A Waste of Time But...

I love it. There it is. I LOVE The Jersey Shore.

Yes, it's junk food entertainment. There is not one redeeming quality. The kids are drunken hos; vain, pathetic and ignorant. But they're also just like the Guido kids I was surrounded with when I was a teen. I was the nerdy outsider, one of the ones they picked on until they needed homework help or a joint to buy. So maybe I'm working out some 35 year-old unresolved BS by watching these kids. Trying to identify with them, looking for similarities (and there are a load of similarities between Jenny & me, except for the fake boobs) to put the whole thing to rest. Or maybe it's just ridiculously funny to watch.

It is.

The Jersey Shore is a microcosm of being young and stupid in all ways possible. There are Italian guy archetypes: the fatherly cocksure Mike, the too sweet to be really cool Vinnie, the handsome bad boyfriend Ronnie and the typical sidekick Pauly. And then the archetypal Italian Princesses: Snooki, the little mess; Jenny, the much-too-sure-of-herself fistfighter; Sammi, the vapid and self-obsessed codependent; and the new girl of this year, Deena (replacing the trashy Angelina), who is only a Snooki clone so far. But these kids have a lot of things the Guids I knew didn't. They're on TV, have a lot of money to throw around, and are entirely free to do whatever they want- they're also about 10 years older than the kids I knew, but seem much less mature.

Of them all, the only one I really dislike is Sammi. Her entire life seems based on lying in bed, looking at herself or parts of herself, and bitching. She is a bitch to everyone and then claims to be a victim. She is so codependent on her boyfriend Ronnie that it's embarassing and uncomfortable to watch. She may be the only person I've ever seen who is a guilt-throwing marytr and a needy whiny child at the same time. I've grown to enjoy watching her pull yet another crying fit. Which doesn't say much good about me, either, but it's the truth.

So there's my secret guilty pleasure, written by my own hand for the world to see. This is the 3rd season of JS, the kids are getting older and starting to show the scars of a drunken crazy life (Snooki is already not aging well and she's only 25, I think). But for this season I'm gonna sit back and enjoy the insanity while it lasts.

You can watch TJS on mtv at 10 p.m. Thursday nights, or see all of season 2 and new episodes on the website (strangely, they've tagged season 3 eps as 214 & 215):
http://www.mtv.com/shows/jersey_shore/season_2/series.jhtml