The original Rock of Love starring Brett Michaels was a little slice of comedy heaven. I have never been a fan of the reality dating shows. They all seemed to take themselves so seriously that it was actually a breath of fresh air when Flava Flave debuted Flava of Love on VH1. The extreme trashiness and willingness of the "ladies" to degrade themselves made for some compelling, entertaining drama. Flava was so successful that VH1 thought to themselves, "well, this is fantastic, is there another demographic we can exploit? What's that? White trash? Sounds fantastic, all we need is a desperate, old rock guy who's starting to fade. Sebastian Bach? Nah, he's already married; Steven Tyler? No, no one is going to line up to date their grandma. Axl Rose? He still thinks the latest Guns album is going to come out next month. Brett Michaels? He's still alive? Yeah, get him." And Rock of Love was born.
The first season of Rock of Love was classic reality television. There were villains, psychos, whores (literally and figuratively), and one plucky young gal who won Brett's heart. Jess was easily the least psychotic figure on the show that season (unless you count the ferret that lives on Brett's head; he's kick ass), or so we thought until we found out that their romance didn't last past the taping of the season. She went back home to hang with her real boyfriend and Brett was lost, still looking for his rock goddess to share his life with, or so he'd like us to think.
Which of course brings us to season two, which is curiously un-compelling. I am still enjoying the show; it is full of brainless fun and psychotic bimbos (one of which you can rent by the hour and act, look around you can figure out who she is), but there is a serious lack of drama this year for the viewer, even as it seems like the drama in the house is more brutal than ever. The show should be more watchable than ever, but it's not because it seems like there is no one to root for in this house. In the beginning of the season, there seemed to be good tension and some whacky characters, but as the season has rolled along, outside of Mumbly Jo's bi-polar disorder, the girls have played it too nice. Mumbly Jo could have been the villain of the season, but she was too crazy to think her strategy of pissing everyone off effectively.
I hope that the rest of the season fulfills the promise of the early episodes and the roles of the girls become more pronounced. Otherwise, it seems like Brett and his ferret are going to slip quietly back into the cesspool of 80's rock lead singers from which they oozed and we'll all be subjected to more face time for Hulkamania or Danny Bonaduce. That's a fate no one wants.
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