After 31 seasons, it’s natural to think the “The Real World” needs a bit of sprucing up. With the new twist of “Go Big or Go Home,” MTV promised audiences that the roommates would be challenged to complete tasks that forced them to face their fears and push them to their limits. If a cast mate chose not to participate, he or she would be sent home and replaced. On paper, this sounded pretty intriguing. Mixing in “The Challenge” with “The Real World” could have some entertaining results.
But MTV seemed to forget they promised such exciting trials and tribulations. This season should’ve been titled “The Real World: Two People Do Cool Things.” It’s not as catchy, but it’s way more accurate.
RELATED: Who’s the leak on ‘Real World: Go Big or Go Home’? Chris Ammon explains
There weren’t any “over the top, daring missions.” The group challenges were all pretty fun activities. The roommates went off-roading, jumped out of an air balloon, bounced off a blob float and went camping. The only activity that seemed less than stellar was when they had to have a massive spider crawl up their body, which was as random and uninteresting to watch as it sounds.
As for the individual challenges, only two of the eight roommates were even assigned one. Chris flew to Utah with Kailah to formally renounce himself from the Mormon church. This felt redundant and seemed like it was only for show purposes since the outspoken pansexual had already broken from the church years ago. However, we’ll give this half credit because Kailah’s experience being there with Chris seemed to open her eyes to a section of the world she had no idea existed beforehand.
Sabrina was the only cast member given a truly interesting journey to embark on. The show hired a private investigator to help find her birth mother, and then flew her to Boston to meet her for the first time. Learning about her birth mother, fighting over the nerves and hesitation to actually meet her in person, Sabrina beautifully transitioned from this girl who was so painfully insecure with herself in the first episode, to a woman who was finally becoming comfortable in her own skin by the finale.
Deane was thrown a surprise divorce party. We’re still not quite sure how that was considered a challenge of any sort. “Jungle Boy” Dione’s greatest task was to apparently get hammered for as many days in a row as possible. Actually, we’re pretty sure that was Kailah’s main challenge, as well. As for Dylan, CeeJai’ and Jenna, who knows … maybe MTV forgot?
RELATED: ‘Real World: Go Big or Go Home’: ‘The last straw’ for Jenna Thomason
The saying goes: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Most people who audition to be on this reality show are at a point in their lives in which they feel lost in some way. A young 20-something stuck at a crossroads, with no idea what they want to do and zero clue as to who they are as a person. So, they jump head first into this crazy cool opportunity to star on “The Real World” for three months — while at the same time, effectively escaping all responsibilities of the actual real world for which they are not yet ready to face. To sequester seven people like that into one house, is interesting enough to watch.
MTV didn’t follow its own advice. They neither went big or sent anyone home. Well, not until halfway through the finale episode. But, by then it was too little, too late. Don’t get us started on that nonsensical last minute decision to add an 8th cast member. This was the most disjointed season of “The Real World” and it had nothing to do with the cast members itself. Go big or go home, MTV? You did neither.
