Television: Real World DC - Episode 8, Recap & Review

By our guest blogger, Gita Gupte

Not much happened on this week’s “Real World DC.” After weeks of confrontational episodes courtesy of Ashley, this week took a sedative with a few minor storylines circling around jealousy, lack of talent, brattiness and boredom. While Mike, Josh and Erika made splashes this week, we literally see the rest of the cast sitting around for most of the episode.

The biggest development of the week was that Mike finally came out of the closet. The last few episodes have been building on the topic of Mike’s sexual orientation and while the previews from last week promised more ambiguity, we found out this week that the Mike/Callie hookup was just a way for Mike to show-off to his younger brother, who is visiting along with his two younger sisters and mother.

The family visit was essential to this week’s episode, because once Mike was able to show his family “the real Mike” and gain their acceptance, he was able to come to terms with his own sexual orientation, which he has been struggling with for some time now. He finally admitted his love for Tanner, his boyfriend from home. He also met with an openly gay Congressman, who helped him believe that he could reach his goals without compromising who he is. This was a huge step forward for Mike and I was happy to see that he now respects himself as much as everyone else does.

Josh finally resurfaced to make it onto another episode. His focus this week was to get a band together, which he did successfully. The only problem is this--Josh is completely tone def. He admitted this week that in the past he has relied on his looks for getting into bands, which is probably why he isn’t in a band any of us actually have heard of.

As Josh subjects his roommates to painful sounds during band practice, we notice that Erika, the other resident musician, is getting increasingly jealous of Josh’s success (however minor it may be). She even stoops so low as to plant herself at a piano and sing her songs to his band during a practice session while he is out of the room. While she can’t get a band together herself, she whines herself and others silly about how great of a singer she is (she’s not) and how if she had a band, she would rock it. Maybe if Erika stopped her whining to use her energy for something productive, she would have a band and not need to try and steal Josh’s.

Overall, this was not one of the better episodes this season. It was slow moving, touched on tired topics and had no real breath of excitement. After weeks of wanting someone to quell Ashley and her antics, I was almost nostalgic for them this week. Without her constant bickering with her roommates there really isn’t much other substance to the show. "The Real World" is not as fun without delinquent behavior to the nth degree. I am hoping it returns next week.