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I will give the children of NYC Prep this: they are very poised and “adult” on camera. High school students are, for the most part, sloppy spazz-attacks, flailing around all over the place with their hormones and their malformed identities and their terrible dreams (at one point last night, Taylor said, “My life plan is I’m going to take dance in college, and then I’m going to become a superstar”). But the children of NYC Prep are mostly like, “Oh no, last night I burned the French cuff of my tuxedo shirt on the edge of the samovar.” And when PC (or was it Jessie or was it Who Cares) says that kids in New York grow up faster, I am inclined to half believe it. They certainly gain more efficient social manipulation skills, and they can hide their gawky faces and awkward bodies with $500 haircuts and Marc Jacobs dresses (or in PC’s case, a personal trainer), but at the end of the day, children are children. And these are definitely children we are dealing with.

So, Camille wants to become part of Operation Smile in order to get into Harvard. She talks to PC, and PC is like “I will put you in touch with Jessie if you’re really serious about doing the work.” What? Every interaction PC has had in relation to Operation Smile on this show has been to mock Operation Smile as being an ineffective and misguided charity (an issue on which he may have a point), or to blow off Operation Smile work in order to shop for shirts, because as you may or may not know (you know) PC is “very picky about [his] shirts.” Also, we’re talking about a high school extra-curricular activity. Everyone needs to RELAX. Let Camille into your stupid club or I’ll write a mean note on your Facebook wall, Jessie, or whatever petty emotional crime children commit against each other these days.

Later, Camille meets Jessie at her apartment and they talk about Operation Smile and Jessie pretends like it’s important, but even more importantly, she pretends like she takes it really seriously. Right. Jessie is in charge of “fashion” for Operation Smile. HUH? That’s like saying “I’m in charge of candy for Doctors without Borders.” Jessie being in charge of “fashion” for Operation Smile makes her despotic regime over Operation Smile even more ridiculous. Which makes sense. BECAUSE THIS IS HIGH SCHOOL.

Admittedly, Camille makes a similarly high schoolian mistake when she tells Jessie that she heard that Jessie’s high school was really easy, unlike Camille’s high school, which is really hard. Yikes. For someone who claimed to be so nervous about the meeting, she was not very nervous when that bus pulled up (about throwing Jessie’s school under it). Dummy. And that reminds me that for as much as I dislike Jessie’s false air of self-importance and rehearsed haughtiness (“and then I slit my eyes like this, and spittle comes out of my mouth like this. Thanks, mirror”), I dislike Camille even more, with her unearned self-satisfaction and her two-dollar SAT words. I hope that she does get into Harvard. And I hope that she ends up having a fantastic career, and falling in love, and getting married, and having a family, and never confronting who she really is. Because that’s going to be TOUGH STUFF.

Meanwhile, Kelli wants to be a singer, and interviews voice coaches. Scraping the bottom of the barrel here, Bravo. (The barrel is filled with things that I could possibly care about.) Kelli has a pretty good voice, I guess. One of the voice coaches is kind of a weird nerd.

Also this lady.

The Gong Show: Upper East Side. Moving on.

Taylor wants to be a dancer. Her grades are suffering. She goes ice skating with Cole. Again, with the barrel and the scraping. These girls have never been able to find traction on this show because, well, they are 15 years old. The depth of disinterest I have for the lives of 15 year old girls is where the Aliens live.

Jessie has no-fat lattes with her mom, and they talk about Jessie’s dream of doing PR for a fashion designer (it’s like they always say: shoot for the middle, and you just might hit the bottom). Her mom tries to give her relatively sound advice, and she might even be the rarest of rarities of reality TV: a decent mom. But it is no matter. Their twin voices drill matching boreholes into my brain, and there they lay the eggs of nightmares.

The grating, insufferable Valley Girl voice never falls far from the grating, insufferable Valley Girl voice tree.

Poor PC. That is what this show should have been called. Can he catch a break? He cannot catch a break. When he’s not going to therapy and telling his therapist about how jaded he is with his hard-lived life of “sex, drugs, and rock and roll,” (eighth grade is when you learn how to drink, GRANDPA), then he is going to a photoshoot and complaining about manual labor (moving chairs from one side of the room to another side of the room), and avoiding flirting with women because he doesn’t want to be that guy who just flirts with women, but posing with other dudes with his shirt off because he does want to be that guy who just poses with other dudes with his shirt off (only an asshole would ever let a picture be taken of himself without his shirt on), and flirting with the gay stylist because he does want to be that guy who just flirts with the gay stylist. And the whole time this show winks and nods.

