Time To 'Fess Up

Okay, guilty pleasure admission time: I'm watching MTV's Taking The Stage.

I will now try and rationalize why. If don't think I'll be successful in this task, go ahead and jump to the comments and tell me why I'm a loser.

If you don't know, Taking The Stage is a reality show that follows five students who attend Cincinnati's School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA). Its a Hills-style show that's produced by Nick Lachey (former SCPA student). Despite that, there are two main reasons why I find this show tolerable:

-It makes Cincinnati look really good. I mean, REALLY good. All the exterior shots of the city make our town look great. Its conceivable that someone who's never been to Cincinnati would watch the show and say, "Damn, that's a good looking city." Specifically, it makes Over-the-Rhine (where SCPA is located) look really good. And of course, they'd be wrong. Cincinnati's nice, but its not nearly as clean and pretty as its portrayed. If you've ever been through Over-the-Rhine and you watch the show, you'll see what I mean.

-The kids are really talented. The show is shot and produced like The Hills, but unlike The Hills, the stars of this show can actually contribute something worthwhile to society. Now, I don't care one bit about all the teen relationship drama; that crap drags the show down (though, I guess that's what drives the show for its target audience). Who cares if that one guy is dating the one girl but kissed the other girl? I want to see this kids perform! Singing, dancing, whatever, the show shines whenever the stars get a chance to use their talents. Whether they're rehearsing, doing an actual performance, or participating in a clearly-staged Fame-style impromptu lunchtime dance off, its fun to watch. The five stars are great (3 dancers, 1 dancer/singer/actress, 1 singer/songwriter) and natrually they keep the focus on them, but some of the peripheral kids are interesting as well (especially this piano playing/roller dancing/composer kid; I want to see more of him). Of course, this could give the impression that Cincinnati is just filled to the brim with talented kids, which may or may not be the case. But regardless, the five students they picked for the show are far better talent ambassadors for Cincinnati than Nick Lachey is (which is probably why Lachey is throwing out the first pitch on Opening Day and the singer/songwriter girl from the show is performing the National Anthem).

So there it is. I don't watch reality television, but I'm watching this show. I watched The Amazing Race when the Linz family was on because they were from Cincinnati and I went to high school with one of them. I watched Beauty and the Geek when another guy I went to high school with (and the younger brother of one my friends) was on. I even watched some of Clash of the Chiors because there was a choir from Cincinnati. And now I'm watching Taking The Stage because its set here in Cincinnati. I'm sensing a pattern here.