“The Simple Life”: Season 5

By Jae-Ha Kim
Amazon.com
January 22, 2008

Before Nicole Richie became a mommy and prior to Paris Hilton’s brief but well-publicized incarceration, there was the fifth season of The Simple Life.

In the 10 episodes that aired from May to August 2007, the former frenemies are again best friends forever and wreaking havoc in a summer camp-type situation.

Because this is a reality series (wink, wink), the high-maintenance blondes are placed in fish-out-of-water scenarios that poke a little fun at themselves, but mostly mocks the real “simple” people they’re trying to fit in with (at least on camera).

Though the show is called The Simple Life, Hilton and Richie go out of their way to complicate matters. When they help run a fat camp, the rail-thin ditzes sabotage their clients’ weight loss goals by taking them out for junk food.          They teach young pageant girls how to flip the bird. And we won’t even get into the anatomy lessons.

But none of that is as repugnant as when Hilton coaches an 11-year-old would-be Lothario to pick up women… using a six-year-old girl as bait.

There are plenty of actresses who aren’t particularly good thespians, but they have a likable presence that makes them pleasant to watch on the screen. There is none of that here: Neither Richie or Hilton are good enough actors to make the viewer believe that any of this is real.

And neither is interesting enough to make us forget that there really isn’t a good reason to watch them do anything, especially when their humor is based on making fun of everyone who isn’t them.

That’s not hot.