Flavor of Love: Season Two

For almost two decades the reality television series has captured some of the largest ratings on television. Taking off with the success of MTV’s ‘Real World’ and its one time companion ‘Road Rules’, this ‘non-scripted’ television was perfect for the networks. They are wildly popular, cheap to produce and there is no shortage of people willing to do almost anything for their proverbial fifteen minutes of fame. VH1’s ‘Flavor of Love’ takes this format of television and adds two tried and true twists. First, it is a spin off, Americans love spin offs. Second, it is similar to the premise of a big hit on another network. Flavor Flav, born William Jonathan Drayton Jr., was a member of rap group Public Enemy back in the eighties. After a little spark to his lagging career with some guest appearances in the many I-Heart-the eighties series on VH1 they gave him a bigger shot with their reality series, The Surreal Life. It was there he met eighties iconic actress, Brigitte Nielsen, and the two hit it off romantically leading to another VH1 series, Strange Love. When that romance failed the wonder kids at VH1 must have been watching the ABC network hit, ‘The Bachelor’. Their new focus in original programming was to combine the infatuation the public has with celebrities with reality shows and they came up with ‘celebreality’ series such as the ‘Flavor of Love’. In the first season Flav tested twenty girls who were seeking a chance to be his lady and he made his selection. That didn’t work out so season two was born.

Using the same format as the first season twenty young ladies went to live dormitory style in Flav’s home. Since Flav had a bit of a drug problem he admits that his short term memory is not very good so he gives nicknames to each of the contestants. In relating some of those monikers here I have to ignore my spell check since Flav’s spelling abilities seems to have gone with his memory. Among the contestants are Bootz (Larissa Hodge), Nibblz (Dominique Majors) and the season villainess, New York (Tiffany Patterson). There was also a new little twisted added here with a twenty-first girl, Eye’z (Bonnie Mercado), who was actually reporting back to Flav the way the girls treated each other when he was not around. I guess Flav didn’t think to just ask the director for the dailies. The rational for this clock and dagger stunt was Flav needed to know which of the girls was just after his money and not his true affections. If you have ever seen a picture of Flav you have to wonder about the necessity of this ploy; it just might be possible that each of the ladies had motives other than finding true love on their minds.

With each episode Flav comes up with various challenges that are designed to test the true motives and compatibility of the contestants. In episode one ‘Sumthin's Stinkin' in the House of Flav’ the girls arrive to discover there are only fifteen beds for the lot of them. As his spy watches the girls begin to fight over the beds. Two contestants in particular become very physical in their alteration. In a private moment with Somethin (Tykeisha Thomas) they are interrupted by Spunkeey (Maria Dunbar) and another fight breaks out. Four contestants fail to receive the coveted huge ‘Clock’ necklace indicating that they will go on to the next episode. In a moment that will forever live on in television infamy, Sumthin squats down, lifts her gown and defecates on the marble floor. While the audience only gets to witness the squat the other contests realize that there is an odor that is inconsistent with the luxurious surroundings. Considering this was the first episode I had a feeling this was not going to be on par with other romance oriented series. Some challenges are more straight forward than others. In one Flav divides the girls into two teams. One team had to work in a restaurant that Flav likes, the other team got to clean up after a wild party hosted by one of Flav’s hip-hop pals. The winner, in this case Nibblz, gets to have a dinner date with Flav away from her rivals. One of the girls, feed up with the drama of her co-contestant decides to leave even though she received a clock in the ceremony. As strange as the contest parameters may be the interaction between the ladies is what makes this series a guilty pleasure for so many. In another episode one girl thinks she hears another giving Flav a little manual pleasure. She retaliates by telling Flav that this girl once did work in the adult entertainment venue. While Toasteee (Jennifer Toof) initially denies the statement and wants to leave to avoid any more drama Flav convinces her that doing so will prove the other girl right. Toasteee winds up getting eliminated when Flav produces a naughty picture he downloaded. Usually the reward for winning a round is a date with Flav, occasionally it means a girl or two get to share his bed for the evening. Most women I have spoken to about this have stated that eating bulls testicles on Fear Factor would be less humiliating.

One of the break-out characters in this season is New York. This vixen, usually clutching a cigarette, is deliciously wicked in the Machiavellian mind games she conceives. Just about every episode there is a scene where the girls get to speak openly directly to the camera. When it’s New York’s tern she inevitably goes off on how bad the others are and how she is playing them, making them believe she is their friend so they don’t see it coming when she pushes them out. Many of the cat fights prominently feature New York in her snide best.

This show has very little to do with reality or for that matter true celebrity. It is funny in a strange sense of the word in that it allows the audience the ability to feel superior to the people shown. Flav is stretching out his fame with this forth time in the celebreality arena. The antics are fun to watch even if you never accept this as a real look at people, The DVD is pretty standard faire for a recent television show with acceptable video and audio. The extras include the reunion special where the women get another chance to bad mouth and attack each other. There is even a featurette showing the more notable New York moments. This is definitely for fans of the series.

Posted 11/22/06