'The Hills' Series Finale's Unexpected Genius

The final shot of last night's series finale of MTV reality juggernaut The Hills featured "star" Kristin driving off to the airport (apparently to move to, vaguely, "Europe") while her beau Brody stood with the Hollywood sign in the background, watching her go.  It was a predictable, familiar scene for fans of the show—but then, the twist. As Kristin drives away, the camera pans out to reveal that her town car is actually on a film set! The Hollywood sign, a painted backrdrop; the sky, a blue curtain!

Entertainment Weekly recaps the episode, wondering if the final scene of the series—routinely ridiculed as trite and constantly immersed in debates over how much is "real"—was, in fact, genius:

The Hills has been criticized for its lack of reality (be it homes, relationships, jobs, or even dialogue), yet the show always insisted it was documenting the "real" lives of these people (yes, Spencer's crazy crystals included), so I found it fitting that the show chose to address the primary complaint viewers have had. It won't be revered as one of the most surprising series finales ever—like Newhart or Lost—because it simply admitted what we've all been saying for four years now, but the show does deserve credit for taking all of this criticism and turning it into one big joke. But was everything really fake?

Read the full story at EW.com.