I am addicted to drama. And if the Nielsen ratings tracked the television viewership of college students-which they're going to start doing, incidentally-they would find that I am not alone. Like many others, I find a way to fit in a weekly dose of drama in the form of Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy. But lately, the best drama for me has come in The Flavor of Love, a show starring Flava Flav, revolutionary rap's first real hype-man.
The Flavor of Love is Flav's third show in his illustrious reality television career; his resume also includes his debut in The Surreal Life 3 and his first very own show, entitled Strange Love.
In the Surreal Life, Flav struggled to live in a house with other celebrity has-beens. And in Strange Love, Flav showcased his love for Sylvester Stallone's ex-wife Brigitte Nielsen, who affectionately called Flav, a 46-year-old man, "Foo fee foo fee."
Now, after their breakup, Flav has a new show, The Flavor of Love, which airs every Sunday on VH1. In this show, Flav is the flashy rap bachelor whose love several women are willing to risk anything for.
The Flavor of Love is full of drama and craziness between the competing women, not to mention the excitement that Flav himself brings to the show. And it's entertaining.
It should be made clear, however, that most of the women competing to "be with" Flava Flav are not really competing for his love. It's clear to see that they want their own time in the spotlight as many of them are aspiring actresses and singers themselves. So Flav's main job is to try to figure out which women actually want to be with him for his personality.
And that's where things get most interesting. Flava Flav is a grown man who wears one of an assortment of wall-sized clocks around his neck. Sometimes he can be seen wearing a pimp hat or a cape and walking with a cane-not to mention diamond-studded sunglasses, a ring on every finger and the grill he wears. Flava Flav would stand out at the Million Man March. But appearance is only one aspect of what one looks for when choosing a boyfriend or girlfriend. At least on television, Flav seems to have a very loving personality, and he seems to take good care of whomever he is with.
On the first episode of the Flavor of Love, Flava Flav gave each of the women a pet name. He gave them names like Hoopz, an avid basketball player; New York, a weave-wearing New York native; Red Oyster, a lively Asian girl with a special liking for red; Pumpkin, a delusional white girl who likes to appear on various television shows-just to name a few.
Since then Flav has eliminated all of the girls except for his favorite two, New York and Hoopz. At each of the elimination ceremonies, Flav and his body guard stand before a wall of clocks, each with a headshot of the women as the face of the clock. When Flav decides to eliminate one, he takes the clock off the wall and sends that girl packing. In this way, The Flavor of Love is no different from any other reality television show.
But what sets The Flavor of Love apart is its nature of surprise. When you turn it on, you never know what could happen. In one episode, after Pumpkin, the seemingly nice suburban white girl, was eliminated, she spit in bitchy, obnoxious New York's face. What followed was a hair-pulling, pushing, screaming mess that made Flav come off as the calming, sensible, manly figure.
You know where I'm going with this.
Once again, mainstream American television portrays women making themselves look like fools fighting over a man; in this case, Flava Flav. But I'll say that this time it works. It's entertaining and it's hilarious because it seems so unreal and outrageous. That's why I'll be perched right in front of a television to catch the season finale and faceoff between Hoopz and New York next Sunday.
And one can only hope that after he takes one of the women's clock off the wall at the elimination ceremony, he'll remove the clock he wears so faithfully around his neck-but one really can only hope.
Aria Branch is a Trinity freshman. Her column runs every other Thursday.
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