I never joined the rabid following for MTV's Laguna Beach, a teen soap in the guise of a reality show, but its allure isn't hard to understand: It's got all the intrigue and drama of rich, pretty people with petty problems (like The O.C., which it was originally created to capitalize on) plus the pretense to "reality," which somehow makes it easier to feel good about hating the characters.
The new Laguna Beach spin-off, The Hills (MTV, Wednesdays, 10 p.m.), has the same advantages—and liabilities. Since Laguna Beach has become such a huge hit and cultural phenomenon, its stars have graduated into bona fide celebrities (Kristin Cavallari is now an "actress" and has dated Nick Lachey), which makes it a little tough to accept that former Laguna regular Lauren Conrad (formerly known as "LC," and now just Lauren) really needs to move to LA to go to college and get an internship at Teen Vogue.
That's the premise of the show, though, in time-honored spin-off fashion, and the first episode tries hard to convince viewers that Lauren's chances at the internship are ever in question, or that she might actually lose her job for doing something inappropriate at some celeb-laden Teen Vogue party. It's hard to buy the supposed tension on Lauren's face as she gets the call from an editor at Teen Vogue, who tells her that they usually don't hire interns without more experience and schooling, and then "surprisingly" offers her the job anyway, as if the magazine would pass up the chance to be featured on a hot reality show.
At this point, Lauren's own fame is more a liability than an asset when it comes to the dubious "reality" of her show, and it actually works better if you think of it as complete fiction. The first episode's party, at which Lauren and her fellow intern Whitney are low-level lackeys, is for "young Hollywood," and it wouldn't be surprising at all to learn that Lauren's frenemy Kristin was on the invite list. Lauren's supposed to be holding a VIP area for celebrities and breaks the rules by letting her friends sit there, but of course it's only a matter of time before those friends are celebrities themselves, as the stars of MTV's latest reality sensation.
So the premise is beyond disingenuous, and the cast is filled with new "friends" that Lauren just happens to make in her cool new apartment complex and job. Still, everyone is pretty and well-dressed, and there's as much silly melodrama as on Laguna Beach, so fans of that show will probably find enough to like here. Already Lauren's roommate, Heidi, has proven herself the worst kind of passive-aggressive bitch and a terrible friend, and that's generally entertaining. But after two seasons of Laguna Beach, it's a little hard to buy into these people's problems anymore.
Four of the best shows from the last summer are all returning this year, starting with this week's premiere of Rescue Me's third season (FX, Tuesdays, 10 p.m.). The Denis Leary firefighter drama had an uneven second season, but it's still an intense and darkly funny show, and this year will feature Susan Sarandon in a recurring role. Also getting a star-power assist is It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FX, Thursdays, 10 p.m.; premieres June 29), a hilarious sitcom that deserves a much bigger audience than it had last summer. Following the lives of four slacker friends who own a bar in the titular city, Sunny is the most likely heir to Seinfeld since that show ended. Danny DeVito will be in all 10 of this year's episodes as the father of one of the main characters, and he should fit right in with the show's cynical tone and brutal humor.
The best cop drama on TV, The Closer (TNT, Mondays, 9 p.m.; premieres June 12) comes back for a second season, headed by Kyra Sedgwick in a fantastic performance as deceptively sweet police chief Brenda Johnson. And with all the intricately plotted action and sci-fi shows set for network TV next fall, you can see how cable has been doing that sort of thing well for years on the third season of The 4400 (USA, Sundays, 9 p.m.; premieres June 11), about the sudden, mysterious return of people presumed missing over a period of 50 years, all of whom now have strange powers. It always has intriguing mysteries and great plot twists, even if it's occasionally a little cheesy. But it's still much better than The Hills.