TV News

Dallas couple goes on MTV reality show to air their secret relationship

Secret relationships are a hot topic on Google.

Photo courtesy of LovBe

MTV, which used to be a good cable channel that aired music videos, debuted a relationship-themed reality show in April, and there's an episode featuring a Dallas couple that'll air next week.

The show is called Help! I’m in a Secret Relationship! which helps "baffled lovers when they discover that they're in secret relationships and figure out why their partners didn't want them to go public."

Reality shows have long been outed as the opposite of reality, but this one is worse than usual. The premise is that one member of the couple is keeping the relationship secret — if that's the case, how and why would the couple be appearing on a TV show? So you know it's all lies.

Real or not, it could have benefits. People in relationships often keep secrets, so maybe seeing a fake couple work out that kind of issue on TV would help viewers be less secretive or better deal with a secretive partner. It definitely seems to be a hot topic: A google search of "secret relationship" yields 2,280,000,000 results. There's even a wikihow on "How to have a secret relationship."

The Dallas episode stars Alexia, a 20-year-old server at Knockout Sports Bar; and boyfriend Javy, a professional boxer. According to the storyline, Javy is the one who wants to keep the relationship secret, even though he's appearing on the show; maybe he's promoting his boxing career.

From the press release: "Each episode, the hosts will investigate every jaw-dropping twist of a relationship on the brink, uncover shocking clues and theories as to why they're being kept hidden, and bring the couple face to face to expose the shocking truths behind their partner’s deception. When their unpredictable secrets are finally revealed, will the truth set them free or will it end the relationship forever?"

The hosts are Travis Mills, actor and singer-guitarist for a band named Girlfriends; and Rahne Jones, actor and activist who previously worked for the Department of Homeland Security.

The whole thing is extremely low-budget. Jones sits in a hotel room that looks like a suburban Red Roof Inn.

The show was filmed during the pandemic, and it feels like a lot of the action consists of the two hosts driving around on Dallas freeways.

They visit Javy's practice gym where his sparring partners say that he's never talked about Alexia.
They visit Alexia at Knockouts, waiting on tables in a skimpy Knockouts uniform.

The denouement takes place at Alexia's apartment, which looks like a set.

Spoiler
Javy's secret is a big shocker: He's been secretly filming porn online. Didn't see that one coming.

"You gotta understand, during quarantine, you got no money, you got no job, you see your parents struggling, and your family struggling, what are you gonna do?" he says.

Spoiler No. 2: The couple does not stay together. Alexia's trust has been broken.

The episode, "Alexia & Javy," no last names, airs on Tuesday, June 14 at 8 pm.

The show is produced by a company called Sharp Entertainment, whose previous work includes Travel Channel's "Man v. Food." The parties at MTV responsible for this dreck include Todd Radnitz, Nadim Amiry, Leanne Mucci, Marisa Weinstein, and John Varela, all reality-TV veterans, they must be so proud.

Movie Review

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma gives horror a surreal twist

Photo courtesy of MUBI

Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson in Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.

The horror genre really ramped up in the 1970s and ‘80s, bringing with it a new subgenre - the slasher - that gave audiences new visuals of gore, but also a reliance on sexism and homophobia that would come to define the era. The new film Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma wrestles with that legacy in ways that are funny, thought-provoking, and downright strange.

Kris (Hannah Einbinder) is a queer filmmaker who has been hired to reboot the moldy IP that is the Camp Miasma franchise, one that was fresh in the 1970s but which numerous shlocky sequels have rendered irrelevant. In an attempt to get to know the property better, Kris has scored a meeting with the reclusive Billy (Gillian Anderson), the star of the original film who has shunned the public eye for decades.

Turns out that Billy lives deep in the woods at Camp Rivoli, which served as the location for the first film. As Kris tries to get to know Billy and convince her to be a part of the new film, she starts to fall under Billy’s spell and the lore of the franchise as a whole. That includes believing that the movie’s villain, Little Death - a transgender person who has an air conditioning vent as a head/mask - may not just be a character created for the movies.

Written and directed by Jane Schoenbrun (I Saw the TV Glow), the film at first feels like it’s going to go the straight-up comedy route, with comic explosions of blood, a strange fascination with candy brands, and a production design that does nothing to hide that the two main actors are on a movie set with painted backdrops. This is backed up by Kris’ phone conversations with her girlfriend, Mari (Jasmine Savoy Brown) and her agent (Sarah Sherman), as well as numerous other details.

But the film starts to go down the surreal route the longer Kris stays at the camp with Billy, especially when they sit down to watch the original Camp Miasma. An extended sequence shows a good amount of that film-within-the-film, demonstrating why Kris and Billy have a love/hate relationship with the property. For Kris, though, the lines between the film and the real world start to blur, and Schoenbrun uses a variety of out-there elements to drive the point home.

The final act of the film can barely be described as Kris goes deeper down the rabbit hole, with Schoenbrun using her film to comment on the horror genre as a whole, its treatment of women and LGBT people, the movie industry, and more. All the while the “camp” of Camp Miasma maintains a presence, with candy wrappers showing up everywhere and the tongue-in-cheek references to Little Death (the French term La petite mort, which means “the little death,” is a euphemism for orgasm).

Einbinder, an Emmy winner for Hacks, is the perfect person to inhabit her role. Her established real-life and fictional personas color everything she does in the film, with her enthusiasm and curiosity shining through. Anderson leans heavily into another reference - Norma Desmond from Sunset Boulevard - to create a character that is as mysterious as she is alluring. Supporting actors like Brown, Sherman, Patrick Fischler, Dylan Baker, and Eva Victor keep the movie at the right pitch all the way through.

While other films have made fun of horror movie tropes before, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma finds a wholly unique way of doing so. It’s a funny and daring trip into the psyches of two women who may be victims of their own obsessions, and of the movies that made them that way.

---

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is now playing in select theaters

movies film