By Kara Rozansky

Everywhere I go someone is talking about The Hills. I put on the radio and Heidi's calling into my local radio station to plug her god awful single. I open my e-mail and someone's sending me a link to a blog Spencer wrote calling Lauren a god awful nickname. Even my dad has a thing or three to say about what's going on with the kids in La La Land.

I keep racking my brain to pinpoint specifically what nerve in the American psyche The Hills strikes to garner such a surprisingly broad response. That sounds bizarrely deep for a reality show following privileged young folks around doesn't it?

Maybe it's not so bizarre. In his time Shakespeare wrote plays for the people, not just the elite. Don't get me wrong -- Billy Shakes is my homeboy (in a good way, not the "homeboy wore cowboy boots to the beach" a la Justin Bobby way). I'm not saying The Hills will have the same impact hundreds of years from now like Shakespeare's works but I am saying they both tap into the core of human nature that we all experience. Both give us stories of betrayal, revenge, anger, greed, and most of all, love.

By Kara Rozansky

While it's no secret that I'm an ardent fan of all shows, fictional or semi-fictional, based out of Orange County, I know plenty of people who could care less about the kids out west. The following is a conversation I recently had with a friend who fits into this category:

Friend: So I was watching The O.C., no not The O.C., it was a show on MTV.

Me: You mean Laguna Beach?

Friend: Yes! Except it wasn't called Laguna Beach anymore, it was called The Hills.

Me: (laughing) That's right and wrong. The Hills follows around one of the girls who originally appeared on Laguna Beach but it's its own show.

Friend: Whatever it's called, even though they talk about absolutely nothing important I can't stop analyzing and thinking about it.

The power of The Hills is just that strong that it can suck almost anyone into its void of frivolousness. The premiere of the third season definitely did not dampen the addictiveness of The Hills. In fact, within the first five minutes the show reminded us that Lauren is famous now even though she's not really doing anything above and beyond other girls her age. She's an intern -- sure, she's at Teen Vogue which is cooler than interning at a financial firm or something -- but she's still an intern with her own reality show. The first big news we learn about Lauren's life before the cameras came back on this season is that rumors Heidi and Spencer either created and/or helped to spread were flying that Lauren and Jason made a sex tape together. The rumors wound up on the internet and on the computer screens of plenty of Laguna Beach natives including Lauren's mother.

By Kara Rozansky

After eighteen seasons everyone knows The Real World drill -- seven strangers get thrown into an unbelievably awesome house where they will proceed to drink themselves silly, hook up without a STD care in the world, scream, fight, and very likely have at least one run-in with the law. By now these things are a given and a rite of passage for those cast members who want to move on to the true glory of The Real World/Road Rules Challenge show. To use The Price is Right as a metaphor, landing a spot on The Real World is now nothing more than making it down to the Contestants' Row. No one really cares about you until you've got a shot at spinning the Big Wheel and partaking in the Showcase Showdown.

At least that's how I watch The Real World these days. I know I have to get through a whole season in order to have a new batch of people to throw into the Challenge mix. That said, I didn't have any lofty expectations for the nineteenth season of The Real World taking place in Sydney, Australia. You might wonder why I bother watching at all with that outlook. I blame Eric Nies. Ever since he took his shirt off that first time back in 1992 on The Real World's inaugural season in New York I was hypnotized. I was also eleven and already hormonal so that might have had something to do with it too.