When it began, it was kind of a shock. Like a “Real World” minus the diversity. Eight likeminded club kids who cared most about their bodies and hair and partying. They acted so dumb, got so drunk and fought so much, it was kind of hard to look away. Italian American societies protested at first thinking they were a bad representation. But who did the people on “Jersey Shore” ever represent but themselves? Who wanted to be like them?Like Honey Boo Boo, they were people you didn’t quite believe really existed but you watched with a mix of horror and glee just in case they might.
“Jersey Shore” got too big too fast, got caught up in its own catch phrases and what seemed fake in season one became hopelessly fake in subsequent seasons, when they were no longer just layabouts on the beach, but increasingly insular wealthy young people, who couldn’t mingle with the crowds that started to follow them (and were bunched together in the background) and certainly didn’t need to work at that dumb T-shirt shop, where any responsible employer would have fired them long ago.
They exported their bad taste to Miami and then Italy but in recent seasons stayed around Seaside Heights, in that same bad house and its tiny wood-paneled rooms. Ratings for what was initially MTV’s biggest hit in years flagged over time — as the cast pushed 30, it seemed less charming to see them go on doing nothing. And many like me, I suppose, tuned in for the first time in a long time to see the final episode.
Was it scheduled Dec. 20 because the end of the world is the next day? As it was, the episode never akowledged the near destruction of the town by Hurricane Sandy; it did pay tribute to the duck phone that the Situation smashed though.
Nothing really had changed. The partyiers proved closer to their parents than you’d think by inviting them all to a final campfire on the beach (with other beachgoers relegated to watching from the boardwalk). Ronnie and Sammi had another pointless fight, soon after Sammi was explaining how mature they’d become and were ready to move in together.
Pity these people who can’t really express themselves to one another other to say they were all like family. Time to get actual jobs now, though if they saved the paychecks they’d been getting they might not have to. They can retire, proud to started a genre of location based louts (next up, the rednecks of “Buck Wild”).
And it’s not as if these people will be fading completely from sight. The spinoff “Snooki & JWoww” returns for a new season Jan. 8.