After being dumped on national television for a record-setting third time, the reality TV diva known as New York is back looking for "love" (read: fame and money) on VH1's "I Love New York 2." As a sucker for just about any trashy reality TV show, I enjoyed all of New York's former appearances on seasons 1 and 2 of "Flavor of Love" and the first season of this, her eponymous show.

But truth is, "ILNY"'s first season was a mixed bag. New York herself had some trouble transitioning from scheming bitch to likable leading lady, and the guys were almost uniformly unlikable (the one exception, Tango, revealed himself to be the worst of the bunch when he humiliated our girl in the reunion episode). And many of the middle episodes were dull filler.

Thankfully, the two episodes of "ILNY2" that have aired so far have vastly improved on the original. Offensive gay lackey Chamo has been replaced by a silent, goonish bodyguard. New York and her mother, the indispensable Sister Patterson, are in top form, dishing it out but also remaining oddly charming. And best of all, there are guys I can root for among the bachelors.

First and foremost, The Entertainer, a rough, buff admitted sex freak who won the online voter poll. Clips from future episodes hint at a bit of ‘roid rage, but hey, we can't all be perfect. Even more muscly Buddha seems like a ringer for the Final 2, but as he reminds me an awful lot of last year's Onix, we'll see how long he lasts. Mama's boy Punk needs to learn how to dress better, as his typical attire makes him look chunky, but in the pond-swimming challenge he revealed one of the most ripped bodies I've ever seen. And he's alternately presumptuous and desperate, but there's something likable about Tailor Made. He seems to be the house villain, and if he's the most annoying thing they throw at us this season we'll be lucky.

Unfortunately, the season previews show that's not the case. Chance, last year's runner-up and the physical embodiment of every negative black stereotype ever, will be coming back, probably entering the game mid-season like New York herself did on "Flavor 2." Blech. Critics accuse New York of being disingenuous and a camera whore, but Chance is 10 times worse. Everything about the man is fake.

I'm also troubled by three of the other cast members, who are clearly being exploited. White dork Cheesy is the closest they could come to the magic that was last season's Mr. Boston, a clueless honky whose social ineptitude included picking his nose at elimination ceremonies, on camera. Cheesy seems somewhat more malevolent than poor Boston, as he stabbed his roommate in the back not once, but twice, in the most recent episode. More disconcerting are It, who I think must be mentally handicapped, and Midget Mac, whose stature has been the subject of much scorn from Sister Patterson. To give credit where it's due, New York herself is candid about her personal struggles to view Mac as a legitimate romantic prospect and not just some novelty she can string along for ratings. (It should be said, Mac is an entertaining guy.) But I don't think the show's producers intended him to be anything but a joke-when he does interviews, they don't re-set the camera from its regular height, leaving just his nose, eyes, and forehead on screen. Maybe that's the way Mac wanted it, but it seems pretty humiliating to me.

I go back and forth about how I feel about "Top Model" Cycle 9. I do think this year's crop of girls is the prettiest we've seen in years. But I also think they're all so blandly pretty that nobody's really transforming in front of the camera, like Cycle 8's Britney or Cycle 4's Michelle. What you get is pretty much what you get, which I guess isn't bad for a real-life model, but doesn't necessarily make for compelling TV. I'm also disappointed in the lack of bitchery. We started out so strong, but Bianca seems to have calmed down; we've been robbed of more snark fests between Victoria and Twiggy; and then we have...Ebony.

After last night's elimination, in which she gave up her spot after Tyra gave Ambreal the ax (putting Ambreal back in the running), Ebony will go down in history as the first girl to ever quit "Top Model." I don't count stupid Cassandra from Cycle 5 since she didn't quit on her own accord; she was given an ultimatum to cut her hair or walk off the show. But back to Ebony. Her arc suggests some nasty truths about this show that I love so much. When she first appeared in the casting special, Ebony was a loathsome, boastful snot poised to take the throne of House Bitch. Then Tyra did what she does so well, exposing the emotional scars that ultimately make these women so willing to go on national television for a fleeting shot at marginal fame. Ebony's story is unpleasant-her mother is a "crack head" (her words)-and she has clearly gone through some significant emotional turmoil in her life. Tyra ripped her down in her first one-on-one, and since then Ebony has never been the same. She devolved into a terrified, self-conscious blob of skin and bones in practically minutes.

It usually takes a good two or three dressing downs by Tyra to strip a girl to her core, but Ebony just crumbled. She was repeatedly called out in panel for her bizarre in-person behavior. Tyra claimed it was because Ebony didn't want to hear criticism. But from the limited footage we got to see, it seems to me that it's because she couldn't stand being focused on at all. This girl wanted to spring off that catwalk every time she was up there, even when she had a good photo. She simply could not handle the attention. I don't think Ebony's an egomaniac at all. I think she's quit the opposite, a terrified little girl. And I gotta say I'm happy that she's gone, because it was getting downright uncomfortable watching her twitch and fidget through episode after episode.

Ultimately Ebony reminds me a lot of Cycle 4's Tiffany, and not just because Tyra gave them identical weaves. They were both young black women who came from extremely rough backgrounds and had such low self-esteem that even the slightest bit of direct criticism-much less an expectation to do better-was utterly crippling. Both of them were just trying to survive; asking them to survive and be supermodel fabulous was a tall order. And while I love Tyra and I love this show for many, mostly inhumane, reasons, I think she might want to reevaluate her casting practices in the future. At the end of the episode she replayed Ebony's first audition tape, where the girl pleads and begs to be picked. I'm guessing Tyra was trying to show us how Ebony used Tyra to get on TV. But to me it just showed how brutalized this poor girl felt by this show. That's not a reflection of the judging panel, I don't think, but it is a sign that this girl did not have the mental capacity to participate in this experience. They're telling you to smile, sweetie, not save the planet. If you can't handle that then maybe you need to stay at home and work on you a little bit more. Hopefully that's exactly what Ebony has done since she walked.