The Hills: New Beginnings will have yet another new beginning, in the form of a second season. So maybe not a new beginning, so much as a slightly older beginning? A newish beginning?
The news comes not long after the reboot’s June premiere, but despite middling reviews, it probably isn’t surprising the show is a success: The Hills’s original (very large) fanbase has grown up, and while there’s no shortage of reality TV, there’s something specifically pleasurable about reconnecting with a cast after you’ve both aged more than a decade.
The reboot features the major players from the original mid-2000s series, including Heidi and Spencer Pratt, Brody Jenner, Audrina Patridge, and Justin “Bobby” Brescia, with new additions Brandon Lee (son of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee) and Mischa Barton. As Barton told Buzzfeed, one of the reasons she decided to do the show “was because I feel like there’s always been so much mystery around me,” adding,
“I just feel like it’s time to clear that up and embrace who I am. I’m a woman, I’m sure of myself now. I’ve been bullied, not bullied, idolized, not idolized, all of those things. And now, here we are.”
Here we are. Though it’s been 13 years since the show originally aired, Partridge told People ahead of season 1 that it felt like “no time has passed.” Indeed, just because they’ve aged several years doesn’t mean drama isn’t baked into the cast members’ bones.
“We’re all older for sure now,” said Jenner, now 36. “So, it definitely has a different feel. But there was a lot of drama for sure. Right out of the gate, people were coming for each other’s throats!”