The Boyz Next Door Episode 1 Come Knock on Our Door

Cypher Avenue Rating: 1.5 of 5      

Piggybacking off of the success of George Smith and his long-talked-about, continuously rebooted reality show, “Tha Life: Atlanta”, we now see new Atlanta black gay reality shows cropping up attempting to do the same.

The latest reality series created by Henderson Maddox and filmed in Atlanta is called, “The Boyz Next Door”, where three real-life black gay men begin their quest to become Gaylebrities. In this episode we meet the cast and watch them literally do nothing for 20 entire minutes.

Say what you will about version 2 of Tha Life: Atlanta, the show got it right. Not only was it engaging and well produced, it felt like a “real” show that you could see on television somewhere. This right here feels like someone bought film equipment, had nothing else to do with it, called up his friends and asked if he could film them having discussions.

I run a gay website featuring news and entertainment updates about gay men of color so I can’t pretend this kind of crap doesn’t exist…but that doesn’t mean that I have to like it.

I can’t devote precious time out of my life to give this new Internet reality series a bona fide review, so I’ll just list some bullet points of my thoughts.

1. DEAR GAY FILMMAKERS: Stop putting a “Z” at the end of shit to make it plural. That ratchetry is no longer “cute.” It’s stupid…And its “Gay”. Stop it. And while we’re on the subject, why are these grown ass men being referred to as Boyz in the first place? I can maybe understand it if they were teenagers still living with their parents, but these guys are clearly men with mortgages and car notes. Real talk, was “The Men Next Door” already copyrighted or something?

But what about, “Boyz in the Hood” you say? The difference is, that movie was actually about BOYS! They were kids in that movie. From adolescence to teenagers, the characters were children. Secondly, that was over 20 years ago, using a “Z” to replace an “S” in a word back then was considered edgy. Nowadays it’s used by teenage girls and gay twinks in a cute way…similar to drawing a heart to replace the dot in an “I”.

2. This “reality show” should really just be renamed to “The Boyz Just Sitting Around Talking: The Series”. Seriously, NOTHING HAPPENS on this show.

We literally watch the “Boyz” eat Mexican food and drink margaritas as they discuss one of the guy’s recent gay marriage ceremony. Its almost as if the filmmaker and the “Boyz” said, “We like to go hang out and talk all the time anyway, lets film it and make it a reality show!”

3. Can ADTV creator Derrick L. Briggs sue for copyright infringement? This show is basically ADTV on the Road. I wouldn’t be surprised if one or all of the “Boyz” are featured in a future scene topless as they discuss serious issues facing the Gay Community.

4. It felt strange watching the “Boyz” talk explicity about sexual acts like Anilingus in a public restaurant while we see little kids sitting DIRECTLY BEHIND THEM. All I could focus on was the five year old kid in the background as one of the men jokingly described in detail how he “eats booty.”

5. On the plus side, the video quality was acceptable, while not amazing. The audio was decent in all of the scenes (I could at least hear them) so as far as the technicals were concerned, the filmmakers got that right.

6. I wouldn’t expect this “reality show” to last more than three episodes…they won’t get the Gaylebrity buzz that The Life: Atlanta received but considering an episode merely consists of the men sitting around drinking and talking, they may be on for 7 seasons without ever running out of material.

 

Check out these screenshots from randomly selected moments throughout the episode:

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