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| Instagram @Dre.Media |
The reason why we were drawn to Andres in the first place was that he was the creator of The Caucus Challenge, a series of homemade Challenges created for his YouTube channel featuring his high school friends turned competitors as they looked for something to do during spring and summer breaks when not busy with their studies. It was our original story on Caucus back in 2017 that had a huge impact on its creator, and inspired him to do several more installments of the series even after his big moment of walking the graduation stage of accept his diploma. And we would've been featuring a new season of the big show, had it not been for the panic of a global pandemic dominating this twisted 2020.
Last year, Dre decided to broaden his horizons beyond the ten-or-so seasons that he's produced of The Caucus Challenge and create a spinoff series along the lines of what you enjoy about the show that began reality TV as we all know it. Instead of players competing in his backyard, it's venturing out of his house and to places outside of a town better known as a major hub in sports circles and being mentioned occasionally on Jersey Shore, starring some of those who he's known his life and who competed on Caucus, and just living their lives. So began, The Life We Live.
Over the summer, MTV's Pluto TV channel added to its array of programming a show that debuted well before our star was even born: The Real World premiered in 1992 and changed the game for both MTV and the entire television industry inventing the reality programming genre. The beauty of the show was capturing young adults just living their lives in getting to know each other for the first time while taking up residency in phat houses in some of the biggest locations in America and overseas, and with the frequent interpersonal drama we all love.
After producing the most recent season of The Caucus Challenge, Spring 2019's Rivals Roulette, Andres decided to tag along three of his closest friends for a much-deserved spring break vacation. Not content with just staying up in the northeast, he, TCC vets Shaina & Lauren and Dre's best friend Leo flew down to Miami to enjoy the sunshine and the pleasure that comes with a trip to South Florida. That trip was also one that life-changing: the foursome forged a strong friendship in not only getting to explore that great paradise to the south, but also getting to experience that trip together.
As he looked in diversifying his palette of offerings on YouTube (which also includes occasional vlogs, chronicles of life in high school and musical covers), Dre looked to that vacation as a sort of inspiration in wanting to do a spinoff of Caucus and do something along the lines of old-school Real World seasons. He looked to what made the true OG of reality TV unmissable TV to a previous generation, but also bringing along some of his friends to places outside of their hometown.
The idea became The Life We Live, and the show's manifesto in the Dre Media Instagram stories reads, "A YouTube reality series which focuses on a group of young adults living together for several days. Cameras document/vlog their lives and interpersonal relationships." And they couldn't think of anywhere else to host its first season.
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SEASON 1 - MIAMI, FL
The city of Miami and the region of South Florida have had its MTV moments: the infamous shower scene on Season 5 of The Real World, the Key West season that introduced us to Johnny Bananas & co., both Season 2 and the first Vacation of the Jersey Shore cast, and the cool kids of Siesta Key venturing down there a couple times.
After such an amazing trip to Miami over spring break, Dre thought of nowhere else to put on the first season of TLWL, which also coincided with him turning 20 years old. Venturing along with Andres for this epic weekend are six of his closest friends: not only Shaina, Lauren and Leo, but also another Caucus alum in Deja, fellow Secaucus resident Johanne, and local dancer Ezequiel "Eezy."
As you would suspect for a place where the temperatures are always red-hot, these seven friends get to experience a vacation unlike any other: people hooking up, them screwing up, plenty of honest opinions, and tension among the group that boils over in this sultry and steamy part of this country. It's anything but a celebratory 20th birthday trip, as the four episodes of TLWL Miami shows below...
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SEASON 2 - THE POCONOS
The sights of palm trees, beaches and South Beach nightclubs are a sharp contrast from what you'd find in the Northeast: the skyscrapers in the big cities, the climate that sees all of the four seasons make an appearance in Gotham, and then there's the Poconos. This region in Northeastern Pennsylvania is vast with its many hills and valleys, and has long served as a welcome retreat for those who want an escape from the hustle and bustle of the city. A two-hour's drive west along I-80 brings those from New York City into the Poconos, where resort hotels and many outdoor & athletic facilities await.
Season 2 of The Life We Live brought Dre & his friends up to the mountains for one last get-together before the sun set on their summer and everyone parted ways for that new reality known as college life. Only Lauren and Eezy returned from the Miami crew to make a second jaunt with their famous friend, and joining them & Dre were six newcomers to the series: Cyndee, Sydney, JT, Asha, Tom and Nikki. The nine of them thought that they were gonna have a pleasant time getting to enjoy the last days of their break together in this relatively serene resort land.
That is, until reality came to the doorstep... if you saw the twisted seasons of The Real World in Ex-Plosion, Skeletons and Bad Blood, you know that the occupancy rate went above just seven strangers. Here, those from the roommates' past also made the journey to the Poconos, and it sets off plenty of belated 4th of July fireworks. See for yourself below...
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SEASON 3 - UPSTATE NY
Most of the attention in New York state is on the Big Apple, Long Island and the Hudson Valley, but there's more to the state itself. There's Niagara Falls in Buffalo, the state capital of Albany, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Binghamton and Lake Placid - the site of the Miracle on Ice. Those other cities lie in Upstate New York, and so is a town three hours north of NY: Lake George lies at the southwestern base of the Adirondack Mountains, and is considered "the birthplace of the American vacation."
This quaint town's small population balloons to over 50,000 in the summertime, and nearly just as many visit Lake George during the coldest of the four seasons to go skiing, snowboarding and enjoy everything that comes with the sights of snow, cold temperatures and the magic that is wintertime. And it's the allure of what awaits them that served as the backdrop for TLWL Season 3, falling in the time of reflection, excitement and family time that is winter break during the Christmas/New Year's period.
Once again, Dre finds himself at the heart of the madness as he leads a group of six OG's on the drive upstate and into a cabin in the mountains full of drama that somehow made its way on the drive. Eezy, JT, Shaina, Asha and Lauren make a return trip with Dre, and joining them are newcomers Steph and Josh, as well as Rivals Roulette rookie Mike... and what follows is plenty of drama that is just as steamy as the hot tub outside any winter cabin.
We would've had a fourth season of The Life We Live by now along with an eleventh season of The Caucus Challenge to warm our hearts in between seasons of the actual MTV Challenge, but a certain global event had something to do with us waiting for it. But need not worry -- Andres and the crew have already teased followers on social media that relief is coming despite the new world we are in: an annual end-of-summer trip and a summer-camp version of TCC is on its way on his YouTube channel. And if you are need of something fresh to keep yourself entertained once Big Brother wraps up, you might have a new favorite series to tune in...
- I AM DC @DC408Dxtr
#TheEscapeYouDeserve
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