First Impressions: The City

It was bound to happen that MTV’s pop culture black hole The Hills would have a spinoff. Surprisingly it took over 4 seasons and it centers on one of the least seen, most “normal” characters. While Speidi create attention getting false storylines on their own, and Audrina becomes dumber by the minute, little old Whitney Port has wound up with the spinoff prize in The City.

Next to LC’s number one confidant Lo, Whitney was my fav on The Hills. Her exaggerated facial expressions while listening to the absolute drivel that is Lauren’s life was entertaining all on its own. Furthermore, Whitney often seemed like she had a life outside of Lauren’s and that she actually cared about the non-TV career she was working in. All these factors made me think we’d never see Whitney get a show, but when MTV or her own merits, secured her a position with Diane von Furstenberg, off to the big scary city she went…and I couldn’t wait to follow.

However, now that I’ve been able to digest the first hour of Whitney’s adventures in The City aka NYC, I’m feeling a bit ambivalent. It’s just odd to see Whitney in the lead roll and her obvious dedication to work makes it a little more difficult to fit in as much drama as her Hills co-stars. Still we were introduced to some potential troublemakers in the pilot. First off, we got society girl Olivia who clearly despises Whit-Whit and her LA ways. Then we get Jay, Whitney’s instant love interest whom she met last season on The Hills. Jay certainly has a potential to be as disgustingly laughable as JustinBobby but right now he falls more in the Brody/Doug column as just gross and boring. Balding model Alex stopped by to start some trouble and I couldn’t help but think poor Whitney didn’t know what she agreed to when she let MTV write her life. There are a few other folks floating about like useless couch provider Erin, who’s clearly supposed to be playing the Whitney-role, and Adam, Jay’s roommate, who apparently only sees him once a week so they can discuss Whitney.

I think the most troublesome aspect is that everyone except Whitney seems to know everyone else (NYC is a small town after all). It’s as if MTV “cast” this group and then figured out which outsider they could drop in to their midst. The first few eps of The Hills though was similarly problematic as viewers were left asking who’s this Audrina lady and when did Heidi become LC’s best friend? We can only hope that the drama these folks cook up is as rewarding as what we got out of those then strangers.