The kids aren't alright in Jersey

I’m sure just about everyone watches a TV show or two that they are embarrassed to admit watching. I’m no different.

I wasn’t the least bit interested in it when it debuted. In fact, I missed the first two seasons. But one day in July, there was nothing worth watching on television, it was too hot to go outside and having nothing better to do, I tuned to MTV and got sucked into the train wreck that is “Jersey Shore.”

Maybe it was the big hair, the outrageous outfits, the constant bickering between roommates or the unbelievable amount of drama that surrounded them, but something piqued my interest and I sat through a marathon. After that, I was hooked. I couldn’t wait for the next episode. It was like a drunken soap opera. And so my interest in the show blossomed and I became a regular viewer when the third season started.

The show is now in its fifth season and not much has changed, save for the fact that season four was filmed in Italy. Now Vinnie, Pauly D., Mike (aka the Situation); J-Woww, Snooki, Sammi, Ronnie and Deena are back at the Jersey Shore. You’d think that after four seasons, the group would have settled down and quit fighting with one another, but there’s no chance of that. Besides, without the drama, there’d be no show.

After former roommate Angelina left and was replaced with Deena, I thought things would be “normal.” After all, she was the main source of drama in the household. But Ronnie and Sammi picked up  where Angelina left off, constantly fighting and being abusive with one another and breaking up, only to get back together.

Now the Situation has become the drama queen and is stirring things up with Snooki. It was revealed in season four that the couple had a brief “romance” while she was dating her current boyfriend Jionni. Snooki adamantly denies that anything happened. The kicker is that Jionni doesn’t know it and the Situation constantly holds it over her head, threatening to spill the beans at any moment.

What’s even more disturbing than the constant drama in the house, is the fact that Snooki has turned into a bit of a lush. Whenever she goes out with the group (or with Deena), she drinks too much and gets sloppy drunk. She falls over, urinates in places that clearly should never see human urine (i.e., the club’s dance floor and the deck at the shore house). Not only that, but she’s exposed herself more than once because of her preference for short, tight skirts and seems oblivious. She’s been arrested for public drunkenness, wrecked a car in Italy and nothing seems to snap her out of her downward spiral. The only one that tolerates her when she’s drunk is Deena, who acts as her partner in crime.

I would hope that the duo known as the “meatballs” (because of their short stature) are having no influence on young girls. I would really hope that no one idolizes them. Actually, no one in that house is role model material. Instead, they are all antithesis of role models, showing young Americans what they should never do and how they should never act.

As for me, I’m not sure how much more I can take. These days, I think I tune in more out of curiosity than anything else. I want to see if the Sitch really does spill the beans about his hook-up with Snooki. Like I said, it’s more of a soap opera than anything else. It just makes me wonder how much of the “reality” is scripted.

The show has become pretty predictable. The group is famous for doing three things each day: gym, tan, laundry (or GTL). Maybe they should add drink and drama to that acronym.