The Hills on MTV Vs the Housewives Series on Bravo

I used to be a regular watcher of Laguna Beach and The Hills, until I started to get bored. And I mean really bored. It was the same silly teenage story repeated over and over. I had just about enough of seeing young, rich, girls who were oblivious to life's real hardships sitting around talking about each other behind each other's backs.

The difference between the Real Housewives and The Hills is that on Real Housewives, the women are GROWN. They don't need to talk behind each others' backs. If a housewife has a problem with another female, she says it to her face! Despite their money, most of these women are grounded and have real life problems like the rest of us 20, 30, 40, and 50 somethings.

As a twenty something woman I'd much rather watch older, mature women on television. There's more depth to the stories and realness to the way that they present themselves. For instance, in a recent episode on The Real Housewives of New York City (my favorite), Bethanny, a sharp-tongued, witty New York gal, and Kelly, a former model with delusions of grandeur, got into a knock down drag out argument without ever having to touch each other. Bethanny. They tore each other apart across a bar table.

This would never happen on The Hills. The girls would be too busy complimenting each other with every other word being "like" and "OMG," trying to soften the blow of what they are really feeling in their hearts. I even tried to give The City , a spin off from The Hills on MTV a chance since it was based in NYC (see the article here). But of course, they kept the same formulaic plot and one dimensional characters.

Another reason why I like the Real Housewives series is because I find it extremely interesting to see how these women turned out in later years. You know, after all the dumbness and youngness of being 20 something. At 40 and 50 these women are still fabulous, active, and doing their thing. It gives me hope about my own process of getting older in a way. I think that we women tend to have intense fears of growing older after the age of 27. It makes me feel better to know that there is a life after 40 when I watch these shows.

Next up is The Real Housewives of New Jersey which looks like it will be a real life Sopranos drama. Bravo stepped it up by making this new upcoming version of the Real Housewives about an Italian family in New Jersey. I loved the Sopranos, so I can't wait.

All in all, I know that The Hills has its audience--mainly 11 to 20 year olds. It's just not for me. With four seperate versions of The Real Housewives under its belt, I believe that Bravo will keep rolling.