First Impressions - The Surreal Life 6

In the midst of the HBO free preview and watching the first two episodes of Big Love (scroll down for a review), I forgot all about the return of the guiltiest of pleasures on television Sunday, The Surreal Life. But luckily it is on VH1 so it’s been own about ten times since it premiered and will most likely be on another twenty-five time before the next new episode. Now in its sixth incarnation, this season is shaping up to be the best. And that says a lot considering the last two seasons included the Omarosa vs. Janice debacle and the all time greatest television moment, Mini Me, buck naked, on his scooter, peeing in the corner.

This season’s cast sports arguably the biggest star in the show’s history, token washed up actor Sherman Hemsley that everyone remembers as George Jefferson. Well everyone except token Playboy model Andrea Lowell who had to ask who the tanned guy was. Then there are possibly the most volatile cast mates in former Whitesnake hood ornament Tawny Kitaen and the transgender member of the Arquette clan Alexis. I was on the floor when the doorman asked her/him how it’s like to have Cox in the family.

Filling out the cast are token washed up rocker C.C. Deville of Poison and the Steve Harwell of Smash Mouth. Also Carol Brady will be dropping by everyday as the house therapist. And as a twist, this season’s token reality star was chosen via a man pageant by the other cast mates. The most notable of the group was former karaoker and Paula Abdul boy toy Corey Clark. I’m actually surprised that with his notoriety VH1 didn’t just put him in the house as no one else was nearly as famous as he was. There was a Big Brother and Survivor alum, neither of which I’ve heard of even though I’ve seen all the Survivors. Then there was Ace of The Real World: Paris. But he was beat out by Tough Enough champion Maven Huffman, who was recently released from his WWE contract that he won on the show.

The first episode was your usual pleasantries of most shows of this type where they chose their roommates and get to know each other, so the claws usually don’t come out until the second episode, and judging by the preview of the upcoming weeks, there will be many claws out this season. Hopefully everyone learns soon to hide Tawny’s shoes from her, just ask Chuck Finley about that. That’s not to say there weren’t any entertain parts of the first episode. In a page out of The Osbournes page book, Hemsley’s stuttering is so bad they had to subtitle him and eventually do it grammatically for an extra laugh. And what could be an interesting development, I’m not entirely sure Maven realized yet that Alexis has the same parts as him yet. And on that note, Alexis propositioning Andrea for the “last ride” before his/her operation was one of the funniest moments on television so far this year.

Verdict: Much like a crack addict, I just can’t stop. Plus I think we are getting closer and closer to our first reality death, whether it be homicide or overdose (who wants to bet either C.C., Steve, or Tawny fall off the wagon during the show, I not all three?) and I don’t want to miss that.