As much as MTV has bludgeoned us with the scripted travails of homogenized cliques (The Hills, Jersey Shore), the network's also done its share of more honest docuseries, like True Life and Made. With If You Really Knew Me, MTV unites members of various crowds in a large high school and gets them to relate. While maudlin moments spring up often, there's plenty of real candor to offset the storyboarded feel we've come to associate with reality TV.
Sure, there's a staginess to the confessionals, but I think If You Really Knew Me's way of bridging cliques is surprisingly un-cloying. The Breakfast Club dynamic works in its favor, even if all the high schoolers I've ever known are apparently more sarcastic than these kids. MTV's challenge now is to make sure this doesn't get old after three episodes. Anyway: I'm the "basket case"!
