Newspaper writers have always had a reputation for being diligent tightasses, but the students working on MTV’s new show “The Paper” combine these stereotypes with their own selfish dispositions. The result? A reality show with more over-acting than “The Hills.”
Out of the 50 kids contributing to The Circuit, Cypress Bay High School’s paper, five serve as the show’s main characters: Adam, the painfully overdramatic advertising manager, the Managing Editor Alex, Dan the metal-mouthed staff writer and resident smartass and Giana the news editor, who spends more time kissing her boyfriend than working on the paper. And then, of course, there’s Amanda, the new editor in chief, who everyone hates.
Loathing for Amanda seems to be the centerpiece of the entire show. Her over-bearing nature rubs everyone the wrong way, as it should. The girl is annoying. Before her promotion to editor in chief, Amanda was the copy editor/grammar stickler. Reminding everyone that “cross-dressing” is hyphenated was a sure way to cement her as an enemy of her peers. The pilot’s plotline centers on the race for editor in chief, with an equal amount of Amanda-centered smack talk, which gets pretty irritating to watch
The badmouthing can get pretty vicious, even for high schoolers. Everyone who went to high school experiences this sort of mentality at some point – the feeling that nothing you will ever do is as important as what’s going on during your junior year, for example, results in this sort of petty discourse. It’s completely natural … but does MTV really need more trivial squabbles on the air? With “The Hills” and “Laguna Beach” – not to mention that god-awful “Laguna Beach” spinoff which no one watched – there are more than enough catfights on the air. High school was annoying enough when we were there, so re-living those days of acne and Algebra II without even the benefit of pretty faces is, not surprisingly, fairly unpleasant.
“The Paper” is almost painfully unrealistic and scripted. When alone, students will sometimes talk to themselves – a sort of narration of their own life. Characters announce their intentions and emotions. Amanda, upon finishing her speech for editor in chief elections, chirps, “Ah, it feels good to be done with that essay.” Come on. Even “The Hills” doesn’t have Heidi saying to herself, “My husband’s an ass,” while she makes herself a sandwich.
Thinking back to six months ago it would be easy to draw parallels between “The Paper” and the VH1 reality show “I’m From Rolling Stone,” where college writers competed for a chance to write for Rolling Stone magazine. No one watched that show, and “The Paper” will likely have a similar fate. The publication business is an exciting and difficult industry, but audiences would much rather watch something with more sex and fewer words. No matter how much drama the students try to inject, “The Paper” is doomed to failure.
“The Paper”
Rating: 1 and a half out of 5 stars
Mondays at 10:30 PM
MTV