MTV: If You Really Knew Me…

By Jiun Kwon

Holy teary sobfest.  Maybe I’ve gone soft, but this show is amazing.

Here’s the skinny:

MTV has partnered with a youth outreach non-profit group called Challenge Day (challengday.org), that runs a 1-day workshop at schools all over the country, to encourage kids to start playing nice.  After meeting a few of the kids, we go inside the program and watch as they unload their emotional baggage.

Verdict:

It’s The Breakfast Club for the new age.  Old friends make amends, bullies apologize, outcasts find a common ground they never knew existed and tough guys reveal their many layers.

The real challenge though, is the day after.  The kids are tasked with spreading the gospel, lessons that are pretty basic, but easily forgotten when trapped in the social experiment that is high school:  Be nice to people.  Don’t judge a person until you’ve walked in their shoes.  Words can hurt.

Normally, I’d be pretty wary of a show like this.  But given recent events that have taken place in the “adult” arena, I don’t think it hurts to provide some people at home with a tutorial on the basics of human decency.  I’ve only seen the first two episodes, but I cried like a little bitch.

Programming win, MTV.  Programming win.