Life in the “World of Jenks”

Taking over Monday nights.

MTV just might have a new star. And his name isn’t Situation or Pauly D or Vinny. He’s not a teenage mom or a kid on “The Real World.” He doesn’t have tourettes or an addiction to porn and he’s not trying to be “Made” into a homecoming king.

His name is Andrew Jenks and simply implying that he is an MTV star might be an oxymoron.

This is because Jenks is a filmmaker. A filmmaker whose talents will be masquerading as another TV show on MTV’s fall schedule.

The concept is pretty simple. Each week, Jenks delves into the life of a young person with an uncommon circumstance. Three episodes into the season, we have seen a rising rapper trying to overcome 10 years in prison, a 20-year-old with autism and a girl who has been on the streets since she was 13.

Sounds like every after-school special you’ve ever heard of, right? Wrong.

Where “World of Jenks” could become hokey or redundant, it instead becomes riveting and enlightening. The largest deciding factor in that is Jenks himself.

He has the background of a protege, but you would hardly recognize that by checking out MTV on Monday nights.

The son of the Assistant Secretary General for the United Nations and a family nurse practitioner, Jenks first made a name for himself at the age of 19. While most 19-year-olds were scouting one-night stands and trashing dorm rooms, Jenks, then a sophomore at New York University, moved into a nursing home.

The inspiration was his grandfather, who Jenks said was in a nursing home at the time and going through a miserable existence. He wanted to capture the experience of living in a place where everyone feared the future and looked to the past after having spent time in the college atmosphere where the opposite was true.

The result was “Andrew Jenks, Room 335,” and mild notoriety had been achieved.

That sense continued when, at the age of 21, Jenks was able to direct “The Zen of Bobby V,” an ESPN-produced film about Bobby Valentine’s career managing in Japan.

Now 24, Jenks just might have his signature opportunity with “World of Jenks.”

The show works for a number of reasons but is also restricted by a couple of factors.

When it was first hyped, I think it’s fair to say that the biggest concern for most lived in the title. “World of Jenks” must mean that the show is all about him. It sounds as if this is nothing more than a regurgitated offspring of something as idiotic as Morgan Spurlock.

Luckily, that’s not the case. The show is fueled by Jenks’ charisma and the focus that it is able to place on its characters, who are allowed to be the true stars of each episode.

Jenks gives the show a consistent face and personality. He gives viewers the opportunity to contrast between the character they are being introduced to and the constant of himself. He also gives the show direction which makes it “True Life” without all of the awkward moments where the person is wondering “what the hell do I do in front of this camera.”

The entire basis of it is seeded in casual conversation, and as any journalism professor in the world will tell you, conversations are the best interviews. Jenks is a master of the art of conversation, getting telling and emotional sound out of his subjects without interrogating or pushing at all.

The conversations do range a bit. An example of Jenks at his best is the entire autism episode with 20-year-old Chad. Easily overwhelmed and agitated, Jenks provides the perfect calm that helps him develop a strong relationship with Chad quickly. But situations like the one where he meets the parents of houseless (she refuses to consider herself homeless) “Heavy D” are much more harsh.

Heavy D’s parents are heavily addicted to alcohol and her Dad once offered her a box cutter when she muttered that she was contemplating suicide. In the episode, her father is noticeably drunk as he discusses the drinking problems that he “once had” while her mother insists that Heavy D is better off on her own.

When Jenks takes Chad into New York City, he becomes furious at the noise and the chaos. But that sentiment is completely altered when Jenks moves the setting to a beach where Chad collects sand and splashes in the water.

Maybe the most efficient thing Jenks does that separates the show from “after-school special” land is his insistence on capturing the characters instead of changing them. There is no manufactured “feel good” moment at the end of episodes. Rapper Maino doesn’t get some giant MTV deal and Heavy D doesn’t get a house or job. The only thing that he promises them is friendship as seen when he buys a cell phone for Heavy D so she can maintain contact with him.

In an interview Tuesday, he discussed how he talks to the people almost daily and talked about their whereabouts. Chad still loves the beach. Heavy D still doesn’t have a home.

Jenks immerses himself in his subjects. He mimmicks their daily routines, he talks to everyone around them and when permitted, he sleeps in their homes. He says that he typically spends every bit of eight to nine days with them while shooting an episode.

Perhaps the biggest challenge that “World of Jenks” faces is the battle between reality show and documentary. Jenks insists that each episode is a mini film and not part of the recent reality craze.

Others might see Jenks as an easy target. He does put his face out there and leave himself open for plenty of criticism about his personality and ambitions and the premise of the show.

It’s also important to remember that while the subjects should maintain the focus of the show, Jenks is also out to reveal how these people personally affect him.

My biggest complaint is that each episode is only 30 minutes long. As of right now, each episode has had the content and intrigue to compile a full-length documentary.

Jenks in projects.

Jenks and his two-man camera crew are able to capture and include plenty of touching and fun moments into 30 minutes after editing, but those moments would mean so much more if we were able to get to know the subject for an extra 30 minutes. In the current format, everything seems a bit crammed.

The future of “World of Jenks” may be what makes it even more unique than it already is. While Jenks and friends are currently finishing the editing of the first season, there are no plans for a second. This season still includes profiles of an MMA fighter with a rocky past, an extreme animal rights activist, a high school football star, a military recruit, a surfer and a NFL cheerleader.

It’s strange to say, but if this show becomes a hit this season, it could almost damper a second season. Would a TV star Jenks still be able to carry the somewhat unknown curious filmmaker that makes season one what it is? I personally don’t see how he could.

We still have a number of weeks to find out.

-Bryan