quinta-feira, junho 23, 2005
TV review: I Want to Be a Hilton 2
«Kathy Hilton stands in mocking judgment as the divertingly Pygmalion-esque contestants (it's not entirely clear what they're playing for) are poised to be transformed into insufferable snobs -- something we should all aspire to. Among them are a ranch hand, a perfume salesman, a receptionist, a construction worker, a waiter, a bartender and a golf caddy. They have names like Jabe and Jaret and Jackaay. They're given a big welcoming buffet with all sorts of high-society food that they eat with, like, their fingers and stuff as our esteemed empress of etiquette watches in horror from a nearby perch, shaking her head like a jewel-encrusted bobble-head doll.
There is so very much work to do with this rough-hewn bunch. They're immediately put through the paces of learning style, culture and table manners and will soon be instructed in the fine art of dealing with the press -- just in case, you know, they ever need to in their plumbing or sales job. Even the refined British narrator (unseen) can scarcely mask his disgust as these purported yahoos eat their first escargot, sip fine wine and attempt to crack crab with the proper savoir faire. Then there comes the first challenge, a dinner competition in which the most blatant Wal-Mart shopper and fertilizer user on each of the two teams shares an elegant dinner with such guests as "Access Hollywood's" Billy Bush and "Queer Eye" culinary guy Ted Allen as teammates shout instructions into an earpiece ("Hold the stem! Swirl it! Sniff it! Now!"). 
And so it goes in the typically derivative, cloyingly denigrating "I Want to Be a Hilton," which ironically makes great strides in demonstrating why we probably don't want to be a Hilton. I mean, there's all of that pressure to be supercilious all of the time, for starters. We're told that one of these 14 will ultimately "live like a Hilton." This is evidently billed as a good and positive thing. A greater challenge would be posed by a show titled, "I Want to Be Mad to Care Enough to Make It Through an Entire Episode." Now there's your original concept.
