There is a lot we know about reality TV today that we just couldn't comprehend in the spring of 1992, when The Real World debuted on MTV. Seven strangers, picked to live in a loft, have their lives taped, to find out what happens when people stop being polite, and start being real.
There should have been a whole bunch of quotation marks around "real," for starters. But there's also no denying that this was the show — and these were the seven people — who started it all. We likely wouldn't have the Kardashians if it weren't for Becky, Andre, Heather B., Julie, Norm, Eric Nies and Kevin. (Whether that'd be a good thing or a bad thing is entirely up to you.)
Now, those seven strangers are getting back together in that same loft in Manhattan for The Real World: Homecoming: New York on Paramount+ on March 4.
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Those of us old enough to have seen the original season 30 years ago will recognize the voices. You'll recognize the issues. And this time you'll recognize that it's probably not quite as real as we maybe thought it was three decades ago.
The trailer amps up the drama right from the start, of course. There's now way it wouldn't, right? "It's 29 years later and we're still having the same conversations," Julie Gentry — who was in New York for the first time for the original series — says in that same Alabama accent.
We didn't actually know these people then, and we're not truly going to know them this time, either. But we will go into it with a different understanding into the show itself. How that comes together with life 30 years later — the internet, smartphones, 24-hour entertainment news and, of course, COVID-19, weren't really things back then — well, we'll just have to see.
But it's going to be a hell of a watch. And it's just one of many new originals on Paramount+ — and already is among the best shows on Paramount+.
Paramount+ launches on March 4 as a transition and extension of CBS All Access. It'll initially be available for $9.99 a month before a $4.99-a-month plan (minus access to your local CBS affiliate) launches in June.
Paramount+ will be available everywhere you could get CBS All Access. That includes Paramount+ on Roku and Amazon Fire TV, on iOS and Android devices, on smart TVs, and on the web.
