Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School

Yes, you read the heading correctly. This is my first ever post about a reality tv show, and in it, I’ve elected to write about one of my very favorites (yup, you read that one right too), Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School. There are only a handful of reality shows that I can even stand to watch (nothing on network tv), but watching Charm School over the past 3 months has been a real treat.

For those of you who have no idea what this show is, let me give you a quick rundown. In January and August of 2006, VH1 ran two seasons of its most successful program ever, Flavor of Love, a Bachelor-esque program in which a bevy of hopeful ladies live in a mansion with ex-rapper Flavor Flav, competing against one other to win Flav’s affections. Charm School, hosted by comedienne Mo’Nique (who could not have been a better choice for this part), takes 13 of those Flavorettes, as they were called, and tries to teach them etiquette and sophistication through a variety of challenges, while offering a $50,000 prize to the woman who avoids elimination the whole way through.

Up until last night’s finale, Charm School was really only entertaining for one reason: them girls is CRAZY. Watching these immature divas try to live together and compete with one another week after week was awesome. Hell, footage of these ladies standing in an empty room for 6 weeks would be entertaining television because their personalities are just so explosive and compelling. If you watched Flavor of Love, everything you found engrossing about these women was back here in full effect. Mo’Nique was perfect as Charm School‘s headmistress, a very genuine, nurturing host who took far more of an interest in her contestants than any reality host I’ve ever seen. She really cared about helping these women to better themselves, and with her mix of elegance and subtle humor, was the perfect anchor for this program.

While I enjoyed the antics and elimination suspense of the series, last night’s finale really validated the entire process and took the show to a whole new level. The final 4 contestants (with their Flavor of Love nicknames in parenthesis), Shay (Buckeey), Becky (Buckwild), Leilene (Smiley) and Saaphyri (um, Saaphyri), each left the show as winners, though Saaphyri took home the 50,000 check. In the first part of the episode, Shay was eliminated, as the other 3 girls all ganged up on her in an elimination challenge. Spiteful and upset, Shay tried to leave the mansion in tears, but was recruited by Mo’Nique to judge the final 3 contestants in the final challenge.

In the final challenge, each of the women was required to give a speech about what they learned from Charm School and why they thought they deserved to be the winner. And let me tell you, in all seriousness, this was a very special moment to watch, for each of these girls truly matured and grew momunetally as human beings because of their experiences on Charm School. Even Shay, who had been a scheming, backstabbing competitor, was so touched by these speeches that by the end of them, she was in tears, having forgotten all grudges and sincerely wanting to fairly judge the competition. All the girls were in tears, Mo’Nique included, because everything that was said was so heartfelt and true, and the girls had come so far, that no one could help but cry.

Having watched the entire season, I can tell you that what these girls underwent was a truly remarkable and genuine transformation. With other reality tv shows, when someone gets eliminated, they always say “Oh, its ok, I learned a lot.” But the entire focus of Charm School was to teach these women how to be mature adults, and to see these 4 girls come so far and grow so much in a real and meaningful way was a really unique tv-viewing experience. In fact, I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything like it before. These women, regardless of the fact that only one actually won the competition, all emerged as winners because they succeeding in bettering themselves as human beings.

I’ve seen shows where contestants cook, lose weight, live on islands, or try to be rock stars, but I can’t think of another show where the goal is to make the contestants become better people. The re-runs of this show are going to be on VH1 all day, every day forever (as all VH1 shows are), so if you’ve got the time or a Tivo, watch a few episodes of Charm School. I don’t usually like to support reality tv, but for once, this is a deserving show I’m happy to throw my support behind.