In her review of Bravo’s new reality series NYC Prep, New York Times critic Alessandra Stanley wrote “…if anything, it [NYC Prep]’s closer to Whit Stillman’s wistful 1990 movie Metropolitan, updated with cellphones, blackberries and no limit credit cards.”

Really? Stillman, who was once hailed as the “WASP Woody Allen,” has a penchant for verbosity. The characters in Metropolitan - which was nominated for a best screenplay Oscar - speak in full sentences. They expound ignorantly, yet eloquently, on such lofty matters as Fourier-ism, the existence of God, and Lionel Trilling’s opinion of Sense and Sensibility.

In contrast, NYC Prep’s East-Siders - SAT Verbal scores notwithstanding - have trouble, like, saying, um, what they, like, mean. Nor are they well-versed in historical utopian societies, existential theory, or humanist literary criticism. Even PC, Prep’s savviest charlatan, mixes metaphors like he’s mixing martinis - “Money flows like wind,” he says in voiceover, as the camera sweeps across Manhattan’s high-rises. Bluntly: Bravo’s Preppies are dressed in Marc Jacobs; Metropolitan’s are dressed in language.

Still, Stanley might have a point. Though surface-level similarities aren’t abundant (other than the whole wealthy, young, Upper East Side thing…), analysis of Stillman’s dialogue betrays a deeper ideological connection between Metropolitan’s fictional characters and NYC Prep’s “real” ones:

On Thinking:
Metropolitan, Charlie: “When you think to yourself — and most of our waking life is taken up thinking to ourselves — you must have that feeling that your thoughts aren’t entirely wasted, that in some sense they are being heard. Rationally, they aren’t; you’re entirely alone. Even the people to whom we are closest can have no idea of what is going on in our minds. But we aren’t devastated by loneliness because, at a hardly conscious level, we don’t accept that we’re entirely alone.  I think this sensation of being silently listened to with total comprehension - something you never find in real life - represents our innate belief in a supreme being, some all-comprehending intelligence.”

NYC Prep, Sebastian: “How do philosophers get paid? Don’t they just, like, think?”

On the Abundance of Sexual Opportunity:
Metropolitan, Nick: “Playing strip poker with an exhibitionist somehow takes the challenge out of it.”

NYC Prep, Sebastian: “Like, if you go to like a good amount of parties, you can hook up with anywhere between, like, two and sixteen girls in a month.”

On Charity:
Metropolitan, Nick: “It’s a tiny bit arrogant of people to go around worrying about those less fortunate.”

NYC Prep, PC: “There are so many other things that need to be addressed in the world before f***ing cleft palate.”

On the Future:
Metropolitan, Charlie: “Well, for me, ceasing to exist is, is failure. I mean, that’s pretty definitive.”
Tom: “Well, everyone ceases to exist. Doesn’t mean everyone’s a failure.”

NYC Prep, Camille: “My life is basically planned. First I will go to Harvard. Then I will be business head of a genetics firm. And then at 40 I will have a husband and two girls.

On Academics:
Metropolitan, Tom: “You don’t have to read a book to have an opinion…I don’t read novels. I prefer good literary criticism. That way you get both the novelists’ ideas as well as the critics’ thinking. With fiction I can never forget that none of it really happened, that it’s all just made up by the author.”

NYC Prep, PC:  “Honestly, I just frankly could care less about the things we’re learning about.”

On Marriage:
Metropolitan, Nick: “I’ve always planned to be a failure anyway, that’s why I plan to marry an extremely wealthy woman.”

NYC Prep, Taylor: “I always wanted to marry rich.”

On Attractive Qualities in Men:
Metropolitan, Nick: “Rick Von Slonecker is tall, rich, good looking, stupid, dishonest, conceited, a bully, liar, drunk and thief, an egomaniac, and probably psychotic. In short, highly attractive to women.”

NYC Prep, Taylor: “I’m, like, attracted to Sebastian. I like his hair.”

On Absurdity:
Metropolitan, Nick: “The cha cha is no more ridiculous than life itself.”

NYC Prep, Jessie: ” I treat my clothing like my children.”