Mary Van Daele, my friend and co-worker, wrote about her appreciation for MTV programming when she guest-blogged for Steve this week. It got me thinking about how much MTV I've been watching lately. It seems I might have an addiction. I have no problem spending an entire Saturday or Sunday watching the mindless, yet, fascinating lineup of programs that they have to offer. NFL Sundays and college football Saturdays are done for the year, and it's cold enough to validate staying indoors all day. (Not that I wouldn't spend a day on my couch in July, but play along with me.) Right now, MTV has a full schedule of excellent shows in constant rotation. Mary mentioned "Maui Fever", which is definitely on my radar. It follows the daily life of a group of young party animals in Hawaii. It was an acquired taste for me. Initially, I had trouble identifying with the characters. A few short weeks later, I was contemplating whether Cheyne should leave his girlfriend Rachel for ex-girlfriend Anna. (Anna is hotter, but Rachel seems more stable.) They've got a great central character in Chaunte. She's conniving and underhanded; and she makes no excuses for it. (Not to mention that she has a body that is, to quote hotelier Paris Hilton, "hot".)
My favorite of the new batch of MTV shows might be "Engaged and Underage". It's a tremendous little feel-good show about 18, 19 and 20 year olds that are getting married. The girls are usually virgins that are waiting until marriage and the guys are getting married just to have sex. The best episodes feature families that don't get along. A typical episode might feature one family that is ultra-religious and somewhat weird. They are normally over-the-top excited to welcome their 19-year-old's fiance into the family, to a creepy degree. Then, if the viewers are fortunate, the other family is against the idea of their 19-year-old son or daughter getting married so young. In one such episode, the guy's family(creepy religious) talked the girl(19-year-old whose family opposed marriage) into letting her future mother-in-law and sister-in-law give her a bikini wax on camera. It was strange footage, to say the least. Another episode featured a 20-year-old guy who was engaged to an attractive blond who was saving herself for marriage. He spent an alarming portion of the episode wrestling with his two junior high-age brothers, while paying very little attention to her. While she painted their new house, he spent time devising a plan for he and his brothers to spend a night sleeping in a different room of the house every night until he moved out. Each show is odder than the next. All in all-it's spectacular.
I'm also closely following "The Hills"(Heidi seems naive) as well as "The Real World: Denver"(Brooke's crazy). I've caught a couple episodes of "Bam's Unholy Union", but it hasn't hooked me in the way that "Viva La Bam" did once upon a time. I am catching up on "Two-A-Days". I enjoyed the first season, but fell behind of late. "Juvies" is good for a laugh every once in a while. I liked when the judge asked one kid if he knew why he was in trouble and he said, "because I threw a chair at my teacher." And the judge said, "That's right."

Man, I just analyzed the hell out of MTV. I might need to get some fresh air. Maybe I'll ease myself off of the MTV by switching over to FUSE for a while. It'll be kind of like methadone. Or maybe I just need to watch some college basketball and reclaim my masculinity.