[.ca] Laguna Beach: Season 1

From Amazon.com:
Branded as "The real Orange County," this tepid yet easily addictive MTV series follows a group of wealthy high schoolers from Laguna Beach, California. Their lives are almost too perfect to be real: good looks, houses by the beach, even close relationships with their parents. They shop, plan parties, and get brand-new cars wrapped in a bow for graduation (and you thought that only happened in commercials!). But it's a reality show packaged as a teen soap. At the center of season 1 is the love triangle between good-girl narrator LC, her childhood friend Stephen, and his beautiful but cold girlfriend Kristin, who likes to mention at any chance possible how much she "hates" LC. Other highlights for the seniors include spring break in Cabo, birthday bashes, one character's embarrassing audition for a Broadway show, and the repetitive mantra of "Can you believe this is the last time we'll be together like this?" One's envy of young rich kids who are just like you--but not--is certainly what Laguna Beach likes to tap into (you find out they even have weekly O.C. viewing parties!). Unfortunately, it's also what makes it so vanilla. Since there aren't producers auditioning the most colorful personalities to home-grow drama, you're left with pals so alike you get them confused. Not only that, their "conflicts"--limited to gossip and drunk confrontations--don't really make for great television, at least by the reality-TV standards we're used to. But kids who thrive on the gossip of their own friends will likely continue chatting about this show like it's their own high school. DVD features include an MTV cribs-type tour of LC's massive mansion (still being built in season 1) and many deleted scenes, which include the technical glitch that got Morgan into BYU (see? It's not just money) and Trey's argument with a midget. --Ellen Kim

Laguna Beach..shall I dare say 'different' from the others?:
So I admit, there are tons of teen shows out there trying to prove that they are the epitome of teen agony and can best represent what 'really' goes on in the lives and minds of this century's teens. Being a teen myself, of course I started watching shows like Degrassi: The Next Generation, or the popular The O.C. I must admit, Degrassi caught me because it was set in the city I call home, and The O.C. was intriguing with it's witty dialogue and it's hot characters (that seems almost too good to be true). But when I finally landed upon Laguna Beach, I was amazed to see how much I found myself engrossed in this series, even though I could absolutely not relate to the character's luxerious life in The O.C. There's no 'witty dialogue', and it doesn't feel like the events have been set up for the characters in this reality series just to move through, sequence by sequence. And like in real life and very much unlike the show The O.C., ridiculous things like mansion fires and gun-toteing heirs don't come up in our every day lives. At least not that I know of. So even though this show probably isn't relatable to most of you, which these days teen shows are striving to achieve, it's definitely a guilty pleasure to get caught up in. So mix yourself up in the world of The O.C., Laguna Beach.