MTV's the Hills: Reality Gold or Fool's Silver?

Through the fast paced and ever-expanding world of reality television was born the love child of Laguna Beach and The Real World, thus was hatched the smash hit "The Hills". The patched together "real life" story of Lauren Conrad, fashionista and socialite among the MTV crowd, wooed viewers from the first season when fans were drawing the lines between Team Lauren Vs. Team Heidi. These days the facade of "reality" has blurred as the editors and cinematographer's of the show have grown sloppy on site. From rough editing botches to leaked pictures of a scene set-up, The Hills is losing the illusion of reality, but gaining a slew of new viewers to watch the mistakes taking place each week.

Some of the most infamous and talked about glitches are LC's nail polish debacle, the color changed rapidly from clear to vamp red in a "spur of the moment" conversation. As well as Spencer Pratt's, (Heidi's on-again, off-again bad guy boyfriend) clean shaven to hobo chic beard. In several scenes the status of his lower face changes within seconds, ruining the image that the show portrays un-staged "days in the life". There have since been a number of other instances in the press and in the tabloids fueling the debate of The Hills reality. Pictures have been leaked of camera men giving direction and setting up scenes between actors, the most famous example of this between LC and a male model in season 2. The man went to the tabloids with his story of being scooped up from a modeling shoot and paid to ask the leading lady on a date where awkward conversation and a fake kiss made teen tongues wag the day after the episode aired.

It no longer matters what's "real" and what's fake on a show where the feeding frenzy of drama keeps this young soap opera alive and well to its viewers. People no longer care that the scenes are staged, over-edited, and faker then an orange tan, if anything The Hills becomes a beacon of postmodern light showing viewers that a concept of reality is never concrete. Just like the drama depicted each week on The Hills, reality is just as filtered and subjective going through its own editing process for everyday people. The Hills manages to showcase the latest fashion trends and brand names while showing the fragmented, technologically based "reality" teenagers have come to inhabit. With that world comes all the gossip of high school, but it's become inescapable through text messaging on an iphone or blackberry which allows anyone to know anything in a blip of a second it takes to hit the enter keys.

MTV's highest rated show ever, The Hills draws attention any way you slice it due to the widely publicized mistakes as well as the jaded generational reality in which reality is all subjective.