The City "Unexpected Roommates"

Welcome to another week in "The City." If you are looking to view the episode online, MTV posts the full episode, generally the following day, at http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/the-city/videos-full-episodes.jhtml

I live in NYC, but this episode caught me off guard. If you have already packed up your Christmas tree and are praying, every night, for spring...get ready to flashback to Christmas/New Year's Eve 2008. The show begins with Whitney's politically correct "Holiday Party," hosted by none other than Diane von Furstenberg herself. Congrats on being one of the ONLY New York City companies to throw away money on an employee Christmas party. Until I realized that, I'd thought Diane's biggest mistake was marrying Barry Diller.

Whitney shares an endearing story about ousting a very pompous Graydon Carter from a seat during fashion week. As she muses, "How are you supposed to keep everyone and their pictures straight?" I wonder if ANYONE else in NYC wears his hair like Graydon?? Buster Brown is a caricature, but Graydon does wear that long, white man-bob. Hard to miss.

I liked Diane's toast to the employees.....at least she says, "Merry Christmas," instead of Happy Holidays.

We catch up with Allie and Adam at "Once Upon a Tart" in SoHo, where (of course) Allie isn't eating or anything. It seems staged when she remarks that Adam seems to have a lot on his mind and coaxes him into telling him what the problem is.....he finally admits that Jay has been putting the bite on him, regarding their living arrangement. Allie was supposed to be temporarily crashing at their place, while finding her own apt, and apparently, she never moved out.

I can attest, as a New Yorker, how annoying this scenario can be. Apartments in NYC are tiny to begin with--but when you try to cram an "extra" person in the small space, they invariably use the last of the hot water and never take out the recyclables. It grates your last nerves when you carry half the rent and utilities and your "other" half involves two people.

Still, Allie twists this into Adam wanting her out so he can party without her being around so to rectify her wrong conclusion....he jumps to the illogical, "I can't live without you." That means Jay will have to go.

Whitney is off to a loft party, hosted by a friend of Jay's. For some reason, this whole season...Whit has insisted on wearing some type of head gear that serves to remind of Olivia Newton John's sweatband in the video for "Physical." I SWEAR this is not a NYC thing....and although I have seem Whit sport this look more than once, this week, even Erin is in on the act as she arrives at the party with Duncan, who is back from Canada.

No sooner are Erin and Duncan inside the loft, and who should arrive, but JR? Sure--we found out a few weeks ago that JR moved to NYC a year ago and he and Erin never crossed paths until Kelly Cutrone's birthday bash. Of course, he would be at the same soiree as Duncan and Erin........

Duncan isn't impressed. JR notices Erin's head gear (which he refers to as a WREATH?) Erin explains that she thought it was mistletoe, but it turned out it was holly. JR, ever smooth, tells her it just couldn't be mistletoe because she's the only one under it...

Upon hearing this, Duncan DRAGS Erin across the room (as she says, "Ow! Owww! Stop, baby, stop!") His jealousy is palpable and all she can do is suck face with him to show him that she has chosen him over JR, but she somehow thinks it's a good idea to tell him that the 18 year old inside her will always love JR.

The next day...Olivia tells Nevan to get a job, Adam tells Jay that he's ready to take his relationship with Allie to the next level---so he's going to need Jay to move out. Allie moved in for what was supposed to be two weeks, while she looked for her own apartment and now it's 4 months later and they are all shacked up together in a too small apt. Adam--jerk off that he is--tells Jay that he's become the third wheel. Considering it's HALF Jay's apartment, I'd say ALLIE is the third wheel.

At Erin's, she is fixing coffee for herself and Duncan, but old Grizzly Adams realizes he will have trouble trusting Erin when he leaves NYC. (Once he sees the episode from a few weeks ago where JR spent the night with Erin while Duncan was back in Canada, he'll realize his fears weren't unfounded). The best Erin can do is tell him that she's confused and he tells her that she has some things to sort out and he has a plane to catch. Duncan grabs his suitcase and wanders down to a snowy NYC street to catch a cab while Erin sobs on her couch.

Finally it's New Year's Eve and Erin is at Whitney's as they prepare to go to Jay's Midtown apt for the big celebration. Erin tells Whit that Duncan broke up with her and ever the good friend, Whitney suggests taking Duncan's number out of Erin's phone so she won't be tempted to "drunk text" him (hey, sister, we've ALL been there). Erin, instead, offers some sage dating advice, "The best way to get over a man is to GET UNDER A NEW ONE." Okay, there goes all sympathy for Erin.

The girls arrive at Jay's (or, really, Allie and Adam's apt) and I was hopeful they would be close to Times Square. Midtown is a murky description, but I thought maybe we'd see some great MTV New Year's Eve ball footage. When I noticed the partiers were drinking Veuve Cliquot in red plastic party cups, I quickly lowered all expectations.

Jay tells Whitney that Adam is choosing Allie and asking him to move out and truthfully---Whit looks less than thrilled. In Jay's defense (where I normally don't go)...when Whit moved to The Big Apple and crashed at Erin's, Jay gladly took her in when Erin wanted "alone time" with Duncan. It's just kind of the way it is in NYC. Jay and Whit kiss at midnight and immediately, Erin is in tears because she misses Duncan. I dunno---the two times we have seen him leave NYC, she basically chased him out. Still, Jay feels bad for Erin and he bets her that Duncan WILL be thinking of her and he'll call. Deceitfully, I laughed as she called her voicemail and heard the sad announcement, "YOU HAVE NO NEW MESSAGES."

New Year's morning, Whitney is up and making tea as Jay drags himself out of bed, hungover. His resolution is to drink less and to concentrate more on his singing career. As to the living arrangements, he promises Whitney that they'll get through it.

Previews for next week show some Allie/Adam drama (yawn--now that they kicked Jay out, do we really have to watch these two?) and a nice trip to Miami for Whitney and Jay--except that he runs into Danielle, an old flame of his.

Pros and Cons--

Pro--very little screen time for Allie and Adam

Cons--no Kelly Cutrone, never enough of Nevan lounging on Olivia's couch, and way too much emphasis on Erin's manufactured drama about her love life.