The year is 2019. MTV is premiering a new show. It’s set in LA and features a group of beautiful people who appear to live fast, drama-filled lives…until you really dig below the surface. They’re skinny and white (except for one) and are going to pull back the curtain on what it’s like to make it in the City of Angels.
Wait a second…we know this story and the cast of characters already! We know that as kind as Whitney is, she’s going to fade into the background, and that Audrina can’t get over Justin Bobby, and that Speidi will incite EVERYONE and that perhaps Stephanie is the only one who’s actually going to bring the drama.
We also know how the series ended its first run nine years ago, with Brody embracing a very slim blonde before she drives away. He watches her drive into the distance with the Hollywood sign behind him, and suddenly it falls – FALLS?! Yes, it falls, and Kristen returns, and it’s just another day on set because they’re ON SET.
Did that ending have you shook in 2010? (Ok, we didn’t say that back then – maybe instead you were like “Are you serious?!”) I still think The Hills finale should go down as one of the best TV show plot twists in history, but what do I know? I’m just a girl who’s willing to give up her Monday nights nine years later to do it all over again.
If you don’t follow MTV or me on Twitter, you might not know that The Hills: New Beginnings aired Monday, June 24. Nearly the whole gang was there, and then some. Mischa Barton was certainly a surprise to see on reality TV, but I guess her crossover from The O.C. (the scripted version of The Hills’ predecessor Laguna Beach) made sense. Getting the gang back together didn’t seem to draw in only me – it was the second most-watched cable series premiere among young adults of 2019.
Joining me to tune into The Hills: New Beginnings were two friends who were also watching this train wreck reality show for a second time around. We set our DVRs (couldn’t do that the first time around) and texted all the way through. (It was a big change for Amanda – AB below – and me because we used to watch the show live in our dorm room.)
Below is The Hills review with me (JS), Jamie (JW) and AB’s thoughts of the scenes we found most captivating and the overall premiere.
Live reactions to The Hills: New Beginnings
*Scene opens on Audrina, Whitney and Heidi* catching up on their mom lives.*
AB: The three girls chatting was soooo contrived.
JW: Whitney doesn’t look like herself at all, like, who is that?
JS: Is watching this how I want to spend my night?
JW: I am unsure at this point.
*The women discuss Audrina’s love life as a divorcée*
AB: Wait they’re encouraging Audrina to go out with Justin Bobby now?!
JH: JUSTIN BOBBY!
*New scene opens in Speidi’s…bathroom?*
JH: Ugh these two, no!
AB: WTF is this slow motion bathtub getting ready scene with Spencer and Heidi.
JS: Wait, the speidi intro is wooooooorth it.
JH: I think I might record this so I can skip through the commercials, BUT I AM GLUED TO IT.
*Spencer is now at dinner with Brody and Frankie (Side note: didn’t know I wanted Frankie back, but I think I’m gonna love it.)*
AB: Spencer looks so skeptical and scared of Brody the during dinner.
JW: These people make us look like geniuses at life. They are all…kind of boring now.
AB: Idk if I like the real housewives-like confessional scenes. I do like the flashbacks, it reminds me how good the original series was.
JW: The most drama we’re seeing is from the 2007 clips!
JS: I like the overproduced nature of the show now. Kinda makes me feel like they’re in on the joke.
*Spencer and Heidi are chatting over vino in their kitchen*
AB: I love how much wine S&H drink. Their relationship is cute.
JS: I just realized I tuned out half of their conversation. I think my feelings toward them are still lingering from 2008.
*Next up: Brody’s home, where his wife is cooking him a meal like a good wife. But the pleasant meal quickly turns into a fight.*
JW: I am enjoying the Brody/wife scene.
JS: Kaitlynn, you can come live with me! We’ll go to bed early and our husbands can stay out late.
AB: Brody is a terrible husband and person. I want him to make like one guest appearance like he does for Kardashian family vacays, not have a whole story line. His wife was being a normal wife and he was being a jerk at breakfast. Good god he’s also awful in the Brandon friend scene.
JS: At first I thought this was a totally normal fight between a married couple, one I’ve had with my partner. But Steve’s never said he “condones” anything I do or called me a nightmare.
*Next we’re at the new character Brandon Lee’s house, and his mom Pamela Anderson enters the scene*
JW: Well, she is a real twist character!!!
*That’s all we have to say about that. Mischa Barton’s scene: commence!*
JW: Pam first, then Mischa was twist two?! Now I am IN!
*Ok, we’re on-board with Mischa. But perhaps most on-board with a JUSTIN BOBBY sighting (“a man so great he needed two names.”)*
JS: EEEEK! Justin Bobby just said compared to Audrina’s ex, he’s “done things he’s probably never done” to Audrina!
Final Thoughts
AB: I didn’t want to like the new peeps but Brandon seems nice and normal and I’m so so curious about Mischa.
JS: Agree! I didn’t think I’d like Mischa, but she seems so…normal?
AB: I need more Whitney where is she?
JS: *Yawn* fine without her.
AB: Do we believe Mischa was in their circle and not just cast as a friend?
JS: Yeah, are we supposed to believe any of this? Didn’t we learn after The Hills original finale that it was all contrived?
JW: Have a great night dreaming of Justin Bobby! <3
Did you tune into The Hills: New Beginnings premiere? Leave a comment with what you’d text a girlfriend about it!