Jennifer's season mega-wrap-up: Banished from the DVR

The Hills: Not so long ago, I stated that I loved the Hills. But when the second part of this season rolled around I found myself just not being able to take it anymore. I think it's because Lauren and Heidi and Audrina now get as much, if not more, celebrity coverage than actual actors and in turn, the show has just become almost unnecessary. I mean, to an extent the show has always been fake, but in the past I've been able to kind of enjoy the storytelling. But now with their constant presence in the news and the show being a couple of months behind...to me it all seems even more fake. So I decided to stop watching. And you know, I am definitely not missing watching Heidi and Spencer's totally ridiculous drama.

American Idol: Not completely banished as I did watch it every so often, but this season just really cemented why I don't like the show anymore. David Cook, while a better singer and performer than most of the population, just wasn't interesting to me at all. He proved to be good at rearranging songs into his style, but with his own music that novelty's not going to be there. I have no doubt that he'll sell a ton of albums but I think I'm done with the show, at least until they stop with all the dated themes and/or make the contestant sing their own original songs. Yeah, it's not likely.

Hell's Kitchen: Strangely enough, I didn't give up this show because I'd had enough of Gordon Ramsay. I actually still find him really amusing. The reason I gave it up was the shameless, terrible casting that the show does. It's just all so...FOX, if you know what I mean. I'm ok over here with Top Chef, thanks.

HILARIOUS

I do unashamedly watch and kind of love the Hills, but this is so awesome beyond words. James Franco (and a crazy wig) as Justin Bobby and Mila Kunis as Audrina. (If you haven't watched the show this season then you won't get it though...)

I love the Hills

I used to kind of be ashamed of this fact, and wonder why I was so into this silly MTV semi-reality stuff. But while watching the third season's premiere episode, it kind of dawned on me. I enjoyed Laguna Beach, sure, which is what spawned the Hills in the first place (and I'll probably be watching the new incarnation Newport Harbor) but those shows generally have too many characters, some of which are not interesting enough to be given as much screentime as they are. And despite their privileged and sometimes unreal lives, it was all still petty high school stuff. And as addicting as it was, it wasn't all that satisfying.

But the Hills somehow manages to be almost more interesting than scripted TV. For some reason, there aren't a lot of shows on TV about characters in college or in their early twenties, and the Hills kind of fills that void. And despite the fact that she's kind of a semi-celebrity who's had three years of her life shown on TV, Lauren's still pretty much a normal person. Although thankfully the show isn't just all about her romantic life. Her friendship issues with Heidi are the stuff of good scripted TV (it's often hard to believe that Spencer can be an actual person) and some of the scenes at Teen Vogue have a funny Devil Wears Prada feel to them. And more lately, Lauren's celebrity status has been a bit more apparent on the show. In the premiere, Lauren talks about how a rumor of a sex tape got back to her parents through the Internet. It's all addictively watchable.

Of course the show is really beautifully shot and edited and doesn't seem at all like your usual candid reality shows. And I guess since this is MTV, they have a knack for choosing amazingly appropriate songs for the situations. Like OneRepublic's "Apologize" was playing in a scene after Lauren and Heidi have a fight where Heidi denies doing anything to make Lauren mad at her. "It's too late to apologize" indeed.

Anyway, last season ended with Lauren and Heidi's friendship seriously on the rocks thanks to Spencer, so we'll be sure to see more of that, especially with Heidi and Spencer now engaged. (Speaking of which, how lame was that proposal?? Was it maybe just for the sake of the cameras?) I'm also happy that we'll be seeing more of Whitney, who seems almost too normal and well-adjusted to be on reality TV, and Lo, one of my favorites from the Laguna Beach days. She has this hilarious way of straightforwardly questioning people about things, like when she asked Audrina's ex-boyfriend if his name was really Justin or Bobby, haha.