What better place to re-visit than Vegas on the Silver anniversary of the show that started it all, the "Real World". Nine years after the Real World's first stay at the Palms, the cast upgrades to the Hard Rock this season. Both casinos are off the strip in opposite directions, but the Hard Rock is younger and has a much better pool/outside gaming area. I also give the dealers the edge at the Hard Rock and "The Joint" regularly has better musical acts than the Palms' "Pearl Concert Theater". The overall atmosphere of the Hard Rock is akin to Spring Break and that is the demographic of recent Real World casts. Not to mention that the Hard Rock is owned by a hotel conglomerate and private equity fund with a market cap of around 1 billion each, unlike the owners of the Palms who needed a loan from the NBA while looking to relocate their Sacramento Kings to Anaheim. Also, since the Kings are the closest professional sports team to a Real World cast having them both running concurrently is probably too much. I think the trend to go younger has been beneficial, as this leads to better TV in a "can't wait to see what they do next, Charlie Sheen type way". As with every season the cast will make or break the season, so based on the premier and their MTV bio's, below is a cheat sheet to get you caught up before episode 2.
Nany: She is 21 years old and is from Jamestown New York, where she has lived for her entire life. She was voted most popular in high school and was the homecoming queen. She is currently enrolled in community college and wants to be a parole officer. She has had the same boyfriend since she was 15, and they are currently together. My first thought was when she told her boyfriend that she was going on the "Real World" was that their remaining time together had to be the same situation as this year for Albert Pujols and the Cards. Both Nany and Pujols want to see what else is out there, while St. Louis and her boyfriend at home hold out the faint hope that they will return. Just as Pujols will meet with other clubs the day after the World Series, Nany was immediately intrigued by one of her current Vegas roommates. We have seen this movie before, I like Pujols to be a Cub next year and Nany to be single by the reunion show.
Adam: He is 22 years old and is from Portland Maine. He graduated from college with a degree in Criminology, which doesn't sound out of the ordinary until he reveals that he spent three years in a juvenile detention center between the age of 16 and 19 due to a drug deal/robbery gone wrong. He and Nany immediately establish a connection, especially after she admits that she has a thing for bad boys and his insistence that they will be the closest in the house. In the first episode he proclaims his love for both Nany and a local girl he meets on the first night out and uses the identical story with both, claiming that he is nervous being around women he truly likes. The other girl ploy seems to work by making Nany jealous, and being a self described "loose cannon" has the potential for trouble during a weekend in Vegas let only a couple of months. Fittingly, scenes from upcoming episode 2 show Adam being forcibly removed from the casino by bouncers and vandalizing the roommates penthouse, which would be under my pre-season total of 3 episodes before someone was arrested or thrown out of the house.
Dustin: He is 24 years old and is from Louisiana with a southern accent to match. He comes off like a really fun guy who will be the center of the house as a friend to all, sort of a homeless man's Ace from Paris. 24 is a little long in tooth for women's tennis players and Real World roommates, as by this age roommates have already made their "mistakes". Cue the MTV dramatic music, Dustin has a secret, he admits in a game of "Never have I ever" that he has had a threesome with another guy and then in the confessional to being on a webcam show naked with other men, though he is not gay (not that there is anything wrong with that). He is unsure if he should open up to the other roommates about this, like success in the Stanley Cup playoffs, only time will tell. He is the ringleader of proving a hypothesis we never really needed to prove; he was able to lure local girls make to his room with the promise of a penthouse apartment/Jacuzzi and bowling alley. He comments numerous times that it would be a big mistake to hook up with one of his roommates and then does just that on the second day. Scratch that theory about being too mature to make "mistakes".
Heather: She is 21 years old from NJ and loves the beach; she is not Italian so the Real World is a better fit than Jersey Shore. She gets points for knowing where she has the best chance for success, just as systems make quarterbacks, personalities shine depending on the reality show. She laments about her 5'3" height, but claims to have a personality that is twice her size. She has been in relationships her entire life and can't wait to be single in Vegas and then like so many aspiring talk show host Real World starlets before her she finds her roommate Dustin very attractive and proceeds to hook up with him on the second day. I don't know about talk show host, but she could have 5+ year career as a Challenge competitor ahead of her at this rate.
LeRoy: He is a 25 year old from Detroit who now lives in Dallas and goes by the nickname Roy-Lee, crafty, kind of how everyone in the world with initials D and J goes by DJ. Like figure skaters 25 is an outlier for a cast member recently, but few people to shack up in a Real World house have more confidence. He is a garbage man and with the confidence he shows on this show he will do more for the confidence of all sanitation engineers since the movie "Men at Work". He is a self proclaimed ladies man and says he is a system where he starts with the best looking woman in the room and works his way down. I think Pat Riley had the same system when he choose Erik Spoelstra as Heat coach. He gets mistaken for a professional athlete often, that coupled with the Vegas backdrop had me thinking about a future Elton, but that is high praise and as Harold Minor can attest to, be compared to a legend can break you, so I am holding off until I see his mental makeup in his first challenge.
Michael: He is a 23 year old from Virginia and a recent graduate of the University of Maryland. In his first appearance in front of the camera he talks about losing his virginity a couple of weeks prior to coming on the show. He is the "fish out of water" roommate and maybe one of the biggest fish out of water roommates since Julie in New Orleans. He would fit right in with my one year daughter, but I don't know how he will do in this environment after first arriving at the house with Heather and suggesting that they peek-a-boo the next roommate to enter? He references the sights at the house through the eyes of his grandma and comes across as the Reggie Miller on the Pacers team that went into the stands in Detroit.
Naomi: She is 22 years old and is from the boogie down Bronx. I got a severe case of déjà-vu when she walked into the Hard Rock as she bears more than a little resemblance to cast-mate Irulan Williams from the first Real World trip to Vegas, right down to their NYC boroughs. She got the least amount of storyline in the first episode due the fact that she didn't come to Vegas with a boyfriend or hook up with a fellow cast mate or local on the first night there. She is the Desmond Jennings of the cast; she has the highest ceiling and lowest floor of this crew.
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