DVD REVIEW: COLLEGE HILL – V.S.U. AND COLLEGE HILL – INTERNS

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STUDIO: Paramount
MSRP: VSU: $21.99, Interns: $16.99
RATED: Not rated (Both)
RUNNING TIME:
VSU: 294 minutes,
Interns: 210 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
VSU:
106 and Park Appearance
Spring Bling
Audition reels
Deleted / extended scenes
Cast commentary on select
   episodes
Interns:
Cast audition reels
Rejects reel
A Day with Soulja Boy

The Pitch

What reality TV looks like when they bother to include black folk.

The Humans

VSU: Deirdra Tyrone-Davis, Audrina Clyde, Rodney Henry, Arlando Whitaker, Ray Cunningham, Bianca Olivo, Anya Holland, Will Grishaw

Interns: Letia, Jenna Bailey, Kathy Harris, Tationna Boiser, Ivy Box, Spencer Humphries, Marc Reece, Mr. Reese, Lonnie Abernathy, Kasheef Wyzard

The Nutshell

College Hill is a reality show where a group of 8 – 10 Black college kids are grouped together in a house ala The Real World and we get to see their interactions as some of them hook up, some of them fight, pretty much all of them drink too much, and there’s drama o’plenty. VSU takes place on the campus of Virginia State University with eight housemates and Interns has 10 housemates in a semi-elimination competition more reminiscent of The Apprentice during a group internship in Chicago.

The Lowdown

One thing without a doubt that has bothered me about the last eight years or so of the reality TV we’ve been inundated with since Survivor took off – aside from the contrived so-called bullshit “realities” in these reality shows or how many of them seem to cater to the uttermost retarded members of the population – is the fact that they’re wholly not representative of the makeup of the population they’re created for. In other words, it’s a Caucasianfest usually. In the major reality shows, Black people have definitely been relegated back to token status, and good luck trying to find an Asian, Hispanic or any other minority; and if you do happen to find one, they’re usually among the most cartoonish of the lot. 

Don’t believe me? Out of the 12 Bachelors and three Bachelorettes, exactly how many haven’t been white?  Zero. And typically there’s at most may be one or two Black suitors and at most one or two other minorities. I defy anyone to find a single brother or sister on either of the Real Housewives (Orange County or New York) shows (although I’m guilty of more than checking those shows out admittedly), and Big Brother is typically as guilty. Then there’s Hogan Knows Best. Where’s the Hulkster’s black family members? Okay, maybe a bit out of place on that last one, but I’m sure you get the idea. The point of all this isn’t to make an issue of race per se, but to call out a glaring lack of the diversity inherent in these shows as a whole.

So enter College Hill, which gives us snapshots of a group of young Black kids as they go through the “reality” of having cameras follow their every move for a number of weeks or months.  My take on the show? Well it’s pretty much a direct take (rip) off of The Real World. But then so are half the damn reality shows out there, so why be surprised? However, whereas VSU is much more so like Real World, Interns is more a riff on The Apprentice, as the interns are in competitions for prizes and a few of them are eliminated halfway through the show. 

The casts are filled with a diverse group, but probably a little more so with VSU, as it features a white kid named Will and a gay kid named Ray. There’s always a couple of more outrageous members of a reality cast, and in the case of VSU, it’s Rodney and Bianca. Not so much with Interns, however. Everyone in that cast is more even-keeled, although the youngest member of the cast, Spencer, feels like he gets picked on more, although Kathy is a lesbian. Then there’s always the inevitable drama with the outside boyfriend or girlfriend. On VSU, it’s a Audrina, whose boyfriend breaks up with her when he finds that she kissed a guy, even though it was Ray, and only on a dare…although it was in a hottub. On Interns, it’s Letia, who invites her boyfriend to a group club promotion and gets distracted. Also inevitably, there are hook ups. On VSU, it’s Rodney and Dierdra, on Interns, Jenna and Marc.

Of the two shows and their casts, I found myself much more interested in Interns, because of the more competition and elimination format of the show, although it’s not a total paring down to one winner, but the elimination of two out of the ten cast members halfway through the season. Be that as it may, however, the competition and elimination format didn’t have any real teeth to it because, as stated, only two of the ten got the boot. Still, of the two, I found Interns was the more appealing. 

The Packages

VSU contained 14 episodes, Interns only nine. They both did have special features.  VSU contained footage of the cast appearance on the BET show 106 and Park, as well as featurette called Spring Bling, which was the cast at Spring Bling in Miami. There were also audition reels of the cast, deleted and extended scenes, and commentary on the first two-part episode and the final episode. Interns had not only cast audition reels, but also reject reels and a featurette with Jenna as she follows hip hop artist Soulja Boy around for a day.