‘College Hill’ takes a break in the tropics

FOR more than 18 seasons of “The Real World,” they’ve left the country only twice. First, in 1995, they went to London. Second, in 2003, the MTV reality show went to Paris -- watching cast member Ace’s struggles with the local cuisine was one of that season’s signature pleasures.

Wisely, it’s taken “College Hill” just four seasons to abandon the 50 states, shooting its latest cycle in and around the University of the Virgin Islands on the island of St. Thomas. Each installment of the show -- BET’s answer to “The Real World,” with an all-black cast -- is set in a learning institution, and student shenanigans can get predictable. As can, frankly, the students themselves. So removing people from their comfort zones has become one of the few new twists the strangers-in-a-house genre can accommodate. (Disclosure: I worked for BET.com for approximately a year in 2001-02, though I had practically no contact with the network itself.)

Of this season’s eight castmates, four are from the Virgin Islands and four have been flown in from the Los Angeles area. Sometimes they go to class, but, much as with the highly contrived employment arrangements on “The Real World,” educational goals are secondary to, you know, seeing what happens when people stop being polite.

Which usually takes a couple of episodes, anyway. First, there’s the Christmas morning response to the tricked-out pad. “It’s like a house I see on ‘[MTV] Cribs,’ ” says JT, this season’s reluctant player. “I really feel like I’m in the rap game already.” Looking at the bidet, he shouts out, “I seen this at Swizz Beatz’s house!”

Then there’s burgeoning sexual tension: JT makes out with Idesha, one of the island kids, almost immediately, much to the chagrin of his at-home girlfriend and at the expense of his not-too-firm faith. Quiet Andres begins flirting with aggressive Fallon. Talking about sexpot Vanessa, from St. Croix, goofy Willie, originally from Arkansas, is breathless: “She got this sexy accent. Even when she cusses at me, it makes me happy.”

Whether it knows it or not, culture shock is this season’s dominant theme, hinging primarily on Krystal, one of the American students, and the one most obsessed with status.

“The shopping is so weak on the island that everybody wears the same outfit,” she complains. “They ain’t got no cute Gap sweaters!”

Krystal hails from Orange County and appears to take her cues from the most recent season of MTV’s “Laguna Beach,” after self-awareness crept into the show and created an archetype for its young cast to aspire to. It places her at odds not only with the island kids but also with her fellow Californians, who hail from less bucolic locales like Compton and Inglewood.

Let the cultures clash

THIS leads to much bickering, some of it even productive, touching on both the difficulties of enacting American economic-imperialist tendencies in a place that’s not terribly interested in them and tensions between blacks of African American descent and Caribbean descent.

There’s some debate over whether casual use of the N-word, as practiced by the American students, is acceptable on the island -- shared skin color does not necessarily mean shared history or cultural reference points. (There’s also a language rift that creates its own set of problems for the students and BET alike: This season’s “College Hill” is the rare show on network or basic cable on which subtitles are regularly used, which can be read either as an indictment -- those foreign kids are hard to understand -- or as progressive -- we acknowledge the importance of what’s being said and are willing to go the extra mile to make sure it’s understood. I prefer the latter interpretation; the show uses them judiciously.)

Ultimately, though, these topics, which could lead to fruitful, frank conversation, end up being merely starting points, fizzling fast. Such are the limits of unscripted television -- you can’t make your characters profound, and it’s hard to craft an argument around them when you have to rely entirely upon their actions and words.

Last week, Viacom announced that it will increase BET’s budget for original programming by 30% to 50% this year over last and will continue to increase resources thereafter. Maybe the missed opportunity of “College Hill” can help set a course for programming that not only raises questions but maybe offers answers too.