I think it is just good policy to be leery of any reality show that airs first run episodes at 1 a.m. (okay, 10 p.m. Pacific… but still).  After a 4-year hiatus, FOX’s Paradise Hotel is back, though demoted somewhat to MyNetworkTV and the FOX Reality channel.

America managed to pick up the pieces and move on after the first season of Paradise Hotel ended without the promise of another. So why, you may ask, is the show coming back now?

There was a time when shows like Paradise Hotel, Love Cruise and Temptation Island seemed edgy and provocative (well, sort of). Americans were still in the dawn of the high shock-value, low morals era of reality TV. Now, at least in my opinion, we’ve all seen too much. Somewhere between Flavor of Love and Pants Off Dance Off, skeevy people who will do anything for their proverbial 15 minutes of fame have lost what little political capital they had.

Still, I’m not too proud to admit I love trashy reality TV as much as the next guy, so I was more than willing to give Paradise Hotel 2 a look-see. I confess, waiting up until 1 a.m. to watch the show made me feel a bit shameful and lecherous. The “TV-Mature” rating didn’t help either (a less-steamy version of Paradise Hotel 2 airs on MyNetworkTV at 9 p.m. ET).

The premise of Paradise Hotel 2 is pretty much the same as the first.  A group of sexy singles are thrown together in an exclusive resort all competing for what is mysteriously referred to as the “ultimate prize”.

Each week they pick roommates. The single left without a mate is booted out and another sexy single brought in. Underlying message: skank it up or you’ll be yesterday’s news.

The host, Amanda Byram, is the same as well.  One new element is the so-called “envelope girl”, McKenna. She is actually a spy, reporting back to viewers on what she sees.

The hotel guests are the same mix of cliches as the first season. You’ve got Charte “the gossip”, Chelsea “the tease”, James “the pretty boy”, Krista “the virgin”, Lauren “the tomboy”, Mike “the charmer”, Raheim “the combatant”, Ryan “the surfer dude”, Tidisha “the straight talker”, Tanya “the flirt"and finally Nathan “the gentleman”.

On a sad note, Nathan Clutter committed suicide in October 2007 less than a month after taping ended. Police reports say the 26-year old Danville, Illinois native leapt to his death from a cell phone tower in Amarillo, Texas. As macabre as it sounds, his family and producers of the show have decided to keep his scenes in the full run of episodes.

The first episode pretty much sums up the genre:  everyone met, the guys talked about how hot the girls are and Krista “the Virgin” unpacked all her personal baggage within the first couple of hours. Krista is a cheerleader, recovering anorexic, virgin and a tease unable to find a man intriguing enough to hold her interest. Just a guess but Mr. Right is probably not checking into Paradise Hotel.

The group had an underwear party, they all drank way too much, Krista threw up and the shame spiral began.

In episode 2, things heated up but not in a good way. Chelsea and Ryan slipped away to one of their rooms for a makeout session that devolved into a reverse psychology game of cat and dumber cat. Thanks to the magic of night vision cameras we see Ryan, the surfer dude,  following Chelsea around the room naked. (But that ALWAYS works!) At one point Ryan pleads with Chelsea to “feel the ridge” all I’ll say about that disturbing little scene is… ewwwwwwww.

Eventually Ryan turned the tables on Chelsea saying her rejection was turning him off. Oh Darn. Chelsea went back to her room where she then got a lecture on moral values from fellow hotel guest, James.

Krista, the virgin,  lamented that maybe she is not morally bankrupt enough to stay in Paradise Hotel 2. She thinks she better come up with a better game plan than random, meaningless hookups if she is going to last.

Tanya and Mike got to know each other better. Other hotel guests gathered by the pool and made water balloons out of condoms… like they do in international think tanks.

And in a scene that could only happen after mass quantities of booze, Raheim flipped out when pretty boy James told him he should get into the pool. The argument really blew up when Raheim made a slavery reference and James mentioned the ghetto. Nothing provokes racial tensions like swimming pools and swaying palm trees.  Eventually things simmered down, probably after everyone sobered up.

In the end it was LA singer and self-proclaimed tease Chelsea who got the boot. Her refusal to go all the way didn’t help her cause with the male hotel guests. Though in a rare turn of events she did walk away from a trashy, reality show with at least a shred of dignity intact.

Next episode: look for a new sexy single to check-in.

Paradise Hotel 2 airs Monday nights at 9 p.m. ET and PT on MyNetworkTV and at 1 a.m. ET/10 p.m. PT on FOX Reality.