Jerseylicious-DEF

Winter break is a time where midterms, papers and finals all turn into 1) sleeping in and 2) watching endless amounts of television. Well, this is the case when it comes to me and my college student ways. Luckily for me, my grandparents have every channel under the DirecTV sun, with my personal favorite channels being the ones that have routine marathons of entire seasons of their shows so I can catch up all at once (and then wonder where my entire day went). Amongst the plethora of channels and endless selections of shows, I found myself watching what some might call "bad" reality TV shows. As far as I’m concerned reality TV is SO bad... that it’s goooood, kind of like Kraft Mac’n’Cheese – you know it’s just not healthy, but it just feels so right when the cheesy-goodness takes over.

*Disclaimer: I am not a reality television advocate, per se, but it’s definitely one of my favorite past time that allows my brain to turn off - while I’m still awake*

If I could sum up a large chunk of my winter break in one word it would probably be: Jerseylicious. That’s right: 

© The Style Network

Just in case you didn't catch the lyrics of that captivating ditty, let me enlighten you:

 “Big hair, fancy clothes… rock stars in the spotlight. Tell me do you wanna? Can you really take the drama of a jerseylicious girl like me? I am crazylicious. I am superlicious. I’m the jerseylicious girl you need. Tell me can you take it? Do you really wanna make with a jerseylicious girl like me? I’m what you need!” 

Tracy and Olivia

I apologize, I absolutely just wasted 30 seconds of your life subjecting you to the theme song in video form and then another 30 seconds reading the lyrics themselves... Actually – I’m not sorry at all, I’m glad I could set the stage for all of you who’ve never experienced the fake tans, fake nails and parking lot catfights that is Jerseylicious. Basically, the entire show is about the ladies (lady isn’t quite the right word, but for now we’ll go with it) and gentlemen (also questionable) who work at The Gatsby Hair Salon in Green Brook, New Jersey. Basically, main characters are Tracy Dimarco and Olivia Blois Sharpe – they stir up the most drama,  get into the most confrontations and pretty much wear the most ridiculous outfits ever, thus I deem them the honor of being the main Jerseylicious girls. It’s odd to me that they can never shut up about how they’re such enemies, when all of their interests are EXACTLY the same. They’re both hair extension wearing, accessorizing obsessed, fake-nails-that-reach-to-New-York-wearing Oompa Loompas and all they can “tualk” about is how “Jersey” they are (be visualizing finger quotes right about now). Oh - and they continually date each others' ex-boyfriends... creepy, right?

SERIOUSLY?! Are all girls from New Jersey honestly this animal print infatuated and hairspray insane? I’ve never been to The Garden State myself, nor have I even encountered anyone from there (that even remotely resembles these two), so I can honestly say my only impressions of that state can be attributed to my Jerseylicious marathon watching -- and Jersey Shore, but my feelings about that show are for another time -- on the Style Network. The fact that the show is on the "STYLE" network also baffles me. With a name like that, shouldn’t the channel be emphasizing what TO wear and not what to avoid with a 39 1/2 ft pole? Which then begs the question, could people watching this show possibly be inspired to look or act that way because it’s on TV? I feel like for some people, who watch this show for hours on end, that it could actually start to infiltrate their subconscious and have them waking up one morning being orange, only every wearing a smoky eye, and claiming that everything is sprinkled with “glam fairy dust.”

I may sound hypocritical, since I took part in the marathon viewing of the show, but  I'm not afraid to admit my flaws. All I can do now is hope that I don’t look in the mirror one day to find myself applying FAR too much bronzer and with my hair looking like a family of mice camped out for the night. I know that people no longer believe in the hypodermic needle effect and all that jazz, but since anyone can get a TV show these days, who’s to say people aren’t going to watch these shows and then attempt to be more to be “realistic” and chase their own 15 minutes?

Over the course of this blog, I hope to explore the effects that reality TV may have on ACTUAL reality, what I believe it reflects about our society and our interests, and I hope to entertain you all in the process.

Enjoy.