Search - The Princes of Malibu: The Complete Series on DVD

It's not for everyone, but it's hilarious!

J. A. Dalenberg | 01/23/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Princes of Malibu is reality TV taken to such a cartoonish extreme that it can't really be considered reality TV anymore - I mean, once you've put a full-on dream sequence into your show (as well as an army of Elvises, multiple attempts to sell music awards on eBay, more celebrity cameos than a 2000s era Simpsons episode, and musical stings fo each character) your pretensions of showing real life have pretty well gone out the window.

The central conceit of the show is that multimillionare record producer David Foster's two stepsons have just been kicked out of college and are living it up at his Malibu mansion, making a huge mess and holding gigantic parties without his knowledge. So Foster tells them that if they don't start paying $10,000 a month in rent, he'll throw them out. Ignoring all thoughts of getting jobs, the boys turn to their permanent houseguest and "best friend" Spencer Pratt (who is also an executive producer on the show) and start scheming and scamming.

But really, has reality TV ever been about realism? I don't think so. Reality TV is about insanely over-the-top situations and people in the same manner as scripted TV, it is just a bit more improvisational (in theory) than a scripted sitcom. "Princes" takes this to its logical extreme. So, why should you, dear reader, watch the show?

1. For the hilariously over-the-top schemes. I don't want to give away too much, but essentially you have the wacky hijinks of the Simpsons or Ed, Edd, and Eddy but done in real life (for certain values of real life). The boys are like obnoxious frat boys given an unlimited budget and told to scheme, and things get zany fast.

2. For the strange frission of rooting for and against pretty much every character simultaneously. David's right in just about everything he says, but he still comes across as if he's also rude and insulting to people who don't deserve it. The boys may be lazy, ungrateful, and the like, but in a sense they typify a rebellion against authority that I think everyone can on some level identify with. It seems like to see them as completely "the enemy", you'd really have to see Michael's goofy ideas in The Office as "unfunny, because they could hurt the company's long-term survivability", and the Three Stooges as simply poor role models for our children with their excessive eye-based violence.

3. To see Spencer Pratt in something before The Hills - sure, he's still kind of a scumbag, but here, he is at least a semi-likeable scumbag.

4. To recapture the mood of wicked excess in 2003-04 that gripped certain segments of our society - one can see the show as, like Dynasty or Dallas, a sort of period piece. When your children ask what caused the housing bubble, you can show them "Princes of Malibu" and say "those people, mostly".

General internet reaction seems to be against the show, but I urge you to give it a try - I watched it with my cousins last summer and we all found it hilarious. And hey, it's only $8 - certainly much cheaper than a new movie, and it's about 4 hours of content (no commentary either, just straight episodes)."