‘Next Gen NYC’

ملخص مفصل

A new season of the fever-dream reality show following the adult children of Real Housewives, whose prime concern is management of their personal brands ...

The Bravo network’s pioneering Real Housewives reality-TV franchise, which chronicles the lives of upper-crust ladies across America with all the drama and emotional devastation of an Edith Wharton novel, has been around long enough that the children of these professional “housewives” are now adults themselves. Unwittingly thrust into the spotlight as kids – while their mothers gossiped, partied, divorced and reinvented themselves onscreen – their childhoods foreshadowed the rise of mass surveillance and performance of the self, which now defines contemporary culture.

MTV’s The Real World, which premiered in 1992, was the first reality show to force a group of ambitious, attractive young people into close proximity and see what transpired. Likewise, Next Gen NYC (on Hayu) captures a compelling portrait of the lives of young people in a particular moment in time. Where the cast of The Real World were musicians, poets, dancers and artists attempting to make their mark in the city’s bohemian cultural scene while avoiding selling out, Next Gen NYC features influencers, models, aspiring entrepreneurs and a crypto trader, for whom selling out is the end goal.

Next Gen NYC offers fascinating insight into the effects of growing up in reality-TV captivity, such as prioritising one’s personal brand over love. While one couple’s tenure on The Real Housewives of New Jersey was marred by a fraud conviction that resulted in prison time, their daughter, Next Gen cast member Gia Giudice, believes that exposure is worth the potential fallout. Her construction worker boyfriend disagrees.

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