'The Hills': Will you watch it now that Lauren's done?

Today, MTV announced that season 5 of The Hills will air on the network this fall — sans its narrator, Lauren Conrad. (The show’s other cast members, however, will be returning.) The young starlet/fashion designer has been hinting at leaving the show for what seems like eons.

But now that she’s officially ditching her vehicle, I can’t help but feel a little disappointed. True, her narrative was going nowhere. And true, it will be easier to take her seriously as a bona fide designer when she’s not forced de-lobotomize Audrina from week-to-week by switching on her “on” button. But Lauren, along with BFF Lo, did manage to bring a bit of sanity and, dare I say, realism to a show that’s as plastic as the Playboy Mansion’s Grotto. Scripted or no, the show’s star did manage to present real emotion (not all those tears were crocodile), and she proved herself to be a rather likable heroine when you disregard all the whining.

Without Lauren, we’ll just be forced to watch Justin Bobby and Audrina attempt to string together enough nouns and verbs to form a sentence. And really, how many more times can we watch Heidi and Spencer get married? In other words, I’m officially done with The Hills. In the name of Shari Lewis, please end the show that never ends, MTV! That said, if they’re currently filming Speidi’s close encounters with Swine Flu in Mexico, the curiousity would get the best of me. But, otherwise, is it worth tuning in to MTV to watch a handful of bleach blondes stare at each other for a half-hour?