Guilty Pleasure: My Super Sweet 16

The bestest TV show ever (this month) has got to be MTV's My Super Sweet 16. Murray has Oprah, I have this.

Oh the excess, the fights, the drama!

The weekly premise documents the absurd planning that real (affluent) teens undertake to have the most awesomest coming out party ever. Whether a Sweet 16, Quinceaneara, Bar Mitzvah or Coming Out, these teen tyrants throw tantrums and fits and essentially get their silliest demands met by gumpy dads and moms who spare no expense to make baby happy. The gumpy parents are always a joy to behold - they are bound helpless to the "needs" of their ingrate offspring.



Check this example, where teen girl throws the ultimate bash for friends, replete with dancers, chariots, snakes, C-list celebrity performers, and the requisite all new BMW present from Dad at the show's closure (in typical episodes, the BMW is that cruel compromise made with Daddy, who is unwilling to be pushed into the preferred Porsche - gotta draw the line somewhere, dammit!).



The interesting detail about most of the episodes is that the kids hail from affluent, but not necessarily "rich" families. While I am certain that the average kid can hardly get this kind of lavish entitlement (though they surely envy it, and some resentments lie in the fact that they are being denied this new American Dream), I buy that probably more kids get this treatment (or comparable lower-budget attentions none-the-less) than ever before. And the show captures interesting insights about the modern enslavement of today's parents to their kids' "happiness" - which creates unhappiness and dissatisfactions. And match these parental excesses up to my "Bankrupt!" series factoids, and the future don't look happy when all these spoiled brats hit the inevitable reality of low-paid independence post-graduation.