How could they not love us?

Europeans have a distaste for Americans, this is what we often hear, but why? I think I may have the answer. It's because of MTV.

We don't get very many channels in our apartments, and we get even fewer that are in English. We get EuroNews, which repeats the same news over and over (seriously, same clips and everything) and MTV, so we spend some of our free time watching both channels. The American shows that are chosen for the MTV station are terrible. They include: The Ex Effect, My Super Sweet Sixteen, and Parental Control. Let me give you a brief synopsis on each, and you will get a clue into why we may be viewed the way we are.

The Ex Effect is (aside from one of the stupidest shows ever created) a show that takes a couple that has broken up and puts the in a hotel room together for the weekend. As if that doesn't sound bad enough, both of the ex's are currently in a relationship. So MTV takes the new partners and puts them in a hotel room together to spy on the ex's as the spend the weekend together. The ex's are put into different situations (usually involving a hot tub) as their new partners look on. MTV provides a bunch of "technology" and "spy devices" to help them spy (such as a red light that illuminates each time the ex's touch, or detectors that tell the parters where the ex's are in the room). At the end it is revealed to the ex's that their partners have been looking on the entire weekend and they must decide if they want to get back with their ex or stay with their current partner. So, you can tell that this show is not worth the air time, but it plays over and over here.

Next is My Super Sweet Sixteen. This show follows a soon-to-be sixteen year old as she (or sometimes he) plans out her sixteenth birthday party. Of course, these are not typical sixteen year olds, but are absolutely spoiled rotten ones. Each episode includes at least 2 hissy fits and many tears because something has gone wrong. A shiny new car is always involved (though all of them comment "Now I just have to learn how to drive...") and diamonds are usually presented.

Last, and certainly least, is Parental Control. In this show parents of an always "amazing" child disapprove of their child's current girlfriend/boyfriend, so they set their kid up on a blind date to try to lure them away from their current relationship. It's just a terrible show, and whoever thought of it is probably laughing all the way to the bank.

So, if someone was just exposed to MTV for their impressions of the United States, could you blame them for not thinking too highly of us?