Boarding House on the WB really is a good show. I'm impressed every week by the solid reality TV they've created. Part of it is I like to watch the surfing, and they treat the surf competetions like an extended highlight reel. So it's not the full blown sports coverage you'd get watching the event on ESPN or something, but it's pretty good.

The real key is you're watching interesting people who are not dealing with some fabricated thing. This was the way The Real World was for the first few seasons - and it was really good. Since then they've started having them all do the same job and work together, which adds stress and reduces individuality a bit. The other key is they've started selecting people who are really screwed up. Before they'd just get colorful people that would have interesting reactions - now they select poster children for why therapy exists.

But north shore avoids all this. They just have a bunch of surfers in the house. And while all the surfers are competing in the same set of tournemtents, they all go about it in different ways. And in the end they aren't the dominating people the field (with the exception of Sunny.) Yeah, they're good, but they're not expected to win and seem to get eliminated in a lot of first round heats.

I guess the key is when I watch the show I actually feel like I'm watching people I'd want to meet and get to know in real life. And I don't feel like I'm seeing some contrived, game playing version of them, I'm see the real person.

In the end isn't that what reality TV is supposed to be, reality?

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