The Real World D.C.: The Morning After

Posted by Tom in DC Life on 12 31st, 2009 | no responses

Callie, Ashley, Ty and Emily at the Metromix Real World D.C. premiere party last night. Photo by emilygoodstein . More than a few of us dutifully watched the premiere of The Real World D.C. last night, ready to pounce on any slights or rush to correct any common misconceptions made by the show’s new cast about our fair city. There weren’t many, really. Maybe it was just the first episode, or maybe because the show seemed less about D.C. and more about Dupont Circle — either way, the premiere provoked a collective “meh.” So far, it’s pretty much exactly the same as every other Real World installment. Below are some of our reactions to the premiere, bullet point-style. Feel free to add your thoughts in theWashington DC; we’re sure we missed some memorable nuggets. Both Ashley and Mike arrived at National Airport. We all know it’s the best local airport we have, but for an insight into true D.C. hell, they should have been forced to fly into Dulles, use the People Mover and take the bus into town. In the competition for the best line of the episode, it’s somewhere between Andrew’s claim, “I like basketball. You can’t be racist if you like basketball,” or Josh’s admission that “It’s gonna be hard to keep the beast in the cage, if you know what I mean.” Believe us, we all know what you

mean. Josh may also be the most hilarious housemate so far, if only because he went into the confessional gripping a bottle of Jack Daniels. If there’s one thing the show got right, it’s that District residents don’t shake hands when they first meet, but rather embrace each other and inquire as to how many sexual partners they’ve had. For the first house dinner, the cast went to Buca di Beppo. Next week? Ruby Tuesday’s in Columbia Heights. One of the filler shots of the city’s landscape was of the World War II Memorial, where the camera focused in on one of the many granite pillars that are dedicated to the individual states and territories that sent citizens to battle. But instead of choosing “Washington, D.C.”, they seemed to have chosen “Washington.” As in state. Oh well. We’d like to acknowledge the producers and the cast for stressing that the show takes place in “D.C.,” not “Washington.” And thanks for decking out that one room with the colors of the District’s flag. Major props for the b-roll shots of Trinidad, Eastern Market, Mt. Pleasant, Bloomingdale, Shaw and H Street NE. Haaaaaaaaaaaahahahahaha. No really, there were no b-roll shots of any of those places. Andrew wore a panda hat. That was about as D.C. as the show got.