Who Did Maino Kidnap

Your love for the quasi-documentary series “World of Jenks” will depend on your ability to tolerate its star.

Filmmaker Andrew Jenks, 24, staked a claim to minor fame when he moved into an assisted living residence for the 2006 documentary “Andrew Jenks, Room 335.”

Now MTV has given him a series in which he bunks with somebody new for a week to see how they live.

“That’s how I learn and develop as a person,” he says.

In last night’s “sneak peek” after the MTV Video Music Awards, he took an explosive ride with rapper Maino, who served 10 years in jail for kidnapping and bears a scar across his face from a razor attack. (MTV re-airs the episode tonight at 10:30.)

“I wanna wake up almost dead. That’s how I party.”

He wasn’t kidding. At one point, irritated, Maino slapped Jenks repeatedly and choked him.

The drawback to the half-hour format is that it compresses too much story. MTV’s superior, hourlong “True Life” has been revealing compelling portraits of the odd or disenfranchised for years.

In tonight’s episode, “Can’t Make Me Be,” Jenks rooms with a 20-year-old with autism. MTV did not make that episode available for review, but an upcoming episode illustrates the show’s flaws.

In “Street Queen,” he trails a 20-something San Francisco woman named Danielle who has been homeless - she prefers the term “houseless” - since she was 13.

You think Maino is tough, watch how Danielle’s fellow street denizens react to Jenks’ cameras.

Atop the Golden Gate Bridge, Jenks asks, “What is the meaning of life?”

“Sheesh. To live,” Danielle responds.

To further understand her, Jenks accompanies her to Oregon, where her parents live with Danielle’s younger siblings. Danielle believes that by retrieving her social security card, she’ll be able to get a job.

“I want to give back for taking so much,” she says.

Just who might hire someone without apparently even a junior high school education is unclear.

And there’s only so much street life Jenks is willing to endure.

Tired of trying to hitchhike, he calls in the MTV production van to drive the two.

“I think she does better by herself,” Danielle’s mother tells Jenks, oblivious to the damage she’s caused. Suddenly Danielle’s choices seem the most life-affirming.

As Maino says, “Sometimes you gotta go through hell to get heaven.”

In this show, sometimes you have to sit through blather to learn some heart-rending insights.