A-List, logo’s latest homolicious televenture, has been touted as, “The Real Housewives of Wherethefuckever” with balls. They’re not wrong but, as studly star Reichen says, “it has a testosterone element and it’s much more sexually charged among the cast”. Right. So imagine the Foreheadless Girl Wonder was flipping over the table in order to have sex with Danielle Skank instead of trying to kill her.
As I watched the first episode* I wondered if it was misogynist of me to like these boys better than any housewife. After interviewing them I realized it was just common sense. Maybe it’s because they’re younger and less jaded, or maybe it is because they’re men, but The A-List has none of the odorous, cloying desperation or exaggerated self-confidence of the miscellaneous hausfrau. It’s like Ryan said, “TJ and I have lived our lives like the cameras have already been there and it’s like,, now they finally caught up to us.”
Of course there’s catty, backstabbing drama, but there’s no winking at the camera with a cloying self-awareness that crops up in almost all reality TV. When these boys say, as Derek did, “I’m just going to be myself and If you like it, hate it, that’s ok,” I believe them. With things like a hot-tub groping session being interrupted by a phone-call from a devious ex, these lives don’t need editing or prompting to be good TV. The teaser alone would have hooked me in for the entire season.
