There was once a time when MTV put music first, literally, in its acronym of a name and in its programming. Then they carried that obligation off in a dump-truck and crapped onto MTV2, and then more recently, MTVU, the weird "Oh-yea-it-does-sort-of-sound-like-music" channel.
It should come as no surprise then that MTV has run out of ideas in its creation of new shows; the network has been scrambling to fill up time with more celeb-reality programs. "The Osbournes" begat "Newlyweds," which begat "Meet the Barkers."
And now, "Wildboyz" has spawned "Trippin." While both half-hour blocks are filled with explorations of nature and encyclopedic tidbits of information, the latter stars Cameron Diaz and friends spreading their typical American jingoism to "naïve" foreigners. "Wildboyz," on the other hand, spreads its atypical American feces humor to the world.
In "Trippin," Diaz and others run amok in exotic locales such as Nepal and Chile. A recent episode featured the displaced celebrities in Bhutan, showcasing Blink-182's Mark Hoppus, Redman and some girl's amazement at their gorgeous surroundings. Poignant.
Dressed in traditional Bhutanese garb, it took only a few minutes for the participants to ruin the moment, as they acted out kung-fu movie dialogue in front of their native tour guide, who only smiled because he knew that he could leave them for dead if he wanted to.
If that had happened, the show might have become really interesting. Instead, for an excruciating 30 minutes of television, the celebrities force conversation and, finding little to talk about, usually end up making fun of the culture that they're supposedly advertising. Reality television succeeds only when airing whiny drama or fidgety awkwardness. If Cameron Diaz brought along not only boyfriend Justin Timberlake, but also Britney Spears and Kevin Federline, and then took them all into the wilderness in front of the cameras, it would be considered a must-see ratings grabber.
Instead, it plods along. The editors try to decide between producing a documentary on untouched nature and its unrealized beauty or a complete farce with celebrities trying to wreak havoc but feeling obligated to respect their surroundings. To say the least, "Trippin" is disrespectful and boring. m
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