MTV’s ‘Buckwild’: Is this the new ‘Jersey Shore’?
If you know something about MTV at this point, it is that the network loves controversy. After all, you can largely attribute the success of “Jersey Shore” to their brash and controversial marketing plot, in which they purposefully highlighted Snooki, The Situation, and many of the other cast members acting in inappropriate ways. (As a matter of fact, many believe that the now-infamous clip of Snooki getting punched in the face at a bar is the reason why the show took off to begin with … even if the ratings have fallen mightily in the past month.)
So with “Jersey Shore” coming to a close now, the network is literally wasting no time at all in trying to find the next big thing. For that, we introduce you to “Buckwild.” As the trailer shows below, MTV is going for the same sort of feel in focusing on loud, opinionated people in a certain geographic region. The difference this time is that region we are specifically looking at here is West Virginia, and they all knew each other before the cameras started to roll.
The appeal of “Buckwild” to young people is pretty simple: these are people in the present-day living as though they were still in the 1980s. They are not technology fields, and instead spent most of their time outdoors causing trouble, playing around, and stirring up drama among each other. It also introduces them to a part of America that is rarely put in the spotlight for any reason.
We are not really in a position where we should be the judge, jury, and executioner over what is moral TV, and so for that we’re not going to sit here wondering whether or not watching this new show (which is getting the old “Jersey Shore” timeslot Thursday nights starting on January 3) will make you feel better about yourself. We just hope that if this show does develop an audience, that it is entertaining enough to deserve it.
Do you think this show could capture some of the craziness that is “Jersey Shore”? If you want to read more about why this current season of the MTV franchise is terrible, you can check it out here.
Photo: MTV