There was a time when watching an MTV reality show did not automatically imply a rapid descent into the most base, vapid parts of youth culture.
But that time seems long ago. MTV these days is music television in name only, and with shows like “Maui Fever” on the schedule the network may have finally reached rock bottom.
“Maui Fever,” which airs Wednesdays at 10:30 p.m., follows the misadventures of a half dozen pretty young things hooking up and riding waves in tourist-friendly Maui. One need not be a pop-culture puritan to say that as reality TV it’s an exercise in soulless youth marketing.
Driven by cynicism, populated by dullards and edited to drain anything remotely real from the experience, “Maui Fever” is essentially surf porn, with beautiful, unpleasant people behaving badly and worse, boringly.
It wasn’t always this way with MTV. When “The Real World” first debuted in 1992, it was a fascinating look at college-age kids interacting in a culturally diverse hothouse environment. Highbrow, or even middlebrow, it was not, but it was about something.
“Fever” is about nothing. And because its reality is so obviously uber-edited, it doesn’t even work as a voyeuristic sociological snapshot of a subculture of society. No part of it feels true.
The faux drama takes pace in Kaanapali, known for its posh resorts and beautiful beaches. The characters include pro surfer Cheyne, a sleepy-eyed, horny child of entitlement who serves as the show’s narrator. Among his friends are Corbin, a scruffy, also horny surfer, who uses charm more than looks to seduce and abandon tourist girls, and Sean, a no less horny beachside waiter who uses his job to scope out available hotties.
There’s also Anthony, the closest thing in their crowd to an actual human being. He’s mooning over his sometime girlfriend, Shaunte, who takes perverse pleasure in jerking him around. Her best friend is Anna, Cheyne’s ex, who uses her wiles to try to steal him back from Rachael, the only cast member who seems to have anything approaching a goal in life beyond getting drunk and laid. She’s a wedding planner.
Don’t worry if you can’t keep track of the coupling permutations. It’s not worth the energy. Virtually none of these characters has anything resembling redeeming qualities. They are almost universally selfish, petty, stupid and--worst of all for a show like this--dull. The only ones who engender any sympathy are Anthony and Rachael--and then not much--as victims of callous, cheating partners. But they are no more likable.
Shows about selfish, cruel, pretty people doing awful things don't always make for terrible television. Those very qualities define the American soap opera. But in soaps the people are fictional, and in good soaps the people are interesting in their nastiness.
In "Fever" they're simply vapid and boring. That and mind-numbingly stupid. Vapid, boring and mind-numbingly stupid characters make for unwatchable television.
And let's not leave out the people behind the camera. Through aggressive editing the whole of "Fever" feels fabricated to seem even cheesier than it already is. Nothing seems genuine, no conversation rings true.
On “The Real World” one got the sense that the people eventually forgot the cameras were around. On "Fever," the camera is ever-present, there to lie.
In the recent round of layoffs at MTV, one can only hope that among those sent packing were the knuckleheads responsible for green-lighting the programming tripe that is “Maui Fever.”
