BY DC CUEVA
This winter and spring saw an eventful Season 2 of Siesta Key, a season that once again brought drama as red hot as the sunny, 100-heat heat of a Florida summer to our screens, as they channeled the Californian spirit of Laguna Beach and The Hills out east. As it was for Season 1, this sophomore season began with the birthday rager that turned this town into Fight City Beach South after the many bar brawls that went down up the road by the Floribama Shore, and ended with a dramatic breakup of the couple who started this summer as the king and queen of this kingdom south of Tampa Bay.
Our return engagement to this Sarasota suburb kicked off with Alex's big birthday party where Rich Homie Quan performed right in his backyard, but in the end saw the birthday boy and Pauly engage in a big fight with one of the two newbies who crashed the bash, his high school vendetta Jared. The other newcomer to Siesta, Alex's ex Cara, instantly bonded with pot-stirrer Chloe as the authority on others' business began to take aim at taking down #Jalex. And the newbies themselves spurred some relationship drama with Cara getting close to Garrett, and Jared flirting with Kelsey, who in the case of the OG's were ironically exes.
There was also the out-of-town trek down to Miami, the Egyptian-themed over-the-top Gala at Alex's place (which we featured on this site here last year while filming was taking place), and a music video that caused a riff among the significant others of one-time couple Brandon and Madisson. We also saw Canvas' quest for her biological mom while balancing a relationship with her best friend, Pauly getting into trouble with the law once again, Jared come to grips with his past in the military, and more drama than we could fit in this story.
But all things come back to the couple who started their summer together, but the last few episodes of Season 2 saw #Jalex's world melt away like a snowman trying to survive the heat on the beach. Word spread of him cheating on her with two girls in his college apartment, then for Jules' 21st birthday Alex gave her a necklace in an effort to win her back. But once Chloe showed Cara a video of Alex getting close to a random girl on a concert night out, it was inevitable that the king and queen were gonna be separated. And at Cara's end-of-summer party at her pad overlooking the Atlantic which also saw Pauly get in trouble there as well, things finally went dunzo - for now - with #Jalex.
After a little teaser video that reminded us of when dial-up internet was the way to go for us to get connected to the world, on Friday afternoon came some exciting news to begin the month of May. On the show's social media outlets, the ladies of Siesta Key had the honor of getting to reveal to their fanbase that there will be a Season 3 of the show, and that filming for it is now underway. Will we see #Jalex get back together or will things start out fresh for the two? Which newbies will come into the kingdom to spur some drama? And what else will go down? We'll find out when we get there.
But before we get the answers to those questions there in Siesta, the show it was inspired by, The Hills, will return next month with New Beginnings. MTV's latest reboot was announced last year at the Video Music Awards, where most of the original cast walked the blue carpet and revealed their return to our screens, following in last year's monster that was the Family Vacation of the Jersey Shore crew.
Heidi, Spencer, Audrina and Whitney will return as will Brody, Frankie, Justin Bobby and Stephanie... and taking the place of Lauren Conrad and Kristin Cavaliari are The O.C.'s Mischa Barton and rocker's son Brandon Thomas Lee, as they will help to write the next chapter that's yet to be written right in the Hollywood hills. And it was this week that the new video streaming app of MTV's parent company Viacom, Pluto TV, unveiled an all-Hills channel on its site to get everyone excited for the show's return, all on top of the Siesta series renewal.
Last year during what was classified as Season 1-B of the show - the winter half of the first season, Juliette, Brandon, Kelsey and Garrett got the chance to channel their own Laguna/Hills memories by doing role-playing of two scenes from The Hills, with the resident pot-stirrer Chloe serving as director of those scenes done in front of a green screen. A caution: there will be wigs being worn by the cast, including one of the guys deciding to dress up as a lady... well, we've seen just about everything here.
While we're laughing seeing these two clips of the cast's hilarious role-playing of the show they're compared with, there is actually a bit more context to the story of how a show that bears resemblance to one of MTV's most buzzed about hits can actually be as relatable as Floribama Shore was when it premiered the same year of 2017, and not just as a wannabe of the show it was inspired by in addition to offering the big-time drama the channel's viewers have come to expect.
Before the Siesta Season 1 finale last year, E! News posted an article and interview with many of the castmates which helped to point out the differences between The Hills and Siesta. And if the very last scene of the former's series finale nine years ago is an indication of how much of what went down in SoCal was fabricated, then the ladder is reflective of what MTV fans prefer these days of wanting their reality experience to be authentic... and to also add a human element to the mix, much like what we've seen on Floribama, on Real World and in the Teen Mom franchise.
There, the Siesta cast discussed adding the social awareness of the moment and the group being that much more relatable to viewers as the so-called college-aged version of Laguna thanks to the real-life issues they have had to endure and have experienced first-hand. To add what went on in Season 2 to that post, Jared's battles with depression and PTSD after his time serving in the Navy added more to his storyline than being Madisson's ex and Alex's rival who got in that backyard brawl. There's Pauly's dealings with the law that saw him get cuffed up on both Seasons 1 and 2, as well as he and Brandon's common ambitions in the music world. There's the ladder's friend Carson opening up about being a foster kid, and the rest of the group focusing on what's next for them career wise.
We saw Kelsey tearing up in speaking to the crowd at a cancer fundraiser to help raise awareness of the disease her mom has been battling (which saw her temporarily put her modeling career on hold), which speaks to family being as prominent on Siesta as it was in Laguna. Chloe's mom not only drove her to the hospital after her that fight with Amanda after that first Alex b'day bash, but also dealt with chronic illness. And the real reason for Alex's big Galas is that one of his siblings is diagnosed with autism, and those parties his family and his mom's own event party company put on benefits a local community center for children and adults with developmental disabilities.
With the presence of people of color on the cast, there's also the interracial relationships on Siesta -- something that wasn't present on The Hills or Laguna but was up in Panama City Beach. But most especially prevalent on Siesta has it embracing the LGBTQ community much like Real World: Canvas having romantic feelings for Madisson's sister Paige and then her best friend Tawny, and Madi's openly gay friend Tarik coming out to his parents and sharing with Chloe his own connection to the Pulse Orlando tragedy when a close friend of his was among the 49 killed in the rampage.
And lastly, there's social media, something that was in its infancy when Laguna premiered in a MySpace world, followed by Facebook when The Hills was on everyone's mind. Each castmate's social followings on Twitter, Instagram and SnapChat number in the five & six figures, just as the apps themselves have also trickled into the show itself. And Chloe has no doubt relished the role of chief investigative reporter of looking through those apps right down to where those Bitmojis are around town, to let anyone know of everyone's whereabouts and whatever shady business might be of most interest of her to spill the tea, show those receipts and hold them accountable... just as Spencer Pratt has become a social media darling in between what will now be two MTV series.
Regardless of whether you're older and fond of The Hills and Laguna Beach, or a few years younger and who can better relate to the Siesta squad, there is something for everyone now when it comes to the sub-form of reality television MTV invented of "reality drama" in mixing the one thing MTV does better than anyone else with elements of traditional scripted television, forming a genre-bending way of entertainment being reintroduced in this age of reboots. Whatever happens next in Florida, we won't know... but they can thank their colleagues out in California for making their journey possible.
- I AM DC
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