Buckwild

Get More: BUCKWILD, Full Episodes

Worry not, folks: The dream of the Television Age is alive and well at MTV. With the sad departure of Jersey Shore, the network's award-winning anthropological investigation into the leisure activities of the Garden State's youth (youth who, by and large, were not actually from that state), MTV is now gearing up to bring another fine exemplar of educational entertainment right into your home. This time, however, they're setting their sights on the rustic charms and winkingly implied ignorance of a gang of youngsters from Sissonville, West Virginia.

While the decision to set the show in a state already valued as a national punchline may seem like shooting fish in a barrel—which, incidentally, is probably one of the activities featured on the show—the trailer for Buckwild makes it clear that the creators are not in this for cheap laughs. Rather, the group of friends who will serve both as stars of the show and cultural ambassadors to the world at large appear fully aware of the burden placed upon them to favorably represent their vibrant rural community in all of its rich traditions, which they assume by doing things like sliding and/or wrestling in mud, setting things on fire, and driving around the backwoods in a veritable bevy of unsafe and irresponsibly helmed vehicles. Come Jan. 3, MTV viewers can look forward to weekly, double-episode installments of this long-overdue vindication of the peoples of Appalachia. [via The Hollywood Reporter]