Summer Job New Web Series Season 1 Honest Review

Series Review 

Summer Job is one of those shows that is a guilty pleasure for some and downright terrifying for others. It's not a particularly great or new series, and in many ways it picks up on what's come before in the reality TV space without really reinventing the genre. There's a little bit of Jersey Shore, World's Most Serious Parents, Love Island, and even Teen Big Brother, so this cocktail will be an acquired taste.

  Split into 8 episodes, this reality competition series takes 10 teenagers on their dream vacation. They live it up with sun, sea and love on the horizon for the next 10 weeks at the paradisiacal Mariposa House during filming. Sounds like a dream vacation, right? Well... there's a twist.

  After the first drunken night, the children gather outside and the host informs them that this is no ordinary holiday. In fact, they will have to work abroad. It's true that these lazy kids are hired to work with strict bosses by doing manual labor and other odd jobs here and there.

  At the end of the working week, they are paid "wages". If the envelope given to them is empty, €2,000 is deducted from the $100,000 prize pool they will collect at the end of 10 weeks. Not only that, but at the end of each work week they are forced to go home from the competition.

  This format continues throughout the series, with additional challenges and bonuses where kids can choose to withdraw more money from the prize pool for nights out or other luxuries. On the one hand, it's a great way to socially divide kids and force them all to dramatize, but at the same time, rewarding rich kids for simply doing "what peasants do" feels like a bit of a kick in the teeth. .” 

 While there has been some growth from the guys involved, it's hard to know if it's just because the cameras are rolling and they're eager to get paid at the end, or if they'll actually make a difference going forward. .

  There are also some subjective cases where children have a hard time at work but still get paid. I appreciate that the editing plays a big part here, but at the same time, it's a bit disingenuous at first. The cynic in me almost feels that the prize at the end must be entirely bogus; a way to teach these kids the harsh lesson that life isn't always fair. But maybe that's just me!

  Fans of other reality series will likely get a lot out of this. Scenes of drinking and love are nothing new for this format, but there is a fair amount of it - especially near the beginning of the series. The typical talking head interviews sound a lot like those seen on Jersey Shore, while the brash, arrogant characters on display feel like they've been ripped off an Italian Love Island clone.

  For some, this will be reality TV heaven, but the real meat of the show comes from seeing these kids at work, which is where the best parts of the show feel and where the series should have spent more time. It's a guilty pleasure in almost every sense of the word, but it's also not particularly original or unique. If you're not sold on the first few episodes, steer clear.