I Only Got Through Half - Did anyone make it all the way through Amish in the City last night? I know I certainly couldn't...I surprised myself by watching the entire first hour (admittedly, watching with TiVo and mostly skipping to parts where I saw some flesh). The participants are either hot (Persian-Caucasian swim instructor Kevan) or insane (Vegan Girl who thinks cows came from outer space) or both. Says the WaPo: "The city kids are dull, rude, intellectually closed-minded and hypocritical. Next to them, the Amish are delightful." That's true...especially next to Reese. Maybe I just wasn't connecting with my inner queen, but listening to the homosexual Hollywood club promoter was like having my eardrums pierced with tiny needles...over and over and over again.

The NY Times desperately tries to offer a serious reflection on the show. But it's hard to be sincere about a show that's so derivative and lame: "While the show has the trappings of MTV's 'Real World' and its knockoffs, [the creator] said he hoped rumspringa [the period of running around practiced by young Amish before they are baptized into the religion] would differentiate his exhibitionists." But it doesn't...the show has the same tired archetypes and concept as Real World and Surreal Life and Big Brother.

One of the weirdest things to come out of the show was the participants' obsession with metrosexuality. They must have bandied about the term half a dozen times during that first hour I watched. Lesson learned: you can shave the nerdy Amish guy's chest and buy him Diesel jeans but that doesn't make him cool. Conversely, you can be a funky vegan hippie chick from Topanga, but that doesn't make you an idiot. Oh wait...

Update: FYI, apparantly, the show scored huge ratings.