You’ve done it again, full grown adults who make this show.

And I’m not even going to write about Sebastian anymore. What a clown. Literally. Sideshow Bob head. He goes on a date with a senior and talks about how getting an older woman is a real badge of honor. Ugh. Relax, Cougar Town. This guy. But then it turns out that she also speaks French, and that’s a dealbreaker, ladies. Because speaking French is Sebastian’s Dumbo feather. But for pussy. Whatever. I cannot wait until this show ends and I no longer have to hear about where Sebastian lazily “thinks” his dick should go. Kids attempt to fuck constantly the darndest things.

Comments (32)
  1. oh man, that picture of the nerdy voice coach followed by the picture of Rhonda Rape-Eyes was a classic one-two punch of hilarity.

  2. PC just needs to admit he’s gay.

    Seriously, no insult intended. But there are too many signs. And I don’t want to hear that argument of “they made it look like that in the editing room.” When there are THAT many instances of it, how can it NOT come through in the editing room?

    “Remember when your mom got pissed off at us because we were half-naked on my bed?” Yes; as a straight high-school-age male, I was half-naked with my other straight friends on my bed, also.

  3. Their twin voices drill matching boreholes into my brain, and there they lay the eggs of nightmares. Excuse me while I pass out from uncontrollable fits of laughter. Also, I can’t wait for the episode in which Sebastien reveals he has an untreatable form of Gonorrhea. And then dies.

  4. i just love how much they’ve fucked themselves in regards to their futures for a good bit of time. “oh, really, you want to work in PR? you did such a great job handling your own image on television that we’re going to hire you over these other people who didn’t make an ass out of themselves out of sheer desperation to prove that they deserve power and attention! oh, wait, no, we’re not. sorry!”

  5. Gmarley  |   Posted on Jul 22nd, 2009 +40

    When do the vampire parts start? This lolly-gagging is going to cost Bravo a viewer.

  6. Even though I don’t watch this show, these reviews are really great.

  7. That part where Camille goes to Jessie to ask for in on this Operation Smile bizness was so infuriating. The whole “your school isn’t that great” thing doesn’t just come up in conversation and she accidentally insults her, she pulls that topic literally out of nowhere for no reason at all, for the sole purpose of insulting her. Dummy, if you wanted in on this soooo bad you should have learned the skill every other American already knows, and that is the art of ass-kissing, or even less than that, the art of not going out of your way to insult someone who you want to do a favor for you.

  8. Please don’t give up on Sebastian.

  9. Being in charge of fashion for a charity that fixes children’s facial deformities is like being in charge of Missing the Point in the Most Ironic Way Possible for Anything at All.

  10. Wait, who’s the one with the crazy eyes? Because every time I see her I laugh. And it’s also funny because she’s nearly not as “suave” as the other kids. And it’s awkward and LOLtastic when her eyes aren’t scaring me/making me giggle.

  11. Sebastian’s flow is Gnarls McBarkley…if anyone catches my drift

  12. “(only an asshole would ever let a picture be taken of himself without his shirt on)”

    I believe this line is what Lindsay would call an Easter egg for the superfans?

  13. I hope this show gets renewed for 20 more seasons, so we can watch their lives fall into ruin

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  16. When Videogum has the NYC Prep recaps, I just immediately scroll through and stop at any paragraph with the letters “PC.” Luckily he makes it easy for me with his two-capital-letter name.

  17. Last night I was watching this with my sister, who had never seen the show before, and she wanted to know why PC was flirting with the gay guy, and what happened to the pretty model girl? So I said, “Well, Sister, PC is confused, sexually. That confusion has been the focus of the past ALL OF THE EPISODES.” This irks me, but I hope something actually happens with this whole gay thing (Ugh, gross! That is creepy, he is a child!). I am going to be mad if this “is he or isn’t” nonsense goes on forever.

  18. You know what scares the shit out of me? When I’m really, truly mad, like just fucking furious, I totally sound like Jessie. Not that bad(because I’d have to throw myself under a bus) but this valley girl, lispy person takes over my brain.
    I look forward to these recaps way too much.

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    • Yes, I was about to do that but I felt too paparazzo-ish. No longer! I’m sure it’s intentional, but it does seem a bit like the gabe calling the gabe gabe, gabe.

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