TV Review: The Girls Next Door (Season Two Premiere)

The Girls Next Door
Season Two Premiere Episode
Starring Hugh Hefner, Holly Madison, Bridget Marquard & Kendra Wilkinson
Grade: B

Review By Mark Focus

I met Hugh Hefner at a premiere at the Chicago International Film Festival years ago. The premiere was for a documentary on his life. The film was very good and Hugh was extremely gracious. It gave me a tiny insight into Hugh Hefner: he's just as nice in real life as you would imagine!

Anyway, I've seen clips of The Girls Next Door on one of my favorite TV shows, The Soup. But other than that, I admit it - I didn't pay much attention to season one. Now that season two is here, and the show is getting much more buzz, I thought it might be a good idea to see what all the fuss is about.

The Girls Next Door is very interesting from a number of fronts. Of course there are lots of pretty girls and Hugh Hefner is always entertaining. But there are some other slightly unusual things going on. For one, Hugh has three girlfriends and they are all cool with it. He shares the bedroom with one of them, but they all seem to get their share of the Hefman. Sure he's 80, but the man seems to still have lots of pep. Let's hope I'm still rocking half as much when I'm 80.

The season two premiere focuses on Hef's 80th birthday party, and for the most part it's fairly straightforward. However, I do have to say that the scene where one of the gals strips for her father was a little creepy. Another really strange thing about The Girls Next Door is the relationships between the three girls. They seem to actually put up with the whole "sharing thing", so that's a little strange. Kendra is a foul mouth gal, and Holly and Bridget are good sports about the whole thing. The way I look at it, if these gals are cool with it, who am I to argue?

As far as reality shows go, The Girls Next Door is definitely a cut above. It's not anywhere near the incredible Project Runway or the first couple seasons of the Osbournes, but it's damn good entertainment.