The holiday spirit is all around us, and nowhere is it more alive than in the glowing navel of Olena, one of two decorative wood nymphs who comprise the cast of The Bedford Stop, a YouTube series created specifically by and for indoor cats.
The episode opens with Olena and Alex rasping at each other on speakerphone, the palpable awkwardness and stilted one-liners forgivable because millennials are simply unaccustomed to forms of communication other than texting. Understandable! The real heyday of the televised phone call was early-aughts The Real World, where interlocutors were tethered to their corded landlines, always located in a very public common space. Exhibit A:
Ugh, what a great episode. What a great SEASON! But Bedford Stop is no Real World: New Orleans. Bedford Stop can't even hold a candle to forgettable seasons like Real World: St. Thomas. Olena eventually makes her way to Alex's apartment, where the pair lightly discuss their Santacon attendance records (0), and it becomes clear to Alex that her decision to wear a frumpy sweater means she's going to have to spend an evening wingmanning for Olena and her bewitching yuletide torso.
Then they go to a bar, and we don't get to hear shit because someone probably got drunk and screwed up all the juicy footage, so we're never going to know whether Olena seduced a bottle of Clorox. You know who was really good at capturing heavy conversations in bars? The producers of the Real World: Las Vegas.
(What I really wanted was a clip from 2003 Real World: Las Vegas, a season that consisted primarily of Trishelle hooking up with whatever penis-enabled cocktail napkin she could get her hands on that week. What a great series. Unfortunately, MTV has those clips on tight lockdown.)
The next day (maybe) Alex and Olena meet up with some other mannequins to exchange gifts, hold their iPhones and watch Sport.
The Meatball Shop is Olena's favorite restaurant. The end!
(h/t Bedford + Bowery)
