode 8 Power Rankings

1. Ryan: Now, that’s the Ryan we know and hate! Blaming missing pills on a former pill-addict? So Ryan. I liked the twist where he admitted to taking more than Ashlee thought but not all of them. Because stealing 5 pills is much better than stealing all the pills. And shifting the blame to someone with a history of abusing prescription drugs so that the attention to the fact that you stole the drugs too gets diverted? Well, we might as well rename him Ryan Machiavelli. Seriously, how great is this guy? He’s a complete weirdo who now isn’t sleeping at night and paces around the house. I’m extremely intrigued to see where this goes. Add in the fact he seems quite ignorant, and a little bigoted, about Islam, and it’s clear why he’s back in the top spot. Thank you Ryan for making Wednesday Real World episodes must see t.v. once again.

2. Knight- Knight falls back to the second slot, but he didn’t necessarily slip in his performance. Ryan was just better. Knight was accused of stealing painkillers from Ashlee’s stash, which he denied. However, he chose not to confront Ryan about it. His logic was “I know I didn’t do it so that’s all that matters.” Admirable, I suppose. But sitting back while someone smears your name, not so admirable.

It got weirder from there. Knight eventually took a drug test, which may or may not have proven it wasn’t hit who stole the pills (the drug test might not have detected that drug in his system). Either way, I think something big is brewing based on clips we’ve seen showing Knight popping some pills. Knowing MTV, he was probably just taking Advil.

3. Sahar- What?! I put Sahar this high?? Yeah, I did. And she absolutely deserves it. Quietly, Sahar has been more vocal in the house and getting more screen time. MTV decided to spread her singer storyline over a couple of episodes, which I thought would be a big mistake. Turns out it was the right call. Now, Sahar seems nice enough so as a person, you don’t want to see her fail as a singer. But from a pure entertainment standpoint, her forgetting the words to the song was fantastic (Again, in case people might view me as insensitive, I must reiterate this point. We are watching these shows for compelling storylines. As much as we might personally want someone to succeed, when they fail in such a manner, it makes for compelling television. And you know what, if she gets on stage again and TJ Lavin’s it, then that makes for a complete story and great television).

It’s also worth mentioning that Sahar has really been getting into it with Knight, giving it as good as she gets it. I think if she keeps up the banter, she could be a fixture in the top 5, at least.

4. Jemmye- Jemmye didn’t really do much here but we are judging her partly on her overall body of work and partly on the fact that no one else stepped up and knocked her out of the top 4.

5. Eric- Another shocker! Why is Eric so high this week? Well, he finally had some decent face time, if only for a few minutes, and showed how good of a role player he could be if he just tried more (or if the producers gave him more screen time). I’m referring to when Eric got up on stage and kind of rescued Sahar’s performance. He was cool and funny and clearly has the personality necessary for tv.

But here lies the issue. Where has he been?? Does he even go out? We always see people coming home from the bar, and either Eric isn’t with them, or we see him sleepy-eyed as the roommates loudly crash through the door. The guy just doesn’t go out. My take is Eric definitely has talent and personality, but it just isn’t a good fit for this type of show. He actually could be a good emcee or actor. What is likely holding him back is his job with the State Department. He broke the cardinal rule of going on the Real World: You can’t have a real job. You can be a student, bartender, musician, or model. That is all.

6. Preston- What the hell happened to this guy? He went from the #1 drama instigator who was having the cops called on him to a guy who has barely any screen time. Sure, there are a plethora of reasons to explain this fall off, by I will choose to ignore those reasons and knock him all the way down to 6. Step it up, Prestooone!!! (I am now saying his name differently in my head based on a character named Preston in the movie “Can’t Hardly Wait.” If you’ve seen it, you hopefully get the reference).

7. McKenzie- She may not really deserve to be this low, but I was fully expecting a legitimate love triangle to develop between her, Knight, and Jemmye, and now I don’t think it’s going to happen. Plus, she really didn’t do anything of note in the last episode. A pretty face can only do so much.

8. Ashlee- Yeah, I hate her as much as ever, maybe even a little more. Last episode, she couldn’t see the humor in frying a dead fish from the aquarium. If she can’t take a joke, then forget her. Also, I feel like she took the whole “who took my pills that I never use” issue a little too seriously. She made it a federal case when it wasn’t that big of a deal. Also, if she never uses them, why was she suddenly looking for them? Questions, questions, questions.