#3 - NYC Prep Is One Of The Best Reality Shows Of All Time

The Last Great American Dynasty

Bravo’s 2009 series NYC Prep holds a special place in my heart. It’s the kind of show that perfectly exemplifies everything I love about early reality television; it had lofty goals and managed to achieve almost none of them. It’s a show that is obviously trying very hard and contains some of the best unintentional comedy ever captured on camera.

I love getting high and watching bad television or movies. Not intentionally bad ones--but true camp that comes from people sincerely trying and doing their best. Back when this show premiered, I was about to be a senior in high school. As a fan of the Gossip Girl books (and a somewhat ‘ironic’ fan of the TV show), nothing got me more excited than the promise of a show all about the real Blair Waldorfs. Swimming in privilege and absentee-parents, the show was supposed to make living in NYC look like a teen dream. Plus, there was a mysterious death and a girl crying “I didn’t want her to die!” in the trailer so I had to tune in.

What the show actually delivered is...a different story. (The mystery death by the way was that of a dog we saw once on screen. Not saying it’s not sad but uh, it was underwhelming to say the least.)

Guests Of Guests

If you’ve never seen it, NYC Prep stars six kids who for the most part did not know each other, went to different schools, and were clearly forced to hang out by production. Often on super-windy corners in below-freezing temperatures. On my latest rewatch, I was struck by the fact that they never actually managed to get the entire cast speaking to each other in one room (though they clearly try with some of the dinner parties, it’s very evident that Jessie wasn’t willing to play ball).

Instead, they dutifully sat and ate their Magnolia cupcakes while trying to find something to talk about with these semi-strangers. Bravo attempted to create love triangles, drama over sitting in the front row at fashion week, and even managed to give two people the raising-money-for-charity plotline (neither come anywhere close to Laguna Beach’s Fight The Slide 2005 Fashion Show). There's something adorable about a bunch of teenagers insisting that being born-and-bred in New York City has made them "super mature" whilst they squabble over their age differences in the backrooms of a fancy restaurant—one that is owned by a friends parent, of course.

What Bravo failed to realize was that the best drama comes from the conflicts that were already present before the cameras showed up. They very occasionally managed to capture authentic moments, like with PC and Jessie who clearly had a long-standing friendship before the show. I will forever wonder what exactly Jessie’s family did to “save” PC for years on end.

It becomes extremely clear that while these kids may in fact be going out, getting drunk, and hooking up beyond chaste pecks by the Astor Place Cube, the cameras were definitely not allowed to show it. Schools banned cameras, as did some of the parents. Jessie’s father is blurred out in all of the photos we see of him, and my longstanding theory about PC is that he was 18 and signed himself up for the show, much to his families chagrin. His home is never seen, and the only adult he interacts with is a weird therapist who is providing whispers of guidance in every scene she’s in.

Don’t Wear All Your Labels At Once

But one of my absolute favorite parts is the 2009 fashion capsule it provides.

Remember when it used to be hard to be in the know when it came to fashion? We had to pour over magazines, find archived Vogue Runway collections, and piece it together ourselves. And while I’m certainly not ready for low-rise jeans to make a comeback, there’s something still quaint about the latter half of the decade. Think giant bangles clutched around upper arms, chunky knit hats in bold colors, Jeffrey Campbell boots, purple Coach purses, and too many scarves. (That being said, I saw a short cardigan on an Instagram influencer the other day and fully lost my mind.)

The show has several scenes set in boutiques--including a classic throwback to Intermix. There’s a scene of Kelli going “shopping” with Sebastian that becomes an instant classic when she rips the dress and they quickly leave without telling anyone. It’s one of the most teenage moments on the show to be honest.

Meanwhile, since Taylor goes to Public School (she goes to Stuyvesant so take that phrase with a coarse grain of salt) she has a scene with her friends going thrifting. And of course, Jessie is sure to tell us that she’s been working with a salesperson at Barney’s (RIP) since she was 13 years old in what is the most fashionable moment on the show, bookended with display mannequins wearing statement necklaces.

Potable Drinking Water

NYC Prep is a wild slice-of-life in an era that hasn’t become nostalgic just yet. It’s of a time when Bravo was throwing any concept at the wall and seeing which ones would stick. NYC Prep joins the illustrious one-season wonder ranks of Bravo’s yesteryears alongside Gallery Girls, Hey Paula!, and Kell on Earth.

Reality TV was still finding its footing, and this show seems to have been made about teenagers but marketed to adults. The tonal dissonance is present the whole time because no matter how wealthy and elitist these teens may be, they’re still teenagers with dumb teenage drama.

It’s fascinating to witness a world that was pre-Occupy Wall Street, so things like “my family is in the top half of the 1%” came free-flowing from of their lips without a hint of irony. Touring Harvard, awkward first dates, going shopping for charity galas, teenage “love” triangles, and checking an SAT score could have made great television.  But ultimately, this series turned out to be much more of a comedic farce than a glamorous, escapist fantasy.