I think there may have been stuff behind the scenes that we don't know about. The Situation is smart enough to know that MTV won't like the whole "everyone ignores Angelina" bit if it continues the entire season. It wouldn't surprise me if he basically told everyone it's in their best interest to put up w/ Angelina even if they hate her. But it's not because they are there for 2 months which is what they implied. It's because of maximizing $$$.

The whole "we forgive you for talking **** about us as long as you admit you talked **** about us" routine sounds silly to me. You hate her for talking **** and not admitting it, but like her for talking **** while admitting it? Something's missing.

I'm a little confused by the sudden influx of support for Vinny, he's still the same boring guy he was last season. If he left, the show would be pretty much the same.

updated power rankings:

The Situation
Pauly D
J Wowww
Vinny
Snooki
Ronnie
Angelina
Sammie

i am a fan of having vinny on the show because without him there wouldn't be a link to reality if that makes any sense

Providing a link to reality is a replace.ment lev.el talent though, anyone can do it (dots are for Thr.em.p proofing, obv)

Wtf he hooked up with the boss' gf/date last season. If the gellato shop owner has a daughter.. watch out! Vinny's just a low key mofo.

yeah but without him there wouldn't be MVP!

he's part of the family yo, irreplaceable at this point

Transparent attempt to drum up a storyline for an otherwise failed character, obviously

For a guido, the name Vinnie is pretty close to r.eplacement level too, we can keep the MVP

You are under-estimating how many guinias are named Vinny in NJ/NY. It's up there w/ names like Tony and Sal.

You just like Ronnie's muscles. Don't hate on Vinny yo.

rewatched the ep and i didnt notice that the MVP segment starts with pauly D shaving Vinny's neck LOL

MVP! MVP! MVP!

They definitely did not, they both woke up in their clothes and the whole scene was a little unbelievable. But yes, they do a great editing job to give the impression.

This is basically what I was only trying to say - Ronnie is a puss-bag and the Situation runs the house. Someone mentioned earlier that the Situation is actually underrated by people who would rank Pauly above him, and I agree... I see these "rankings" as the ranking of "most valuable cast member to the quality of the show," and Pauly would have to do something pretty incredible to ever jump ahead of the Situation.

Watch how the "MVP" scene starts out. The girls plan to go and play pool, Pauly prefers going creepin', but he ends up going to the Situation sitting in the hot tub to get his support/approval of the idea first.

yeah the power rankings wrt 'if he/she wasn't there, would there be a show?' rankings

situation




pauly d


snookie








jowwwwwwwww
vinny
ronnie/sam




angela

It's Angelina, son.

Agreed.


I'm watching season 1 now from the start. Damn J-Woww looks good Funny how Vinny disses her and takes the room by himself.

That's not really what I was thinking, I think. The show is supposed to be entertaining... so to me, the quality of the show is based on how much it entertains me. I don't particularly care how likeable or unlikeable the characters are, I just care what they bring to the story. So even though Angelina is a horrible bitch, she creates problems and issues on the show and that's entertaining to me, so I rank her above ronnie and sammi, who have hit rock bottom this past episode.

If you're asking how expendable the characters are, you could drop everyone but the Situation and Pauly and have an amazing, if not better show (as others have said).

I feel like Situation is trying way too hard to be a "character" in the show this season, instead of just being himself like he was in S1. His facial expressions and reactions are over exaggerated far too often and it seems like he's trying to make a new catchphrase or soundbite ever time he opens his mouth.

I too have problems ranking anyone below Sammi..

Mike - Pauly


Vinny

Jwow

Snookie


Angelina


Ronnie








Sammie

i somewhat agree but it's nowhere near as bad as i thought it would be. his facial expressions are over the top yes, as is the stuff recorded later where he's talking to the camera. but the stuff he is saying live and in the moment is pretty natural i think.

It sounds natural because he probably rehearsed it! It just doesn't sound realistic, in S1 he had a couple of patented phrases (grenade, GTL), but now its like he's trying to invent an entirely new way of speaking with all the acronyms and lingo.

My other issue is that he's been kind of a non factor through the first 3 episodes. I don't know if its because he's hanging out in bigger groups (as opposed to just him and Pauly) and other things are stealing his camera time or if he's consciously laying low, he just hasn't seem to have done anything so far?

I have a confession to make. I don't get all the attraction to Jwoww.

She's an awesome character on the show, but she doesn't do it for me at all. Her face cleans up pretty well, but without makeup she's very average looking. And I can't believe so many people find those awful fake tits attractive. I don't like fakes in general, but hers are spectacularly bad.

I'd take Angelina then Sammi way ahead of Jwoww.

I don't think anybody is really harping on about how hot JWOWW is?

Also, following on from my non factor point, i think a lot of the cast are likely to be ones this season. Snooki, JWOWW both have boyfriends whom they don't look likely to cheat on, and Sammi isn't probably gonna go hooking up with a ton of guys if/when the Ronnie situation goes belly up. Also, its very apparent as time goes on that everywhere they go they're in roped off VIP areas with security all around, so they're probably not going to get into nearly as many scuffles with random people calling them douchebags.

Of course everybody already predicted this as soon as it was announced the cast would be back for a second season.....

it kinda sucks for the girls in the hot tub (and all other grenades/grenade launchers), after they leave they probably sign some consent forms and are all "omg imma be on tv", and then they watch it and they get grenade status.

Most normal people would eventually freak out and stab somebody if they lived in the house, though. Vinny is an excellent audience surrogate. Also he gets paid way more than minimum wage so he's not replacement level by definition.