Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Notes on The Hills: Explaining Lo Bosworth.

People are starting to get straight up psycho on The Hills. Which is understandable, I guess. If camera crews and fabricated drama followed me everywhere I went, I'm sure I would start to crack after a few years.

I have been perplexed by Lo ever since she became a main character. At first, I thought she was funny and quirky and cool and a good addition to The Hills crew. But she quickly began her transition into Queen Bitchface, and I didn't know what to make of her strange behavior. I have been puzzling over Lo for some time now, and during last night's episode, I finally formulated a theory to explain her role on the show.

So, okay. This is what I think about Lo Bosworth. She doesn't like the idea of participating in a reality television show. She has a boyfriend who does not want to appear on camera, and, like Whitney, she strives to keep her own personal life off the show as much as possible. But she is one of Lauren's oldest and best friends, and she obviously cares about Lauren a lot. She deeply resents the intrusion of the cameras into her friendship with Lauren, and she disapproves of those who try to befriend Lauren in order to secure a recurring role on The Hills. She has watched as one person after another uses Lauren and then betrays her, and she is tired of seeing Lauren get hurt. So, despite her discomfort with taking on a larger role in the show, she has decided that it is worth it in order to spend more time with Lauren and hopefully protect her from the people who would try to take advantage of her.

She watched Heidi befriend Lauren in order to leech of off her fame. And since Audrina was cast as Lauren's roommate by MTV producers, she sees Audrina in essentially the same light as Heidi. While Lo is predisposed to be suspicious of Audrina due to the artificial nature of her relationship with Lauren, she also dislikes Audrina on a personal level, most likely because Audrina is often exasperatingly dim and dull. She probably also resents the fact that when Heidi and Lauren parted ways, Audrina was Lauren's new best friend and roommate by default, simply because she was there and Lauren didn't really have anyone else to turn to at the time. Since Lo is Lauren's real friend, she probably regrets not being there for Lauren. The facts are not clear regarding Lo and Lauren's relationship at that time, but it seems that there was a temporary rift in their friendship that left a place open for Audrina to step in.

Lo is not really correct in her assessment of Audrina, but it is true that Audrina and Lauren have very little in common and that Audrina has benefited a great deal from the arranged friendship. Because Lo sees herself as Lauren's protector, she feels that it is her duty, as a loyal friend, to push Audrina out of Lauren's life before she turns around and betrays Lauren just as Heidi did. And when we consider just how inexplicably trusting Lauren can be, Lo's impulse is understandable. Lo must get extremely frustrated when Lauren repeatedly opens herself up to people who are clearly just using her, despite warnings from those who actually seem to care about her.

I also think that Lo becomes very tense, awkward, and uncomfortable when she is on camera, and this causes her to grimace and behave somewhat oddly and make inappropriate and poorly thought out comments. While this does not excuse Lo's bitchiness, I think that it explains it, in part.

2 comments:

Ed said...

You look good... Glad we talked.

That part alone definitely backs up what you're saying about her comfortability on camera, her terrible relationship with Audrina (because she got served last week) and that despite the fact that she seems like an idiot, she might actually get the joke and just not know how to play along.

And quite frankly, I wouldn't either.

rocket. said...

Honestly, if Lo really was as uncomfortable being on reality show as you theorize, she wouldn't be on it. I think you've thought out a really great theory here, but I so dislike Lo (or, yes, the Lo I see on the show), that I can't get behind taking the heat off her. Lo was on Laguna Beach to begin with, right? She knows what's up.

Also, LC has many friends that are NOT on the show. Just look at her birthday Vegas episode. Like, who WERE those people? Oh, real friends that don't appear on her show for a fee.

I can't believe I'm thinking about this so much. :)