We watched Harlem Heights for the first time the other day. And as Kanye West’s ex girlfriend, Brooke Crittendon, strut down 125th in fully laced in fur and ice, made up within an inch of her long-legged life, we thought: is this show, Harlem Heights (The Hills' black step daughter) better than Whitney Port’s pursed and coifed The City (The Hills’ semi-addictive bastard girl spawn)?
Short answer: Yes
We think it’s probably unfair to truly compare either of these shows to the pseudo-reality mothership, The Hills. Much less, the grandmother ship, Laguna Beach, The Real OC. It’s just unfair. The Hills and LB are the sparkly West Coast loins from whence both of these shimmering slices of The Real Manhattan were born.
But the two baby shows are on equal East Coast footing so let us tell you why we prefer Harlem Heights despite the almost unforgivable soft focus that BET is famous for.
1. The fabulousity is more fabulous. Whitney and the girls are always done, and gorgeous, and wearing designer shit head to toe, but somehow Brooke, Ashlie, and the Heights girls manage to out diva everyone ever. They are constantly dripping in fur (faux, we hope), wearing MAC for days. Everything they rock is shiny. And we love it.
2. They Work. We actually believe that the Harlem Heights girls and boys have jobs. You know, places they go where they must perform certain tasks and duties in order to receive biweekly payment. We do not believe that Whitney Port does anything besides look vacant and thin. (Sorry Whit).
3. H.Heights keeps it real. The socially conscious undercurrent in the show is admittedly a fairly heavy handed example of BET’s recent attempts at “correcting reductive portraits at black life.” The New York Times says:
BET has closely followed the MTV and VH1 model, but while it has not totally dispensed with trash, its growing noble interest in performing racial P.R. leaves it feeling devoid of the exhilarating idiocy we love in shows like “The Hills.”
Halem Heights, though, maintains all of The Hills' he-said-she-said, while needling us with little reminders about social responsibility. We’re kind of into that.
Take a look:
What do you think?
(nytimes.com)
Previously:
"The Hills" Season 5 Trailer: Stranger (and More Annoying) Than Fiction
The Hills Update: Lauren's Mad; VH1 Says "Heidi and Spencer Make Millions Off Being A-Holes"