'Real World' actually gets real

Last month, when MTV announced that the 21st installment of "The Real World" would be filmed in Brooklyn, it seemed like a statement of renewed purpose. Even though Brooklyn boasts a population of more than 2 million, this would be the first time the show has been filmed in a locale known largely as a satellite to another major location, or more to the point, where people who can't afford to live in the city (read: Manhattan, where the show has been filmed twice before) actually live.

Though it is unlikely that housemates will spend much time in Crown Heights, Canarsie, Bay Ridge or Sheepshead Bay (where, it should be said, I was born and raised), the mere imprimatur of Brooklyn is enough to connote a sort of creative and cultural authenticity that the show has assiduously avoided since maybe the Seattle season, the show's seventh, which aired a decade ago and was the last one in which each cast member seemed motivated by something grander than the desire to wile away a few months before the cameras.

In the press release about the move to New York, Jon Murray, co-creator of "The Real World" and chairman and president of Bunim-Murray Productions, noted that "the Brooklyn season, like the Hollywood season, will focus on what people loved about 'The Real World' when it launched in 1992 -- genuine people, meaningful conflict and powerful stories."

In this regard, he is not as laughably misguided as he sounds. The current season, "The Real World: Hollywood," is the most vivid, engaging and artful in years, the first time in recent memory that the typical cast of misfits has generated something approximating genuine pathos.

Being that the show takes place in Hollywood -- conveniently, walking distance from any number of dens of night life iniquity on Hollywood Boulevard -- producers deliberately cast a set of entertainment-industry aspirants. Though they bear all the scars of great "Real World" cast mates -- family trauma, arrest histories, battles with addiction -- they also come armed with something even more exotic: goals. As a setup for a season to be filmed in a borough known for its artistic strivers, it is perfect.